It depends on a variety of things, in my opinion. If you're in a place where you have the privacy to deal with what you're letting out, then holding things in can often make it worse. However, if you're in public or around family or friends who would not be understanding, then it might be good to wait for a better moment.Sometimes, simply giving yourself permission to emote is all you really need. It can sometimes be useful to give yourself a time limit. I recently had a traumatic thing happen in my life, and I "gave myself permission" to grieve for three days. That seemed reasonable, in line with the severity of the trauma. As it turned out, after two days, I was coming out the other side, but I had my limit there to keep me from becoming morose or "wallowing".