09/09/2025
I think a lot of us have learned to hold our feelings in, not because we don’t feel deeply, but because we’re afraid of how our emotions might affect someone else. We don’t want to be too much. We don’t want to burden the people we love. So we stay quiet. We downplay our pain. We tuck it away to make things easier for everyone else.
I am guilty of this.
But the truth is, that kind of silence can backfire. The more we hold in, the heavier it becomes. And while we’re trying to protect others, we end up hurting ourselves. We all deserve safe spaces to be honest about what we’re carrying. Speaking our truth isn’t a burden, it’s a release. It’s a way of making room for healing, for connection, and for being seen.
I think people often hold in their feelings because they thought they had to, maybe they feel like they were protecting us, maybe I felt like I was protecting someone else when I kept my own pain inside. That didn’t work for me and I have a feeling it didn’t work for many others as well.
I think we can change this pattern by learning to be open with how we feel, and creating a safe space for others to do the same.
So maybe the invitation is this: let’s try to be the safe place. The kind of people others don’t have to shrink around. If someone trusts us enough to share their pain, their fear, or their uncertainty, let’s meet them with softness, not solutions. Because sometimes the most powerful thing we can offer is simply the space for someone to be fully seen and heard.
xo
Gabby
www.thehospiceheart.net