When your first moments upon waking transition from ignorant bliss to a churning stomach and serrated thoughts, it’s okay.

When your days start to resemble a well-rehearsed production and you’re the extra going through the motions backstage, it’s okay.

When you feel as though someone strapped dumbbells to your ankles and every task feels like an uphill battle, it’s okay.

You’re allowed to succumb to your sorrow and be a slave to misery every once in a while. No one said you have to glue the fragments of your life back into a pretty picture that those on the outside looking in will approve of.

If one passing thought tells you there’s no point to this hollow world we live in, it’s okay.

If the next fleeting thought tells you that your birth was a mistake and that you don’t add value to the human ensemble, it’s okay.

Like every hero, you’re allowed to have weaknesses.

Everyone feels like a plastic bag blowing in the wind sometimes. Everyone feels like their strength is no match for the heaviness of their emotions. Yet, we all consciously show up every day.

We retract our claws even when our well-being is tampered with. We exhale deeply despite not catching our breath. We extend a tender hand to a stranger in need, irrespective of our troubled upbringing. Every single day we prove ourselves warriors.

Try to remember that tears at night are only visitors and listen carefully to what they tell you. Is there something in your life that needs to change? Are there too many antagonists plotting to put you in harm’s way? And what about your imagination, are you making time for it? Have you allowed your heart the freedom to go where it wants?

Those tormenting feelings in your gut are infamous indicators that you’re not listening to your inner-self. It’s okay to not be okay, but what’s not okay is neglecting to examine these feelings.

Even if you don’t fully understand the pricks and prods of your emotions because they are nonsensical and out of your jurisdiction, don’t be afraid to face them. Don’t be afraid to face indignity, fear, or a prolonged pain from your former years.

It’s often in the nooks of our deepest hiding places, that we uncover the root of who we are. It’s where we discover we’d been playing a part in someone else’s show or were moving so rapidly that we forgot to watch the yolk of the sun roll down beneath the felt green hills.

If you don’t feel okay right now, ten minutes from now, tomorrow, next month, or next year, it’s honestly okay. But embrace those emotions. Let them fill every morsel of you. Because as difficult as it may seem, this is where you surmount them.

Once you confront all that rumbles beneath your exterior, you can release it. You can release it back into the darkness it hailed from and rediscover your freedom.  

You don’t have to pretend to have it all together when you’re catastrophically falling apart. You just need to know the difference between the You that sabotages and the You that overcomes. Within each of us lies a hero and a villain.

Recognize when you’re being your own villain and overcome Yourself.

. . .

Photo by Angel Lopez on Unsplash

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