You can let go of the one you’re trying so hard to hold on to. You can live without them. You can give yourself all the time you need in your letting go. You can open your heart for someone else eventually. You can love someone and still not want them in your life. You can outgrow someone and still love them. There will come a time when the memories that trigger you now won’t trigger you any longer. You will be alone and fully understand that you had it in you all along to keep going. You had the strength in you all along to fight basically all on your own. You will remember the faces of the people who helped you get through, but you will know it was really you that got you through. You may not understand why you went through what you did but you will be a force of healing in the lives of people you don’t realize need you. Continue fighting for you. You’ll see the light soon. This earth adores you. Change is scary but change is necessary. You won’t feel ready to take the next step—the step your heart has been calling you to, the one that feels right, even if it’s just a subtle feeling. Something within you will tell you that you are in need of change, that you are ready for new experiences and growth. You are ready for change when you constantly feel uncontent and irritable. You are ready for change when parts of your past no longer hold the same pain they did before. You are ready for change even when you don’t feel ready. You have it in you to become a version of yourself that you genuinely love. You have it in you to become someone you’re so proud of. You are not any less than the people you think are better than you. You are not too far behind your peers. You haven’t missed out on too much. You aren’t taking too much time to get to where you belong. You will not always feel lost. You will not always feel like you’re the only one falling behind. You will not always question if you even belong anywhere. Give your heart permission to guide you. Trust in the One guiding you. Your spirit is wise. Breathe through the negative chatter in your mind. Instead of asking, “What am I doing with my life?” ask, “What is one thing I can do today that is purposeful?” That one thing could be reading an article about a topic you’re interested in learning about. It could be showing kindness to a stranger. It could be cooking a delicious meal for someone you love. It could be sharing words online in hope to make someone feel less alone or encouraged. If we don’t feel a sense of purpose, we can’t move forward. Every single human being has a purpose. We all have something we’re naturally good at. Follow that. Even if it doesn’t become a sustainable job, that’s okay. Just please don’t lose sight of what makes you feel the most alive. What makes you feel most alive is part of your purpose in this life.

Maybe sometimes it feels like the world is falling in love and you’re alone wondering why you’re alone. In those moments of being alone, I hope you remind yourself that you are beyond worthy of the love you desire. We are all worthy of love but only certain souls are meant to love certain souls. Thought Catalog Books is a publishing imprint of Thought Catalog, a digital magazine for thoughtful storytelling, and is owned and operated by The Thought & Expression Company, an independent media group based in Brooklyn, NY. Founded in 2010, we are committed to helping people become better communicators and listeners to engender a more exciting, attentive, and imaginative world. As a publisher and media platform, we help creatives all over the world realize their artistic vision and share it in print and digital forms with audiences across the globe. Doing the healing work starts with divine knowledge that you are ready to begin the work. Sometimes trauma is too raw to dig into. When we experience something traumatic we go into survival mode—we go numb to the point that sometimes every breath feels like a struggle to take. We need immediate relief. We need to feel safe. We need something to remind us this isn’t the end for us. We need someone to reach out to us and we need to reach out to someone for help. We need to know it will be okay. We deserve help. We must remind ourselves we are not a burden. Healing may happen all at once for you or it may happen in different seasons. It may come and pause, then begin again. Only you know what you need. Trust your body. Listen to it. Oftentimes trauma lives within our bodies and shows up before our brain recognizes it’s deeply affecting us. We never feel ready to begin the difficult work. It’s really, really hard to remember bad memories. But, we are always stronger than we give ourselves credit for. Life is supposed to be wildly exciting. Life is supposed to be filled with daily unknowns so that you grow through figuring things out. Self-love is a continuous, never-ending journey of choosing yourself over and over and over again. Self-love is choosing to choose yourself over anyone else. Why is it that you so easily love and take care of others but you don’t give yourself even close to the amount of attention you give others? This is one of the best qualities about you. I just hope you realize one day that you were always worthy of the same depth of love and more that you give away.You won’t become someone you love when you’re constantly running away from yourself. You will never love where you are now or who you are now when you are constantly trying to predict the future. Focus on what you have now. Focus on the small changes you can make now. Preparing for the future is a good thing to do, but you will never be happy if you only live now focusing on the future. You are where you are and that is where you need to be right now. To be honest I had never had the chance to read a mental health/poetry book and this book definitely left an impression. If I had to describe it in a simple word, I’d say “wholesome”. Who do I feel most like myself around? Who makes me feel more energized than drained? Who doesn’t judge me when I’m feeling off? Who encourages me to be the best version of myself I can be without making me feel guilty? Lean into these people. Let go of the ones who bring you down more than they bring you up. Life is too short to put up with people whose energy doesn’t align with yours. You deserve someone who will show up for you the way you show up for them. I hope you seek patience in the process of finding love. I hope you hold your standards high because you do deserve what you desire.

