Even When The World Is Difficult, Stay Gentle

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When you have strong empathic tendencies, every rejection feels intensely massive. Every heartbreak feels like a swift punch in the gut. Losing someone you love feels like waning off of a drug. We love so freaking much and we care even more, but do not ever be sorry for that. Don’t ever be sorry for caring. Don’t ever be sorry for showing up for someone when they needed you. You did the one thing you were born to do—you attempted to connect with someone, you were vulnerable.

Being a compassionate, sympathetic being is a blessing, but I know it can feel like a curse when we have to let go of someone. Sometimes the people we love don’t see empathy as a gift but instead see it as a weakness. Please do not believe them. The moment you believe that empathy and vulnerability are weaknesses is the same moment you walk away from yourself. In that moment, you are choosing to actively work against the gift you were granted when you came to the earth. Don’t believe them. Don’t go against your gift. Don’t believe others’ evaluations of you. Don’t.

We will meet people who disappoint us, hurt us, betray us, neglect us, and lie to us. They will try to change our hearts. Please don’t let them. Don’t lose the things that make you human, the things that allow you to connect with other human beings: empathy and compassion.

I am happy to fight for love, something so many people are afraid to do. I will fight to stay, fight to work it out, and fight for someone else. Putting your heart on the line for someone is the bravest, purest act of courage. I will never be ashamed of that, and I want you to know you shouldn’t be either, even if it doesn’t work out.

Maybe the thing or person we want most isn’t ours because of timing. Maybe the things we so deeply crave aren’t ours because the universe knows we aren’t ready, and if we get them, we’ll lose them. Maybe the people we are looking for aren’t ready for us to enter their lives. Maybe things work out, but the path will look different than we thought. Despite all of that, believe in yourself and believe in the tenderness inside of you. It will take you so much further than you ever knew, into realms you never believed you’d reach, with people you never thought you deserved or existed. Stay gentle, stay kind, stay soft, stay vulnerable, stay empathetic—just stay.