It’s Totally Okay to Be Upset About Nothing
Okay, so maybe nothing “big” happened today, but your chest is tight, your stomach is doing somersaults, and your brain won’t shut up. You don’t need a reason to feel all the feels. Like… you can just feel off. You can just feel weird. You can just feel anxious for no clear, logical, well-explained reason and that is actually allowed.
I see so many people trying to rationalize or minimize what they’re feeling, like, “it’s fine, I shouldn’t be upset about that.” Naaaah bestie. Give yourself permission to feel it. Sit with it, maybe vent to your journal, or even scream into your pillow. Name it: “I’m frustrated,” “I feel anxious,” “I hate that I can’t stop thinking about that one text.”
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You don’t need a “good enough” reason
Somewhere along the way we picked up this idea that feelings need to be justified. Like they have to pass a test before we’re allowed to have them. But emotions are not logical like that. You can have a great day and still feel anxious. You can have supportive friends and still feel lonely. You can know something “isn’t a big deal” and still feel it in your body.
Your feelings are not waiting for permission slip my girlies. They just show up.
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The minimizing thing we all do
You know when you’re like “other people have it worse” or “this is so dumb why do I care” Yeah. That.
It doesn’t actually make the feeling go away. It just adds a second layer where now you feel bad about feeling bad. Which is soooo not helpful!!!!
What if instead it was just like: okay yeah this is what I’m feeling right now.
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Naming it changes it
There is something about putting words to what’s going on that just takes the edge off a bit. Like instead of being this big overwhelming blob, it becomes
oh this is anxiety
oh this is frustration
oh this is that thing where I keep thinking about the same text over and over
It makes it feel a little more manageable.
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You don’t have to solve it all, right away
This is a biggie. You don’t need to immediately figure out why you feel this way or what to do about it. You don’t need to problem-solve your emotions like they’re a math equation. Sometimes the most helpful thing is just letting yourself feel it without jumping into fixing mode.
Sit on your bed. Stare at the wall. Journal a bit. Go for a walk. Have quiet time. Be a human having a moment.
Feelings can feel very intense in the moment. Like this is just how it is now forever. But they move. Because feelings do truly come and go, even if they are of the painful and crap sort. They move not because you forced them to, but because you gave them a bit of space to exist without fighting them the whole time.