thoughtcatalog--2020-04-17--30 Doctors And Nurses Open Up About The Paranormal Experiences They’ve Had At The Hospital

1 .
Did a rotation in a burn unit .
There are tons of stories that go around , but I ’ ll share my favorite .
A pimp lit one of his prostitutes on fire , and she immediately bear hugged him causing them to both suffer pretty severe injuries ( unfortunately hers included an inhalation burn ) .
They both were being treated in the same ICU but on opposite ends .
Weeks later she ends up coding and passes away , and after about 30 minutes as things start to quiet down , the guy starts screaming @ @ @ @ @ @ @ out !
Get the god damn bitch out of my room !
” 2 .
I ’ ve worked in a small family run nursing home for 6 years as a nurse aide .
It was an orphanage before it became a nursing home , and unfortunately before being shut down the orphanage had a history of severe abuse and neglect .
It ’ s not gossip , the owner herself has told us .
When residents get close to death they always see a little girl .
One of my patients was @ @ @ @ @ @ @ all our names and was very alert and oriented .
I was passing dinner trays and saw that he had his back turned and was talking and laughing in the corner .
I knocked and asked him who he was talking to and he chucked and said , “ This little girl came into my room , she was scared.
” He died 3 days later .
About 6 months later had another patient screaming about a little girl grabbing his feet and she needed to leave him alone .
He died that @ @ @ @ @ @ @ over the years it ’ s always the same thing they see her and then they die .
Other coworkers have had the same experience .
It ’ s very unsettling .
3 .
A ward I worked on once had a patient who was a psychic/medium as a patient .
We had a bit of a laugh with her as she was on the ward for a while ( she ’ d had a stroke which affected her mobility ) and she would do ‘ readings ’ for the staff from time @ @ @ @ @ @ @ as just a bit of fun until one evening when she pressed her nurse call buzzer and told us to go check on a patient in a side room as he was dead .
We went to check and sure enough found that the gentleman had died .
Later on we asked our psychic patient how she had known and she told us she had seen him coming out of his room obviously distressed .
She realized he had died and had to explain to him what had happened and help him to @ @ @ @ @ @ @ am not a believer but that gave me the creeps .
4 .
I ’ m a psychiatric nurse ; early in my career , I worked at a residential mental health facility .
There was a resident I ’ ll call Marion Duchene .
He was an elective mute , which simply means that he didn ’ t/wouldn ’ t/couldn ’ t talk but there were no pathological findings as to why .
He had spoken earlier in his life and in fact seemed quite normal back then , with the notable @ @ @ @ @ @ @ tall .
He ’ d been raised in the Deep South and joined the military when he was nineteen .
After boot camp , he was stationed somewhere in the south .
One night , he just vanished .
It was declared an AWOL for years , and finally he was declared missing and dead .
Ten years later , a seven-foot tall man walked into a VA Hospital emergency room in my part of the midwest and said to the receptionist : “ My name is Marion Duchene and I ’ ve @ @ @ @ @ @ @ were the last words he ever spoke .
He was covered with dust and he was wearing the same clothes he ’ d been reported to be wearing the night he vanished .
His social security number had not been used and he had no identification on his person .
However , they were able to identify him , I guess via fingerprints .
He was well-fed and in good health , except for his refusal to speak .
The family was notified but they said they had already grieved their lost man @ @ @ @ @ @ @ him simply could not be .
They said he was a “ haint ” and a stand-in for their dead relative and demanded not to be contacted again .
Marion paced all day every day .
Not in a frantic way , but just lumbering up and down the halls and outside .
He smiled all the time and would be moving his mouth in a way that indicated talking or muttering , but he was dead silent .
He had an unnerving habit of throwing his head back with his mouth wide @ @ @ @ @ @ @ but not even a breath could be heard .
If told to go to the dining room for a meal , he ’ d go and eat .
But if nobody told him , he just kept pacing , never indicating hunger .
If offered a cigarette , he ’ d smoke it in an oddly formal way , almost delicately , if that makes sense .
But he never seemed to crave smoking .
The man wanted nothing .
If I talked to him , he appeared to listen , periodically throwing @ @ @ @ @ @ @ of his .
There was nothing to do for this man .
Various medications were tried , but they did not affect him either positively or negatively .
Occupational therapy did nothing because Marion would just grin and unless told to stay put , he ’ d get up and start pacing again .
On my last day at that job , on my way to something better , the last thing I saw was Marion , pacing in the parking lot , throwing his head back to “ laugh.
” Later I @ @ @ @ @ @ @ been dealing with a ghost .
All these years later , I still don ’ t know .
5 .
Oh I have so many I don ’ t know where to start .
I worked in Geriatrics ( nursing homes ) for years , so most of our patients died within a few years of being with us .
Anyways I had a new patient move into one of the rooms on my hall that my previous patient had just passed in .
My new patient kept calling at night saying that @ @ @ @ @ @ @ into her room and trying to talk to her .
At first I just passed it off on her being in her 90 ’ s and struggling with dementia , so I assured her that I would lock her door at night to make sure no one could come in .
After about a week of this continuing to happen , I sat down with her and was asking what this women looked like ( thinking she may just be hallucinating her daughter or sister or something ) and she proceed to tell @ @ @ @ @ @ @ robe on with blue fuzzy slippers and her hair up in curlers , and the woman would come in sit at the foot of her bed , pat the new patient ’ s feet and try to talk to her but she couldn ’ t understand what she was saying .
I almost pissed myself .
The patient that I had had in that room prior to my new one , went to bed , EVERY NIGHT , in her pink house robe , blue slippers and her hair in curlers .
It @ @ @ @ @ @ @ .
I worked as a Medtech at an assisted living facility .
One day a resident ( I ’ ll call her Margaret ) suddenly passed away and her family left all her belongings in the room that night including her pendant to call the staff for help .
The next night Margaret ’ s neighbor called the staff because someone was talking in the room next door and keeping them awake .
We brushed the resident off knowing that Margaret ’ s room was empty .
About an hour later Margaret ’ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ empty apartment .
I was the only one willing to go turn it off so I walked into the room and it was FREEZING COLD in the middle of summer ( the air conditioning was off . )
Suddenly the bathroom door slammed as I was turning off the pendant light .
I locked the door and ran back to the nurse ’ s station .
We forced one of the older male staff members to go check out the entire room and he claims the door was still locked when he got @ @ @ @ @ @ @ there .
7 .
I am a nurse in a hospital and my patient was a well known card reader in town ( not too unheard of in Louisiana ) .
I had actually gone to her about 10 years prior and she was eerily accurate .
While caring for her for a few days I walk into her room and she is unresponsive .
She had been very lethargic all day but now she was out .
Her daughter is at the bedside and is trying to wake her up .
I @ @ @ @ @ @ @ no response and a very thready pulse .
I call a rapid response .
This woman then wakes up randomly and was full of energy within a 30 second span .
She told me she was dead and watching me in the room the whole time .
Knew exactly what happened .
She said God told her it wasn ’ t her time and sent her back .
She went home a couple days later and she is still doing card readings .
She ’ s in her late 80s now .
8 @ @ @ @ @ @ @ but this did not happen to me , but several other nurses who worked at these units .
There is a little girl who haunts the burn unit of a large Military Medical treatment facility in the US .
She has been seen by both staff and patients .
Haunts may not be the correct term , but she has been witnessed by several .
I used to work at the old Walter Reed Army Medical Center .
In the old one that moved back in 2011 , there was a VIP ward @ @ @ @ @ @ @ .
Any retired General Officers would be stay there , along with any Higher ups in the Govt , think Secretary of State and other Cabinet Officials .
There was also a room for the First Lady and President .
This ward is private , locked at all entrances and very nice .
It is furnished with very high end furniture and a lot of it was donated by Mrs. Mamie Eisenhower , the wife of President Dwight D. Eisenhower .
Well , per my friend who worked there , the ghost of @ @ @ @ @ @ @ one staying in her room , and if anyone did sleep in that room , she would yank off the bedsheets .
My friends also said decorative pieces would randomly fall off table of fly off the walls when they were the only ones up there .
Mamie would also apparently page the supervisor , who would call the ward back to a very confused nurse as to who paged them .
9 .
Worked in a nursing home/long term facility for multiple years .
Personally hadn ’ t experienced anything too crazy @ @ @ @ @ @ @ bell system going off , no buttons lit up , no rooms lit up , system would have to be reset from the electrical room to clear it ) , hearing doors close shut , toilets flushing , faucets running .
These were by no means commonplace .
Other staff had some more direct experiences though , apparently in one hall a little girl would occasionally be seen walking .
This had been reported by multiple staff as well as patients A staff member was sitting out in her car during night shift @ @ @ @ @ @ @ window quickly disappeared .
The next day she was discussing this out loud with the oncoming shift when someone pulled out a picture from old files based on the description provided .
Apparently , it was a match to a former patient that had passed away at least 10 years before that staff member was hired .
10 .
I worked in a pediatric hospital and had always heard that the fourth floor right outside our oncology unit was haunted .
I worked three twelves normally but would pick up overtime and picked @ @ @ @ @ @ @ working in the NICU which happened to also be on the fourth floor but on the opposite side .
The oncology unit had a staircase that was a short cut down to the cafeteria which was on the second floor .
At about 3am I was ready to take a short break and wanted a cup of coffee from the cafeteria so I decided to take that staircase .
I walked through the automatic double doors and saw a kid skipping down the hall .
I called out to him as I was @ @ @ @ @ @ @ of a patient room .
As soon as I called out to him he turned and in the blink of an eye totally vanished .
A lot of other nurses and docs had seen the same little kid skipping in that same hallway .
Of course I chalked it up to just exhaustion and didn ’ t really think about it much after that .
But you are damn sure I didn ’ t use that hallway at night ever again .
11 .
I was working at night and one of the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ room , we tried everything to revive this person but it didn ’ t work so after doing the papers and everything I went to another place in the hospital and I swear to god that this patient who I saw dead , touched my right arm .
I think that I have never cried that much in my life .
12 .
