Let me tell you a secret…
It’s OK to not be OK. It’s OK to feel overwhelmed and fed up and exhausted. You are entitled to feel all those feelings regardless of what others may tell you. I’ve been told that I can’t manage and that I’m dropping the ball and perhaps I was, and still am. Your capacity to function in a healthy manner is not dictated by someone else’s observations.
Your capacity is your own. When you have reached maximum capacity, you own it. We have different capacities for our different roles. Being a wife, a friend, a daughter, a father, a mother; you reach capacity, you rest. We teach our children to feel, and trust and embrace their worries, fears, joys and hardships – why don’t we?
Don’t let anyone start a sentence directed at you with, “I know, but…” after you have told them how you feel. “But” is a blatant disregard for whatever feeling you have expressed. “I’m feeling overwhelmed and nervous”. “I know but you really have so much to be grateful for.” No, no, no. You feel overwhelmed? Feel it, live in it, soak it up. It doesn’t make you weak or a bad (fill in the blank). You have feelings. Celebrate that!
Celebrate by drinking champagne on a Wednesday, or a Monday, or whenever. Not because it’s a special occasion, but because life is for living and there is always something to celebrate. Rest easy knowing that although you may not be able to control all your feelings, they are sound and authentic and they are a part of what makes you, you. They are very real and you don’t need validation from anyone else to make them so.
That’s something we can cheers to.
