Your Experience is Real

We all have a need to be seen in what we’re going through — to be witnessed in our emotions, to have space held for us to simply be in our experience.

To be seen is to be validated: to receive affirmation that we exist, that what we are experiencing is real.

Unfortunately, we often get the opposite. We may be told that our emotions aren’t justified by the facts, that we are over-reacting, that we’re too sensitive, too emotional, that we should just “get over it” or “get on board.” We might be told that we are wrong in how we feel, that we’ll “come around.”

These types of comments condition us to believe that what we feel is wrong. As a result we may fight, judge, resist, or suppress our emotions.

This is how we get stuck. It’s also how we get sick — because suppressing emotions doesn’t make them go away. They live in the body and manifest as disease.

There is no “right” way to feel in any situation, and no timeline for how long you “should” feel what you feel. And just because you are experiencing the same factual circumstance as others doesn’t mean you have the same inner experience.

What you feel is real.

It doesn’t need to make sense. It doesn’t need to be justified. It doesn’t need to be fixed.

It only needs to be witnessed.