All the feelings: that’s kind of what happens when you’re going through hard times, or healing in the aftermath. Especially when it's the holiday season, a time of celebration, and you're hurting.

And you know what? You’re allowed to feel everything. You’re human, not made of stone, and you're so much more than what you feel.

Healing isn’t linear.

Grief washes over you like ripples in a pond one day, a tsunami the next. Feelings come and go, rise and fall like the tides. Growth is an evolution.

If you’ve been fighting with your feelings lately, take heart.

You might feel like a mess, but you’re more like a mosaic. Your life is always rearranging itself in accordance with, well, everything. Like the planets or the seasons, it’s a dance.

Here are a few thoughts I have for you (or a friend) on feeling your feelings and bringing curiosity to them, instead of stuffing them into your ribcage for another day.

And for something tangible to remind you you're okay to feel this way: get this handwritten art print.

It's Okay to Feel Your Feelings...

Even if you feel everything at the same time.

You’re allowed to be angry and heartbroken and hopeful and have all of your feelings, all at once.

You can be miserable, racked with sorrow, and still think it’s a miracle to be alive.

Some days you feel like you’re too much for some people and not enough for others, too tender for some work, too fierce for others.

The truth is that you’re enough: nothing more and nothing less. Don’t shrink yourself into shapes that are too small. You don’t need to put your feelings on hold, or your complexities into a filing cabinet.

Bring fierce and tender together.

Be afraid and brave at the exact same time.

Be proud to be part of something bigger, but have the courage to stand alone. Belong to yourself first.

When you bring all of your pieces together, you’re no longer exiling any part of yourself. You can start to have compassion for the parts of you that need love the most right now.

Your imperfections become interesting; your feelings house intelligence; your life is poetry.

Feeling everything all at once is part of having a full life, which happens to be exactly what you’re here for.

. . .

Tell me:

Which of these thoughts did you most need to read today?

Tell me in the comments. I’d love to know what you think, and feel.

~ Jen