Brad Schipke argues that feeling emotions after trauma isn't weakness. He thought healing meant public vulnerability, but realized real recovery happens when you privately feel and release what's inside. Confronting emotions alone takes courage.
You're not bad. You're not weak. You're not a coward for having emotions. Everybody feels emotion. That's the thing, is that there's not a single person on this planet who doesn't feel emotions. Take the most successful person in the world, or whoever you think is the strongest, they still feel emotion. Whether or not they tell you, or whether or not they show you, or whether or not they actively release it or process it is one thing. But I can guarantee you that unless they're a psychopath, they feel emotion. And I thought that in order for me to heal, I needed to break down and cry in front of other people, and I need to just be this emotional wreck. But that's not true. The only thing that matters in your own recovery is you feeling and releasing the emotions. It actually takes courage to do it. So a strong person releases their emotions. Doesn't mean they put them on other people. But I told myself, if I'm going to solve this problem for me, if I'm going to fix myself for myself, for my family, for the world, then I have to confront these emotions within myself. And I did that on my own time in private. So that's how you can do it too. You don't have to show the world, but you do have to face it yourself.
