We live in a world where showing your feelings makes you transparent and vulnerable, that feeling a certain type way is wrong, and that the understanding of grief is completely misplaced.

Grief, in its own way, is just as powerful as a physical disease on the mind and body. In some cases, you become so emerged in grief that you can't think on your own, can't be productive and life starts to lose its color. You walk outside and the world around you becomes so quiet you can only hear the rhythmic beat of your heart as it patters along as you force yourself to get fresh air.

In a way, dealing with grief is likewise to a loss of innocence. Whatever your comfortable medium is, gets thrown away, and you feel as if you don't know how you're going to move on without this certain part of your life as you know it.

What I'm describing above is my own personal grief. Like so many other young adults, I spent months not allowing myself to feel anything negative after I lost something. I forced myself to be positive and I was so concerned about my outward appearance I was crumbling on the inside and thought alcohol and partying could help me get through it.

Many months after, I would wake up every day and for around 20 seconds my mind would be clear and I would be ready to start my day, until the reminder of what I was going through sunk in and made my stomach drop. I dealt with this for months but remained bubbly and silly on the outside because I did not want to deal with it, and I regret doing that. I remember sitting down and facing my demons and finally accepting that this part of life was not going to be for me and there was nothing else I could do but move past it.

Allow yourself to feel whatever it is that you're going through. Being angry, sad, confused, and even discouraged is better than numbing yourself out to not feeling anything.

Stop looking at Tumblr pictures of someone smoking cigarettes with the caption "numb" because that is not how you should deal with something. And when you allow yourself to feel whatever you're feeling, I can promise you your heart will begin to mend and strengthen when you least expect it.

This is the true essence of human emotion- although we can't escape it, immersing yourself in it is better than pretending it doesn't exist.

So for those of you who are going through unimaginable things, know you're not alone. You will never, ever be alone.

"Blessed are those who mourn, for they will be comforted" Matthew 5:4