People talk a lot about suppressing anger ( including myself ) and how harmful it can be. I think it's equally harmful to suppress joy , and that's not something we often hear about. One of the issues I see is that as a society we have decided "negative" emotions have more value than "positive" ones. Some say it's a product of our brain's ability to empathize with pain more easily than with happiness, but I think it could be the biological responding to our environmental cues. Empathy is a social belief we teach as part of our culture to promote kindness and compassion. Problem is, empathy can also be taught through guilt and shame ( muting pride and self-esteem is holy), which solves one problem by creating another. Let me give you some examples of expected harmful behaviors that will show you what I mean. A friend is going through a divorce and you purposely don't talk about your great marriage in their presence so as not to "rub