I used to work in a nursing home as both a CNA and an LPN , and while nothing too crazy happened there were definitely things that happened out of @ @ @ @ @ @ @ after someone had died I was cleaning up her body and the door to the room swung wide open even though it had been firmly latched and nobody was there .
It gave me the creeps .
There were instances of furniture being moved , lights turning on and off by themselves , and toilets randomly flushing by themselves as well .
I also remember I had one resident one night who asked me to make sure I closed the door to the closet that was at the end of her bed–and she @ @ @ @ @ @ @ “ that woman ” kept going in and out of it all night and it kept her awake .
13 .
One of the rooms we have is obviously having something of a haunting .
A man in a gown gestured one of the techs to come in , she went in and he was gone .
One week earlier a female patient was asking to get a different room , because a man wouldn ’ t leave her room .
We just thought it was some sort of delirium .
Multiple others @ @ @ @ @ @ @ .
Back when I was a paramedic in Oakland I was taking care of an elderly gentleman in the back of my ambulance he looked up into the upper corner of the ambulance and said , “ It ’ s okay Lulu , I ’ ll be with you soon.
” His daughter was with him and told me that Lulu was his wife who died 20 years earlier .
A few minutes later he went into cardiac arrest and passed on .
15 .
I am a psychiatrist and during my training @ @ @ @ @ @ @ a ward treating patients with depressive and anxiety disorders .
It was an old building which had been housing psychiatric patients since the mid 1920s .
On our floor we had 13 beds and a nursing station , a living room , and a few conference rooms .
One day a few weeks in I am interviewing a patient who tells me she has heard a baby crying at night , waking her up .
There are no babies in that hospital as the place is situated far away from housing areas and @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the nurse pulls me aside and tells me that the baby crying thing is not a psychotic symptom .
She is very serious about this , but won ’ t elaborate .
I kind of shrug it off , as either way it does not change the diagnostic or treatment , and forget about the experience .
Around 3 months in my stay I sit in the nurses station and three nurses behind me are talking .
One of them says , “ She is very active today ” and the other says @ @ @ @ @ @ @ ’ t noticed.
” I turn around and ask them who they are talking about .
They look at each other , and then one of them hesitantly says , “ Well .
There is a baby here .
She cries sometimes.
” I of course says no , but they just kind of shrug and smile .
Not 30 seconds later I hear it – it sounded far away but not to far .
A cry , clearly a baby ’ s cry , sounding like it is separated from us by @ @ @ @ @ @ @ am perplexed and look at the nurses .
They look at me like “ told you so.
” Since then I heard it maybe 2-3 times a week .
I told a new doctor about it who laughed , however a few weeks into her stay , she came to me , white as a sheet , and told me she heard it in their coffee break .
All the nurses just kind of knew about it , and being in psychiatry , hearing that kind of stuff is not really something you @ @ @ @ @ @ @ haven ’ t heard it since .
I think about it sometimes , but I don ’ t really know what to make of it .
16 .
My mom used to work as a night nurse in the burn unit at a hospital in Dallas , TX .
She told me that people would always talk about how the burn unit was apparently haunted .
She wasn ’ t really sure whether or not to believe this until a little girl came into the unit with horrific burns .
The little girl @ @ @ @ @ @ @ night with her , so my mom would try to check up on her pretty often when she worked .
One night , my mom asked the girl if she ever got scared at night .
The little girl responded , “ No .
I don ’ t get scared because an old woman comes to read to me every single night and sits beside my bed while I fall asleep.
” This shocked my mom because there were no older women working in the burn unit at night and she would usually @ @ @ @ @ @ @ those times .
It isn ’ t that scary , but she always recalls it being one of the craziest things that has ever happened as a healthcare worker .
17 .
Student nurse here , I once had a patient say , “ Do you ever feel the chill whenever you ’ re on the computer ?
Don ’ t worry it ’ s just a nurse who worked here a long long time ago , she doesn ’ t understand your technology so she ’ s trying to learn.
” I @ @ @ @ @ @ @ shoulder when I ’ m on the computer so this freaked me out .
18 .
One day a patient had to go to the X-ray which he was taken to in a wheelchair .
About 5 minutes later the notification from the patient ’ s room went off and me and my favorite work buddy went to the room .
As we stepped in we saw that the room was empty and the windows were closed .
Even the bed was missing in which the patient did not go to the X-ray @ @ @ @ @ @ @ nurse and even she had no idea where the bed went .
At the end we had to fill the room with another bed .
I ’ m still a nursing student but this was the most paranormal thing I witnessed so far .
19 .
I ‘ m a Labor and Delivery/Nursery nurse .
We have a button to push after a delivery to play a lullaby over the PA system announcing a birth through the hospital .
One night no one was even in the same room as the button and @ @ @ @ @ @ @ that twice then we unplugged the entire thing .
It still went off once more that night , and again a few days later despite being entirely disconnected .
That was a few years ago and no one ever heard it do that before or since .
20 .
I am a medical student .
Back when I was doing internship at an obstetrics hospital , I usually ended my night shift at around 2am .
As I walked back to my quarter , I would occasionally see a baby girl , probably @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the hall .
When I brought this up with one of my professors , he just told me to turn a blind eye .
According to him , “ they ” were just playing and would do no harm if you pretended not to see them .
21 .
When I was a nursing student up on an ICU floor I was hanging antibiotics in my patient ’ s room when I heard an audible , “ Hey.
” I turn around and there is no one else in the room .
Mind @ @ @ @ @ @ @ sedated so there ’ s no possible way it was them .
It was a woman ’ s voice as well so I thought it was my preceptor .
I go back out to the nurse ’ s station and I asked my preceptor if that was her in the room trying to catch my attention .
She told me no and and I ’ ve never seen someone ’ s eyes get so big .
Apparently the room I was in has had the most paranormal sightings and activity out of all @ @ @ @ @ @ @ as in shadows sitting in the corner of the room , voices being heard and curtains being flung violently across the railings .
No one ever told me about this room prior to my preceptorship so it just added to everyone ’ s beliefs it was haunted AF .
22 .
I know somebody who is a nurse .
She told me a story about how this woman was unconscious when she came into the hospital and when she woke up she was hysterical , and cried nonstop just begging to be taken @ @ @ @ @ @ @ When she was outside she calmed down and said she has the ability to see the dead and they knew she could see her so they surrounded her bed all shouting for her help .
23 .
My mom works in a hospital .
During Hurricane Maria the building suffered a lot of damage and administration chose to close a whole floor instead of fixing it .
It used to be the pediatrics floor .
When people go up there they can clearly hear babies crying even though the floor is completely abandoned @ @ @ @ @ @ @ patients only .
It has been caught on video .
24 .
Alone in the break room , I would feel the room get cold and then the back of my hair would be ruffled .
25 .
RN here .
I was cleaning up a dead body at work when the head of the hospital bed started moving up on its own .
I was alone and I ’ m not fat enough for my belly to be hitting the buttons ( which I ’ ve seen happen ) , so I @ @ @ @ @ @ @ it to happen .
26 .
My mom used to work in home care , not exactly a nurse .
One day she was at a man ’ s house feeding him his supper .
She cleaned up , made sure the man was set up and said goodbye before leaving .
He seemed perfectly normal to her .
As she walked down the front driveway to her car she got a weird feeling .
She kept walking until a random huge gust of wind stopped her in her tracks .
She tells @ @ @ @ @ @ @ go back .
She turned back and went inside to find that the man had passed .
If she had left he probably wouldn ’ t have been found for a couple of days .
27 .
We had a little boy come by ambulance and he was a toddler .
His parents had put him to bed and he was with a cold .
Nothing serious but developed tragically into more and he started coming in and out of consciousness .
We had to do a rapid intubation and he ended up @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Before Mom and Dad made it to the hospital , he kept talking about his baby sister Hannah .
Not soon after we had to life saving measures .
I was distraught because I had a son similar in age and a daughter named Hannah .
Fast forward .
Approximately two years later , family comes in with sick infant .
They remembered me ( I did once I recalled their story ) and I was their provider again .
Their daughter ’ s name was Hanna .
It startled me and I @ @ @ @ @ @ @ his sister , whom I assumed was alive and at home .
Nope , she wasn ’ t even conceived yet .
Baby , thankfully , went home with parents and doing well but I ’ ll never forget that .
Little boy and his baby sister , Hanna .
28 .
We were on a night shift , standing/sitting around the nurses station and talking about ‘ weird ’ things that had happened .
One of the HCAs was in a side room and the lights flicked on and off twice… call @ @ @ @ @ @ @ one about to press them… hearing a cough when there was no one there etc , etc .
As we were talking , there was a pause in the conversation and very clearly we heard typing from the keyboard at the doctor ’ s desk which was just around the corner from us .
I stepped around the corner to see who it was as usually the doctors would check in with us before sitting down , just to say hello and to see if there were any jobs needing down .
So @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the keys being tapped as if someone was typing , only to see no one there !
Was very freaky and we had to change the convo as we all felt too uncomfortable after that !
29 .
We ’ ve actually had a room sprinkled with holy water several times by our pastoral care due to the amount of deaths we ’ ve had in the same room .
30 .
There is probably some medical explanation for this , but still the weirdest thing I ’ ve seen as a nurse @ @ @ @ @ @ @ robust , confused old lady on our floor .
Her room was in front of the nurse ’ s station so we could keep an eye on her , and had one of our nurses aids as a sitter too .
She was always fighting , kicking , trying to get out of bed .
Very restless and agitated , as some patients I ’ ve had before can get before death .
One day we were called into the room as her heart rate was going down and she lay still with @ @ @ @ @ @ @ flat lined .
We checked for a pulse and did not find any .
She was a DNR so we did not attempt resuscitation .
We close her eyes , prepare to get the body bag and call the family , the sitter remains in there to start getting the body ready .
Less than 10 minuets later she calls us back in .
The old lady is at it again , hitting , kicking , trying to get out of the bed .
She came back to life !
Honestly we found @ @ @ @ @ @ @ have never seen any patient come back like that on their own .
I think she made it out of the hospital , too .

