(no subject)

[rhiannonstone]

This, so very much:

We need to move away from this constant need of coming across as calm, cool and collected. We weren’t built to be calm, cool, and collected. If we were, it wouldn’t feel so fucking exhausting all the time. It would, you know, come naturally to us. You know what comes naturally to human beings though? Being open, being messy, being raw, being unfiltered, having lots of feelings. Why should we have to stifle our true nature? Let’s go after the things we want, let’s love each other brutally and honestly, and not worry about the consequences. Let’s release the feelings inside of us and let them land somewhere special. Otherwise, we might have a lifetime of longing in front of us.

—Ryan O’Connell, You Need To Go After The Things You Want

Comments

[aswirlymatrix.livejournal.com]

"Brutally" is the problem. I don't like being/feeling brutal.

[matrixmann]

And what if one really is calm?

[rhiannonstone.livejournal.com]

If that's who you are, then be that. The point is not to hold back when you're feeling not-calm because you're afraid of seeming to eager, silly, uncool, vulnerable, messy.

[aquestrian.livejournal.com]

I LOVE THIS. So hard.

[hitchhiker.livejournal.com]

amen!

[plantgirl.livejournal.com]

I've had this tab open for months, meaning to comment.

For starters I love this quote. Thank you for sharing it. :)

One of my big, multi-step challenges over the last few years has been:
1) Realizing that I have a HUGE emotional spectrum, with LOTS of feelings, and it is very messy.
2) Accepting that this mess of emotions is who I am.
3) Figuring out how to allow my emotions, but also to be aware of them in the moment and to channel them in healthy ways. (It's not ok to yell at people because I'm angry, for example, or to snipe at a friend because I am hurt.)

The next step is figuring out how to feel safe letting all these emotions of mine go out and play in the world. I had many years of scaring people off because in an unfiltered state I seem to feel a bit too much and be more enthusiastic than most people are comfortable with. There is old pain and scar tissue around the many rejections that came from being that very enthusiastic me. I need to figure out how to allow her again.

Interestingly, allowing my feelings to exist in their whole glorious and valid mess (as much as I am managing to do so) does wonders for eliminating depression. I may be feeling a thousand other things, and some of those feelings pinch, ache, or stab, but I'm not depressed.