<aside> ⭐ Written in: May 2020 Approx. Reading Time: 5 mins

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It's one of those times when you've got a lot on your plate. 🍽

There are important events coming up, lots to get done, and no time for distractions.

However, right as all of this is happening or about to happen a negative event happens in your life. This could be a wide range of things: the loss of a loved one, not getting the dream job... the list goes on.

Whatever that negative event was it's brought about a lot of strong negative emotions.

Since you're swamped right now you tell yourself that this can wait. It's a distraction. You convince yourself that there's more upside in focusing on what you need to now than there is dealing with your feelings.

For some it might not have even been an important time. You might not have had a lot going on but you were tired of always having to deal with negative events/emotions, so you've started to suppress all of those feelings once they occur. Maybe if you just focus on the good and working on making life better those feelings won't matter anymore.

Sometimes the negative feelings you have don't matter that much and they do fade. But more often than not, when we suppress them they don't fade. They're just left undealt with.

The scenarios I mentioned above, I've been through many times. I know I still will go through times when negative events happen or intense emotions occur at unprecedented times.

Meet the Shackle Effect.

Shackles? I don't have any shackles on me, even though I'm suppressing negative feelings - you might be thinking.

Not physical shackles.