According to these doctors and nurses from Ask Reddit, it’s not as unusual as you think to see the paranormal during their shifts.
1. Did a rotation in a burn unit. There are tons of stories that go around, but I’ll share my favorite. A pimp lit one of his prostitutes on fire, and she immediately bear hugged him causing them to both suffer pretty severe injuries (unfortunately hers included an inhalation burn). They both were being treated in the same ICU but on opposite ends.
Weeks later she ends up coding and passes away, and after about 30 minutes as things start to quiet down, the guy starts screaming from his room, “Get her out! Get the god damn bitch out of my room!”
2. I’ve worked in a small family run nursing home for 6 years as a nurse aide. It was an orphanage before it became a nursing home, and unfortunately before being shut down the orphanage had a history of severe abuse and neglect. It’s not gossip, the owner herself has told us. When residents get close to death they always see a little girl. One of my patients was a very alert gentleman, he knew all our names and was very alert and oriented. I was passing dinner trays and saw that he had his back turned and was talking and laughing in the corner. I knocked and asked him who he was talking to and he chucked and said, “This little girl came into my room, she was scared.” He died 3 days later. About 6 months later had another patient screaming about a little girl grabbing his feet and she needed to leave him alone. He died that night. She’s come up over the years it’s always the same thing they see her and then they die. Other coworkers have had the same experience. It’s very unsettling.
3. A ward I worked on once had a patient who was a psychic/medium as a patient. We had a bit of a laugh with her as she was on the ward for a while (she’d had a stroke which affected her mobility) and she would do ‘readings’ for the staff from time to time. I took it all as just a bit of fun until one evening when she pressed her nurse call buzzer and told us to go check on a patient in a side room as he was dead. We went to check and sure enough found that the gentleman had died. Later on we asked our psychic patient how she had known and she told us she had seen him coming out of his room obviously distressed. She realized he had died and had to explain to him what had happened and help him to pass over/go to the light… now I am not a believer but that gave me the creeps.
4. I’m a psychiatric nurse; early in my career, I worked at a residential mental health facility. There was a resident I’ll call Marion Duchene. He was an elective mute, which simply means that he didn’t/wouldn’t/couldn’t talk but there were no pathological findings as to why. He had spoken earlier in his life and in fact seemed quite normal back then, with the notable exception of being close to seven feet tall. He’d been raised in the Deep South and joined the military when he was nineteen. After boot camp, he was stationed somewhere in the south. One night, he just vanished. It was declared an AWOL for years, and finally he was declared missing and dead.
Ten years later, a seven-foot tall man walked into a VA Hospital emergency room in my part of the midwest and said to the receptionist: “My name is Marion Duchene and I’ve been dead for ten years.”
Those were the last words he ever spoke.
He was covered with dust and he was wearing the same clothes he’d been reported to be wearing the night he vanished. His social security number had not been used and he had no identification on his person. However, they were able to identify him, I guess via fingerprints. He was well-fed and in good health, except for his refusal to speak. The family was notified but they said they had already grieved their lost man and that whomever was claiming to be him simply could not be. They said he was a “haint” and a stand-in for their dead relative and demanded not to be contacted again.
Marion paced all day every day. Not in a frantic way, but just lumbering up and down the halls and outside. He smiled all the time and would be moving his mouth in a way that indicated talking or muttering, but he was dead silent. He had an unnerving habit of throwing his head back with his mouth wide open as if he were laughing heartily but not even a breath could be heard. If told to go to the dining room for a meal, he’d go and eat. But if nobody told him, he just kept pacing, never indicating hunger. If offered a cigarette, he’d smoke it in an oddly formal way, almost delicately, if that makes sense. But he never seemed to crave smoking. The man wanted nothing. If I talked to him, he appeared to listen, periodically throwing his head back in that laughter-mimicking way of his.
There was nothing to do for this man. Various medications were tried, but they did not affect him either positively or negatively. Occupational therapy did nothing because Marion would just grin and unless told to stay put, he’d get up and start pacing again.
On my last day at that job, on my way to something better, the last thing I saw was Marion, pacing in the parking lot, throwing his head back to “laugh.” Later I wondered if all along I’d been dealing with a ghost. All these years later, I still don’t know.
5. Oh I have so many I don’t know where to start. I worked in Geriatrics (nursing homes) for years, so most of our patients died within a few years of being with us. Anyways I had a new patient move into one of the rooms on my hall that my previous patient had just passed in. My new patient kept calling at night saying that there was this woman who kept coming into her room and trying to talk to her. At first I just passed it off on her being in her 90’s and struggling with dementia, so I assured her that I would lock her door at night to make sure no one could come in. After about a week of this continuing to happen, I sat down with her and was asking what this women looked like (thinking she may just be hallucinating her daughter or sister or something ) and she proceed to tell me that this woman had a pink robe on with blue fuzzy slippers and her hair up in curlers, and the woman would come in sit at the foot of her bed, pat the new patient’s feet and try to talk to her but she couldn’t understand what she was saying. I almost pissed myself. The patient that I had had in that room prior to my new one, went to bed, EVERY NIGHT, in her pink house robe, blue slippers and her hair in curlers. It stopped after about two weeks.
6. I worked as a Medtech at an assisted living facility. One day a resident (I’ll call her Margaret) suddenly passed away and her family left all her belongings in the room that night including her pendant to call the staff for help. The next night Margaret’s neighbor called the staff because someone was talking in the room next door and keeping them awake. We brushed the resident off knowing that Margaret’s room was empty. About an hour later Margaret’s pendant started going off from her empty apartment. I was the only one willing to go turn it off so I walked into the room and it was FREEZING COLD in the middle of summer (the air conditioning was off.) Suddenly the bathroom door slammed as I was turning off the pendant light. I locked the door and ran back to the nurse’s station. We forced one of the older male staff members to go check out the entire room and he claims the door was still locked when he got down there and no one was in there.
7. I am a nurse in a hospital and my patient was a well known card reader in town (not too unheard of in Louisiana). I had actually gone to her about 10 years prior and she was eerily accurate. While caring for her for a few days I walk into her room and she is unresponsive. She had been very lethargic all day but now she was out. Her daughter is at the bedside and is trying to wake her up. I sternal rub her and inflict pain with no response and a very thready pulse. I call a rapid response. This woman then wakes up randomly and was full of energy within a 30 second span. She told me she was dead and watching me in the room the whole time. Knew exactly what happened. She said God told her it wasn’t her time and sent her back. She went home a couple days later and she is still doing card readings. She’s in her late 80s now.
8. Ok, I am a nurse but this did not happen to me, but several other nurses who worked at these units. There is a little girl who haunts the burn unit of a large Military Medical treatment facility in the US. She has been seen by both staff and patients. Haunts may not be the correct term, but she has been witnessed by several.
I used to work at the old Walter Reed Army Medical Center. In the old one that moved back in 2011, there was a VIP ward, I believe it was ward 72. Any retired General Officers would be stay there, along with any Higher ups in the Govt, think Secretary of State and other Cabinet Officials. There was also a room for the First Lady and President. This ward is private, locked at all entrances and very nice. It is furnished with very high end furniture and a lot of it was donated by Mrs. Mamie Eisenhower, the wife of President Dwight D. Eisenhower. Well, per my friend who worked there, the ghost of Mamie Eisenhower is very particular about any one staying in her room, and if anyone did sleep in that room, she would yank off the bedsheets. My friends also said decorative pieces would randomly fall off table of fly off the walls when they were the only ones up there. Mamie would also apparently page the supervisor, who would call the ward back to a very confused nurse as to who paged them.
9. Worked in a nursing home/long term facility for multiple years. Personally hadn’t experienced anything too crazy apart from mystery call lights (call bell system going off, no buttons lit up, no rooms lit up, system would have to be reset from the electrical room to clear it), hearing doors close shut, toilets flushing, faucets running. These were by no means commonplace.
Other staff had some more direct experiences though, apparently in one hall a little girl would occasionally be seen walking. This had been reported by multiple staff as well as patients
A staff member was sitting out in her car during night shift when some woman who knocked on her window quickly disappeared. The next day she was discussing this out loud with the oncoming shift when someone pulled out a picture from old files based on the description provided. Apparently, it was a match to a former patient that had passed away at least 10 years before that staff member was hired.
10. I worked in a pediatric hospital and had always heard that the fourth floor right outside our oncology unit was haunted. I worked three twelves normally but would pick up overtime and picked up a night shift. I was working in the NICU which happened to also be on the fourth floor but on the opposite side. The oncology unit had a staircase that was a short cut down to the cafeteria which was on the second floor. At about 3am I was ready to take a short break and wanted a cup of coffee from the cafeteria so I decided to take that staircase. I walked through the automatic double doors and saw a kid skipping down the hall. I called out to him as I was afraid a little kid had snuck out of a patient room. As soon as I called out to him he turned and in the blink of an eye totally vanished. A lot of other nurses and docs had seen the same little kid skipping in that same hallway. Of course I chalked it up to just exhaustion and didn’t really think about it much after that. But you are damn sure I didn’t use that hallway at night ever again.
11. I was working at night and one of the patients died while I was in the room, we tried everything to revive this person but it didn’t work so after doing the papers and everything I went to another place in the hospital and I swear to god that this patient who I saw dead, touched my right arm. I think that I have never cried that much in my life.
