As a little girl, I was NEVER still.
Dad would say, “Dammit, Annika. Be STILL.”
In church, in the car, in the elevator.
Maybe now I have figured out the beauty of STILLNESS.
Clarity comes in stillness.
When I watch the clouds drift, something softens.
That urgent feeling loosens its grip, my heart rate lowers, and peace begins to rise without force.
Stillness is its own kind of courage—
to NOT chase what is not ready.
None of us have it all together.
We are all just trying to put one foot in front of the other.
We scroll, we compare, we measure ourselves against impossibly curated lives, filtered faces, ridiculous standards.
We try to fix, refine, perfect—sometimes even reshape ourselves under the sharp edge of expectation.
So when my shoulders are up around my ears, my hands are trembling with anxiety, and eyes welled up with tears, being still, closing my eyes, and seeing, feeling, and hearing the clouds drift by brings me back to the stillness. I am grounded. Feet on the ground. 100% here. Every cell in my body purposeful; every droplet of water in that cloud supposed to be right there. Just… Breathe and stop.
Remember Q-Tip’s lyrics:
…Breathe and stop, for real…
And give it what you got…
And just uh, breathe and stop for real…
And give it what you got.
Give it what you got, give it what you got…
And if you on the block then give it what you got!
And then next the first movement… it has to be a smile… even if it is the tiniest smile. I know it sounds corny. But also say it if you have to, but with a smile: “F*CK, it is gonna be okay. NOT ‘what if…,’ but ‘what now.’” (I’m telling you, it works. And there is science behind it . ) Choose yourself and GO. Any negativity has transformed from darkness to that beautiful puffy cloud and is moving onward and forward. That is loving yourself, choosing yourself, and going. So spread that part of you. Shine your light.
Because our superpower is love. We have that ability; that differentiator. And loving yourself and choosing yourself in a world that constantly tells you to be someone else is POWER. That is courage in its rawest form.
And when you choose yourself—openly, fully, honestly, imperfectly—you give others permission to do the same, and that kind of authenticity frees people, changes things, spreads.
So…let go.
Let go of what hurts you more than it heals.
Let go if staying costs you your peace, your voice, your sense of who YOU are.
Let go when holding on feels like you have lost yourself.
Let go when your needs feel like something to apologize for.
Let go when you have to shrink just to stay.
Letting go never erases what was real—
it honors it.
Letting go is choosing yourself.
Choosing a life where you can breathe again.
Walking away before you disappear inside something that no longer fits.
References: https://news.stanford.edu/stories/2022/10/posing-smiles-can-brighten-mood
