Emotions and Vulnerability

An emotion can not tell its story, if we refuse to learn its name. And before we can release what we carry, we must first become familiar. To pause, to notice, to witness, to understand. This is grief. This is fear. This is loneliness. Not as labels, but as invitations. An offering to turn inward, with warmth and curiosity. To sit beside what hurts. For what we are willing to meet, we are less likely to fear. And what is no longer feared, may soften on its own. In its own tim

Every emotion has a function. The emotions that are painful, those connected to fear stories, even those emotions that feel easier to hold. They all have a purpose, and all have their place. They all work together, and they all want desperately for us to survive. There is such a beauty in getting to know them, and to hold space for them. To show them kindness and compassion, when they are louder, when they are bigger. The emotions that co-exist, those that feel more obvious,

Be curious, the pain and discomfort is there to communicate to you that something is not okay, something is not alright. maybe, instead of fighting it, suppressing it, meeting it with criticism, be curious, curious around what feels familiar curious around what it is that you need, or what you need to release, maybe, instead of numbing, let it surface, meet your pain and discomfort, listen, and hold space for what it needs.

in the dance between attachment that is anxious, and attachment that is avoidant, and maybe attachment that falls somewhere in between, there can be an idea that one is better, morally superior, one shows they care more through an impassioned closeness and louder expressions of love, one shows the same through avoidance avoidance of conflict, and of intensity, stepping away in attempt to keep the peace. though we are not so different, you and l.. for ultimately in our attachm

to be "over" grief, is to oversimplify grief. for we don't get over it, we move through it. grief is not tied in a neat bow, or tucked away in a tidy box. it is messy, it is heavy, it is human. we carry it, we sit in it, we hold it, and it holds us in return. the idea that we are supposed to just "get over it" is to devalue our human experience, and to devalue our extent of loss, and of love.

Spend time in your emotions, Be curious, and want to know them intimately. Form deep relationships and deeper understanding. Our emotions visit to help us make meaning. They are beautiful guides to communicate how we feel about something, when perhaps we were not sure. and while they needn't storm ahead, and lead our every move, we can thank them for the valuable information they provide to guide our direction, and help forge our path forward. In our hurry to push them away,

Across Australia, 100,000 tamilies are affected by Perinatal Depression and Anxiety [PNDA] every year. Through pregnancy, and into baby's first year, PNDA can have a wide range of impacts, and can happen to parents of all shapes and forms. Help is available, reach out early and often. PANDA Help Line - 1300 726 306

While your feelings are always valid, it may be that your behaviour is not, Your feelings are intimately yours, and they can't be denied, or taken from you. and still, while it is not up to another to tell you how you should or shouldn't feel, we do still need to take accountability for what we say, and for what we do, in response to our feelings. It is our responsibility to be curious around what our emotions are telling us, to notice, without judgment, to regulate, and to b

grief is everywhere, it is not restricted to the bigger moments or milestones it finds us in the quiet, and in the mundane, the pieces of ordinary within our day to day grief illuminates in the chaos and overwhelm. and echoes in the spaces left behind. grief is everywhere, the guilt within laughter, the words unsaid, and the dreams unshared, grief will not always yell, and though sometimes she may whisper, we feel her weight, her presence, all the same. grief is everywhere, e

Make mistakes, And learn from them. And practice comfortability in the pace that you learn, And the pace that you continue to figure things out. Be in the process. Continue to move forward with curiosity. And release the urgency that comes with a perceived destination of 'healed.' You are in the process. You are in the right now. Sometimes it looks messy, and that is okay. Take a breath, and offer yourself the space, and the grace, to move forward gently as you grow, and as y

no matter how beautifully or gracefully you move through your healing journey, for the progress you have made, and all that you have overcome, we are not immune to life, and we will still experience sadness, and fear, and anger, and joy. we will still experience life in all of its wonderful colours and all of its wonderful forms. and we will remain simply human, for the goal isn't to no longer feel, perhaps it is to expand our capacity to show up fully and authentically into

when you feel yourself moving into shutdown, and when you notice the loud withdrawal, practice moments of quiet connection, with those who feel safe, those who make you feel seen, those where you feel understood. even if just in those micro-moments. practice connection slowly, and gently, and allow it to be soft. honour your solitude, in a way that gives solace, rather than isolates, and be intentional for who you connect with. though, where able, continue to connect with you

sometimes, we hold people to a different standard than they hold themselves, we expect more from them, than they would expect of themselves we expect warmth, and kindness, and curiosity and can't understand why they don't know show the same, because we would. we feel let down, and it hurts. we come from a place of our own values, our own backgrounds, and forget that is our story, and not theirs sometimes, we hold people to standards that they never feigned to own and measure

when our pain lies untouched, it won't sit quietly or patiently in the shadows, It can be loud, and strong, and heavy, messy. growing bigger, with hope to be seen. It leads, and sometimes with force. pain shows up in our choices It colours our reactions, and shapes our view of self, and the world. pain settles in, and demands a home, until we invite it in. persisting. until we sit with it, until we hold it, until we allow a voice. and when we finally listen, and honour its pl

you are not too much, though, maybe life has been too much, maybe, you have had too much happen to you and things have felt like too much, maybe you have experienced too much, too much hurt, too much loss, too much pain, too much neglect, and not enough love, that made you feel not enough, though you are not too much. my darling, you are so much more than enough.

when we own our mistakes, when we choose accountability, it softens the fear around failure, and quietens the noise around getting things 'wrong'. it embraces our humanness, it releases our shame, it empowers us to make decisions without fear. it gives us permission to grow and to evolve and allows us to be free, to remain curious, to learn with openness, to lead with authenticity, and to connect more deeply and more honestly with others and with ourselves

you can only meet people as deeply as they have met themselves, as authentically as they have come to know themselves, and for how closely they have allowed themselves to turn inward. the parts they are willing for us to witness, though, for how honestly and how tenderly they hold all parts of self. how they have welcomed growth with open curiosity, the stories they have rewritten, and the shadows they've stayed with long enough to understand, and to meet themselves truly. fr

April is Sexual Assault Awareness Month and i want you to know, your story is your strength. even when its feels heavy, fractured, and hard to hold. your voice matters, even when it shakes, even if it stays unspoken. even if all you have done is survive, that is enough. your body remembers, your nervous system protects. what happened to you was not your fault, the weight of their harm wasn't yours to carry. you deserved to feel safe, you deserved to be protected. you deserved

sometimes, when we start to set boundaries, we are met with discomfort, resistance, an offering of guilt, even by those who have once celebrated our new voice, and the boundaries we set, with others. it can make us question ourselves, want to withdraw, or want to reconnect with those people pleasing parts, that previously kept us safe. or at least we perceived they did. these parts that encouraged us to play small, to compromise our authenticity, to keep us palatable in our a

burnout isn't always solved by rest. gentle mornings, turning off the noise, of course, rest matters. though returning to the same pace, same pressure, same patterns, allows exhaustion and heaviness to creep back in, or maybe never leave. rest matters, though burnout asks for more. burnout doesn't just come from doing too much, it is doing too much, in a space that is unsustainable, and being depleted in a system, that asks more than we can humanly give, a chronic misalignmen