I live in a country where most people think emotions should be ignored. Especially, negative emotions such as fear, anger, worry, loneliness, … I had a very hard time trying to hide all my strong emotions and felt ashamed if someone saw them.

“Hey, you should be BRAVE. Don’t cry. Don’t let people see your stupid face.” - I told myself.

The strong emotion is something like a storm. if you try to hide your feelings, they might be accumulated into strong emotions. And you won’t develop a way to recognize your feelings correctly.

For example, I misunderstood my disappointment and my sleep deprivation with an anxiety disorder. I thought something was wrong with my brain because none of my friends or coworkers behave like that. But in fact, I was just worried about my career path. That was fine for a younger.

if you acknowledge and transform your emotions instead of ignoring them, you won’t be afraid and won’t be overwhelmed by them.

Of course, there are a lot of techniques to help you deal with emotions. Master Thich Nhat Hanh is one of the great people that help me to overcome my existential crisis and my burnout. He had a great Dharma talk about how to deal with strong or difficult emotions. Here is another great post from Plum Village. You can see that all practices are so simple, you can do it everywhere, every day. I hope it helps.