Strong Girl, Always Feel

Strong girl, from this moment on, always feel.

Forget the person who claimed a strong girl doesn’t feel, or love, or care. Forget always priding yourself for keeping everything inside. Forget loving yourself less for feeling the need to explode with emotion. Just forget all of it, and feel.

Feel your hair flipping backwards as a laugh bubbles from your throat. Feel the ache in your stomach and the tears sliding down your cheeks when you can’t get it to stop. Feel the snort that slips from your nose and feel the vibration of your shoulders as you try to gain the composure you think you need to get back.

Feel the freeness in your soul as you dance alone in your room. Feel the sensation of your hair brushing across your face as you’re losing yourself in the song. Always feel lyrics that touch you in your heart, when for the moment, you finally feel understood. And finally, let yourself feel sane.

Feel your heartache when someone hurts you. Feel the pain of feeling alone, and feel the ache in your chest when you worry you always will be. Feel the fear in your gut and the tears clogging your throat. Feel the sickness in your stomach as you try to keep it all bottled up inside and then feel the explosive scream that rushes from your body, leaving your throat feeling raw, when you finally decide to let it all out.

Feel the anger setting fire to your skin when you realize you’ve been treated less than you deserve. Feel the devastation of realizing you played a part in your own failures and demise. Feel your hands balling up into fists as you fight the urge of beating them down on whatever is standing in front of you. Then, finally, feel the ache in your knees when you sink to the ground and the throb in your head as you drag yourself back to reality.

Feel all of it, and then love yourself even more than before, because you no longer have to let the harsh voice inside your head convince you you’re weak for letting a tear slide down your pretty face.

You don’t have to love yourself less for letting the hurt in your soul show itself in public, or in the presence of someone who has never seen your hurt before. Not anymore.

You no longer have to question whether or not you are strong for feeling the way you feel. You never have to describe yourself as weak for letting yourself break down. You don’t have to keep it all bottled up, and you don’t have to cage yourself in instead of letting yourself break free.

You no longer have to be numb in order to be strong. You need to feel, you need love, and you need to care. Even when it’s hard. Especially then. Because that’s when you’ll really be strong.

So, strong girl, from this moment on, always feel.

Unless that feeling is shame for feeling at all.