On Letting Go And Being Brave

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When we feel like our dreams have died, we can’t help but to feel hopeless and stuck. It feels like things will never get better, like we will never heal. But sometimes, in letting go of something that meant so much but was so detrimental to our spirit, we get back everything.

Sometimes we end up in exactly the same place we were before life bottomed out. Life gives us a kind of a “do over.” We find ourselves surrounded by the people we hid ourselves from for so long. Important people. Maybe you are standing in this spot in life right now for all those amazing people to be your mirrors and remind you of who you are. And they will. They will remind you of the YOU you left behind. They will remind you that you are amazing.

Maybe right now, you are in that awkward place. The healing place where everything still hurts and the pain is vivid, but where new life is on the horizon. You can sense it just out of your reach. And in this you feel just a little stronger.

It’s a shaky strength. Because being strong doesn’t mean you never feel weak. It doesn’t mean you aren’t vulnerable. It doesn’t mean you don’t want to crumble along with the things that fall apart.

It means you are brave enough to allow yourself to feel everything no matter how afraid you are. You slowly begin to notice when you are settling for far less than what you are worth. You can tell yourself it really doesn’t matter how you got here but where you point your feet to take your next step.

You realize your resiliency. Being resilient means you still believe in yourself when you’ve made the biggest mess of everything around you. Try again because you know it’s the only thing you can do.

It’s okay to be tired, to accept that you don’t have to pretend that things are fine when they’re a mess. You can admit that your heart is broken and yes, you really do want to love again, but right now, the best you can do is gather the broken pieces and gingerly place them back together, painstakingly and without timeframe.

You can’t control other people, whether they love you or hurt you. Whether they are for you or against you. You can only control you. So that other stuff doesn’t matter.

You can smile and pretend that you’ve got it all figured out, or you can be real and admit you’re in a place you’d rather not be. You can admit that you’re afraid. Brave people are afraid. You can accept that those you love may not love you back and that doesn’t mean there’s something wrong with you. It doesn’t make you a fool for loving. It makes you human. It makes you alive.