12. I used to work in a nursing home as both a CNA and an LPN, and while nothing too crazy happened there were definitely things that happened out of the ordinary.
I remember one time after someone had died I was cleaning up her body and the door to the room swung wide open even though it had been firmly latched and nobody was there. It gave me the creeps.
There were instances of furniture being moved, lights turning on and off by themselves, and toilets randomly flushing by themselves as well. I also remember I had one resident one night who asked me to make sure I closed the door to the closet that was at the end of her bed–and she told me that when it was open “that woman” kept going in and out of it all night and it kept her awake.
13. One of the rooms we have is obviously having something of a haunting. A man in a gown gestured one of the techs to come in, she went in and he was gone. One week earlier a female patient was asking to get a different room, because a man wouldn’t leave her room. We just thought it was some sort of delirium. Multiple others have seen him, too.
14. Back when I was a paramedic in Oakland I was taking care of an elderly gentleman in the back of my ambulance he looked up into the upper corner of the ambulance and said, “It’s okay Lulu, I’ll be with you soon.” His daughter was with him and told me that Lulu was his wife who died 20 years earlier. A few minutes later he went into cardiac arrest and passed on.
15. I am a psychiatrist and during my training years I worked for 6 months at a ward treating patients with depressive and anxiety disorders. It was an old building which had been housing psychiatric patients since the mid 1920s. On our floor we had 13 beds and a nursing station, a living room, and a few conference rooms. One day a few weeks in I am interviewing a patient who tells me she has heard a baby crying at night, waking her up. There are no babies in that hospital as the place is situated far away from housing areas and there were restricted visiting hours. Afterwards the nurse pulls me aside and tells me that the baby crying thing is not a psychotic symptom. She is very serious about this, but won’t elaborate. I kind of shrug it off, as either way it does not change the diagnostic or treatment, and forget about the experience.
Around 3 months in my stay I sit in the nurses station and three nurses behind me are talking. One of them says, “She is very active today” and the other says, “Really? Oh, hadn’t noticed.” I turn around and ask them who they are talking about. They look at each other, and then one of them hesitantly says, “Well. There is a baby here. She cries sometimes.” I of course says no, but they just kind of shrug and smile. Not 30 seconds later I hear it – it sounded far away but not to far. A cry, clearly a baby’s cry, sounding like it is separated from us by maybe 2 or 3 walls. I am perplexed and look at the nurses. They look at me like “told you so.”
Since then I heard it maybe 2-3 times a week. I told a new doctor about it who laughed, however a few weeks into her stay, she came to me, white as a sheet, and told me she heard it in their coffee break. All the nurses just kind of knew about it, and being in psychiatry, hearing that kind of stuff is not really something you brag about. I was transferred and haven’t heard it since. I think about it sometimes, but I don’t really know what to make of it.
16. My mom used to work as a night nurse in the burn unit at a hospital in Dallas, TX. She told me that people would always talk about how the burn unit was apparently haunted. She wasn’t really sure whether or not to believe this until a little girl came into the unit with horrific burns. The little girl did not always have parents stay the night with her, so my mom would try to check up on her pretty often when she worked. One night, my mom asked the girl if she ever got scared at night. The little girl responded, “No. I don’t get scared because an old woman comes to read to me every single night and sits beside my bed while I fall asleep.” This shocked my mom because there were no older women working in the burn unit at night and she would usually be the only person on duty during those times. It isn’t that scary, but she always recalls it being one of the craziest things that has ever happened as a healthcare worker.
17. Student nurse here, I once had a patient say, “Do you ever feel the chill whenever you’re on the computer? Don’t worry it’s just a nurse who worked here a long long time ago, she doesn’t understand your technology so she’s trying to learn.”
I always feel someone is looking over my shoulder when I’m on the computer so this freaked me out.
18. One day a patient had to go to the X-ray which he was taken to in a wheelchair. About 5 minutes later the notification from the patient’s room went off and me and my favorite work buddy went to the room. As we stepped in we saw that the room was empty and the windows were closed. Even the bed was missing in which the patient did not go to the X-ray. We both told a fully examined nurse and even she had no idea where the bed went. At the end we had to fill the room with another bed.
I’m still a nursing student but this was the most paranormal thing I witnessed so far.
19. I‘m a Labor and Delivery/Nursery nurse. We have a button to push after a delivery to play a lullaby over the PA system announcing a birth through the hospital. One night no one was even in the same room as the button and the lullaby started playing. It did that twice then we unplugged the entire thing. It still went off once more that night, and again a few days later despite being entirely disconnected. That was a few years ago and no one ever heard it do that before or since.
20. I am a medical student. Back when I was doing internship at an obstetrics hospital, I usually ended my night shift at around 2am. As I walked back to my quarter, I would occasionally see a baby girl, probably 5-7 yo, running and playing in the hall. When I brought this up with one of my professors, he just told me to turn a blind eye. According to him, “they” were just playing and would do no harm if you pretended not to see them.
21. When I was a nursing student up on an ICU floor I was hanging antibiotics in my patient’s room when I heard an audible, “Hey.” I turn around and there is no one else in the room. Mind you, my patient was intubated and sedated so there’s no possible way it was them. It was a woman’s voice as well so I thought it was my preceptor. I go back out to the nurse’s station and I asked my preceptor if that was her in the room trying to catch my attention. She told me no and and I’ve never seen someone’s eyes get so big. Apparently the room I was in has had the most paranormal sightings and activity out of all the rooms on the unit. Sightings as in shadows sitting in the corner of the room, voices being heard and curtains being flung violently across the railings. No one ever told me about this room prior to my preceptorship so it just added to everyone’s beliefs it was haunted AF.
22. I know somebody who is a nurse. She told me a story about how this woman was unconscious when she came into the hospital and when she woke up she was hysterical, and cried nonstop just begging to be taken outside, so eventually they did. When she was outside she calmed down and said she has the ability to see the dead and they knew she could see her so they surrounded her bed all shouting for her help.
23. My mom works in a hospital. During Hurricane Maria the building suffered a lot of damage and administration chose to close a whole floor instead of fixing it. It used to be the pediatrics floor. When people go up there they can clearly hear babies crying even though the floor is completely abandoned and the floor below is for adult patients only. It has been caught on video.
24. Alone in the break room, I would feel the room get cold and then the back of my hair would be ruffled.
25. RN here. I was cleaning up a dead body at work when the head of the hospital bed started moving up on its own.
I was alone and I’m not fat enough for my belly to be hitting the buttons (which I’ve seen happen), so I’m still not sure what caused it to happen.
26. My mom used to work in home care, not exactly a nurse. One day she was at a man’s house feeding him his supper. She cleaned up, made sure the man was set up and said goodbye before leaving. He seemed perfectly normal to her. As she walked down the front driveway to her car she got a weird feeling. She kept walking until a random huge gust of wind stopped her in her tracks. She tells me she heard someone telling her to go back. She turned back and went inside to find that the man had passed. If she had left he probably wouldn’t have been found for a couple of days.
27. We had a little boy come by ambulance and he was a toddler. His parents had put him to bed and he was with a cold. Nothing serious but developed tragically into more and he started coming in and out of consciousness. We had to do a rapid intubation and he ended up passing away a few days later. Before Mom and Dad made it to the hospital, he kept talking about his baby sister Hannah. Not soon after we had to life saving measures. I was distraught because I had a son similar in age and a daughter named Hannah.
Fast forward. Approximately two years later, family comes in with sick infant. They remembered me (I did once I recalled their story) and I was their provider again. Their daughter’s name was Hanna. It startled me and I recalled with clarity the boy speaking of his sister, whom I assumed was alive and at home. Nope, she wasn’t even conceived yet.
Baby, thankfully, went home with parents and doing well but I’ll never forget that. Little boy and his baby sister, Hanna.
28. We were on a night shift, standing/sitting around the nurses station and talking about ‘weird’ things that had happened. One of the HCAs was in a side room and the lights flicked on and off twice… call bells going off when there was no one about to press them… hearing a cough when there was no one there etc, etc. As we were talking, there was a pause in the conversation and very clearly we heard typing from the keyboard at the doctor’s desk which was just around the corner from us. I stepped around the corner to see who it was as usually the doctors would check in with us before sitting down, just to say hello and to see if there were any jobs needing down. So I looked around the corner after hearing the keys being tapped as if someone was typing, only to see no one there! Was very freaky and we had to change the convo as we all felt too uncomfortable after that!
29. We’ve actually had a room sprinkled with holy water several times by our pastoral care due to the amount of deaths we’ve had in the same room.
30. There is probably some medical explanation for this, but still the weirdest thing I’ve seen as a nurse so far. We had a very robust, confused old lady on our floor. Her room was in front of the nurse’s station so we could keep an eye on her, and had one of our nurses aids as a sitter too. She was always fighting, kicking, trying to get out of bed. Very restless and agitated, as some patients I’ve had before can get before death. One day we were called into the room as her heart rate was going down and she lay still with her eyes open. It was 30…20…then flat lined. We checked for a pulse and did not find any. She was a DNR so we did not attempt resuscitation. We close her eyes, prepare to get the body bag and call the family, the sitter remains in there to start getting the body ready. Less than 10 minuets later she calls us back in. The old lady is at it again, hitting, kicking, trying to get out of the bed. She came back to life! Honestly we found the situation hilarious, and I still have never seen any patient come back like that on their own. I think she made it out of the hospital, too.


