In the line of work that I do as being a pediatric mental health specialist, during our distress tolerance/emotion regulation groups, we teach children about these mind intruders called the "Unthinkables" (ALL Credit to SCH). Just to name a few, mean jean, which are our moments of being drama queens and when we can be mean and bossy towards others; there's One Sided Sid and Rock Brain who are pretty much one in the same for they both demonstrate how we are when we get in our my way or the highway mindsets and have a hard listening to and considering others suggestions. But of each of the total of 8 unthinkables, one in particular that we ALL sometimes especially in our interpersonal relationships seem to come across is Glass Man. Glass Man is who we are when we let certain thoughts, emotions and even actions done to us by others go unsaid. It's when we allow negative emotions to build up until the point that we break and shatter due to an overload of not taking the time to process the thoughts and emotions that are going on within us. The best way to explain this so as to capture what it really means when you're "glass man" is as follows. You're day starts with you rushing to your car to head out for work because you overslept, as you're driving down the road you realize you forgot to make you coffee. So you make a quick stop at Starbucks and go through the drive through only to realize long after you've pulled off that your drink tastes nothing like what you've ordered.
Next you find yourself texting one of your friends and let's say she makes a comment about a decision you've been sitting on that needs to be made, he comment rubs you the wrong way. Later you recieve a call from your mother about your grandfather being hospitalized and you finally get a moment throughout the day where you can check your calendar to move some appointments around to go visit him and you realize you missed the deadline on an assignment that was due for class! You rush to get it done and turn it in late during some down time at work. Finally after a long and hard day, you want nothing more than to confide and be comforted by your significant other about what a living hell your day has been and could really use some time to cry and vent, they don't answer the phone or reply to your text. So you try to occupy yourself with something mindless to do and you scroll on social media and see he and a few friends going in on a funny post....(on a scale of 1-10 whats your irritation level at so far?) Then you get home and your roomate left a few dishes in the sink...which happens all the time and normally you don't mind, you typically just wash them and go on your way, she comes out to greet you and you lay in to her so hard, she packs her stuff and goes to stay at a friend's house for the night. So there you are...alone, pissed, sad and frustrated and not once throughout the day did you give yourself a moment to PROCESS any of the events that took place today, as a result like glass under too much pressure you SHATTERED!
It happens to the best of us. In the hustle and bustle of the days when a series of unfortunate events take place, there simply isn't enough time in the day to process but it's important that regardless we MAKE the time! It's part of keeping a healthy mental well-being. Without taking the time out to process how we really feel about certain things that have occured either within the day, the week, the month, or over the years we will always find ourselves shattering left and right. if we don't take the time to recognize and develop self awareness and those moments where we need to take a time out and give ourselves time to heal and process we are doing ourselves and others who value us a complete disservice.
So my advice: Take a moment at least twice a day to check in with your emotions and write a few things down in that moment that would be POSITIVE and helpful for you to do to be able to process and cope with how you're feeling the moment. It will help with processing hard topics that you're dealing with so that you have less of those shattering moments.