From secretly crying in the bathroom to feeling your feelings and letting them out

Do you know the feeling when you get up on the wrong side of bed, it’s freezing cold, you didn’t sleep a lot and, above all, a really busy day lies ahead of you and you already feel exhausted, 15 minutes into the new day?

All you want to do is crawl back under your bed sheets and have a good cry because you just feel like it.

But no. Gotta get moving.

Your spouse asks if you’re okay but you wave it off. You learned early on that admitting that you’re overwhelmed or just not on top of your game right now is a sign of weakness and you certainly aren’t one to complain when you’re feeling a bit wobbly emotionally, especially when you don’t even know why. So on you go.

You manage to get through the day, but you can’t seem to shake off this heavy feeling in your stomach, the lump in your throat? You might even escape to the bathroom where you silently sob, feeling lonely and sad, though you have to quickly pull yourself together and get back to work. At night you fall into your bed both physically exhausted from the long day but also emotionally drained because your feelings kept welling up and you kept pushing them down.

All of this is a strenuous effort; no wonder you’re so exhausted. But it doesn’t have to be this way.

Let's rewind all of that and start again.

Do you know this feeling, when you get up on the wrong side of bed, it’s freezing cold, you didn’t sleep a lot and, above all, a really busy day lies ahead of you and you already feel exhausted, 15 minutes into the new day?

You crawl back under your bed sheets and have a good cry because you just feel like it.

When your spouse asks if you’re okay, you say “no, today I need a bit more time to get started” or “no, can you give me a comforting hug please? The world just seems a bit dark today”. 

You might not feel completely better, but at least you feel relief because you don’t have to carry this heaviness inside of you. Now you can get through the day finding reasons to smile. You can be truly present and engaged with your coworkers, your spouse, and your family. You can create little and big moments of joy: a deep feeling of gratitude that you are alive when the sun kisses your skin or a big laugh with your work buddies at lunchtime because something was so funny.

The extra time you took in the morning to pause and just be with your feelings for a moment might be only 5 minutes, but it can change the course of a whole day.

By letting your feelings out you acknowledge the way you're feeling and you don’t let the feeling get stuck somewhere in your body where it continues to evolve and grow, eventually turning into something much bigger. You truly take care of yourself and you feel it in every cell of your body. This feels good and light and peaceful. And you can be so proud of yourself because it’s thanks to you!

No more secretly crying in the bathroom because you’re ashamed of your feelings or because you think you have to hide this side of you. Feel your feelings and experience the relief and lightness that follows when you allow yourself to be as you are in each moment of your day.

If you want to learn how you can accept your feelings so that they neither overwhelm nor strain you, head over to my newest blog article where I’ll teach you one of my favorite exercises from Joy Academy: https://www.joyismycompass.com/blog/embracefeelings