Catharsis

What do you do when you feel under pressure or stressed?

Various things work for me and the one that works best for me is a type of musical catharsis. If I am feeling under pressure or stressed, I don't listen to music that is soothing or calms me down. I do just the opposite. I listen to music that expresses the emotion I am feeling.

Tonight was a Gravity Kills night. I will let you guess what type of emotions I was feeling at that particular moment, but it's not too difficult once you hear their music.

I tend to listen to quite a few eclectic tastes. I was listening to maNga, which is a great Turkish band that I was first exposed to during the Eurovision Song Contest of 2010. People like to describe it as a combination of Linkin Park and Anatolian style and it works.

If I am in a somber mood, nothing reveals it more than the Second Movement of Beethoven's 7th Symphony. In a romantic mood, Kristian Leontiou's "Shining" hits me every time.

Being an introvert as I am, it is often difficult for me to express how I am feeling. As such, people think that I am aloof or unfeeling. This is far from the truth. I am just hesitant to share those feelings for fear that they will be trampled upon. It's a weakness of mine. I'll readily admit it. However, once I do express my emotions, 2 things normally happen:  I am physically exhausted or I feel emotionally exposed. Because it's so emotionally draining, I tend to repress everything. That is quite unhealthy.

One thing I love about the Psalms is that they do the exact same thing:  They express the raw emotions that the Psalmists are going through. They are not always theologically sound, but they are the true emotions and feelings of saints who have gone before us. They knew how important it was to express their feelings to God, even if it seemed as if God were far off.

When you need to express yourself, what do you do?