Feel It First: On Mental Health & Healing
There was a time when I believed I had to hold it all together—no matter what I was feeling inside.
I thought emotional strength meant keeping things neat and tidy. That if I just pushed the hard feelings aside, stayed positive, and stayed in control, I could keep moving forward.
But the truth is, I wasn’t moving forward. I was bypassing. I was stuffing down grief, anger, fear, and exhaustion, and telling myself I was “fine.”
And for a while, that worked. Until it didn’t.
Until the feelings I had buried started showing up in my body. In my burnout. In my relationships. In the way I snapped at my kids or zoned out at the end of the day, completely numb.
Eventually, I learned what I now believe is the core of all healing:
You have to feel it first.
Not intellectualize it.
Not fix it.
Not turn it into a checklist.
Feel it.
Because the feelings we avoid don’t disappear—they just go underground, growing louder in the quiet moments, asking for our attention in ways we don’t always recognize.
Feeling is not weakness. It’s wisdom.
And it’s often the doorway to the exact thing we’re craving: peace, clarity, healing, and connection.
In this episode of The Good Daughter Society Podcast, I talk about how I stopped trying to out-think my emotions and started listening to them instead. I share what this shift looked like in real time—messy, uncomfortable, and ultimately liberating.
So if you’re someone who’s been holding it all together for too long…
If you’ve been trying to be strong by ignoring your softness…
If you’ve been wondering why the healing isn’t happening even though you’re “doing the work”...
This is your reminder:
The work is the feeling.
Not all at once. Not alone. Not without support.
But gently. Slowly. Honestly.
You don’t need to earn rest.
You don’t need to justify your sadness.
You don’t need to explain why something hurts.
You just get to feel it.
And from there, everything begins to change.
✨ This one’s for the feelers.
Listen to this soul-deep episode of The Good Daughter Society Podcast:
🎧 Feel It First: On Mental Health & Healing
I share what it really looks like to let yourself feel before you fix, and why emotional honesty—not bypassing—is the foundation of real healing.
If you’ve ever been told you’re “too sensitive” or felt pressure to keep it all together, this conversation will remind you:
Your feelings aren’t the problem. They’re the path.
XO, LB
