For over ten years I’ve made a conscious effort to make my health and well-being my #1 priority. I try to eat healthy, I have a (semi) regular yoga and meditation practice, I’ve chosen career opportunities that are aligned with my Soul’s purpose, and I do my best to balance my work and personal life so that I feel happy and fulfilled. But guess what? I’m not happy 100% of the time.

In fact, I’d say that I still spend a decent chunk of my time buried in self-criticism, self-doubt, and general stress. I lose my temper, I cry, I hurt, I make mistakes. Because as I posted recently on Facebook:

Let’s face it: sometimes life is hard. And no matter how many positive affirmations you recite, green smoothies you drink, or yoga classes you attend, there will be times when your heart hurts. Your heart will hurt for yourself, for your family, and/or for your friends. None of us escape this fate. And on the days when you feel like you can’t go any further, you do what we all do. You take a step forward. And then another one. You breathe in. You breathe out. You take your shattered self through the motions and you hope that time heals. Sometimes it does. Sometimes it doesn’t. This is the paradox and the mystery of life. Our strength comes from recognizing this fact – not hiding from it.

In other words, sweeping our difficulties under the rug doesn’t serve anyone. Life is a continual wave of ups and downs, and the more we cling to the ups and reject the downs, the more resistance we create and the more we struggle.

Lately when I’ve found my heart hurting for myself and others, I’ve been receiving a consistent message:

“Hold it.”

Sometimes I can’t fix my problems or my family’s problems or my friends’ problems. In these situations, the best I can do is hold space. Hold space for myself and for others to heal. Hold space for waves of emotions to pass through. Hold space for anger and tears and frustration and loss and regret and forgiveness.

As Kate Tempest shares in this amazing spoken word poem, I hold my own.

In Tempest’s words: “When all there is is knowing that you feel what you are feeling, hold your own.” Sometimes, this is all that we can do.

Stop trying to fix it or gloss over it or figure it all out. Stop affirming and meditating and juicing and distracting yourself. Just be with it. Experience the ebbs and flows of life as they pass. Don’t hide from them or run away.

Stand in the storm and hold your own. @BethanyButzer (Click to Tweet!)

Regardless of how everything turns out, you will emerge on the other side so much stronger than you were before. You might be cracked. You might be broken. You might not know how you are going to keep moving. But, as Leonard Cohen so beautifully wrote:

Ring the bells that still can ring

Forget your perfect offering

There is a crack, a crack in everything

That’s how the light gets in.

Bethany Butzer, Ph.D. is an author, speaker, researcher, and yoga teacher who helps people create a life they love. Check out her book, The Antidepressant Antidote, follow her on Facebook and Twitter, and join her whole-self health revolution.

If you’d like tips on how to create a life you love, plus some personal instruction from Bethany, check out her online course, Creating A Life You Love: Find Your Passion, Live Your Purpose and Create Financial Freedom.

Image courtesy of Dylan Luder.