​​​​​It’s officially summer break around here and it has me reminiscing on all the ways I used to spend my summers as a kid. Riding our bikes through the neighborhood… begging our parents for endless sleepovers… walking to the local mini-mart for an extra-large fountain drink where you put a little bit of each flavor into a giant vat of soda.

Did you do that too?? Remember how horrific it tasted and how you defended it to any adult that turned their nose up at it?

Well, I do.

The idea of that sticky-sweet concoction makes my stomach turn a bit now that I’m no longer 12 years old.

And yet it was the most normal thing in the world to do in the summer of 1991… mixing more than one thing together and enjoying it despite its odd flavor.

And you know what else is normal to mix together??

More than one feeling… at the same time.

Humans are complex beings and it is unrealistic to think that anyone could have only one feeling at once. Instead, we have so many of them AT THE SAME TIME. And it’s wonderful… and it also kind of sucks.

We forget that it’s completely normal to feel more than one feeling and we try to force ourselves to only have one. Which never works. It’s completely ok to feel sad and excited, to feel overwhelmed and hopeful, to feel confused and exhilarated.

Honestly… feelings are just like the endless options at the fountain drink machine… more than one can get mixed together and you’ll still be ok.

And just like mixing fountain drinks and coming up with your own unique flavor of soda… I encourage you to allow ALL the feelings you have to also be ok.

Don’t judge them, don’t put a value on them… just let them be. They’re there to alert you that something is going on so that you can process it through and release it.

So join me in letting all those good and normal feelings mix together and enjoy them for just what they are… normal and good.

You got this.

-A

P.S. If feelings absolutely overwhelm you, or the idea of having more than one at the same time makes your stomach turn… please reach out… I’m here to support you as you get your feet (and feelings) under you.