Read This When You Feel Like You’re Not As Strong As Everyone Thinks

There might be days when you feel weak, when you feel like you’re on the edge of a meltdown, when you feel like you cannot take this any longer, when you feel like everyone has the wrong idea about you.

Your friends and family and strangers on the internet might think you’re strong, but that’s only because they haven’t seen the real you. They haven’t seen your vulnerable side. They haven’t seen you breaking down crying in the middle of the bathroom. They haven’t seen you at your lowest, at your darkest, at the end of your rope.

Because they weren’t there for all of your most miserable moments, you might think they’re wrong about how strong you are — but they’re not. You are strong. Much stronger than you think. Much stronger than you will ever know.

You’re strong because you’ve allowed yourself to feel, to worry, to be vulnerable, to spill your heart out, to cry your eyes out, to scream into pillows and wipe away smeared mascara. You might think those things show weakness, but that’s not the case. It takes strength to be honest about your emotions instead of locking them deep down inside. It takes strength to express yourself. It takes strength to care.

You’re strong because you have been through a lot of shit but you’re still standing, still breathing, still fighting, still here. Maybe you feel broken. Maybe you feel bruised. But you’re alive.

You’re strong because even on your darkest days you’ve found reasons to keep going, to keep hoping, to keep holding on, to keep believing tomorrow is going to have something better in store for you than yesterday.

You’re strong because this world can be a brutal place. People aren’t always kind. Situations are not always fair. Life is not always easy. You’ve been dealt a few bad hands throughout your life but you’ve kept going anyway, you’ve kept chugging forward, you’ve kept going, kept going, kept going. And that, on its own, shows you exactly how strong you are.

You’re strong because you have baggage, you have flaws, you have a million reasons to get upset, to back down, to give up, but you’ve never quit. You’ve never lost complete faith in yourself. You might be more cynical than you used to be when you were younger, you might have unshakable insecurities, but there’s still a part of you that believes in your own potential. That’s why you’re here right now. Because, deep down, you know your worth. You know you deserve happiness. You know you deserve success. And you know that you are going to get it soon.

You’re strong because you’ve made it this far. Despite all of the bad things you’ve been through, despite the heartaches and losses, despite the traumas and horrors, you’ve made it until today. And you’re going to be able to make it until tomorrow, too.

At Your Lowest Point, Your Only Direction Is Up

Rock bottom. You’ve been spiraling, spinning, falling, and now you’ve crashed. You’ve sunk. You’ve shattered into what feels like a million pieces and you don’t have the strength to rise again. Parts of your heart are sprinkled all over the ground, getting trampled as people walk through, crumbling to dust and being taken by the wind.

You feel as if this is the end, the inevitable decline to the complete brokenness. You don’t want to move for fear of being pushed even farther. You don’t know which direction to turn. You’ve curled yourself into a ball and feel as if the only thing you can do is sit still, lost and numb.

You’ve forgotten who you are, you’ve distanced from those who care about you, you feel empty.

This is your lowest point.

But the beautiful thing about your lowest point, about reaching an end, about falling and crashing and hitting the ground, is that the only direction you can take from here is up.

You must gather what’s left of your pride and strength and rise to your feet again. You must find it within yourself to stand, to flex your muscles, to believe that something greater is coming and there is a purpose for what you’ve experienced. You must ask for help. You must know that this pain will build you, mold you, shape you, teach you.

You must believe that every second you stay alive and fight, you are already winning the battle.

I know it seems hopeless. I know you feel weak and purposeless. I know the last thing you think you can do is find your footing. I know it seems futile to wander around, picking up the broken pieces of your heart, or believing in anything good anymore.

But when you lose who you are, when you fall, when you break and when you’re defeated—you’ve reached your lowest moments. You cannot go any lower. You cannot be broken any further.

And you cannot be destroyed.

This is not the end. This is only the beginning of the next step. This is the moment where you hit ‘restart,’ and you begin anew.

This is the new page of your story, the new chapter, the new book on the shelf of your life—and this time you get to write the ending. This is the time where you find faith, where you believe in the power of your bones and blood, where you remember who you are and have always been. This is the time where you reach out to others, where you seek help, where you talk about what’s been burdening you and let yourself be opened to the light again. This is the time you realize you are loved, so incredibly much.

And you must fight for that love, and fight to love yourself.

You are broken. But not beyond repair.

This is your lowest point, but you’re not finished. From this dust and brokenness you will rise. From your failures you will flourish. From your pain you will find purpose. From the ache you will allow love and growth and rebirth.

You will be strong because the only direction from here is up, not lower, not weaker, not anything less. I know you don’t want to move, don’t want to try, don’t want to exist another day.

But you must remember that this is not where your story concludes.
Turn the page. Start a new chapter. Open a new book.

This is not an ending, but an epilogue, where you say what happened to you but how you grew from it, how it changed you, how you became and rose from those lowest moments.

This is the part of the book where you preview the next story—one the rest of the world can’t wait to read.