thoughtcatalog--2020-04-17--Read This When You Are Finding It Difficult To Love Yourself

Self love is such a difficult process to navigate , not only because it takes time , and patience , and tenderness , but because there ’ s also this shame that seems to grow within us when we can not find it .
We are constantly sold this idea of self love — it ’ s relayed to us on social media , in advertising , within the music we hear and the shows we watch .
The world is constantly saying “ Just love yourself ” and so when we can ’ t , or when it ’ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ or guilty for not being able to achieve that or see ourselves the way other see us .
It can be deeply confusing .
But the truth is — we ’ ve all been hurt and we ’ ve all dealt with things that have convinced us we are hard to love , and we deal with so much comparison on a daily basis .
It is understandable that we ’ ve in a way grown distant from our own souls , from our own hearts .
It ’ s a very human @ @ @ @ @ @ @ below we ’ ve written out some tips that are meant to affirm you on your self love journey , and encourage you to give yourself the love you so effortlessly give others .
Because you deserve it — you always have .
Loving yourself , means coming back home to yourself .
In a world that sometimes convinces us we have to change , or edit ourselves , in order to be loved , it is so important to reintroduce ourselves to our own souls again .
If you are struggling with @ @ @ @ @ @ @ who you truly are , deep down .
Ask yourself what you like , and dislike .
Ask yourself how you want to feel when you go out into the world .
Ask yourself what your non negotiables are , what your standards are , what you never want to settle for again .
Really think : Who are you when you ’ re alone with your mind ?
When you ’ re not trying to be everything for everyone ?
What genuinely makes you happy ?
What ignites you ?
And while @ @ @ @ @ @ @ yourself in that way , while it can feel so foreign , it ’ s a great first step towards showing up for yourself .
When you love others in your life , you want to get to know them on the deepest level in order to be able to love them the way that they need to be loved .
So when it comes to a relationship with yourself , you need to know yourself on that level too , in order to love yourself the way you need to be loved @ @ @ @ @ @ @ to be in your past .
It is unbelievably easy to look back on the things you had to do in order to survive , or heal , or the mistakes you made , or the person you were in your past , and allow for all of that to make you feel like you aren ’ t good enough , or deserving of what you want .
Our pasts can bring up feelings of shame , and that shame can often make you love yourself less , because you are seeing yourself @ @ @ @ @ @ @ to be .
If that is one of the reasons why you find it difficult to be kind to yourself , why you find it difficult to care for yourself , I want to remind you that life is really hard .
And there is no perfect way to execute our existence .
It is never as black and white as we think it is .
There is no guideline on how to be a human being who is dealing with the grittiness of what it means to simply live , and love @ @ @ @ @ @ @ all been versions of ourselves that we wouldn ’ t necessarily clap for now .
We have all been the person who hurts , or who makes the wrong choice , or who can ’ t show up .
This doesn ’ t make you a bad person .
This makes you human .
So a step towards loving yourself is forgiveness .
Forgive yourself for what you had to do in order to kill your sadness .
Forgive yourself for how you settled , or allowed yourself to be treated .
Forgive @ @ @ @ @ @ @ didn ’ t fight for who you were becoming .
Forgive yourself for the ways you tried to catch your footing .
When you call it all by it ’ s name , when you truly face all that it was — not with the desire to change it , not with regret , but with tenderness for what has come and gone , for what can not be reversed , forgiveness affords you this ability to reframe your past .
It affords you the opportunity to stop seeing your present self through @ @ @ @ @ @ @ it , rather than letting it hurt you or demean you or belittle you .
You take the lessons , and you allow for them to inspire you into standing up for who you are and who you want to be .
Acceptance is love .
In order to love ourselves , the distance between who we are internally , and who we show the world , has to be nonexistent .
There should be no gap between those two realities .
Try your best to be honest with yourself about who you @ @ @ @ @ @ @ edit yourself .
Because when you stop yourself from speaking your truth , when you silence yourself in order to appease everyone around you , you bankrupt yourself .
You become a shell of yourself , and that can make you feel really trapped and misunderstood , because you aren ’ t being true to yourself .
You aren ’ t creating the art you want to create , you ’ re not loving how you want to love , you ’ re not showing up the way you want to show up @ @ @ @ @ @ @ being fully and openly who you are .
There is a disconnect between your desires , and your actions .
Remind yourself that who you are on the inside is worthy .
And who you are on the inside is a beautiful human being that the world would be lucky to know .
You don ’ t have to edit yourself in order to be accepted or loved or cared for .
You don ’ t have to change yourself .
You just have to be unapologetically who you are .
You have @ @ @ @ @ @ @ happy , on a soul level , and you have to do them almost foolishly — don ’ t ask for permission to be who you are .
Stand in your power .
That kind of freedom is life changing , because you ’ re respecting yourself .
And when you earn your own respect , you stand firmly in who you are .
You know that you aren ’ t being dishonest with yourself , or editing yourself down , you know that you ’ re showing up for yourself .
You @ @ @ @ @ @ @ You ’ re being proud of who you are .
As you are .
Trust the process , and invest in yourself .
You are a human being who is learning and growing each and every day .
You do certain things really well , you have talents and beauty within you that is rare and that is yours and yours alone .
And you have a lot of work to do , as well .
A lot of things you have to heal , a lot of things you have to come @ @ @ @ @ @ @ isn ’ t ever going to be void of those things .
That is why it is important to try your best to love where you are even if it isn ’ t where you want to be right now .
It is important to show yourself some grace , to trust in yourself and in the process .
When you trust in the process , when you understand that this journey back home to yourself , that this journey towards being who you want to be , and loving yourself throughout it @ @ @ @ @ @ @ that , you learn how to invest in yourself .
And investing in yourself looks like planting seeds within your life that you know are going to bloom , no matter how long it takes .
It ’ s about setting yourself up , about doing the hard work .
It ’ s about showing up for yourself .
So ask yourself — how can you show up for yourself right now ?
What can you do that you will look back on and feel proud of ?
Sometimes that looks like being @ @ @ @ @ @ @ t want to .
Sometimes that looks like limiting your social media use so you can get your visions and your ideas sorted on a foundational level .
Sometimes that looks like doing the things that would be easy to just ignore , sometimes being able to show up for yourself in that way — to really motivate yourself to do the work , is how you show yourself love .
And this also means showing yourself love by healing , even when it hurts .
By really digging into the soul of @ @ @ @ @ @ @ work , the hard work ; unhinging your ribcage and peering into all of the baggage and all of the wounds and slowly learning how to carry it , how to clean it out , how to confront it and let it go .
Showing yourself kindness , especially when it isn ’ t easy , is the best way to show yourself love .
Pay attention to the things that make you come home to yourself .
The things that make you happy , the things that bring you to life .
@ @ @ @ @ @ @ ?
Who are you with when you ’ re the happiest ?
What are you doing when you feel the best ?
When was the last time you felt truly alive , truly free , truly open to the world , without judgement , or fear ?
When was the last time you felt clarity in your heart , like you were being empowered and inspired to love yourself ?
What ignited that kind of beauty in your life ?
Chase that .
Fill your life with those things , and those people @ @ @ @ @ @ @ attention to the goodness , that you are taking inventory of all of the things that make you feel deeply .
But make sure that you are paying attention to the opposite , too .
Who makes you question yourself ?
Who makes you feel like you are hard to love ?
What do you do in life that genuinely lowers your energy , that drains you or makes you feel like you aren ’ t good enough ?
What is stealing your joy , your ability to see yourself as someone who @ @ @ @ @ @ @ give to others ?
Cut yourself off from those things .
Walk away from those things .
Please , whatever you do — be honest with yourself about what hurts you , what makes you feel small , what isn ’ t serving you any longer , and have the courage to walk away .
Not only does that feel empowering , but it will change your life , and create space for you to chase that which does set your soul on fire , that which does make you feel love for @ @ @ @ @ @ @ you deserve the love you give to others .
Think about all of the ways you love others , the ways you forgive and celebrate them .
Think about all of the energy you expend being kind to others , being a good friend , being the kind of human being they can depend on .
Think about the ways you encourage the people in your life , the ways you forgive them for their mistakes , the ways you motivate them to embrace their flaws , the ways you show them just @ @ @ @ @ @ @ only when they are shining examples of who they want to be , but when they aren ’ t themselves or when they ’ re going through difficulty .
Think about all of the ways you love others unconditionally , and unapologetically , the way love pours out of you for everyone around you , how tender and how patient and how forgiving and how kind you are to those you care about .
Now ask yourself , why don ’ t you do that for yourself ?
We show up so deeply @ @ @ @ @ @ @ forget to show up for ourselves .
We love others so unconditionally , and we forget to give ourselves that same love .
We forgive others for being human , for making mistakes , and we rarely do the same for ourselves .
We speak kindness into those we love , we celebrate them and encourage them and we only ever want for them to have the sunniest , most beautiful , kind of happiness in their lives , and yet , we don ’ t afford ourselves the same tenderness .
We @ @ @ @ @ @ @ .
We have the capacity to be our own safe havens , we have the capacity to be our own home , we have the ability to encourage and care and love , but somewhere along our journeys we convinced ourselves that we weren ’ t worthy of it .
That we didn ’ t deserve it .
So this is your reminder — you are deserving of the love you give to everyone else around you .
You are deserving of your forgiveness .
You are deserving of your grace .
Your @ @ @ @ @ @ @ s time to take all of that belief and invest it into yourself .
It ’ s time to see your own worthiness .
It ’ s time .

