When Healing Feels Heavy: Put it Down...

Healing is not a straight path. It’s not a perfect journey of progress, free from doubt, exhaustion, or setbacks. Some days, healing feels like growth—like shedding old layers and stepping into the light of something new. Other days, it feels like standing still, staring at the weight of everything you’re carrying, wondering if you’ll ever feel light again.

Today, I’m in the thick of it.

I feel like I’m constantly running on empty, like there are too many demands and not enough of me to go around. I compare myself to others, measuring my worth against what I think I should be accomplishing. I see people thriving, juggling endless responsibilities, making it all look effortless. And then there’s me—exhausted, overwhelmed, wondering if I’m enough.

And then, there’s the voice in my head that whispers: But aren’t you supposed to be healing? Shouldn’t you have it together by now?

That voice is relentless. It tells me that because I talk about healing, because I believe in holistic well-being, because I try to help others, I should always have my life perfectly aligned. That if I struggle, I must be failing. That if I fall apart, I must be a fraud.

But here’s the truth: healing doesn’t mean always getting it right. It doesn’t mean never struggling. It doesn’t mean having an endless supply of energy and patience.

Healing is not about perfection. It’s about honesty.

Healing means learning to give yourself grace, especially when you feel like you don’t deserve it. It’s knowing that exhaustion doesn’t mean failure. That setbacks don’t erase progress. That needing rest doesn’t make you weak.

It’s easy to feel like a fraud when you’re still fighting battles you thought you’d already won. When the old wounds you swore had healed begin to ache again. But growth isn’t linear. The past has a way of resurfacing in new ways, forcing us to face it again from a different angle. That doesn’t mean we’re back where we started—it means we’re peeling back another layer, going deeper, healing more.

And yet, in the midst of it all, it’s so easy to get lost in self-comparison.

I think about the people who seem to do it all. The mothers who balance careers, kids, relationships, and personal growth. The entrepreneurs who build empires effortlessly. The ones who make healing look like a graceful unfolding rather than the messy, complicated process it truly is.

I wonder if my struggles make me less than.

If my exhaustion means I’m not strong enough.

If my grief, my doubts, my anxieties are proof that I’m not as resilient as I should be.

But the truth is, there is no ‘should’ in healing. There is only where we are, what we can do, and how much we can carry in this moment.

So today, I’m giving myself permission to set it down.

The guilt. The comparison. The pressure to be more.

Today, surviving is enough. Resting is enough. Showing up—even in my messiness—is enough.

And if you’re carrying too much today, I want you to set it down too.

You don’t have to carry the weight of the world. You don’t have to meet anyone’s expectations but your own. You don’t have to justify your exhaustion. You don’t have to prove your worth through endless productivity.

Healing isn’t about being unbreakable. It’s about learning that even in your breaking, even in your lowest moments, you are still whole. You are still worthy. And you are not alone.

Take a deep breath, love. Set it down. You don’t have to carry it all today.