This is my go-to crying room on campus. Called "Bars Of Color Within Squares," it’s a public art installation within the atrium floor of building six. When I go, there is usually no one else there, so it’s an empty, well-lit, open space. Quite conducive to crying.

This may sound counter-intuitive. One, shouldn’t I be trying to make myself feel better when I’m sad, not let myself cry? Two, shouldn’t I be finding some darker, smaller corner to cry in? Both those questions can be answered with a no — it’s important to express passive emotions, not try to hide them.

I’m an optimistic person. I believe in mind over matter. Sometimes a situation might look hopeless, but it’s up to you to put a positive spin on it and make it better. Turn the negative things into positive things; fight back against problems that you see. Be active, not passive.

Recently, I’ve been weighed down both by personal problems and by negative events happening around the world. Following my mantra to be active, not passive, I tried to harvest the sadness and turn it into anger, into defiance. I wrote articles and started up conversations to share my thoughts. It’s been rewarding, being able to encourage discussion that gives voice to little things that often go unheard. But it’s also been exhausting.

Stating your opinion saps a lot of energy. It’s hard to write about things that you are passionate about because you want to do them justice. On top of that, there are always people who will disagree and try to pick your argument apart. You have to constantly come up with arguments and counterarguments to build your point back up again. It’s draining. Worth it, of course, but draining nevertheless.

Which brings me to my point: sometimes, it’s OK to leave the fight for another day.

But isn’t that giving up? you may wonder. Not so. I’ve always thought that the emotions can be divided into two categories: active and passive. Some emotions, such as happiness and anger, encourage loud expression and want to be noticed. Meanwhile, others, such as sadness and introspection, are quieter and draw less attention to themselves. As a society, we pride too much the active emotions and forget about the passive ones. We applaud excess displays of happiness and dramatize excess displays of anger, yet shun excess displays of sadness. It’s good to let yourself feel happy! It’s good to let the anger out! It’s good to go out and do something! we say. But what if we were so tired that doing something right at that moment wasn’t possible?

When I’m feeling sad, I like to find a quiet place where I can sit down and just let myself sob. I don’t want to be disturbed nor comforted; I don’t want someone to tell me that everything is going to be OK. Not at that moment, anyway. At that moment, I just want to let myself truly experience the sadness. It’s cathartic. Once I feel like I’ve absorbed the emotion, I can let it go. And that’s a weight off my chest.

We celebrate when people take their lives into their own hands by tackling their problems. But balance in life is important. The way I see it, crying isn’t a weakness. Neither is taking a break from being always ready to confront problems head on. It’s not that you stop being strong; it’s that you find a different kind of strength. There is a certain strength to allowing yourself to be completely vulnerable, to remaining in tune with how you feel, to admitting that you aren’t an invincible, stoic robot. You truly have to be comfortable with yourself to do that.

Of course, like anything, it’s only a strength if you let it be one. Taking a break is only just that: a break. You have to resume that can-do mentality eventually.

Many MIT students are workaholics. We are problem solvers, and we believe that we shouldn't sit around when there's so much that could be done. (Summer comes with that strange feeling of coming back from work and realizing you have free time with no obligations [read: psets / deadlines] lurking around the corner.) Many MIT students also believe that it’s OK to compartmentalize their emotions because who has time to deal with that?

But that's false. Breaks don’t get in the way of efficiency. If you take the right kind of break, then it’ll make you more productive, not less. It’s also important to take some time for yourself to stay in tune with your emotions. MIT students may create robots, but we aren’t robots.

Learn from my good friend Alexander Hamilton: working without rest will decrease overall productivity and lead to sloppiness. Hamilton is ambitious and wants to work non-stop, but he ended up making bad decisions because he refused to take a break and his mind wasn’t functioning correctly. Sometimes your mind needs to wander away from the problem that’s frustrating you. Most of the time, you have reached a dead end and can’t think any longer, but a break can leave you coming back refreshed and able to see it from a different perspective.

So what did I do? I let myself have a good cry. And I also turned to art. I drew mugs as gifts for my friends, I made custom shoes for myself, and I turned to photography to capture both projects. Art has always been an outlet for me to stay in tune with my emotions, especially the ones that go ignored when I feel like I don’t have time to deal with them. Even if I only have a few seconds to take a break, I let myself doodle for those few seconds because that helps my brain relax.

Even if you’re not an artsy person, never fear. There are other ways to take a break. One of my good friends takes walks when he needs to think. Others take long showers or take a nap to sleep it off and come back refreshed.

There are a lot of frustrating problems in the world, in our daily lives. And it’s important to take action to address them. But sometimes if you keep staring at a problem, then you’ll reach a dead end. Remember to take a break so you can come back head on, even stronger.