Life is not about learning how to survive the world, it is about learning to stop letting the world define the relationship with yourself. It will humble you and bring you face to face with so many versions of yourself, but eventually you need to sit with all of them. The child inside of you. The teenager. The young adult. All the parts of you that are hurting and say, I see you. I know why you feel this way. I know what happened, I was there. I remember all of it. I know how much it hurt and what it has cost us but I am here now, and I love you. That is all that matters. We are going to put all the mirrors down. You reparent yourself. You give yourself that unconditional love.
Stop negotiating your value. Stop outsourcing your validation. Stop agreeing with every cruel thought that enters your mind. Stop treating your nervous system like an inconvenience. Become the safest place you have ever known. Be okay with who you are. Be okay with not being for everyone. Be okay with not being perfect. Be okay with just being with you. Give love to all the versions of you that got hurt, that survived, that made decisions you regret. Give love to the strongest and weakest parts of you. Give love to the parts of you that don't know how to love themselves yet. From here, the world will still be the world. It will still disappoint you, test you, misunderstand you and try and pull old wounds to the surface, but the way you protect, advocate and parent yourself is what matters.
You do not need to be enough for the world, for anyone else. You just need to put all of the mirrors down, pick yourself back up and carry yourself home.
And lately I have not been doing too well, and I guess as humans we experience highs and lows and this phase feels like an all time low to me. I can't really describe how I feel but I'll try to in one sentence. 'You know when you are walking in opposite directions to a person who was once a large part of your life down the school corridor, too afraid to look up you bury your head six feet under the ground until they are no longer in sight, yeah that's how I have been feeling recently'. As if everywhere I turn I am reminded by something or someone. As if I have a whole new chance to start over but I am holding onto such negative self-talk I must leave behind. It's like knowing I have shut the door and am excited for new opportunities but crippled by fear of facing the new world. It's overcoming a deep, hollow sense of loneliness that comes with letting go of friends in which the only thing I had In common with them was the fact we went to the same high school.
It's like knowing I will stay in touch with my closest friends but my dear friend anxiety telling me otherwise. It is facing the urge to not cry at random times of the day because some days I miss the girl that gave me a reason to wake up each morning just over a year ago. It is finally having to face myself and love myself because nothing will work in my favour if I don't do so. It's the act of throwing my phone across the room resisting the urge to get in contact with the chance I didn't take because right now I need to focus on me. And lately I have not been doing too well, carrying all these expectations of how I should be by now,all ready to take on the real world when in reality I am a tiny little human having to start navigating in such a big scary world and I don't know if I'm ready for such a thing. It indeed all feels like walking down the school corridor in opposite directions to a person who used to be a large part of your life. It feels overwhelming and anxiety provoking.
And confronting but not to say it isn't exciting. It for sure is very exciting. I just need a minute or two to breathe because sometimes the weight I carry on my shoulders gets too heavy and the expectations I place on myself are just too high.
Day by day I continue to remind myself that as long as I focus on me everything will fall into place. But right now I feel more like a messy kindergarten and I guess a messy kindergarten can still use her broken crayons for they still burst out in colour and she can still create the most beautiful artwork. Just all in time.
People love to throw your past in your face like it's supposed to break you. Baby, I lived it. I cried through it, I survived it, and I healed from it.
I'll tell you the story myself, start to finish with no shame in my voice. I made peace with every dark corner and hard lesson. So if you came to drag me, you might wanna sit down and take some notes instead. This isn't a scandal, it's a testimony.
People love to throw your past in your face like it's supposed to break you. Baby, I lived it. I cried through it, I survived it, and I healed from it.
I'll tell you the story myself, start to finish with no shame in my voice. I made peace with every dark corner and hard lesson. So if you came to drag me, you might wanna sit down and take some notes instead. This isn't a scandal, it's a testimony.
I promise you that there are people out there who will understand the language of your heart and what you have been through and they will show you so much patience and understanding while you heal.
I promise you that your feelings, your anxiety, and your trauma are not a burden to the ones who love you and I promise you that you are capable of giving and receiving love despite it all.
I wish you could see just how worthy you are of good things, of genuine love, of deep connections, of happiness. I wish you could escape your mind for just one moment and see everything you deserve, because once you see it, once you feel it, you can't deny that it's real. You are worth so much more than the way you've been made to feel in the past, and your past experiences do not define your future or your ability to be loved the right way, to be loved at all. I hope you find it in yourself to open up your heart again, just a little more each day, and let a little bit of love back in. I hope that in doing so you begin to see all the things that are meant for you finding their way to you, and I hope you acknowledge that you are worthy of it all.