Don’t allow someone’s silence to imprison you in a museum of old pain...

As many of us have found out, silence can be violence when it is used in an effort to wound. It is one of the most potent ways to cause deep suffering. And it's a very effective strategy, particularly when utilized on hightly relational beings. Because highly relational beings are built for dialogue. They are ready, willing, and able to process the material that comes up between them and those they are connected to. They dont' know any other way. When they are denied that opportunity, they suffer. And not just on an emotional level, they suffer immunologically as well. They become more at risk of disease whne the bridge to expression is blocked. Because all those unsaid words and unprocessed feelings congeal inside, weakening their phsyical well- being. If you are someone who is still carrying the remnants of unresolved material that was denied expression by silent treatment, do your best to move that material through you. If you can't do it with the silencing aggressor, do it with a therapist, or with another friend. Don't allow someone's silence to imprison you in a museum of old pain. Express if fully, move it on through. It's not yours for the keeping. - Jeff Brown, Hearticulations