The hardest part of healing is allowing yourself to feel. We're taught to be strong, to push through, to ignore the pain until it goes away. But pain doesn't go away when we ignore it—it just goes deeper.
Listening when it hurts means sitting with the discomfort. It means acknowledging that something is wrong without immediately trying to fix it. It means trusting that your feelings, even the difficult ones, have something important to tell you.
I learned this the hard way. For years, I tried to outrun my anxiety, outwork my depression. It wasn't until I stopped running that I realized: the only way out is through.
So I invite you to listen. Not to fix, not to judge, not to minimize. Just to witness. Sometimes, that's all we need.