Talking as a tool to heal
For as long as I can remember, being afraid to talk has been a characteristic of me. It wasn’t until a few years back that I faced many professional challenges that I was forced to lose the fear of speaking up in many situations and instead use my voice to reach a goal.
Recently though, I have found in talking a way to start healing many of the wounds and struggles I deal with every day. It is hard enough to acknowledge your pain to yourself, but it is another to face someone else and say “hey, I am broken and this is what happens to me”.
While the anxiety and fear produced by just the thought of talking is overwhelming, and overthinking about the right words to use in order to express rightly and how to react about the other person’s opinion is inevitable; there’s something liberating about just pronouncing and even typing the first words, knowing that by saying them out loud we’re actually healing ourselves somehow.
Talking might not be something that works for every single person. In my case, I tend to need a lot of time on my own to process things in my head so that I can then speak about them; whereas for some it might be the contrary or they never reach the point of talking (which I am no one to say if it’s good or bad).
I would dare to say though, that those who prefer not to talk (including me before and still in many cases), choose not to do it because of fear; fear of being misunderstood, misjudged, ignored… But it is a risk worth taking, sometimes you just need to say the words out loud to be able to actually hear yourself and understand things; and if you’re lucky enough (I believe there’s always someone somewhere who will want to listen and help) you will get a hand sooner than later, even through a text.
