We Might Just Need to Talk. Our Mind Needs to Be Heard
We need to be heard-not just by anyone, but by ourselves. Until that happens, our minds never truly rest.
7/15/20262 min read
We all are holding so much inside of us.
Some of what we hold, we know.
Some of it, we know we are holding but choose to ignore.
And some of it… we never even realize we are carrying until it starts coming out.
The negativity.
The anger.
The hurt.
The disappointment.
The guilt.
The fear.
None of it disappears just because we don’t talk about it.
It stays.
And slowly, it becomes the residue we carry into our everyday lives.
The question is not whether we need to let it out.
The question is… Where? And How?
Without it affecting our lives or the lives of the people around us.
Most people don’t blast out in public.
Most don’t scream at home either.
They hold it in.
Some cry alone in the washroom.
Some bury their face in the pillow and let the tears do the talking.
And some…
Some only let it out in their dreams.
Those strange, horrifying, completely unrelated dreams that we wake up from and dismiss with, “What a weird dream. Must be because of that movie I watched.”
I’ve started wondering if they’re really that random. Or if dreams are simply the one place where everything we’ve been holding finally gets a chance to speak. Not in a language we immediately understand.
But in images.
In stories.
In symbols.
As if the mind knows it cannot stay silent forever.
A few days ago, I was talking to a very dear friend.
With all the love and concern in her heart, she scolded me.
“Are you a dumping ground? Tell him to sit in front of a wall and dump whatever he wants. You’re a human being, not a dumpster.”
Honestly…
It felt good.
It felt nice knowing someone cared enough to protect me.
But her words stayed with me.
Can you really dump your emotions in front of a wall?
Can you really sit in front of a mirror and let everything out?
I tried. It didn’t work. Because venting isn’t just about speaking. It’s about being heard.
A few days later, another close friend called.
Not because I had done anything.
Not because she wanted my advice.
She simply felt alone.
She needed someone to listen while she let everything she had been carrying finally come out.
She cried.
She spoke.
She paused.
She cried again.
And I did very little. I just stayed.
When the call ended, I kept thinking about the difference between talking and being heard.
Maybe that is why a wall doesn’t work.
Maybe words don’t leave us just because we say them.
Maybe they leave because someone receives them.
I’m still sitting with that thought.
Because if that is true, then perhaps we’ve misunderstood what it means to “let it out.”
Perhaps we don’t need to shout.
Perhaps we don’t even need advice.
Perhaps what we need is another human being who can simply stay.
And maybe that also explains why so much of what we never say finds its way into our dreams.
If there is nowhere for those emotions to go during the day, perhaps they don’t disappear.
They simply wait.
Waiting for the only time the mind lowers its guard.
Waiting for the only place where they can finally speak.
Not through words. But through dreams.
And maybe that's why being heard matters so much.
Because every emotion will find a way out eventually.
The only real question is whether it leaves through a conversation…
or through a dream.