For The Feelers

For a long time I pretended not to be a feeler. The cool girl image of myself did not include a lot of crying or sensitivity. "Sometimes I tear up at weddings," I'd say casually. "But most things don't really bother me." When my first baby was born, I let go of this fake version of myself out of pure necessity. Not only could I not stop the inevitable swell of emotion over my son, I couldn't stop feeling everything. Every news story bothered me, every random act of kindness excited me, every single, stupid diaper commercial made me weep. I thought: This is it. I'm officially crazy. It was honestly a relief. Women have been called crazy since the beginning of time. Ever since Eve tried the apple and Adam shrugged and said, "She's cray," womenfolk have been named the weaker species. The emotional species. The binge-eating-ice-cream-out-of-the-carton-because-we-can't-handle-our-periods species. It's so boring and unflattering. After all, WE ARE ALL THE SAME SPECIES. It's also a teeny, tiny, little bit true. The New York Times ran a great op-ed piece last week on medicating women's feelings. Julie Holland writes, Women are moody. By evolutionary design, we are hard-wired to be sensitive to our environments, empathic to our children's needs and intuitive of our partners' intentions. This is basic to our survival and that of our offspring. Some research suggests that women are often better at articulating their feelings than men because as the female brain develops, more capa...
Source: Healthy Living - The Huffington Post - Category: Consumer Health News Source Type: news