Its OK Not to Be Ok

The other night I posted a status on social media expressing that I had had a bad day and the responses are what prompted me to write this to try eliminate the stigma attached with feeling sad or challenged or just down right defeated.

I purposely posted the status so I could create awareness around the fact that we are all just human. Oftentimes people think that because I am equipped with powerful tools to manage emotion, I don’t feel it.

Nothing could be farther from the truth. We are all exposed to suffering and despair and the insane part is if we wear a mask and pretend everything is ok because we think that’s the norm, we will keep ourselves stuck for much longer than necessary.

The only way TO it is THROUGH it. If you don’t go WITHIN, you go WITHOUT.

Yes, there are tools that can assist you when you’re in that space, but don’t ever try push it aside or ignore it because the message you’re giving yourself is ‘my feelings are not valid’. You are, in essence, judging yourself for being an emotional being. Self judgement can only lead to further pain and hopelessness. This, in turn, leads to self-punishment, self-medication, and worst of all, destruction. If we constantly convince ourselves we are weak and feed those thoughts, we will become weak. We will become that thought.

Would you be surprised if I told you that the strongest people are the most vulnerable? The bravest people allow themselves to feel? The most successful people live in their truth, without hiding behind a mask.

So, the next time you feel the need to don a brave face, remember that the most powerful thing you can do is just BE. Be exactly who you authentically are in that moment.

How you respond will determine your next moment so its important to respond with love. When you respond with love and compassion the behaviours that follow are loving and compassionate. At this point the loving thing to do would be use the relevant tools to work with and move through the threatening emotion.

Its OK not to be ok, its NOT ok to pretend to be ok.