Permission to Care: Addressing our (Mis)Education on Emotional Expression
- Rachelle Innocent
- Jun 8
- 3 min read
Caring.
A complex emotion that is often overlooked and oversimplified.
Indifference liberates our attention to gravitate anywhere and elsewhere.
Care, on the other hand, is a draw on our emotional and mental energy. To care creates an internal shift and puts our time and attention on reserve.
Be it the communities we identify with, or the movements that we commit ourselves to, energy is unleashed when we align our actions to that which we care for. There is no weakness in care. Yet so few of us feel comfortable with expressions of care towards the people, places and things that influence our thoughts, words, and actions.
We are intrinsically invested in the people, places, and things that we care about.
What makes care an interesting state of study, is in how it translates.
When we care, we are motivated to do and to act.
It is the differences in how we position ourselves to do and act… in service the object of our affection and ourselves, that is important to observe.
Not all demonstrations of care are healthy.
Not all means of caring are welcomed.
People have publicly gone on record to justify unconscionable acts as a natural consequence to the care they felt. Tragic circumstances that have swept through nations and rocked communities, framed and communicated through misguided acts of one’s care and attention.
The extremes do vary.
Many of us can recall experiences and circumstances where it is our care, that caused us to overstep.
We have witnessed care translate in destructive and unhealthy ways…
Individuals who became so consumed by care, that they disregarded or dismissed the balance that is reinstated with reciprocity.
Reciprocity, being the mirror that validates that the care we invest is indeed welcome and returned in spades. Calibrating and harnessing care with alignment, connection, and mutual support.
A quiet exchange that is felt… allowing each of us who have experienced it to acknowledge that there is power in the emotions we feel and release.
Many of us are still unpacking the miseducation we’ve had in relation to our emotions.
It is the presence and not the absence of emotional expression that enables us to tap into our personal power.
Unlocking power and strength, abandoning the rhetoric that our emotions make us weak, or that the expression of our emotions compromises our credibility.
Disconnecting from our emotions is a sacrifice that many of us have made in pursuit of success. Numb and repressed, ignorant to the fact that emotional suppression breaks us away from how we experience meaning and fulfillment. We search for the depth in our actions, trying to connect to the impact we have created… not recognizing that intrinsic motivation and finding a sense of personal satisfaction is beyond reach if we do not acknowledge and reintegrate back to the emotional parts of ourselves.
Theories on persuasion showcase that little, if anything, can neutralize the momentum established when emotional sway is created.
There is power that is unleashed when you tap into emotion, in relation to the people, places, and things that you care about.
Just think about the movements that were created, the history that has been made, and actions that have caused the world stand still. All driven by acts anchored in care, driven by the power of emotion.
There is power and influence at the disposal of anyone who aligns themselves to intentional and mindful actions in service of what they care about.
Healthy actions, lead to positive and rewarding outcomes.
When we ensure that the care that we feel is reciprocated, and anchored in alignment, connection, and mutual support.
Emotional expression is a strength and not a weakness. To care… has always been the beginning of any story worth reading and worth sharing.
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