July Newsletter: It’s Okay to Not be Okay
Hello Friend,
How often do you feel like you’re expressing what you’re really feeling?
Much of our world is not perfectly designed to fit the normal human emotions of grief, rage, and confusion. We know that we can’t always yell in a library or bawl in a Starbucks (although sometimes it happens!) We must often keep relatively composed and hide some of the depth of our emotions everywhere we go. We laugh off pain when it hurts and wait until we get home to collapse on our couches. Living like this might make you feel like your emotions are abnormal or like you are the only one feeling this intensely.
We know that often when people feel that there is nowhere to share overwhelming emotions or reactions they can become isolated, and this isolation can perpetuate a cycle of feeling strong emotions, suffering them in secret, and feeling ashamed and overwhelmed.
We want to help break that cycle.
At the 10.27 Healing Partnership, we hope that our community can feel comfortable to come as they are, without expectations for how they “should” feel or express their feelings. Our community can expand to fit these big emotions without the burden of so much external pressure. We want to hold space for a community that can remind you that feeling big emotions does not make you abnormal and does not mean that you need to isolate from the world.
Sometimes pretending “everything is fine” is just too much, and we need a place to not have to pretend anymore. It is okay to not be okay.
With everything that has been going on in the country and the many struggles I see people going through individually, I know that this is not a time where I feel “fine”. I feel scared, sad, happy, and sometimes hopeless. But I move through those emotions more when I can express them while connecting with other people.
We welcome you to take your feelings to our space, programming, and events. There is a network of beautiful organizations, resources, and people in the Pittsburgh community and beyond that are ready to help, and we urge you to reach out when you are ready.
In solidarity,
Maggie Feinstein