Dear Anita,

I didn’t make the conscious decision to stop crying, in fact, one of my biggest frustrations in my 20s (after my breakup which affected me severely) was that I could NOT cry.  In fact I would explain out loud, that it was like I had emotion stuck in me without being able to release.

Fast forward to now, I find myself with this hardness, unable to release a lot of emotion, feeling it often stuck inside, muscle tension, what have you.  It is a coping mechanism I learned early on after my teens, to become hardened – instead of soft and crying/releasing.

Nowadays if I do cry, I feel IMMENSELY better – I look forward to it.  I wish I cried more, I wish I released more..