Humanism.

Take a moment. Relax your shoulders. Take a deep inhale through your nose. Let it out. And slow. Take your hand and place it on your chest. Feel your pulse. Breathe again. Wiggle your toes and blink your eyelids. How insane is this? YOU, yes YOU are this complex, insanely intelligent, beautiful being and you’re hardly conscious of it! As humans, we get so acclimated to our daily lives, we lose sight of how INSANE this life is! Dude. You’re ALIVE today! Your heart is pumping blood through your veins in this very instant. Your brain is sending some type of waves (is that how it works??) through your system to allow you to read this blog. (Some neuroscientist somewhere in the world just cringed.) Or maybe you’re listening to someone read this post aloud to you. Your ears are taking in these words, and your brain is comprehending these exact noises, consonants, and pauses. Your skin has most likely experienced a cut, or gash at some moment in this life, and it likely healed itself over time. You’ve experienced not only physical but emotional pain. Maybe you’re currently experiencing pain. Maybe it’s deep. Really deep. You can physically feel it weighing you down. My girl, do not be ashamed of this. Just as you should not just “walk off” a broken arm, you shouldn’t “shake off” this emotion. You are allowed to feel this. Anger. Jealousy. Sadness. Fear. Anxiety. You are human. Listen to me, and listen to me good: as humans, we are not meant to be one thing, or remain the same forever. We must experience pain, struggle, sometimes even trauma, to move forwards even deeper into our very unique, very sacred path. This life isn’t a game of monopoly where we know exactly what we’re getting ourselves into. We don’t have a neat little board with our entire life mapped out to reference as we make decisions. Girl- this life thing is gonna be hard somedays. You’re going to get confused! You’re not always going to know where to move next. You’re not always going to know what to say. You’re going to make some people mad. You know the beautiful thing about life though? It’s. Not. Meant. To. Be. Perfect. Not in the slightest. And your life is supposed to make sense to one person and one person only: YOU! So do me a favor and stop worrying about what Trevor thinks about your Instagram, your blog, your outfits. Trevor doesn’t get a say here. Trevor gets a say in his life. Not yours.

/ / /

Being a human is messy. But that does not extract from the fact that it is beautiful. And I believe it all starts with perception. How we perceive these emotions, and all aspects of our lives (the good, the ‘bad’ and the ‘ugly‘) ultimately determines how rich of a life we live. It’s all in your hands. So go ahead! Dance, scream, yell, laugh, cry, if you need to: SOB, smile, jump up and down so hard your house shakes. Feel all the things. We are beautifully human after all.

Xx. -j