Self love is such a difficult process to navigate, not only because it takes time, and patience, and tenderness, but because there’s also this shame that seems to grow within us when we cannot find it. We are constantly sold this idea of self love — it’s relayed to us on social media, in advertising, within the music we hear and the shows we watch. The world is constantly saying “Just love yourself” and so when we can’t, or when it’s difficult, we feel sad, or guilty for not being able to achieve that or see ourselves the way other see us. It can be deeply confusing. But the truth is — we’ve all been hurt and we’ve all dealt with things that have convinced us we are hard to love, and we deal with so much comparison on a daily basis. It is understandable that we’ve in a way grown distant from our own souls, from our own hearts. It’s a very human thing to struggle with. So, below we’ve written out some tips that are meant to affirm you on your self love journey, and encourage you to give yourself the love you so effortlessly give others. Because you deserve it — you always have.
This article is inspired by episode #10 of the In Your Feelings Podcast, a collaboration from Thought Catalog and Bianca Sparacino.
Subscribe here: Spotify | iTunes
Loving yourself means coming back home to yourself.
In a world that sometimes convinces us we have to change, or edit ourselves, in order to be loved, it is so important to reintroduce ourselves to our own souls again. If you are struggling with fostering self-love, try asking yourself who you truly are, deep down. Ask yourself what you like, and dislike. Ask yourself how you want to feel when you go out into the world. Ask yourself what your non-negotiables are, what your standards are, what you never want to settle for again. Really think: Who are you when you’re alone with your mind? When you’re not trying to be everything for everyone? What genuinely makes you happy? What ignites you?
And while it can feel overwhelming to sit with yourself in that way, while it can feel so foreign, it’s a great first step towards showing up for yourself. When you love others in your life, you want to get to know them on the deepest level in order to be able to love them the way that they need to be loved. So when it comes to a relationship with yourself, you need to know yourself on that level too, in order to love yourself the way you need to be loved.
Forgive yourself for who you had to be in your past.
It is unbelievably easy to look back on the things you had to do in order to survive, or heal, or the mistakes you made, or the person you were in your past, and allow for all of that to make you feel like you aren’t good enough, or deserving of what you want. Our pasts can bring up feelings of shame, and that shame can often make you love yourself less because you are seeing yourself through the lens of who you used to be.
If that is one of the reasons why you find it difficult to be kind to yourself, why you find it difficult to care for yourself, I want to remind you that life is really hard. And there is no perfect way to execute our existence. It is never as black and white as we think it is. There is no guideline on how to be a human being who is dealing with the grittiness of what it means to simply live, and love, and make mistakes. We have all been versions of ourselves that we wouldn’t necessarily clap for now. We have all been the person who hurts, or who makes the wrong choice, or who can’t show up. This doesn’t make you a bad person. This makes you human.
So a step towards loving yourself is forgiveness. Forgive yourself for what you had to do in order to kill your sadness. Forgive yourself for how you settled, or allowed yourself to be treated. Forgive yourself for the ways in which you didn’t fight for who you were becoming. Forgive yourself for the ways you tried to catch your footing. When you call it all by its name, when you truly face all that it was — not with the desire to change it, not with regret, but with tenderness for what has come and gone, for what cannot be reversed, forgiveness affords you this ability to reframe your past. It affords you the opportunity to stop seeing your present self through that lens, and you learn from it, rather than letting it hurt you or demean you or belittle you. You take the lessons, and you allow for them to inspire you into standing up for who you are and who you want to be. Acceptance is love.
Loving yourself means respecting yourself.
In order to love ourselves, the distance between who we are internally, and who we show the world, has to be nonexistent. There should be no gap between those two realities.
Try your best to be honest with yourself about who you are, and don’t ever edit yourself. Because when you stop yourself from speaking your truth, when you silence yourself in order to appease everyone around you, you bankrupt yourself. You become a shell of yourself, and that can make you feel really trapped and misunderstood because you aren’t being true to yourself. You aren’t creating the art you want to create, you’re not loving how you want to love, you’re not showing up the way you want to show up, because you’re scared of being fully and openly who you are. There is a disconnect between your desires and your actions.
Remind yourself that who you are on the inside is worthy. And who you are on the inside is a beautiful human being that the world would be lucky to know. You don’t have to edit yourself in order to be accepted or loved or cared for. You don’t have to change yourself. You just have to be unapologetically who you are. You have to do the things that make you happy, on a soul level, and you have to do them almost foolishly — don’t ask for permission to be who you are. Stand in your power.
That kind of freedom is life-changing, because you’re respecting yourself. And when you earn your own respect, you stand firmly in who you are. You know that you aren’t being dishonest with yourself, or editing yourself down, you know that you’re showing up for yourself. You’re being kind to yourself. You’re being proud of who you are. As you are.
Trust the process, and invest in yourself.
You are a human being who is learning and growing each and every day. You do certain things really well, you have talents and beauty within you that is rare and that is yours and yours alone. And you have a lot of work to do, as well. A lot of things you have to heal, a lot of things you have to come to terms with and accept. Life isn’t ever going to be void of those things. That is why it is important to try your best to love where you are even if it isn’t where you want to be right now. It is important to show yourself some grace, to trust in yourself and in the process.
When you trust in the process, when you understand that this journey back home to yourself, that this journey towards being who you want to be, and loving yourself throughout it all, when you do all of that, you learn how to invest in yourself.
And investing in yourself looks like planting seeds within your life that you know are going to bloom, no matter how long it takes. It’s about setting yourself up, about doing the hard work. It’s about showing up for yourself.
So ask yourself — how can you show up for yourself right now? What can you do that you will look back on and feel proud of? Sometimes that looks like being healthy, even when you don’t want to. Sometimes that looks like limiting your social media use so you can get your visions and your ideas sorted on a foundational level. Sometimes that looks like doing the things that would be easy to just ignore, sometimes being able to show up for yourself in that way — to really motivate yourself to do the work, is how you show yourself love.
And this also means showing yourself love by healing, even when it hurts. By really digging into the soul of who you are and doing the deep work, the hard work; unhinging your ribcage and peering into all of the baggage and all of the wounds and slowly learning how to carry it, how to clean it out, how to confront it and let it go. Showing yourself kindness, especially when it isn’t easy, is the best way to show yourself love.
Pay attention.
Pay attention to the things that make you come home to yourself. The things that make you happy, the things that bring you to life. Ask yourself — what brings you joy? Who are you with when you’re the happiest? What are you doing when you feel the best? When was the last time you felt truly alive, truly free, truly open to the world, without judgment, or fear? When was the last time you felt clarity in your heart, like you were being empowered and inspired to love yourself? What ignited that kind of beauty in your life? Chase that. Fill your life with those things, and those people.
Make sure that you are paying attention to the goodness, that you are taking inventory of all of the things that make you feel deeply. But make sure that you are paying attention to the opposite, too. Who makes you question yourself? Who makes you feel like you are hard to love? What do you do in life that genuinely lowers your energy, that drains you, or makes you feel like you aren’t good enough? What is stealing your joy, your ability to see yourself as someone who is deserving of the same love they give to others?
Cut yourself off from those things. Walk away from those things. Please, whatever you do — be honest with yourself about what hurts you, what makes you feel small, what isn’t serving you any longer, and have the courage to walk away. Not only does that feel empowering, but it will change your life, and create space for you to chase that which does set your soul on fire, that which does make you feel love for yourself and your life.
Remember — you deserve the love you give to others.
Think about all of the ways you love others, the ways you forgive and celebrate them. Think about all of the energy you expend being kind to others, being a good friend, being the kind of human being they can depend on. Think about the ways you encourage the people in your life, the ways you forgive them for their mistakes, the ways you motivate them to embrace their flaws, the ways you show them just how much they can be loved not only when they are shining examples of who they want to be, but when they aren’t themselves or when they’re going through difficulty. Think about all of the ways you love others unconditionally, and unapologetically, the way love pours out of you for everyone around you, how tender and how patient and how forgiving and how kind you are to those you care about.
Now ask yourself, why don’t you do that for yourself?
We show up so deeply for those in our lives and we forget to show up for ourselves. We love others so unconditionally, and we forget to give ourselves that same love. We forgive others for being human, for making mistakes, and we rarely do the same for ourselves. We speak kindness into those we love, we celebrate them and encourage them and we only ever want for them to have the sunniest, most beautiful, kind of happiness in their lives, and yet, we don’t afford ourselves the same tenderness. We don’t celebrate and encourage ourselves.
We have the capacity to be our own safe havens, we have the capacity to be our own home, we have the ability to encourage and care and love, but somewhere along our journeys, we convinced ourselves that we weren’t worthy of it. That we didn’t deserve it.
So this is your reminder — you are deserving of the love you give to everyone else around you. You are deserving of your forgiveness. You are deserving of your grace. Your kindness. Your tenderness. It’s time to take all of that belief and invest it into yourself. It’s time to see your own worthiness. It’s time.
This article is inspired by episode #10 of the In Your Feelings Podcast, a collaboration from Thought Catalog and Bianca Sparacino.
Subscribe here: Spotify | iTunes


thoughtcatalog--2020-04-17--What If All Of This Were Enough?

What If All Of This Were Enough?

