Say Hooray for the Raisin Day ...
A very wise griever recently told me about their raisin days. The days on which performing ‘okay’ is just too, too much. The days on which they need to shut themselves away from the world and just let it all out.
Why ‘raisin’ day? Well, shedding a really cathartic number of tears can turn the juiciest grape into the most shrivelled up raisin – but who cares? The point is - no one’s looking.
Moving through our everyday with grief sitting just behind our eyeballs, hotness threatening to burst a larva of tears in the direction of anyone who speaks to us is a pressure too much to bear.
We all do it. We do it because we’re protecting others from their discomfort. We do it because we’re protecting ourselves from going there in public. Again.
Whatever our reasons, stored up emotion we’re trying to ignore is going nowhere. It needs an outlet and you need to allow it one. A raisin day.
Here are some prompts to consider:
Be somewhere you’re safe, uninterrupted and comfortable.
Make silent all contact devices.
Let someone close to you know what you are doing and schedule a time when you’ll check back in, so you’re all reassured you’re safe.
Try to have a head clear from any substances, caffeine, alcohol etc.
And then, indulge. Put on the songs. Watch the visuals. Read the letters. Feel the relief.
TOP TIP:
Find it hard to lean in? Dead Positive highly recommend a watch of the Oscar nominated documentary Come See Me in the Good Light.
As heart shattering as it is uplifting.