Nature’s Highlights:

Getting into winter, it’s getting harder and harder to capture beautiful photos.

Looking outside, it’s dark all the time. And I know how hard that is for some of you.

But we have to remember that ugly days, hard times, and bad moments are all a part of nature, a part of our journey.

That’s why we should love them all, despite what the world tells us.

We truly live inside a world where accepting help from others is considered weak.

Inside a world where having emotions and feelings is wrong, feminine.

Inside a world that tells us to be “men”, even though it has butchered the word beyond recognition.

And I am probably one of the worst offenders of this.

Since I was small, it has been ingrained in my mind through conditioning that asking for help is bad.

After my father’s death, both me and my mom were devastated,

And I realized pretty quickly that hearing about my suffering only made hers worse,

So I stopped it altogether.

I almost never spoke to her about how I felt, how much pain was inside of me, or how much I simply wanted to cry.

When I learned that my father died, I didn’t even flinch, I just froze, unwilling to let the pain come outside.

And at his funeral, the only reason I even shed a tear was because I saw one my friend from church do it as well,

It gave me the “permission” to do it.

That’s how I have been for all my life, unable to ask for help, unable to “burden others with my problems”.

I preach about opening up like it is the holy grail, but when it comes to me actually doing it, I can’t.

And I still don’t plan on doing it.

Until I’ll be in a serious relationship, where the whole nature of our connection asks for us to be open with one another, I’ll keep my sorrow for myself.

And I’m not telling you to be any different, not anymore at least.

I know how hard it is to live inside a world where you feel like your problems can’t be heard by anyone.

But that’s where most of us get it wrong.

We can be heard, and we should be heard, and not through going to others and crying about our problems,

But through stopping our rush, taking a step back, looking inwards and listening to ourselves.

The most important ears that need to hear your sorrow are the ears of your mind and soul.

We’ve not only been taught to not open up to others,

But to hide everything from ourselves as well.

We learn that our problems don’t need to be listened to because they only cause sorrow and pain,

So we turn our backs against the world, and ultimately turn our back against ourselves as well.

written the next day:

This week I’ve come to learn something that changed my perception on this subject pretty drastically, so buckle up.

(I kept the first part of the article just to show you how easily views can change, and how we should never hold on to them because “they represent us”)

This Tuesday, my mom told me about how she was in line, waiting to buy sausage-meat for Christmas.

When she got to the cashier, she realized she was short by 4 lei (1 dollar),

That’s when the man behind her decided to come in and say: “Don’t worry ma’am, it’s on me.”

But she didn’t accept it.

She thought that having accepted it would make her look poor and helpless.

Hearing this story, I started feeling sorry, not for her, but for the man that lent a helping hand and got rejected.

What if that’s the case with everyone around us as well?

What if, in our attempt to protect others from our problems,

We’re only hurting them more by not allowing them to help us?

It’s true, maybe they will suffer a little about your problems,

But don’t you think that trying to hide them, which is destroying you from the inside, will cause them more pain?

Don’t you think they want that pain, they want that suffering, because it means having the whole you?

I realize now that by not letting others penetrate through our rock-hard skin,

We’re not only causing us to suffer more, but we’re taking away from them as well.

We’re depriving them of truly connecting with us.

We humans connect through sharing our pain, our suffering.

Just think about it, your best friend isn’t the person who you never told a single problem to,

It’s the one who was there for you when times were hard, when shit went south, isn’t it?

Suffering connects us with each other.

How can we ever expect to have a real connection, when we can’t even let others see our hearts?

We’re not even protecting them,

The only thing we’re protecting is our ego.

“I’m strong enough to go through this alone.”

You maybe are, you may be not, I don’t know.

But what I do know is that you’re only hurting your relationships by doing this.

And what for?

Only to be able to say “I don’t need anyone”?

Well, the truth is: you do. We all do, whether we like that or not.

So start letting other people into your life, you’re not a ticking bomb that’s waiting to cause them suffering.

You’re a human being, one that needs to help and be helped in return.

Being strong means admitting when you’re too weak to do it alone.

Only foolish people die alone in battle.

Don’t be one of them.

Ok guys, that’s it for this week as well, I hope you liked the article (I know you liked the article)

And until next time guys, have the most amazing week aaaaaanddd keep growing. <3