Proof That The Body Really Does Hold It All

After some warmup stretches in my Monday morning yoga class, I found myself confronted suddenly with a wave of grief so deep and sharp that it gave me pause. (I have heard hip openers can do this to ya!) I had a flashback of a trip to Sedona I took with my mom, aunts, and cousins for a family wedding in 2013. I think what made this pang of grief hit so hard is how the circumstances at the time were just so right; Sedona is a beautiful locale imbued with spiritual energy, and mom and I were both in a sustained period of sobriety at the time. We were really present with each other, the beauty around us, and the celebration. Especially after this past year, it was a good but hard reminder that we don’t know how much time we have with each other. It felt like an invitation to remember the simple, golden moments amidst long periods of chaos and darkness. (And if you are wondering, yes, I get my penchant for hyperbole from my mother.) It also served as a personal reminder that I metabolize grief (as well as all my other “difficult” emotions) best when I write about them and move my body mindfully. Feelings, like old laundry, tend to accumulate, weigh us down and clutter up our emotional lives unless we make time and space to sort them. Maybe I’ve got Marie Kondo on the brain since it’s the New Year’s season, but this remains true year round: intentionally choosing to acknowledge and feel your feelings instead of pushing them away or numbing them is a difficult but necessary practice for mental and physical health.

So here’s to honoring all our tough feelings in 2023!

What tough feelings are weighing you down lately? What’s getting in the way of feeling them fully?