The Art of Unraveling

WHEN IT FEELS LIKE YOU CAN NO LONGER KEEP IT TOGETHER, DON’T. ALLOWING YOURSELF TO UNRAVEL IS HOW WE FEEL SEEN.

You might be holding your breath right now, wondering if you’ll break or if you’ll ever truly exhale.

This can be because of what’s going on in the world, or what’s going on in your world…we’re likely all finding ourselves grappling with the choice to “be strong”, or some other thing that feels unsteady.

While we are no strangers to the heaviness of this world, there are some moments that snatch our breath, that sit us down, that break our hearts. 

If you’re wondering how to keep it together while the world is falling apart, the answer is simple: you don’t.

    It’s hard to hold it together. 

    It’s not fair to ask ourselves to be strong.

    It’s okay to not be okay, especially when we are holding so, so much.

And to the black girls who felt a storm going on in your personal life, just as much as what’s happening in the world around you, I see you.

    It’s okay if loneliness is louder these days.

    It’s okay if anxiety is high because money is tight.

    It’s okay if healing feels distance because triggers are everywhere.

    It’s okay if grief is heavy because loss keeps finding you.

What’s not okay is feeling pressure to hold it together, to be strong, to keep going, when your body has clearly called for something else.

What if this season is not about pushing through, but slowing down.

What if this season is not about smiling through pain, but shedding our masks.

What if this season is not about holding it together, but unraveling.

What if we were always allowed to fall apart?

   We can cry, shake, shout.

   We can sit in silence, finding solace in a quiet place.

   We can stop, allowing the moments to pass us, and find us all at the same time.

   We can heave, we can worry, we can lose hope, we can be in our rage.

It doesn’t have to be cute. It doesn’t have to be quick. It doesn’t have to be anything except what it asks to be.

I just hope you let yourself exhale. I hope you let yourself come undone, gently, honestly, and freely.

  This is how you become your own safe place to land. 

  By allowing, without judgement.

  By staying with yourself, with curiosity.

  By releasing, not running.

This is an invitation to really ask yourself: What do I need to let out? How can I stop holding, and start unraveling?

Trusting that what happens on the other side is relief, is openness, is space to see things clearly and call in more of what you need, even when what you needed was the release of unraveling.