Oddly enough, it takes a strong person to allow themselves to feel or cry.
Individuals who are highly sensitive are often told to "suck it up", "brush it off", "get over it", and many more phrases that we all hear too often. I have learned from being a highly sensitive person that not everyone has the same heart as me. People like you and I, wear our hearts on our sleeves and not by choice, but because it is how we are wired.
It's hard to grow up and watch other people be less affected by both small or larger scenarios than yourself. You could cry if you see a really cute dog, If someone insults you, or if someone tells you they are proud of you, All very different reasons for the eye waterfalls but the same ugly cry, gasping for air and seeming very dramatic.
As highly sensitive individuals we don't only feel the magnitude of the sadness, the worry and the pain around us, but we also have a great amount of love in our hearts that we couldn't hide even if we tried. We have strong empathy and tend to put ourselves in the shoes of others, wondering what they are thinking and feeling because we understand what it's like to feel.
We feel our emotions in every bone and organ in our bodies and we don't know any other way.
The highly sensitive person wants to make everyone content and feels disappointed with themselves when this isn't possible. This is where you need to learn how to control your heartstrings and not let them get the best of you. You have to remember that you and your own feelings are just as important as everyone else's.
This is not a selfish thought, or a selfish act to take care of yourself and your own heart. You cannot let your feelings get hurt or feel disappointed in yourself if you cannot achieve the impossible. It is an admirable trait to want to see other's happy, but you can only do so much.
The truth is, you can blame it all on your oversized heart. Before you learn how to cope with your emotions and how to understand what you are feeling, it is easy to think there is something wrong with you, or that you are different from everyone else. But, there is nothing wrong with you and once you learn to understand what you are feeling, it is a blessing to feel so much and so often.
There are so many people in this world who are emotionally unstable and push down their emotions. They bottle them up tightly and don't even acknowledge them in the privacy of their own minds. Frankly, this is not healthy and eventually, your body will force you to have an emotional breakdown. Part of being human comes with having emotions.
What would life be without them? It is such a blessing to laugh and to be happy, but we can appreciate being happy so much more when we can compare it to sadness and pain. Life is a roller coaster of up's and down's and it is inevitable and natural to feel every bump and curve of the ride. So, instead of bottling up the tension, the regret, the worry, anxiety, resentment, sadness, pain, heart-ache, just set it free...
The only way to be free of the emotion is to actually deal with it and fully understand where it came from. Highly sensitive people are in tune with this process because they were gifted with the knowledge and the power to be in tune with their sensitive sides.
Other's may feel the pain but rarely question it, hence why the pain might subconsciously linger for longer or they might appear angry or short-tempered for "no reason". There is always a reason and if you dig into your heart you will be able to heal what is hurting.
There is a quote by Rachel Wolchins, which I found when I began college and it greatly changed my outlook on who I am and my sensitive heart and it reads...
"All of these emotions are either going to drive me insane or make me really successful"
If you are a highly sensitive person, let your heart be an asset to you, yourself and your future. Never listen to anyone who tells you to "suck it up", or anything along those lines, because if everyone felt so deeply and loved so very much, there would be so much more joy in the world.