Finding your words in the discomfort

Fosterverse Weekly #33

Lyle McKeany

and

Sara Campbell

Dec 18, 2024

Hey Writers!

A few days ago, our very own

Sara Campbell

published a piece entitled F*ck Happiness in which she dug into a recent revelation about her propensity for feeling restless and agitated.

This state of agitation isn't new to me, and after years of fighting it, I've come to a counterintuitive realization: maybe it's not something to be fixed. Maybe these uncomfortable states — which lead me to affectionately refer to myself as a head case — are actually trying to tell me something important.

If you believe what you see from a lot of influencers on social media, it might seem as if they’re all living their best lives. What you’re not seeing are the people who aren’t able to somehow carve out time for their perfect morning routines that set them up for outsized success and leave them feeling grateful, happy, and fulfilled as they slide into their temperature-controlled mattresses each night.

Sara argues that maybe it’s okay if your life isn’t always comfortable.

True wellness isn't about feeling good all the time. It's about having the capacity to feel everything and still show up. It's about recognizing that our darkest moods, our most difficult states, our moments of pure frustration — these aren't failures of self-care. They're part of the full spectrum of human experience, and sometimes they're exactly what we need to move forward.

As I read her piece, I thought about how when you’re feeling uncomfortable, spicy, angry, or [insert any other negative emotion] those are great times to turn to the page and let them flow through you and onto the page. I mean, that’s basically what she did when she wrote her piece.

Sometimes we find our most powerful words in the discomfort.

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Note that we’re taking the next couple of weeks off from this newsletter for the holidays. We appreciate all of you who read our words and engage with the published pieces from our community members each week. Have a great holiday season and a happy new year!