Taking care of myself is a big job. No wonder I avoided it for so long. - Melody Beattie

The big reason for not repressing feelings is that emotional withdrawal causes us to lose our positive feelings. We lose the ability to feel. Sometimes, this may be a welcome relief if the pain becomes too great or too constant, but this is not a good plan for living. We may shut down our deep needs — our need to love and be loved — when we shut down our emotions. We may lose our ability to enjoy sex, the human touch. We lose the ability to feel close to people, otherwise known as intimacy. We lose our capacity to enjoy the pleasant things in life.

We can confuse love with dependency, manipulation, and neediness. None of those are love. Love is when we want other people to be who they are.

There is little in our lives we need to do that we cannot do better if we are peaceful.