I spent the first 30 years of my life feeling angry, defensive, and never quite feeling like it was safe to express how I felt. I worried about how others would react, if they’d leave, and if I could even trust myself to speak up without hurting the people I loved.
(Especially since I’d only express my anger after it had been bottled up for a long time and would explode.)
What I’ve realized in the last decade is this: just because you grow up without knowing how to express how you feel doesn’t mean you can’t learn. When you make anger your ally, you learn ways to keep your feelings in check without bottling them up. You stop feeling like the meanest mom on the block and start truly loving yourself, eye rolls and all.