You May Be Sensitive, But You’re Sure As Hell Not Weak

You carry the weight of the world on your shoulders. When you fight with a loved one, your heart becomes heavy. When you see something terrible happening in the world around you, you ache. When you fall into someone, you give them everything you have.

There isn’t a thing you do, or say, or experience that isn’t with every single inch of your emotion and love.

You’re a sensitive person. You cry for the baby birds with broken wings, for the children without mothers, for the friends, and family members, and even strangers with shattered hearts. At a young age, you were acutely aware of everything around you—from the intonation of people’s voices to the way a certain color made you feel—in every way, you’ve experienced the world so deeply.

This is how you’ve always been, always will be.

But sometimes the world looks at you with distain. Sometimes people shake their head, calling you ‘silly,’ ‘naïve.’ Sometimes people have so much to say about the way you carry yourself, about how much emotion you have, about how you choose to let people in or fight far too long for love.

Sometimes you’re judged, called ‘delicate,’ as if that’s a bad thing. Called ‘soft,’ implying flimsiness rather than strength. But you are the opposite of weak.

Because that heart you have, beating wildly, it never tires. No matter what you go through or what demons you face, you continue to find hope and healing. You continue to love.

You may be sensitive, feel the pain and passion of the entire world on your back. You may get broken or tired, overwhelmed by the intensity of your relationships. You may falter or cry, shut down or want to push people away. But you always regain your sense of self. You always find that heartbeat, that footing, that inner push. And you open your arms again.

You are sensitive, not weak. Not powerless. Not over-emotional, as if that’s a negative thing.

Your sensitivity is your strength. The way you feel and love, your vulnerability and rawness—that is your power, your purpose in this place.

Stop letting the world tell you that you are somehow not enough, even in all that you give and embody. Stop thinking that you have to be less, just to fit in. Stop telling yourself lies just to mold into the shape the world longs for you to be. Stop thinking you are fragile, simply because you feel.

Being ‘soft’ is not a bad thing. ‘Soft’ is malleable, changeable, adaptable. ‘Soft’ is gentle, yet filled with spirit. ‘Soft’ is heartfelt and courageous, beautiful and bold. ‘Soft’ is not mild. ‘Soft’ is not breakable.

Stop thinking you have to be rough to be respected, that you have to be heartless to survive.

You may be sensitive, but you’re a damn fighter. You’re strong. You have a backbone, a brain, and a heart that is forever absorbing the energy from the people around you.

You may be sensitive, but you care. About the people you love and the ones you don’t, about the happenings of this world and for strangers you have yet to meet.

There is not a thing wrong with you, with your heart, with the way you love and let light shine in and through you. There is not a thing wrong with your compassion, your vulnerability, your willingness to be selfless, to show love, even when it is not given in return.

Sometimes you will be told to grow up, to be smarter, to guard yourself and not be so open to people who do not have your best intentions in mind. Sometimes you will be cautioned, encouraged to close off rather than feel.

But don’t change yourself for the silly opinions of this world.
Don’t let a miserable, negative perspective drown out your radiance.

Love. Feel. Embrace. Embody.

Be who you are and don’t let anyone tell you that you are too much, or not enough.

Yes, you experience things differently. Yes, your heart is bigger than most. But no, you are not weak. You, my dear, are as strong as they come.