In order to heal it, you gotta feel it.

There’s no use whatsoever in bottling everything up and pretending everything’s okay. We are human beings with unpredictable lives and complex consciousnesses. Despite what society and social media may suggest, it’s unrealistic for us to be 100% okay and happy all the time.

Sure, our lives don’t catastrophically fall apart everyday - but things do go wrong. People hurt us, we hurt people, expectations don’t get satisfied, our efforts don’t succeed - etcetera. And if we don’t take the time to process these seemingly small things, the pile of inexpression becomes a big problem. And let’s not forget all those actually big problems we have to deal with too.

However we’re feeling internally shows itself externally by how we see our outside world and reality. We project whatever’s inside us. And don’t even tell me that’s not true! We literally see it all the time - so much so that it’s become a cliché! The grumpy old man who’s upset at life because he didn’t live his own life fully. The rude housewife who complains all the time because her marriage is failing. Or even the mean bully at school who puts other kids down in order to bring him/herself up.

How can we expect ourselves to live an enjoyable life if we’re not happy on the inside? “Fake it ‘til you make it” is useful in some instances, but not this one. So much, if not all, of our suffering sources from our open wounds. And I’m not talking about physical cuts and bruises - I’m talking about vulnerable spots of hurt in our hearts. Spots that are created by things that didn’t go our way, or people breaking the promises they’d sworn to keep.

Here’s a little wake up call. Stop keeping yourself from a happy mind and happy life. Heal the hurt you keep putting away and pretending is not there. Forgive that person who broke your heart. Heal the hurt you have from neglectful parents. Heal yourself from the memories you cringe and cry about upon remembering.

Give yourself room for new things to come into your life, instead of holding onto the past.

Allow yourself to see the pain, acknowledge it - and then when you’re ready, let it go.

In order to heal it, you gotta feel it.