This Is Your Reminder To Hold Space For Your Pain
'I wish I had learned to hold my feelings before I was taught to let them go'
Welcome to the Collective World X Thought Catalog Newsletter. Collective World is a one-of-a-kind creative network powered by the minds and voices behind The Thought & Expression Company. We’re so glad you’re here.
More often than not, when something upsetting happens, we’re told to let it go. More often than not, when we’re hurting, we’re told to move on.
And in some ways, those sayings aren’t inherently wrong—it’s healthy to let go. But how do we move on from something we never allowed ourselves to process in the first place? How do we heal when we refuse to acknowledge the wound in the first place?
That’s the problem, isn’t it? Not that we’re told to let go and move on, but that those words are the immediate response to our pain. We’re taught to invalidate our own emotions, to leave them behind without a second thought. We are taught that the only feelings worth entertaining are ones that are overwhelmingly positive.
What if instead we were taught to sit with our pain? To allow ourselves to honor our emotions, even when they’re messy and difficult and unwanted? What if instead of being told to let it go, we were asked to hold space for it?
Because if you keep ignoring your own emotions, even—and especially—if they’re negative, they’re going to add up. They’re going to manifest as something else, and as you continue to bottle it up and invalidate yourself, you may not understand why you feel all these terrible things, but you’ll feel them nonetheless.
Please know that it’s okay to acknowledge the hurt, to feel it. Know that it’s okay to hold onto it for just a little bit and to create a place in your heart to allow the pain to exist. Because it’s when you know these feelings that you can understand them, and it’s when you understand these feelings that you can heal them. And once you heal them, you can finally let them go.
And that is what it really means to move on.
What We’re Reading This Week 📖💛
“Who can you trust if not the men who are effusively, publicly, and industrially talking about how much they love their wives?” — Scaachi Koul
“Boredom is a gift if you allow it to be because it is within boredom where curiosity has the chance to remind you of all those things you were once interested in before life got in the way.” — Molly Burford
“I waited until I was in my late 30s to have children because I knew I needed the resources to be able to do it comfortably. And not everyone has that.” — Mindy Kaling
“Just because you can't call them your boyfriend, girlfriend, partner, whatever, doesn't mean you don't have the right to feel sorrow and heartache over something ending. Your feelings are valid no matter the duration of that connection.” — Rachel Thompson
“A relationship is a cup of tea that you can flavor how you want. You can use salt, or you can opt for sugar.” — Catherine Pearson
For more reading recommendations follow Quote Catalog where we find and file the best things to read every single day.
Let us leave you with this:
“I like sitting
in my feelings
and calling it
vulnerability” — Ambivalently Yours
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