I woke up this morning like I did every other day the past three weeks and will wake up for the foreseeable future .
Today is Saturday , but I had to check my phone just to be sure .
It could be Tuesday or Easter—it really makes no difference .
But today I felt a new sort of heaviness laced with agitation clouding my mind , the kind that neither coffee nor a morning shag on the counter of my boyfriend ’ s kitchen could cure .
It ’ s anxiety ; it ’ s boredom .
It ’ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ It ’ s the thought of not leaving this house until June , maybe August .
And it ’ s what those thoughts incite within me—I ’ d say a stomach ache mixed with a longing for something just a little more .
I ’ ve seen these walls , felt the cold , unforgiving tile beneath my feet every day , all day .
And every day to come .
They are part of me and I them .
I ’ ve lost my identity in these rooms—that or my sanity .
@ @ @ @ @ @ @ ?
I ’ ve breathed in the air of the surrounding valley , partly covered in scorched fauna from the fires , mostly covered in nature prevailed .
I never saw myself living here , a stone ’ s throw from Los Angeles but removed from the hustle and bustle , one I couldn ’ t live without , but now I have no choice .
This is my home , at least for now .
My boyfriend and I retreated to his childhood house , leaving our apartments in the city to @ @ @ @ @ @ @ I welcomed the idea of more space and added luxuries .
The mere idea of moving “ back home ” —an option I haven ’ t had since I graduated high school—felt quaint , not a feeling often experienced in the city .
I ’ ve unloaded my bags into my boyfriend ’ s childhood bedroom , clad with middle school basketball trophies and a Mickey Mouse stuffed animal , his eyes always watching no matter where you go .
I make coffee every morning in the same kitchen he heated up Eggo @ @ @ @ @ @ @ I most likely sip it at the same table he did his homework at .
Ah , how I welcomed the penetration of quaintness into my body .
Like people all over the world , my normal is new .
It shifted beneath my feet quicker than I could keep up ; I thought I was swaying with it just fine .
In recent days , I ’ ve realized I was wrong .
Things are slower , quieter , anxious , thought-provoking , silent , numb , everything , nothing .
Gone @ @ @ @ @ @ @ street to grab a long black—the equivalent of an Australian americano—from my local coffee shop , the smell of the robust aroma shaking life into my body .
Gone are the days of observing everyone around me , like the professor getting riled up as he describes his reading of an article on stem cell replacement to either his daughter or girlfriend—you can ’ t be too sure in the city .
Like the barista flirting with a guy whose style I envied and would later emulate when I bought a pack of @ @ @ @ @ @ @ quarantine uniform .
No longer can I battle the internal battle of whether tomorrow will finally be the day I start up swimming again ; yes , my body yearned for movement , but the thought of waking up for the pool ’ s ludicrous hours of 7-9 a.m. always won out in deterring me .
But the battle is gone because there ’ s no pool .
It ’ s closed .
Along with everything else .
With limited options on what to do , I feel madness seeping into my bones @ @ @ @ @ @ @ tip of understanding how Shamu and the other wild animals forced into small spaces feel—confined confusion , wondering when , if ever , I ’ ll be able to leave .
At times I wander the house , unsure of what to do .
In manic states , I ’ ll dance around the living room in socks and slide into my boyfriend ’ s line of vision , Risky Business-style , with less coordinated but all the enthusiasm still there .
Then there are the times I ’ ll lay out in @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the ground , soaking up the warm earth , staring at the rose bushes .
My eyes have no real focal point .
I forget I ’ m even staring at anything ; I forget I ’ m even existing .
I ’ m no stranger to the feelings of melancholia .
I ’ ve grappled with depression since I was in middle school .
I remember the first time when I felt like I didn ’ t want to live anymore .
The feeling consumed me , and I kept it deep @ @ @ @ @ @ @ was too heinous and messed up to share .
And though I know this isn ’ t my depression , rather circumstantial sadness , I feel the need to resort back to my arsenal of coping mechanisms .
I go for walks .
I talk to friends .
I do things I enjoy .
I fuck my boyfriend .
I open up .
I express my feelings , even if they ’ re heinous and messed up .
It wasn ’ t until yesterday , as I stared out the window like a @ @ @ @ @ @ @ I remembered a specific thing that helped me during a particularly dark time two summers ago .
A single question .
A single mindset shift .
What if this were enough ?
What if this time , the lockdown , were enough ?
Don ’ t get me wrong .
I see the pain .
I see the worry families are feeling that their loved ones might not make it out of this alive .
I see the endless hours and self-sacrifice doctors , nurses , grocery store workers , delivery drivers , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ day .
I see the anxiety of the individuals that lost their job , not sure if everything they worked their entire lives for could crumble in a matter of weeks .
I feel the uncertainty .
We all do .
It ’ s part of our reality , and I ’ m not looking past it .
But what if we came to terms with the fact that , for now , this is life ?
As messy and fucked up as it is , this is our new way of living @ @ @ @ @ @ @ different , but for each person , it ’ s not what it used to be .
You can act like I have these past few weeks , existing with sadness just beneath the surface , mourning a life once had .
Or you can take this less-than-perfect present and believe that , for now , it ’ s enough .
That you may be living out your days between the same four walls , but at least you have those four walls .
That you might be scrounging together meals from items @ @ @ @ @ @ @ that haven ’ t seen the light of day for months , but at least you have food .
And it extends beyond just being grateful , it ’ s a matter of shifting the way you see things .
The mind is significantly altered by our perception of reality .
So if we see ourselves as a victim to a force completely out of our control , our attitude is going to follow .
If we accept the present as all we can have , we ’ re given the change to @ @ @ @ @ @ @ ve all been caught up for so long in a fast-paced world that makes us feel like we always need more .
And maybe we could function that way in our old lives , but we can ’ t afford to now .
That kind of thinking will make anyone lose a bit of their sanity .
I still hope for a day when we do have more .
When the cinemas open back up and we can go out and enjoy the company of our loved ones .
When lovers can be @ @ @ @ @ @ @ everyone can enter a supermarket and not worry that a person coming close to them is a potential danger .
When people can stop to chat with their neighbors again .
I look forward to the day I can go back to my apartment or wherever I want without reserve .
I look forward to the day when I can do something as simple as eavesdrop on people around me while I sip a fresh cup of coffee I didn ’ t make .
But for now , and for the sake of @ @ @ @ @ @ @ that this is enough .

I woke up this morning like I did every other day the past three weeks and will wake up for the foreseeable future. Today is Saturday, but I had to check my phone just to be sure. It could be Tuesday or Easter—it really makes no difference.
But today I felt a new sort of heaviness laced with agitation clouding my mind, the kind that neither coffee nor a morning shag on the counter of my boyfriend’s kitchen could cure.
It’s anxiety; it’s boredom. It’s all of it in between. It’s the thought of not leaving this house until June, maybe August. And it’s what those thoughts incite within me—I’d say a stomach ache mixed with a longing for something just a little more.
I’ve seen these walls, felt the cold, unforgiving tile beneath my feet every day, all day. And every day to come. They are part of me and I them. I’ve lost my identity in these rooms—that or my sanity. But honestly, what is the difference?
I’ve breathed in the air of the surrounding valley, partly covered in scorched fauna from the fires, mostly covered in nature prevailed. I never saw myself living here, a stone’s throw from Los Angeles but removed from the hustle and bustle, one I couldn’t live without, but now I have no choice. This is my home, at least for now.
My boyfriend and I retreated to his childhood house, leaving our apartments in the city to ride out the quarantine in suburbia. I welcomed the idea of more space and added luxuries. The mere idea of moving “back home”—an option I haven’t had since I graduated high school—felt quaint, not a feeling often experienced in the city.
I’ve unloaded my bags into my boyfriend’s childhood bedroom, clad with middle school basketball trophies and a Mickey Mouse stuffed animal, his eyes always watching no matter where you go.
I make coffee every morning in the same kitchen he heated up Eggo waffles before he left for school. I most likely sip it at the same table he did his homework at. Ah, how I welcomed the penetration of quaintness into my body.
Like people all over the world, my normal is new. It shifted beneath my feet quicker than I could keep up; I thought I was swaying with it just fine. In recent days, I’ve realized I was wrong. Things are slower, quieter, anxious, thought-provoking, silent, numb, everything, nothing.
Gone are the days of walking down the street to grab a long black—the equivalent of an Australian americano—from my local coffee shop, the smell of the robust aroma shaking life into my body. Gone are the days of observing everyone around me, like the professor getting riled up as he describes his reading of an article on stem cell replacement to either his daughter or girlfriend—you can’t be too sure in the city. Like the barista flirting with a guy whose style I envied and would later emulate when I bought a pack of men’s long-sleeve tees as my quarantine uniform.
No longer can I battle the internal battle of whether tomorrow will finally be the day I start up swimming again; yes, my body yearned for movement, but the thought of waking up for the pool’s ludicrous hours of 7-9 a.m. always won out in deterring me. But the battle is gone because there’s no pool. It’s closed. Along with everything else.
With limited options on what to do, I feel madness seeping into my bones. I imagine I am on the tip of understanding how Shamu and the other wild animals forced into small spaces feel—confined confusion, wondering when, if ever, I’ll be able to leave.
At times I wander the house, unsure of what to do. In manic states, I’ll dance around the living room in socks and slide into my boyfriend’s line of vision, Risky Business-style, with less coordinated but all the enthusiasm still there.
Then there are the times I’ll lay out in the yard, my body splayed across the ground, soaking up the warm earth, staring at the rose bushes. My eyes have no real focal point. I forget I’m even staring at anything; I forget I’m even existing.
I’m no stranger to the feelings of melancholia. I’ve grappled with depression since I was in middle school. I remember the first time when I felt like I didn’t want to live anymore. The feeling consumed me, and I kept it deep down inside, like a secret that was too heinous and messed up to share.
And though I know this isn’t my depression, rather circumstantial sadness, I feel the need to resort back to my arsenal of coping mechanisms. I go for walks. I talk to friends. I do things I enjoy. I fuck my boyfriend. I open up. I express my feelings, even if they’re heinous and messed up.
It wasn’t until yesterday, as I stared out the window like a golden retriever guarding the premises, that I remembered a specific thing that helped me during a particularly dark time two summers ago. A single question. A single mindset shift.
What if this were enough? What if this time, the lockdown, were enough?
Don’t get me wrong. I see the pain. I see the worry families are feeling that their loved ones might not make it out of this alive. I see the endless hours and self-sacrifice doctors, nurses, grocery store workers, delivery drivers, and other essential workers put in every day. I see the anxiety of the individuals that lost their job, not sure if everything they worked their entire lives for could crumble in a matter of weeks. I feel the uncertainty. We all do.
It’s part of our reality, and I’m not looking past it.
But what if we came to terms with the fact that, for now, this is life? As messy and fucked up as it is, this is our new way of living. For each person, it looks different, but for each person, it’s not what it used to be.
You can act like I have these past few weeks, existing with sadness just beneath the surface, mourning a life once had.
Or you can take this less-than-perfect present and believe that, for now, it’s enough. That you may be living out your days between the same four walls, but at least you have those four walls. That you might be scrounging together meals from items shoved in the back of your cabinets that haven’t seen the light of day for months, but at least you have food.
And it extends beyond just being grateful, it’s a matter of shifting the way you see things. The mind is significantly altered by our perception of reality. So if we see ourselves as a victim to a force completely out of our control, our attitude is going to follow. If we accept the present as all we can have, we’re given the change to be okay with it.
We’ve all been caught up for so long in a fast-paced world that makes us feel like we always need more. And maybe we could function that way in our old lives, but we can’t afford to now. That kind of thinking will make anyone lose a bit of their sanity.
I still hope for a day when we do have more. When the cinemas open back up and we can go out and enjoy the company of our loved ones. When lovers can be reunited and new ones formed. When everyone can enter a supermarket and not worry that a person coming close to them is a potential danger. When people can stop to chat with their neighbors again.
I look forward to the day I can go back to my apartment or wherever I want without reserve. I look forward to the day when I can do something as simple as eavesdrop on people around me while I sip a fresh cup of coffee I didn’t make.
But for now, and for the sake of my sanity, I’ve decided that this is enough.


