By: A Human of Healing
Unlearning What We Were Taught
For much of my life, I was navigating emotions without a manual—shaped by an environment that rewarded suppression over self-expression, and performance over presence. I was never really taught what emotions are or how they function. I believed sadness was weakness, guilt was shameful, comparison was inevitable, and anger meant something was wrong with me.
But the truth is, none of these emotions were the enemy. The real challenge was the identity I built through them. I unknowingly wore these emotions as armor, thinking they protected me, when in fact, they silently fed my suffering. I wasn’t living—I was reacting.
Life Isn’t Happening To Me—It’s Teaching Me
There came a point where I questioned everything. I felt like an outsider, like I could never truly belong. Life felt like a storm I couldn’t control. But over time, I began to recognize a profound truth:
Life is not punishing us—it is polishing us. Every moment, no matter how painful, is a lesson from the university of the Universe.
The shift began when I stopped seeing my circumstances as obstacles and started recognizing them as teachers. Heartbreak taught me compassion. Loneliness taught me connection. Guilt taught me responsibility. Every emotion had a message if I was willing to listen.
Emotions Are Messengers, Not Masters
I now understand that emotions are tools, not definitions of who I am.
- Sadness is not weakness—it’s a call to slow down and tend to the inner wound.
- Anger is not destruction—it’s an alarm signaling a boundary or a truth ignored.
- Guilt is not condemnation—it’s the compass pointing to my deeper values.
It was my attachment to the emotions and the identities I formed around them that caused the suffering—not the emotions themselves.
The moment I embraced this perspective, my reality began to transform. I stopped reacting and started responding. And in response, life became more vibrant, more sacred, and full of subtle joys I had once overlooked.
Breath, Gratitude, and Presence
Do I still get overwhelmed? Absolutely. I’m still human. But now I have tools:
- I return to my breath to ground myself.
- I anchor into gratitude to shift my perspective.
- I honor presence, knowing that this moment is the only truth I have.
These simple practices aren’t cures—they’re companions on the journey of returning to love.
Let’s Grow Together
Imagine a world where we stop judging others for the pain they carry. Where we recognize that someone’s anger might be unresolved grief, and someone’s coldness might be a shield from past trauma. What if we chose understanding over assumption, and compassion over comparison?
Let’s stop competing for worth and start remembering our value is inherent.
Let’s stop labeling each other’s behaviors and start seeing the wounds beneath them.
Let’s stop swimming in pity and start floating in possibility.
Riding the Waves of Life
Life is an orchestrated art—a flow of highs and lows, joys and lessons. I no longer fight the tide. I feed myself the truth that helps me ride the waves with grace: I am not broken. I am becoming.
This journey of remembering how to live from a place of love is not linear—it’s cyclical, spiral, sacred. And the more we support one another, the more we rise.
Let’s keep learning.
Let’s keep breathing.
Let’s keep loving—especially ourselves.
NO LABELS JUST HUMAN 