Honors College Art & Science of Emotions Fall 2017 (1:20 p.m.) Sadness Journal | Page 6

able illnesses. As a chapter, we spent hours that night mourning together and bonding in our feelings of
grief and sadness. It was a very hard conversation and a long night for many students. At the end of the
conference, however, we all felt very close and like a second family. We could help each other with what
we were going with and it felt good to express our feelings and relate to one another. We dedicated an
entire night to feeling grief, sadness, and anger. Taking the time to deal with these emotions instead of
bottling them up like society tells us to made us feel much better overall and brought us closer together as
a group. Now when we ask the question “How are you?” there is meaning behind it.
Our culture continually tries to tell us that feeling sad is not an option and we should just simply
smile more. This can be seen in conversations but also as push back from society when artists do express
their emotions. Once we cover up our emotions, we become anchored to them and struggle to feel more
positive emotions. This leads us to live a dull and suppressed life. Fully expressing our emotions, however,
and taking the time to deal with them and feel them, is very healthy for ourselves and our relationships
with others. When we relate to people through our negative emotions, we become much closer and de-
velop more meaningful relationships. Therefore when we ignore the call from our culture to ignore or
suppress our feelings and actually express them, we can feel our full range of emotions and live fuller lives.
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