“Better out than in”. Well if our dear old ogre says it, it must mean something! This phrase dates all of the way back to the 18th century. It is a common colloquial phrase today for letting out digestive matter. You may be wondering why I’m referring to a statement about farts, poop, and burps (yes I went there!). Well, not only does this phrase refer to letting out smelly and noisy gunk inside of us, but it also refers to letting out anything that is “poison” inside of us. As a therapist, I love this phrase because it hits home regarding the concept of talk therapy.

You ever see a movie with someone in a therapy session lying prone on a couch staring up the ceiling? The therapist is usually sitting behind the client on a 45 degree angle repeating over and over again, “And how does that make you feel?”, “Tell me more about that.”, “What do you make of that?”. And before you know it, the client talked for an hour about his or her problems and the therapist schedules another appointment for the following week. That’s it? Where’s the problem-solving? Where’s the million dollar answer to all of the client’s problems? The answer is, “better out than in”.

Uncomfortable feelings, secrets, lies, traumatic memories, negative thoughts about self and/or others and worries are like poison inside of us. We have to let all of that out. If we bottle up all of that poison, we will rot from the inside out. Do yourself a favor and talk it out, write it out, scream it out, sing it out…anything…just as long as your let it out!

Our last Our Hour session, we talked about worrying and a strategy to minimize worry called “worry time”. Check out the Emotional Wellness Tab for more. It’s all about letting out the poison. Our worries are better out than in.

P.S. Struggling with your self-esteem today? Check out the Self-Affirmations Tab for some help.