I'm just going to be upfront with ya'll, I have severe anxiety. I've struggled with it most of my life. I know that a lot of people struggle with anxiety so I'm not here to play a game of "Who Can I One-Up?" I'm here to tell you all to breathe. Life is so damn hard. Do not let anyone tell you that you don't have a right to feel stressed out or upset or angry at how things are going. Don't let anyone tell you that you shouldn't feel like life is tough because other people have it worse. They're right, they do. But your life is your life. You have no control over other people, you have control over you, and it's okay to feel any damn thing you want to feel. However, keep in mind that we still need to feel blessed. You can feel blessed for having a roof over your head, but you can also be frustrated because your water bill is so high. You can feel angry because your cars check engine light came on, but you have to remind yourself to feel blessed for having a car in the first place. And if your family is anything like mine, they will drive you completely insane and make you want to rip your hair out, but I am BLESSED to have them in my life. We are allowed to feel emotions. But we should take a minute after our emotions have settled to be thankful for the things that we do have. It's hard, and it takes a lot of work, but once you find yourself feeling blessed for the things you have, a different kind of peace will follow you.

With that being said, if you're anything like me, you find yourself running into rough times often: you don't have enough money for something, you hate asking for help but you need it, your car broke down, you had a bad dream so now you're brain is finding it hard to focus on anything else, you're worried about your friends, you're fighting with your family, you got in trouble at work, your boyfriend broke up with you, you got a speeding ticket, or you're just feeling down and you don't know why. Maybe one of these things happened in a week. Maybe all of them happened in a day. Maybe none of them happened, but something else did and you are finding it harder and harder to feel thankful and blessed for the life that you have. Sometimes we just need a moment, we need to take 15 seconds out of our day to breathe. Sometimes, just that breath is enough to keep you going. And as long as you get through the day, it doesn't matter that you go home that night and cry so hard that you scream. Because you did it, you survived that day. You lived for one more day. You felt that pain, and you know that you are alive. If we lived in a perfect world, where everyone was happy all the time, how would we know that we are alive? If all we feel is one emotion every day, for the rest of our lives, how would we know that we are living?

The way I see it, we need those hard times. We need rough days, rough weeks, or even a rough year. We need them in order to look back when it's over and think, I survived that. I pushed through and came out on this side. My life is better than what it used to be. It might be hard right now, but next time you're outside, stop for a second and feel the sun on your skin, or feel the wind on your face. Listen to the birds or cars. Feel what it's like to be alive. Feel something other than sorrow and anger. Feel something good. And hold on to it. Keep it in your memories, so that when things do get better, and they will, you can feel it again and remember that you made it through. And if you can push past this, you can make it through anything. I promise that what you feel is temporary. Let yourself feel it. Let yourself live. Because the grass might not always be greener, but the sun still shines, even through the clouds.