#thoughtcatalog

[ariesnotes]

[dabiconcordia]

Mary, After All These Years Woman, my friend, where are you? I’ve searched and double checked Thinking of the cross stitching Your needle made to keep my Hands frost free in the Midwest Many winters ago when you Wrote me letters about your son John and his violin lessons To keep me company along With the red and white mittens Knit especially with love Warmly embracing me, now I vaguely float With tepid melancholy around the Internet Thinking of you, appreciating your gifts More than ever. by Persephone Abbott

[randomscribbler-guywholovedher]

Do not run from yourself. If you feel things deeply, if the world has weathered you, if you are going through something that is uncomfortable or painful, or hard-you often have to decide between allowing yourself to dive into those emotions, or allowing yourself to numb them. And, a lot of human beings choose to numb their experience of the world. A lot of human beings tell themselves that it is all too much, that is all too inconvenient, to deal with the depth of their circumstance. And it is often not their fault. In a world that has given us so many ways to kill our pain through television, or prescriptions, or the sensationalizing of being cool and favorable over being inquisitive, and authentic, it is almost a subconscious thing we do. We try to protect ourselves from pain, but if I have learned one thing this year, it is that pain demands to be felt. It will show up in other ways if we do not deal with it. So, the greatest thing you can do when you are dealing with pain, or hardship, or change, or opposition - is to feel it. Please, do not run from your feeling. Run towards it. Run within yourself. Meditate. Get to know your mind, your heart, your soul. Trace your fingers over your wounds. Get to know the parts of yourself that you have hidden from the light. Heal yourself from the inside// #wordsofwisdom ... Tags #positivevibes #thegoodquote #goodvibes #recoverysayings #reelsonInstagram #thegoodquote #happy #positivevibes #positivity #positivequotes #selflove #selfcare #instagood #writersofinstagram #randomscribbler #writingcommunity #lovenotes #dailyreminder #thoughtcatalog #weheartit #tumblr https://www.instagram.com/p/CeiLuQIJ2af/?igshid=NGJjMDIxMWI=

[mindswehave]

Some words I read recently that have been helping me get through.

[soulfulreverie]

It's a dating fact that moving on is not easy. If it was, you probably never loved that person in the first place but what people fail to mention is that moving on can sometimes bring you more scars and bruises than you can ever imagine. With that, here are some facts about moving on that people tend to sometimes forget:

1. If you ever went through a major break up, you know that it's not the person who you mourn for—it's what you shared: the little things that you no longer have. You will find yourself looking for the routines and the familiarity of having someone around. In time, you will realize that it's not really the person you miss but it's all about the things they do that make you really happy. Letting a broken heart heal is a long process of self-recovery and self-reinvention.

2. You do not actually heal in the arms of someone; you heal when you let yourself. It all depends on allowing yourself to go through the process of healing. Because even though you say that you want to move on but your heart begs to mourn still, you really cannot do anything about it. Let yourself feel.

3. Even though you are on the process of moving on, there will be times that you would be thinking of the uncertainties of your former relationship. "Why didn't it work out? I gave my all", "What if we had done this instead of...". This is normal. It can be hard to admit to yourself but thinking about the could have been's does not equate wanting the person back. Let go slowly. Every day is a choice, you can wake up feeling afraid of the future without the person you loved the most. Choose yourself even moving forward is hard without the love you used to have before. We don't always end up with the love we want and it's okay. Trust the process and let the timing win.

4. It is not linear. Moving on is not linear! Not because when you decide to move on, you will magically do so within a night's sleep or a week. There will be times that you will cry your eyes out because you miss the person. And it's alright. What you had is irreplaceable no matter how it ended up. It is alright to mourn. But it is never right to come running back to the person who caused you pain.

5. You will hate yourself in the process. You might even start to hate the way you loved that person. But always remember that you should never regret something that made you really happy once.

Moving on is not like driving enthusiastically forward as if it’s about having one foot on the gas and the other on the brakes–releasing and advancing in turn. Healing is never a race, take your own time and I promise once you get there, you will like you're as good as new.

[theprocast]

Truth is, things never change even when you decide to love harder.

s.a., the law of love

[meghernandez]

This Year, My Intention Is Self-Love

It’s the New Year, and you’ve probably seen it all over social media: this year, my intention is self-love. I used to wonder what this actually meant. It seemed so abstract and bewildering. Annoyingly, this phrase never came with instructions on how to actually do this. So for the longest time, the idea of self-love felt empty and shallow for me. But once it finally clicked, it never felt so clear and simple.

Self-love means not needing anyone else’s approval or validation. Self-love means being enough for yourself and for everyone else in your life. Self-love means not having to prove your worth to anyone—even yourself. Self-love means accepting and loving yourself for who you are.

looked for love and belonging in my partners, thinking that having a boyfriend would fill this lonely void in my heart. I sought external validation from friends, bosses, and colleagues, believing that going out of my way to help others and people-please would make me feel loved, wanted, and needed.

I tried so hard to fill this internal void through external ways. Sometimes it worked, but the feeling was usually fleeting. Like a quick fix and a band-aid over a gunshot wound, it didn’t get me far, and I had to find more ways to fill this void.

These days, I no longer feel like I need this external validation. What was once a void is now full of love and acceptance because I’ve finally gotten to a place where I actually believe that I’m lovable, worthy, and best of all, I’m not alone.

So my intention for this year is to continue cultivating this internal validation and not caring about others’ approval. I’ve accepted that I might never get the kind of unconditional love and support from my parents that I deserve, but I’m okay with that. I don’t need it anymore. I recognize their limitations, and if anything, I’ve learned exactly what not to do when I have children of my own. Here’s to breaking intergenerational cycles and learning how to unconditionally love for the first time.

-- By Sharon Kwon

[sopaswithlove]

Until we feel that freedom. Until we breathe in fresh air without thinking of them first, and realize that this is how it feels to finally move on, to let them go. And damn, what a beautiful feeling that is.