BlogHer offers a challenge each month to blog everyday of that particular month. The acronym for this is NaBloPoMo or National Blog Posting Month.
Each month a theme is suggested which the participant can choose to follow but is not restricted to.
I like the theme of this month's challenge. It is simply called "Mask".
A writing prompt is also offered to help "get you going".
The writing prompt for the day is:
Tuesday, October 2, 2012
Are you good at hiding your feelings or is your face an open book?
In order to deal with difficult circumstances in my childhood, my coping mechanism became the suppression of my emotions. I was quite adept at cloaking my feelings under a quiet and shy facade.
To be perfectly honest, I would say that if Barbara Walters were interviewing me, she would probably consider me a tough interview.
Identifying and naming my feelings is, for me, an ongoing process. I am slowly learning that there is a direct connection between what I am physically experiencing, such as that funny sensation in the pit of my stomach, and what I am emotionally feeling.
My learning curve continues to be naming my feelings. I also have a tough time figuring out the difference between certain emotions. Take for example anxiety and excitement. Sometimes, I can get the two confused. Generally, I will freely admit to one and not allow myself to acknowledge the other. Although I have always been rather confident that I can expertly hide my feelings, I'm afraid that difficult circumstances in my seniorhood have made my ability to do that nearly impossible lately.
I have created a page for Anna's Diary. It can be found under the Tab titled Anna's Diary.
I have posted all of the entries to date there, starting with January 1, 1929.
Wed. October 2, 1929
Still raining very hard all day. Junior and I stayed home all day. Too nasty to go out. Ted came home from school. Jean did not come from supper. Very quiet.
i used the same coping mechanisms as a child. maybe it was in part how we were raised or what society expected/wanted from children then? i don't know...
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dani
I hide my feelings too; the negative ones anyway. Opening up is something that I've been working on for the last year so you're not alone in that.
ReplyDeleteWhile I'm not following the prompts there are a few that I will go back to, probably on the weekends, and this is one of them.
I wrote something years ago about how I am better at naming my feelings, analyzing them and filing them away than actually feeling them. That was nearly twenty years ago now and I don't know that I've made much improvement. Who knew that being human was such an ongoing process?
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