What We Don’t Name Ceases To Exist, But It Has Consequences

Where do fears that have no name go? Where are the emotions we let go unnamed? How do we treat what hurts us if, instead of facing such things, we avoid them? Where are those dreams that don’t come true? Everything that we do not name ceases to exist.

The fact that it ceases to exist does not mean that it ceases to hurt; it has no effect on the world, but not on us. It still hurts the same way when you don’t talk about what bothers you about others or what makes you angry inside. It continues to hurt when your self-esteem is reached and it diminishes, but if you don’t tell it, it ceases to exist.

How can we define our fears if we don’t give them a name? When we name them, we give them shape and, with that, possibilities for confrontation and overcoming, but if we don’t, the fears diminish. We can speak of a fog, with great value to us, but nameless, identityless, incapable of dealing, powerful and existing only in our heads.

How does what we don’t name affect us?

Did you know that a third of people who see a doctor have symptoms without any medical explanation? Pain is not found in the physical, but in the psychic ; what happens? It still hurts the same way. It stays inside without being able to get out and becomes pain, body damage and skin damage.

The more time we spend alone with our pain, the bigger it stays inside us and doesn’t let go, the more chances we have of getting sick. When we see but are silent, when we listen but don’t help, or when it hurts but doesn’t heal. These are ways, they are ways to make our body and soul sick, they are ways to harm us, because we do not give a name to what surrounds us.

Suffering alone burns inside, so there is no better cure than naming what kills us, naming our fears and our dreams, naming what we believe to be unfair. When we nominate, we have the power to do something, work and face such situations, being stronger than them, because they already have an image and form. That’s where we take control.

Why is it not good to repress what we have inside us?

People cannot understand what we do not name, and therefore we cannot be helped. It’s just a backpack that we carry, but nobody sees it and, as a result, we don’t share the weight. It is a burden that we store alone and lonely, as it only torments and haunts us.

Emotions play an important role in human life, so regulating them is essential for our mental health and for our physical health. As scientists Philippe Goldin and James Gross explain in an article in the journal Biological Psychiatry , emotions have a correlation with our pattern of brain activity, expressing them or not. On the other hand, they also established that the repression of emotions activates the amygdala and insula. Likewise, reflecting on emotions helps to reduce the negative impact on the brain and psyche.

Knowing how to express and how to express what we feel and the situation we are in makes us free, makes us release at least some of the pain or damage that may have done us. When we identify the emotions that arise from a situation (fear, joy, anger…), we are closer to facing them intelligently.

When we speak, we heal; when we empty ourselves inside, we lessen the problem because we can share it. When we name, we give an entity to the problem, which, in any case, we have to face.