No Rest From Feelings

In the world of humans, feelings are a big deal. They are ever-present and often-times ever-changing. The often drive our decisions, dictate our moods, dominate how we interact with others and heavily influence how we cope with the overall challenges of life itself. And if all that was not enough, the bottom-line kicker is that there is no escaping them. They define our essence as to the kind of living entity we are. As there are other living creatures in the world that do not possess feelings, it is emotions that separate us from them. For us, without feelings, we would simply not be human.  

Given such a fundamental characteristic, it is amazing that there exists on a daily basis the following: attempts on our part to hide or mask our feelings; attempts on our part to deceive ourselves and others about feelings we have or do not have; ongoing efforts by others to control or influence our feelings; times when we deny responsibility for our feelings or having any impact we may have on the feelings of others; and pretending that feelings are all that important in our day-to-day lives. Leave to people to exhibit such behavior over a human quality that is as undeniable as it is ingrained within us. It is as if our feelings - regardless of what they might be at any given moment - represent our core or basic center.      

Much of communication as a social science and practice is designed to affect feelings. When it comes to others, communication is designed to have impact. When it comes to ourselves, communication is geared to provide us with greater understanding about ourselves and actions that may derive from what we are feeling. Being so complex and multi-layered, our feelings are a moving target thus being difficult, at times, to either explain to others or embrace within our own heads. Thus, who could blame any of us for wanting to take a time-out from trying to wrestle with feelings regardless their origin or level of intensity? Too bad, however, we really cannot do that.