The Vital Importance of Safe Spaces

I never really understood the importance of [emotionally] safe spaces until I found myself in the middle of so many unsafe ones.

And goodness knows, the world is full of primarily unsafe ones.

When we talk about healing and letting go, we are talking about a process which looks something like-

A thing happens.

My mind, which is only trying to protect me, creates a meaning about that thing which is most likely going to be negative as the mind is constantly trying to pick up any and all, perceived or real, potential threats to my person.

An emotion arises in response to that meaning.

I either hold on to the emotion (common);

Or I allow it to be fully felt and eventually let it go (healing).

In this way, healing is simply the journey releasing those emotions we haven’t yet let go of.

Often, when we decide to hold on to an emotion, it is because we are too scared to let it go.

What if we are ridiculed, rejected, or seen as not good enough? What if we are told we are being too sensitive, too soft, too dramatic? What if, in letting this emotion out, we must let go of something which has been with us for so long, that it has woven its way into the fabric of our…