Open and honest

I've learned the importance of raw emotion.  I learned the healing power of real words and the necessity of opening your heart and saying what you truly need or want to say. 

There are times that I don't filter when my emotions reach my lips.  Because I feel the heaviness of my worries or stressors, I feel everyone around me should feel them too.  There are other times that I feel like my emotions are mine to keep and that they may not be validated by anything other than things we call hormones, and so I bite my lip, real hard, so that I won't speak them.

But between those two extremes, aside from being a chatty woman who feels better when she vents and shares her words, and without holding back, there's a place where you can find freedom, and honesty, in yourself.  That's being "raw."

Each and every person's life has hardships.  We experience financial problems, relationship stressors, let-downs of expectancies, harsh words and actions, failures, and obstacles we must learn how to conquer.  We encounter deaths, break ups, and falling outs.  We have busy schedules and low bank accounts and bills that are due.

This is life.  We need to remember that we are all in this together and it's okay to experience what life throws at us.  It's okay to feel about these things.  It's what you have to do to be able to get up, and move forward, and to overcome. 

I get stressed when I feel like my life is going not as planned, or when it's too busy for me to even have a plan.  I get down when I feel like my efforts are being wasted or unappreciated.  I get sad when I wish for something so badly, and things turn out differently.  What I've learned is to appreciate when plans change, because change is, or can be, good.  Sometimes things turn out to be better than what you had planned.  Sometimes things spring up and if life was going as you had planned, there wouldn't have been time to do that, to see this person, or to learn about something new.

I've learned to love life and all its inconsistancies.  I love being open to it.  I love changing my plans to better suit me.  I'll still plan; I have to plan. 

I will still put my efforts in wholeheartedly.  If ever I feel like they're going without notice or appreciation, I'll change and realize that maybe others are going through something that I need to realize.  Once everyone gets on the same page, I can then communicate concerns I may have.

Sometimes we do need to remember to stop and smell the roses.  There will be seasons when they aren't in bloom, and you may wish you savored some of that beauty for a time when you need it more.