Please don’t numb your pain.

When you numb your pain, you’re cutting yourself off to part of living. When you numb your pain, you’re not letting yourself be fully human. When you numb your pain, you’re not getting rid of it and you’re not wiping it away. You’re not making it disappear, either. You’re just burying it.

And then it’s only a matter of time before it resurfaces.

I hope you know it’s ok to not be ok.

I hope you stop pretending to be ok for the ones around you, too.

I hope you let yourself feel.

Are you sad? Let yourself feel that sadness. Recognize how it soaks into your bones, how it rests heavy on your heart. Let yourself drown in your tears until you have no more water within you, till it feels like you have nothing left to give and your bones are dry. Let yourself feel the rawness of the wound – where it hurts and where it’s hollow.

If you jump to numbness, how can you heal?

I hope you know it’s ok to not be ok.

I hope you stop pretending to be ok for the ones around you, too.

I hope you let yourself feel.

I hope you let yourself feel your pain. I hope you let it reach your heart, your mind, your soul. I hope you feel it from your fingers to your toes. I hope you recognize how your pain affects how you navigate through this world – how it bleeds into your work, into your relationships with others, into your relationship with your self.

I hope you feel it.

When you let yourself feel it, it becomes easier to work through it. When you let yourself feel it, you’re able to climb to the other side of pain. When you let yourself feel it, healing becomes tangible and feasible, and within your reach.

When you let yourself feel your pain, instead of numbing it, joy becomes the thing you hold onto and the thing you seek.

I hope you know it’s ok to not be ok.

I hope you stop pretending to be ok for the ones around you, too.

I hope you let yourself feel.

Please don’t numb your pain.