You Are Allowed to Feel Okay

I don’t know who needs to hear this, but you are allowed to feel okay, even now.

Even with everything going on.
Even with the news that doesn’t stop.
Even with that quiet heaviness sitting somewhere in your chest.

Because sometimes it feels wrong, doesn’t it?

To laugh.
To rest.
To have a good day when so many things are not good.

It almost feels like you are doing something bad, like you are ignoring reality or choosing comfort over awareness. Like, if you are not constantly thinking about everything that is broken, then maybe you do not care enough.

But that is not true.

Feeling okay is not betrayal.
Rest is not indifference.
Softness is not ignorance.

You are a human being, not a machine built to process pain all the time.

And I think we forget that.

We forget that we can hold two things at once.
We can care deeply about what is happening around us and still protect the parts of us that need lightness.
We can be aware and still choose moments of joy without guilt.

You do not have to punish yourself to prove that you care.

So if you find something that makes you laugh, laugh fully.
If your body asks for rest, give it rest.
If your heart finds a small pocket of peace, do not rush to leave it.

Stay there for a while.

Because the truth is, the world will keep happening. There will always be something demanding your attention, your anger, your energy.

But you deserve moments where you are not carrying everything.

Moments where you are just here. Breathing. Existing. Being held by something softer than the noise outside.

And that is how we keep going.

Not by hardening ourselves against everything, but by allowing ourselves to feel okay in between it all.

Not as an escape. But as survival.

All my love,

-Olamide from MANI