healing

this time next year i'll be living so good won't remember no pain, i swear

[heartcountry]

there was no perfect path. you did not get punished. your life did not unravel when you made a left turn. the memory will always be there. you can visit whenever you want. there is no alternate timeline where you made a better choice and got a happier ending. you were a little girl chasing the ice cream truck, playing hopscotch, swinging and aiming for the never ending blue. yes, the grief was waiting up ahead. but so was the miracle of saturdays in a car headed wherever you wanted to go. enough sky to wrap around every wound. friends who, despite your perennial bouts of silence, kept an ear close at all times.

[allsadnshit]

I think it's an unrecognized practice to allow yourself to outgrow and shed versions of yourself that were more socially successful than who you want or need to be now. Not every new chapter is bigger and bolder and hotter, I think that's a very modern social media "glow up" mindset and doesn't actually have any room for what real transformation looks like. Sometimes we change exactly as we need to and it's not what anyone else was hoping for and that's part of it being important and true.

[jellogram]

LIFE ADVICE FOR YOUR TEENS AND EARLY TWENTIES (and probably beyond but I haven't made it much farther than that so far):

GO OUT BY YOURSELF

LEARN HOW TO NAVIGATE PUBLIC TRANSIT WITH NO SMART PHONE

TAKE ONLINE CLASSES

MAKE PEACE WITH DISAPPOINTING YOUR PARENTS

GO TO THERAPY IF POSSIBLE

FOLLOW AFTERCARE INSTRUCTIONS FOR NEW TATTOOS AND PIERCINGS

EAT A MEAL BEFORE DRINKING

DON'T MIX DRUGS

IT'S HARD TO BE YOURSELF WHEN YOU DON'T KNOW YOURSELF SO JUST KEEP TRYING NEW THINGS

THROW EVERYTHING AT THE WALL LIKE SPAGHETTI TO SEE WHAT STICKS

YOU WILL DISCOVER YOURSELF THE SAME WAY YOU DISCOVER NEW COFFEE SHOPS AND NEW BANDS

YOU WILL GET THERE

DON'T MAKE A LONG POST IN ALL CAPS BECAUSE YOUR VOICE WILL START TO HURT FROM SHOUTING

[flowergrenades]

*through gritted teeth* you are not a child taking a test with the purpose of getting the highest score, you are an adult trying new things and finding ways to enjoy your life, make mistakes, be a beginner, be mediocre, be where you need to be, be unlikeable, just. be.

[recoverr-deactivated20250621]

i don't know who needs to hear this, but guilt, self-hatred and shame are not sustainable sources of growth and healing. you can't hate yourself into feeling better, or being better. you can't repeatedly punish yourself for your flawed humanity and expect wholesome results.

[cheruib]

that comment about how you should not borrow grief from the future has saved me multiple times from spiraling into an inescapable state of anxiety. like every time i find myself thinking about how something in the future could go wrong i remember that comment and i think to myself: well i never know, it might get better. it might not even happen the way i think it will and if it does happen and it is sad and bad ill be sad about it then, when it happens. and it’s somehow soo freeing

[rarestsparkle]

You gotta be patient when you're becoming someone you’ve never been before. Patience means that you already trust that it will happen. See it, feel it, know it, and watch it manifest.

[athinginmotion-deactivated20250]

Ok less brooding and moping and analysing and lethargy and melancholy and inertia more ACTION even within the limited field available to me. More leaving the house more discipline more drive more fire more relentlessness more joy!!!!

[waitingforthesunrise]

emotional processing is so funny because sometimes you’ll be violently sobbing on your bedroom floor over something that happened 4 years ago and then you’ll just. get up and make coffee. and go to the grocery store. and take all this fundamental sadness for a walk. and ponder the cosmic experiences of humanity while eating a sandwich. and that’s healing.

[obeliskandmetronome]

[raqhaelia-deactivated20241212]

“The Flinch” by Julien Smith

[bitchontheprairie]

Mistakes Will Be Made, Ask Polly

[tunisian]

who else up forgiving themselves over and over again

[theotreptos]

“The trick is not to stop wanting. The trick is to stop abandoning yourself and your life every time you want something. The trick is not to stop eating. The trick is to stop blaming yourself for your hunger. The trick is to use your hunger to build something. Hunger is a kind of a void, but it’s not negative. Hunger makes space for your feelings. Hunger makes space for hard work. Hunger makes space for building the kinds of things that TURN THE WORLD ON. Hunger is a place to start growing. Hunger forces you into a state of radical honesty. Hunger makes things awkward, and awkwardness is magical and righteous.”

— Heather Havrilesky, “Why Do I Always Have a Crush on Someone?”

[butterflypeaflowertea]

meeting people & growing apart from them & meeting new people & growing apart from them too & meeting other people & eventually growing apart from them as well & on and on and on

[guooey]

Constantly repeating to myself “you are not broken you are young and learning how to live” during everything I do everywhere I go all the time

[guulabii]

written by kaveh akbar

[loveletter2you]

2023 maxims:

1. read more

2. it’s fine to accept the bad parts of you without guilt bc being flawed is not morally wrong

3. anti-aging is stupid

4. being a bit cringe is good

5. actions towards others should be motivated more by care for them than concern for how it makes you look

6. communicating needs is so painful but we should do it anyway