I think you're harming yourself…

Picture this for a moment:

Imagine you just heard the FUNNIEST joke...! Like the kind that hurts your stomach to the point you nearly pee your pants.

Now I tell you: "Do not laugh". Hold your breath and all that laughter in. Don’t make any noise and don’t even think about cracking a smile!

Sounds painfully difficult, right?

Here is the thing. You most likely do this on a regular basis. Not with laughing, but with crying.

You harm yourself when you don’t allow yourself to cry. 

That moment where you feel your eyes water, and instead of making space for it, you hold your breath. You swallow down that lump in your throat. You open your eyes wide to keep the waterworks in because there’s nothing worse than running errands with black mascara streaked down your face.

It feels awful. Just like it doesn’t feel good to hold in a laugh. So how come it’s more socially acceptable to hold in our tears than it is to hold in a laugh? They are both expressions of our emotions. One happy and one sad, but neither one is better than the other.

I mean when it finally rains in a draught state like California, you don’t say “pleaseeeeee make it stop!”. You get that the rain is necessary and healthy for the earth.

So are you in a drought? 

Are you letting your tears out? Maybe you’re forcing sunshine, pushing yourself to “be happy” when in reality you just need a good rinse.

Don’t let yourself shrivel in the drought. Welcome the rain. Dance in it. Sing in it!

A lot of times when we feel sad, we look for ways to rationalize how we feel. Like “okay I’m feeling this way because that thing happened to me, but if I was a stronger person I wouldn’t feel this way I’d actually feel this way instead….”. Nooooo. STOP. Stop it right now.

You do not need a crying prescription.

You don’t need permission to release pain. Stop talking yourself out of feeling the way you feel because those feelings won’t just go away. That’s not how we heal.

Feel the tears run down your cheeks, and how they land all the way down your chest. Send that long voice message to your bestie. Use up the entire Kleenex box. 

I promise that everything you’re feeling is totally valid. 

As you prepare for the emotional rollercoaster of holidays, welcome the sunshine, but don’t be afraid of the rain. 

 XO

Nora