Dare to be Different

​I know that you want to be strong for the people you love. I know that you want to take care of yourself on your own. But I also need you to know that it’s okay not to be okay. It’s okay to struggle. It’s okay to ask for help. Reaching out isn’t a sign of weakness. It doesn’t make you inadequate or incapable - it makes you human. We all need help sometimes. We all struggle and have a difficult time coping.

You are no exception to that.

Being strong doesn’t mean holding in your emotions and pretending to be okay when you’re hurting. And it certainly doesn’t mean denying yourself help when you’re struggling. It means allowing yourself to be vulnerable. It means giving yourself permission to feel your feelings, even when they are painful. It means being authentic, even when it’s scary and you’re afraid of being judged. It means allowing your needs to get met by asking for help, even though you’re scared of burdening people and appearing weak.

And it means taking care of yourself, even when you feel you don’t deserve to be taken care of. So stop closing yourself off and start letting people in. Our darkness thrives in isolation and is perpetuated when we put up a front. In order to make your way to the light, you have to reach out. You have to be open and honest, with yourself and with others. 

You have to redefine what it means to be strong.

And you have to give yourself permission to not be okay. Because truthfully, it takes so much more strength to admit that you need help and to give yourself permission to seek it, than it does to continue to struggle on your own. I know it’s scary and difficult, but I also know that it’s possible. 
You are competent and capable and strong. 

Give yourself permission to do what’s necessary to heal.

It’s time. 

~ Dare to be different