There are many variations to the idea that “maybe it’s best we don’t say how we feel”, whether we think it might come off in a way we didn’t intend, we think people wouldn’t get it or we just remember a time we spoke up and things didn’t turn out okay. But, whatever the outcome, we should never be afraid to verbalise our emotions. If you’re still not convinced, read the rest. 

1- “If you wish to travel far and fast, travel light.” 

Tell people how you feel because the “maybes”, “could have beens” and regrets will collect into a pile inside of you and weigh you down as you go. Don’t fill yourself up with words that were never said, because you’ll grow up and wish that you’d spoken up when it mattered. Regrets will taunt you in the dead of night and remind you that your life could have been different and that you could have been different. If only.

2- “The greatest tragedy of life is not death. It’s what dies inside of us while we’re still alive.” 

If we don’t give life to our thoughts, they will wither inside of us and break us from within. Getting things off your chest feels liberating and when your time on earth draws to a close, you don’t want to realize that you are broken from the inside. You want to have lived, to have told the people you love that you love them and the people who have hurt you that they’ve hurt you.  

3- You will hate yourself if you don’t 

Sometimes we don’t say how we feel because we’re afraid of being weird or because we think it’s not significant. If you don’t trust in how you feel, you will go through life thinking that your feelings, opinions and thoughts aren’t worthy and valuable and therefore will hate yourself. Spend your life un-quelling your feelings and un-dampening the truth of who you are. 

4- Telling people how you feel isn’t about them, it’s about you

Don’t tell people how you feel because you’re expecting a certain reaction because their reaction, however bad, is not why you opened up your heart. Using your voice is about figuring out who you are! The whole of who we eventually become stems from our emotions, beliefs and experiences; we must accept our feelings as they are, no matter how ridiculous. There’s no wrong or right way to feel because if there was, you wouldn’t be feeling this way. 

rachel-final
If you’re not a shoe and don’t want to be a shoe, then you need to speak up and say that you’re not a shoe!

So whether you’re regressing into yourself because you have conflict phobia, low self-esteem or are suffering from emotional perfectionism, ask yourself “what’s the worst that can happen?” because, believe me, it’s NEVER as bad as you think.