10/12/2026
For most of my life I thought I was handling it.
The wave of anxiety would come,
that tight feeling in my chest,
the emotion rising before I even had a name for it,
and I would just... not.
I’d take a breath, straighten up, and keep going.
Make dinner. Answer the texts. Get everyone sorted.
And I told myself that was strength.
That’s what mothers do.
You push through.
You hold it together.
You deal with things.
But the wave never actually went away.
It just went underground.
Simmering quietly in the background while I kept moving.
Always there. Never dealt with.
I didn’t realise that every time I did that, I was leaving myself.
And it wasn’t in a dramatic manner.
It wasn’t all at once.
Just in tiny, quiet moments, over and over again,
until I was so far from my own feelings I didn’t even know what I actually felt anymore.
I just knew I was tired. And I couldn’t explain why.
If this sounds familiar, I want you to know…
you’re not broken.
You’re not too sensitive.
You’re not bad at handling life.
You just learned a very long time ago that your feelings had to wait.
And nobody ever told you that you didn’t have to do that anymore.
I see you. 💜
Rashelle Platt | Emotional Safety
