Hi, Friend! It’s me, Jen Glantz.
Here's a secret in life that nobody tells you until it's too late.
You have to get stuff out of your body for your body to be able to function okay.
I'm not talking about poop or pee or whatever comes out of your mouth when you belch. I'm not talking about ear wax or eye crud or the pus from our pimples that rise to the surface and you just chip away at until it leaves a giant scar on the side of our face (you should see the constellations on my left cheek after 20 years of this).
I'm talking about the inner stuff. The pain. The memories. The things we don't even realize that we're carrying around because we don't think about them every single day…
…maybe every other day or once a week or honestly never until we smell the perfume again or that Boyz II Men song comes on or you're walking down a street you swear you've never been on and you see a Sunglass Hut, yes that Sunglass Hut, and then all of a sudden you feel things like you're trapped inside a closet that pumps out different emotions you're forced to put on every few seconds.
We keep so much inside of us.
Scroll on social media all day and convince yourself that there are people out there who only live happy perfect lives, but you’re being a fool.
We all have things we’re fighting inside. Of different magnitudes and it's never about whose are worse. You can't be bothered to play that game because you know it's not one anyone wants to win. It's not one anyone even wants to play.
It doesn't matter if your pant size is too big for you or is so snug around your waist that it leaves indentation marks when you sit in them all day, you're carrying around sooooo much that it's dangerous. It pushes on your heart. It's probably the reason why you can never get to the end of that one dream you have over and over again.
The people I enjoy the most are the ones that when you ask them how their day is going they tell you 3-4 of the biggest traumas they can't seem to swallow in their life.
How they have this second cousin who doesn't stop hitting them up for money even though they aren't technically blood related or maybe they are struggling with an addiction and once someone I met at the playground told me that she’s been married for 3-years but she can’t stop thinking about an ex.
Sure, it would be nice if at the playground the conversation lingered around whether the weather was too hot or cold for the season, but that’s boring. That’s life wasted!
So if you're not a problem talker, I understand you deeply.
But there are other ways.
Boxing. You can hit a punching bag soooo many times over and over again in some of these classes that even if you try to hold your hullabaloo in, it will pop out of you. It will find a way to oooooze out.
You can write (helllo!!! this is me!!!! I write it all out).
You can go to therapy.
You can paint.
You can…I don't need to tell you because by now you have your own way. Maybe you don't even realize you have a way but you do because you have lived so much of your life already and have found a way to get the problems out of you when you're desperate or when you feel like you have no other choice but to spill your own beans.
I hope you remember that you need to get stuff out of you because when you do it's not like the problems will go away and it's not like they will feel any better. They are still yours and they may linger for a very long time. But you will feel better.
I'm teaching a 2.5 year old toddler all about sharing these days.
Do we have to share everything? she asks and I want to be honest with her.
Not everything, I tell her. But it does feel good when we do.
And even if we share our problems to the thin air or the invisible friend or the passing winds, it's still sharing.
And come on, you have to admit, it does feel good.
Take care of yourself this week (ilysm),
This book pulled me apart, slowly, as if I was string cheese, until literally the final last sentence of the book. It ended. I cried. It was the kind of book experience that is so hard to pull off that I can’t stop praising this book. I listened to the audiobook version and stayed up way too late to finish.
I don’t talk much about my “work” here but this is what I’ve been up to the last few years and I’m soooo proud of the article.
I am beyond obsessed with this workout series on TikTok. I picke 2-3 videos and do them every night. They are only 5 minutes long but always leave me sooo sore. Plus, I can do them at home and only need these bala bangles and these three-pound weights.
I’ve purchased this deodorant 14 times (according to my purchase history) which means I’ve probably been using it for at least 4-years. I loooove looove it and I am a very sweaty person.
The shoes all the girlies are wearing in Brooklyn these days.
I keep these scattered all over my apartment.
I swear by this shampoo and conditioner! Changed my hair big-time.
A podcast episode on friendship and sometimes not fitting in.
Thank you for reading this week’s pick-me-up. I adore you! I’ll be back in your inbox on Monday. Until then, hit reply and say helllloooo!
If you want to follow me on @jenglantz, I’d love it. And if you have anything to share or ask, hit reply or comment below.
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And also, tell me everything:
Good job and saying yes!! BTW inviters LOVE being invited (or so I hear! 😉)
Congratulations on you NY Post article!! Woo Hoo!!🎉🥰