Many of us carry the cultural message that pushing down our feelings—especially painful ones—is the best way to function in life:  shake it off; suck it up; carry on; one foot in front of the other, and so on.  But this just isn’t true. Pushing down our hurt and pain doesn’t make it go away. It just delays dealing with it until another day. And if we delay for too long, not only do we continue to suffer emotionally, but our relationships, our health, our very being begin to pay the price.