Brianna Wiest - The Mountain Is You_ Transforming Self-Sabotage Into Self-Mastery (2020)

THE MOUNTAIN IS YOU
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Sometimes, the water disperses itself gradually. Other
times, it implodes and creates what we see on the surface
as a complete emotional breakdown. When all of that
water finally comes through and we grieve and cry and
fall apart, we are going through a process of being reset. It
is positive disintegration: We are gutted, but at the same
time, feel better when it’s over.
All that happened in that implosion was that your feelings
became validated when you gave yourself permission to
feel them—because you had no other choice. This is what
we do in therapy. This is what we do when we vent. This
is what happens when we experience a catharsis. A sad
movie that we kind of enjoy being sad about allows us to
feel sad in a world that otherwise does not.
But there’s a healthier, easier way, which is learning how
to process our feelings in real time.
“Validating your feelings” sounds like a big term, but it
really means one thing: It’s just letting yourself have them.
When you are healing past trauma, often a big component
is allowing yourself to experience the full expression of an
emotion. You have probably done this in the past. Think
about the passing of a relative whom you loved but were
not overly attached to. When you learned of their death,
you were undoubtedly sad. But you didn’t attend their funeral,
cry for an hour, and then carry on with your life as
though nothing happened.