I hope you learn to be alone and love every version of yourself. I hope you learn to let go of what has hurt you and believe that good times are coming. Time is only running out if you aren’t living your life the way you want to. Life is more precious than we realize—don’t take advantage of the gift that everyday is. You deserve to be the happiest version of yourself, the most content version of yourself, the most alive version of yourself.

Help

Sayangnya, mungkin karena sudah pernah baca buku serupa, buku ini kurang kasih insight baru ke aku. Walaupun begitu, menurutku buku ini tetap worth it dibaca buat kalian yang sedang merasa berada di fase bawah kehidupan. Buat yang merasa overthinking, insecure, dll buku ini aku rasa mampu mengurangi pikiran-pikiran negatif kepada diri sendiri dan memberikan sugesti yang baik sehingga mampu mereda kegalauan. Creating boundaries between you and someone bringing negative energy into your life is never selfish. No matter how close you are to someone, trust yourself when you know you need to say no or distance yourself. Please, don’t let anyone get in the way of the peace you deserve. You should never feel guilty for feeling deeply. You should never feel like you have to hold in your honesty because you are afraid the person you are with will judge you. The way you experience feelings has given you an empathetic heart and your empathy is your power. When you are going through a difficult time, some people will distance themselves from you, not because they are bad people, but because they cannot understand. It’s quite possible the people who walk away from you will regret it later on. Your worth is not a reflection of how many people choose to stay. You don’t always have to explain yourself. It is not your job to make people understand your heart.

There will be people who come into your life that disturb it. Sometimes, in the most miraculous way. Other times, in the most devastating way. Maybe someone has come into your life who helped tear down your walls just to leave you alone to build them up again. Maybe someone has come into your life who changed you in the best way and the worst way all at once. Maybe someone came in and left, leaving you losing faith in relationships and people all together. Maybe you are worn out and so close to giving up on relationships even though you don’t want to. Maybe you aren’t ready to let go of someone even though you know it is time to. It’s okay to be struggling even if it seems others are struggling more. It’s okay to put yourself first even if you tell yourself it’s selfish. It’s okay to not always be the strong one. It’s okay to not know what to say in every situation. It’s okay to be exhausted and need time alone. It’s okay to rest. It’s okay to need other people. Your experience is worthy of attention and nurturing. Your experience is valid. You are not selfish for feeling what you’re feeling. Don’t compare your experience to theirs. You’re experiencing a lot too. It might not make sense right now. It might feel utterly chaotic and overwhelming. You might feel like sometimes you’re living a life that isn’t even yours. You might be slowly falling or slowly rising. You might be okay some days and not okay other days. You might not know which way to go—you might think you do then end up realizing it wasn’t the right way after all and that is okay. I’m so proud of you for waking up everyday and trying. I’m so proud of you for being here today because I know some of your yesterdays were really hard. I don’t know what you’re going through but you are going to get through it. You are going to get through whatever you’re going through. I hope you fight for yourself when no one else does and I hope you know you are worthy of your wildest dreams. You are someone worth fighting for. Keep going.

Develop

You don’t need to regret something you did or someone you were with because in the moment, something within you chose it. What seems like an insignificant chapter of your life now may turn into one of the most important ones in the end. You are rising and blooming into a beautiful story.