I hope you know that you can handle the anxiety that’s keeping you up at night.
I hope you know that you can handle the hurt that comes with a broken heart.
I hope you know that you can handle the darkness that feels like it’s swallowing you whole.
You can handle all of the icky, horrible, uncomfortable feelings that life throws your way. It’s not always going to be fun, but you are capable of handling it. You have so much more strength, wisdom, and grit within you. You can get to the other side of the situation that is dragging you down—you just have to make sure you feel it.
If you’re feeling anxious or hurt or like the darkness of the world is swallowing you whole, I hope you let yourself feel it.
I hope you let yourself recognize those situations will not go away if you keep burying them. They will not disappear if you ignore them. They will not go away if you keep them locked up.
You have to learn how to work through them.
You have to learn how to navigate through the woods and tread the water and climb the mountain without worrying about how far you could fall.
Sometimes this learning comes from solo type soul work. Maybe that comes from long walks in nature. Maybe that’s meditation or prayer or spending more time with your yoga mat. Maybe it means you need more solo time—so that you can sit and journal the thoughts that you have. Maybe you need to write your fears down on paper so that you have the satisfaction of staring them in the face.
Maybe.
Or maybe your learning comes from learning from others. Maybe that means you find a therapist, a good therapist, who gives you the flashlight that gets you out of the woods. Maybe that means you have to take medication to keep the cruelty of depression and anxiety out of your head and your heart. Maybe it means you let your loved ones into your home when you would rather stay buried under the covers. Because deep down you know that loneliness is a sucker punch that you can’t quite handle at the moment, and so sitting on your couch, watching a movie with the ones you love most, is nourishment for your soul.
Maybe your learning is something else entirely.
And you know what? That’s okay.
Just remember that you can handle what haunts your dreams as long as you let yourself work through it.
THOUGHT CATALOG