11/10/2024
When overwhelming emotions hit, it’s natural to want to escape—to lose ourselves in food, screens, alcohol, work, or other distractions that help us numb the intensity. At times, avoidance feels like the only option, as the emotions seem too big to face. There’s a certain comfort in shutting down, in creating a space where the weight of our feelings can’t touch us. We treat these moments as unwelcome intruders, something to resist or fix. I’ve always felt things deeply, often more than I wanted to. But lately, I’ve been learning to give myself the room to sit with those emotions instead of running from them. It’s uncomfortable, messy, and far from easy. From the outside, it might look like I’m sinking beneath the surface of my own struggles. But I’ve come to understand that real strength is found in facing those depths, in allowing myself to break open and rebuild. Life, in its fullness, moves through both highs and lows, an ebb and flow that we cannot control. The more we cling to the highs, the more the lows seem to weigh us down. Yet, it’s in accepting both—the light and the shadow—that true peace is possible. For a long time, I wrestled with my sensitivity, wishing I could handle things the way others seem to—with ease, without feeling like I was “too much.” It’s something I’m still working on, learning to accept as part of who I am and integrating it into how I live. My healing comes through small, mindful practices—writing, walking in nature, tea, music, yoga, meditation and sometimes just indulging in a cake or binge-watching TV. And while the process is messy and imperfect, peace follows.
So, in embracing the full spectrum of our experience, we come to realize that both the highs and the lows are part of what it means to be fully alive. Neither can be held onto forever, but each holds a wisdom that moves us for no matter where I stand, the earth is there, holding me, grounding me in her quiet strength. It reminds me that I am never truly adrift, for I am part of something ancient and eternal. The elements that form the earth are the same ones that course through my body—my bones of stone, my blood of water, my breath of air, my warmth of fire.
