I've been told way too many times to count that I need to talk about my feelings more. They tell me to stop bottling up my emotions and just talk about what's been on my mind. They say I just need to let it out and then I'll feel better. But, how do you let it out when we live in a society that shames people for being honest about their feelings? Most of us, including myself, push our feelings behind a mask of "happiness." We spend most of our time hiding behind the idea that we need to be ok. The truth is, though, is that it's ok to not be ok.
It's ok to not understand. We can feel so many things at once that it's hard to distinguish one feeling from another. Sometimes, you don't even know why you're feeling the way you do. But, you don't need to understand everything. Along the way, you'll be so uncertain about different situations, and sometimes it's ok to just let it run it's course without knowing where you're headed.
It's ok to be stressed. We throw "stressed" out as a light-hearted word sometimes, but what about when we actually get stressed? When stress becomes too much for us, we either have a breakdown by ourselves or we take it out on others. We bottle the real stress up and put up a wall to keep it contained. But, we all experience stress, and you shouldn't have to feel ashamed of it.
It's ok to be scared. We are seen as weak when we talk about our fears and in turn, we've learned to keep those things to ourselves. But, we all have burning pit or hollowing void that lives deep within our minds. We all have things that get under our skin and shake us to the core. Whether it be the fear of spiders, losing someone, failing a course, etc., fears are valid becauswe they're yours