Silent Speech
There are those who don't feel much.
There are those who feel much but don't know how to express what they're feeling.
Then there are those who both feel much and can express much of what they're feeling.
In a typical stereotype, I think these are more of a different-season-of-experience than a strictly individual trait. So "those" in the sentences above could be replaced with "moments" and it'll still hold true.
Across the three categories, moments when there's a disconnect between what one is feeling and what one can't express, for whatever reason it may be, is particularly challenging.
I used to think it was mainly a lack of vocabulary problem. Since finding the right words seemed to be the obvious barrier.
But the more the experience repeated itself with different variables, I begin to shift my thinking into considering that not everything needs to be expressed, especially right on or just after the experience that triggered the feeling(s).
Inarticulate Depth
You witness a beautiful sunset that stirs something profound within you. A mixture of awe, melancholy, and gratitude all at once. In that moment, trying to immediately articulate these layered emotions to someone else could actually diminish the experience.
The feelings need time to settle, to be internally processed and understood before they can be meaningfully shared.
Sometimes the most authentic expression comes days or weeks later, when you've had time to understand what that moment truly meant to you.
Of course, it's not necessarily healthy to bottle everything up indefinitely. I think not everyone has developed this ability to internally process emotions without external validation or immediate release.
Sometimes again, it's easier to just spit it out rather than trying to compress it into a bottle that might explode later.
When you spit it out, at least an avenue is created for those feelings to find their way out of your system.
Always On
At this point in time, I'm not even very sure whether every feeling needs to be processed.
If you take the analogy of emotions as ripple waves in a sea, then it's quite obvious that not every ripple is worth analyzing or expressing.
So there's also an aspect of importance, in terms of which emotions deserve our attention and energy.
You would think that moments where you don't feel much is akin to experiencing a calm sea, still as a mirror.
Experientially for me, the only misconception I noticed here is a storm can be raging under the sea and not quite register onto the surface of the sea.
Smooth Sailing
In reality, moments where you don't feel much could also be great times to double down on building momentum in many aspects of life, since there's less emotional friction to navigate around.
I tend to view it as "break periods" but I also do notice, especially with modern people and of the younger generation thinking that something is fundamentally wrong with them whenever they experience these break periods. Not feeling much can be equated here with being thirsty for water even after drinking a mouthful and feeling bewildered why the thirst isn't quenched.
It isn't always that deep.
Ideally, having both the feeling and sufficient expression capability would create the most balanced emotional experience, provided there's also the wisdom to discern when and what to express, and when to simply observe and allow.
Another arduous journey of self-discovery, it seems.
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