thoughtcatalog--2020-04-17--5 Things That Suck About Postponing Your Wedding

1 .
The decorations are ruined .
You ’ ve bought hundreds of dollar ’ s worth of decorations with your original wedding date on them that you can no longer use .
There are welcome signs with your date on it .
Backdrops .
Centerpieces .
Card boxes .
Engraved cake knives and flutes .
Gifts for parents and bridesmaids and groomsmen .
Your save the dates are out of date .
So are your wedding invitations .
All of that money you spent , all of that effort you put into planning the perfect wedding , was useless @ @ @ @ @ @ @ .
2 .
The clothing is ruined .
Unless you ’ re postponing your wedding a full year , you ’ re going to be getting married in a different season than you originally planned .
Your revealing , backless summer dress will now have to be worn in winter when you ’ re going to be freezing your ass off .
Or maybe your wavy , autumnal hairstyle with curls down your back will have to be worn next summer when your hair is going to get frizzy and boiling hot .
@ @ @ @ @ @ @ bridal party outfits .
The colors are already picked out .
There ’ s no changing them now .
That means you ’ re stuck with a wedding meant for one season that is being tossed into another .
3 .
You have to coordinate with your vendors all over again .
You have to somehow find a new wedding date that works for your venue and your photographer and your videographer and your DJ and your caterer and your hairstylist and your makeup artist .
Sure , you could choose new vendors @ @ @ @ @ @ @ you ’ ve already paid them ) , but you picked the perfect choices the first time .
You planned this exactly the way you wanted it the first time .
You don ’ t want to change a single thing .
If you wanted something different , you would ’ ve done it that way the first time around .
Changing things pretty much means settling , and you didn ’ t want to settle on your wedding day of all days .
4 .
Some people are going to make you @ @ @ @ @ @ @ own wedding .
They ’ ll remind you this is only a party .
They ’ ll remind you you ’ re lucky you don ’ t have worse problems with your health or career .
They ’ ll remind you it ’ s going to work out okay in the end .
They ’ ll be annoyingly positive and make you feel like you don ’ t have a right to be sad .
You already know all the things they ’ re saying are true but it doesn ’ t make @ @ @ @ @ @ @ was supposed to be your year and now it ’ s ruined .
5 .
And other people are going to make you feel like shit for changing your plans .
If you cancel , some people will feel like they are getting screwed over because they were excited to go to a party .
If you postpone , some people will get annoyed about how they already spent money on their outfit or a hotel or a flight for your wedding and they will take it out on you .
If you @ @ @ @ @ @ @ hold a ceremony , some people will be offended they didn ’ t make the cut .
You can not win .

1. The decorations are ruined. You’ve bought hundreds of dollar’s worth of decorations with your original wedding date on them that you can no longer use. There are welcome signs with your date on it. Backdrops. Centerpieces. Card boxes. Engraved cake knives and flutes. Gifts for parents and bridesmaids and groomsmen. Your save the dates are out of date. So are your wedding invitations. All of that money you spent, all of that effort you put into planning the perfect wedding, was useless. Your beautiful decorations are now trash.
2. The clothing is ruined. Unless you’re postponing your wedding a full year, you’re going to be getting married in a different season than you originally planned. Your revealing, backless summer dress will now have to be worn in winter when you’re going to be freezing your ass off. Or maybe your wavy, autumnal hairstyle with curls down your back will have to be worn next summer when your hair is going to get frizzy and boiling hot. It’s the same with your bridal party outfits. The colors are already picked out. There’s no changing them now. That means you’re stuck with a wedding meant for one season that is being tossed into another.
3. You have to coordinate with your vendors all over again. You have to somehow find a new wedding date that works for your venue and your photographer and your videographer and your DJ and your caterer and your hairstylist and your makeup artist. Sure, you could choose new vendors (and risk losing out on money you’ve already paid them), but you picked the perfect choices the first time. You planned this exactly the way you wanted it the first time. You don’t want to change a single thing. If you wanted something different, you would’ve done it that way the first time around. Changing things pretty much means settling, and you didn’t want to settle on your wedding day of all days.
4. Some people are going to make you feel like shit for caring about your own wedding. They’ll remind you this is only a party. They’ll remind you you’re lucky you don’t have worse problems with your health or career. They’ll remind you it’s going to work out okay in the end. They’ll be annoyingly positive and make you feel like you don’t have a right to be sad. You already know all the things they’re saying are true but it doesn’t make the situation suck any less. This was supposed to be your year and now it’s ruined.
5. And other people are going to make you feel like shit for changing your plans. If you cancel, some people will feel like they are getting screwed over because they were excited to go to a party. If you postpone, some people will get annoyed about how they already spent money on their outfit or a hotel or a flight for your wedding and they will take it out on you. If you make your guest list smaller and still hold a ceremony, some people will be offended they didn’t make the cut. You cannot win.


thoughtcatalog--2020-04-17--Bottling Up Your Feelings Will End In A Breakup

Bottling up your feelings will end in resentment .
Right now , you might be trying to convince yourself that you can handle these emotions on your own , that they ’ re not that big of a deal , that you ’ ll get over it soon , that there ’ s no reason to start any drama .
But if you don ’ t bring up what is bothering you now , your relationship is never going to change .
Your person is goin to continue repeating those same hurtful actions because they have no idea they ’ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ idea you are doing your best not to explode .
Bottling up your feelings will end in confusing arguments .
You might not verbally admit what ’ s bothering you to your person , but your feelings are going to come out one way or another .
Maybe you ’ ll snap at them about something small .
Maybe you ’ ll grow distant from them .
Maybe you ’ ll get super quiet .
Either way , bottling up your feelings isn ’ t going to help you avoid a fight .
@ @ @ @ @ @ @ another fight , a nastier one , one that doesn ’ t even make any sense because it ’ s not about the real issue at hand .
Bottling up your feelings will lead you down a dangerous road , one where you believe it ’ s okay to settle .
But you shouldn ’ t allow someone to get away with hurting you .
You shouldn ’ t ignore your pain because you ’ re probably overreacting anyway .
You shouldn ’ t give someone permission to treat you like crap without @ @ @ @ @ @ @ re allowed to talk about your feelings .
You ’ re allowed to approach someone who hurt you and explain the situation from your point of view .
You ’ re allowed to request better treatment in the future .
Bottling up your feelings is going to backfire on you .
It ’ s going to slowly pull you apart from your person .
If you feel like you can ’ t talk to each other , that means you can ’ t really trust each other .
That means you aren ’ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , relationships are supposed to be about showing each other your true , uncensored selves .
You ’ re not supposed to be pretending around them .
You ’ re not supposed to tell little white lies .
Your person shouldn ’ t expect you to be emotionless .
Your person shouldn ’ t judge you for acting vulnerable in front of them .
Bottling up your feelings will end in a breakup .
If you want to stay with your person , then you need to tell them what is running through @ @ @ @ @ @ @ expect them to play guessing games .
And you can ’ t hold your opinions inside because you are worried about looking silly , either .
No matter how awkward and uncomfortable the conversation might feel , you can not keep anything from your partner .
You can not hold secrets or grudges .
You need to be open with them .
You need to stop bottling up your feelings because keeping the peace right now will hurt you in the long-run .
Meanwhile , actually gathering the courage talking about your feelings @ @ @ @ @ @ @ couple .
It ’ s going to make you an even better team .

Bottling up your feelings will end in resentment. Right now, you might be trying to convince yourself that you can handle these emotions on your own, that they’re not that big of a deal, that you’ll get over it soon, that there’s no reason to start any drama.
But if you don’t bring up what is bothering you now, your relationship is never going to change. Your person is goin to continue repeating those same hurtful actions because they have no idea they’re hurting you. They have no idea you are doing your best not to explode.
Bottling up your feelings will end in confusing arguments. You might not verbally admit what’s bothering you to your person, but your feelings are going to come out one way or another. Maybe you’ll snap at them about something small. Maybe you’ll grow distant from them. Maybe you’ll get super quiet. Either way, bottling up your feelings isn’t going to help you avoid a fight. It’s going to lead to another fight, a nastier one, one that doesn’t even make any sense because it’s not about the real issue at hand.
Bottling up your feelings will lead you down a dangerous road, one where you believe it’s okay to settle. But you shouldn’t allow someone to get away with hurting you. You shouldn’t ignore your pain because you’re probably overreacting anyway. You shouldn’t give someone permission to treat you like crap without speaking up for yourself.
You’re allowed to talk about your feelings. You’re allowed to approach someone who hurt you and explain the situation from your point of view. You’re allowed to request better treatment in the future.
Bottling up your feelings is going to backfire on you. It’s going to slowly pull you apart from your person. If you feel like you can’t talk to each other, that means you can’t really trust each other. That means you aren’t going to last long.
Remember, relationships are supposed to be about showing each other your true, uncensored selves. You’re not supposed to be pretending around them. You’re not supposed to tell little white lies. Your person shouldn’t expect you to be emotionless. Your person shouldn’t judge you for acting vulnerable in front of them.
Bottling up your feelings will end in a breakup. If you want to stay with your person, then you need to tell them what is running through your mind. You can’t expect them to play guessing games. And you can’t hold your opinions inside because you are worried about looking silly, either.
No matter how awkward and uncomfortable the conversation might feel, you cannot keep anything from your partner. You cannot hold secrets or grudges. You need to be open with them. You need to stop bottling up your feelings because keeping the peace right now will hurt you in the long-run. Meanwhile, actually gathering the courage talking about your feelings is going to strengthen you as a couple. It’s going to make you an even better team.