Post 3

       The most interesting thing that I learned this week in chapter 7 was the obstacles to communicating emotions effectively. The reason we may not express emotions include many social expectations, self protection reasons, protecting others, and many social and professional roles. The social expectations of women are that more of them are willing to bear their emotions over men. Many men suppress their feelings because they have been generalized to be tough and unemotional. This leads to many men to become disconnected from their emotions and realize that society has taught them that they are not to experience many feelings. The social expectations of women and men's feelings have allowed women to express their feelings more than men. The self protection obstacle of communication discusses the need to not share information in order to protect yourself from any harm. The book discusses a chilling effect which is the act of restraining expression of our feelings in order to avoid someone more "powerful" than us. Furthermore we restrain from expressing feelings in order to protect others or ourselves. Finally, the way we express our feelings around the people we work with in our professional life is continually monitored. The way we carry ourselves in a professional environment can either credit us, or hurt us in the long run. Controlling your emotions in the work place is very important because we want to make sure they are always necessary, appropriate, and constructive.