You know the trash is ready to be taken out if it starts overflowing or if it begins to smell. You wouldn't let the trash stink up your entire home or allow it to become one with your carpeted flooring. So why do we do this to our mental well-being?

We seem to let things pile up, one after the other. We do not tell people when something harsh was said that we did not like, we do not tell others that we are being picked on at school, we do not talk about death, and we do not fully grieve a relationship. Eventually, this will allow all these bothersome situations to be the trash that suffocates us.

Why not deal with it? Maybe because we do not want to be viewed as sensitive or we do not know the true gravity of the situation and what it could do to us. We do not cope because we do not feel we have to.

Then you begin to feel like you are a walking zombie. You are not yourself. You may begin to snap at people, you may sleep too much or too little, you may cry randomly, or question the intentions of those surrounding you.

I never took out the trash because mixed within the used tissues, gum wrappers, and takeout boxes were items I wanted to hold onto. Little did I realize that the items I wanted to hold onto were trash in disguise.

Do not hold onto the toxicities, the items that are going to make your life smell. We must process the trash.