These 4 words came out of A+ therapist’s mouth at our last session. I was talking about the nervousness I feel about an upcoming workshop I’m doing for an event focused on nature and healing. I have been nervous about the event since I said yes because I feel like what do I really have to offer. I am not an expert in the ways nature can help one heal. I am not certified in meditation. I don’t have perfect posture when I meditate. I am certainly not zen all the time or some enlightened being… you know this if you’ve ever driven in rush hour traffic with me. I am clearly not an expert on healing as I am not healed. I am just an everyday person trying to navigate chronic illness using a myriad of tools often accompanied by colorful language.

After I took breath from reciting the above mentioned monologue of about why I am clearly not qualified to lead a workshop on healing that A+ stopped me and said, “Your story is your gift” and she added, “Maybe not having all the answers is the answer.” Taking a breath in a therapy session is a dangerous thing to do because the therapists sees it as an open invitation to hit you with what I like to call “Therapy Truths.”

I have to give it to her and therapists everywhere as they can say these short “Therapy Truth” sentences that just stop you in your tracks. It’s clearly a skill they work on routinely in therapy school. As good as they are at it I am guessing they spend hours practicing these phrases and how to deliver them so easily as if they are saying, “Yes, the sky is blue today.” “Therapy Truths” are always such simple ideas that leave you thinking to yourself, “Why the hell did I need to pay someone to tell me that?”

A+ is right that my story is my gift, but to share that gift I have to be vulnerable and human… two of my favorite things to do and my two greatest strengths. I have to admit that I don’t have the answers. I have to admit that there are many days that suck and I get through the day by embracing the fact that it sucks. I have to admit that for all the times I seem strong and put together, there are just as many, if not more that I am a puddle of tears, anger, sadness, and self-pity. I have to admit that I don’t have it all figured out.

After talking with A+ I realized I was approaching this workshop from the perspective that it had to be perfect and people had to leave with more answers than they walked in the door with. I realize now this workshop is about me sharing my story and giving people tools that have helped me and continue to help me along this journey. We don’t connect with people who only share the easy parts of a journey and make the journey look like it’s full of sunshine and rainbows without a cloudy day ever in sight. We all have those people in our lives who never seem to have a bad day, get angry, make a mistake, feel anything except everything is ok. etc and these people are hard to truly connect with because life isn’t all sunshine and rainbows.

We connect with people who are real, raw, vulnerable, and human. We connect with people who heal out loud and who are unapologetically themselves. That’s what this blog is for me.. a way of healing out loud. It’s much easier to do behind a computer screen when I can’t see your facial reactions when you read these posts and try to make it through my horrific grammar skills. It’s much harder to do in a room of people who are looking to you for wisdom..and not wisdom wrapped up in song lyrics, sarcasm, and the latest celebrity news.

We all have a story and our story is our gift. When we speak and live our stories out loud we give others the permission to do the same with their stories. So live your story out loud. Embrace each and every part of your story for it has made you who you are today. Don’t wait until you have all the answers or you’re in a good part of your story to share it. Share every messy, raw, vulnerable, and human chapter of your story… even the chapters you want to edit out. Share your story even if others don’t want to hear it, can’t hear it, choose not to hear it, don’t understand it, etc. You never know.. it might just be the story someone else needs to hear.