It gets better.

Sometimes it’s hard to swallow those words.

They taste sour.

They feel forced.

They sit in the pit of your stomach, taking a long time to digest.

Especially when you’re in it.

Like when you’re in the thick of the newborn phase---sleep deprived, feeling over it-- those words don’t help. They sometimes almost feel mocking.

It gets better.

When you’re at the start of recovery and trying to survive the day-to-day giving it your everything and still falling short people often use this phrase.

When every moment all you want to do is cry—because it’s the hardest hard you’ve ever faced, someone will rest their hand on your shoulder and whisper into your ear, it gets better.

You want to fast forward through the hard and get to “the better," but there’s a reason you can’t do that.

Wrapped deep in the hard is a gift--a silver lining that helps you grow.

Because it’s how you respond and rise to the hard that helps you become stronger and puts everything into perspective. If you could use a magic wand or flip a switch to achieve the same results, you wouldn’t have the same growth.

Because what is left hanging after your world gets flipped upside down are the people that matter. The people that stay through it all are the people that deserve your time.

When you’re in that upside down is the only time that it’s good to cut the fat out of your life—and I don’t mean that extra five pounds. That five pounds will do nothing for your happiness.

I’m talking about losing the weight of the people holding you back and adding to your burden.

I’m talking about losing the weight that society burdens you with by pressuring you to be something or someone maybe you’re not.

All while losing the weight of that thing, you were struggling with that caused the hard time.

Because when you lose this kind of weight—you become the best version of yourself: lighter, freer, more YOU than ever before.

When you shed the weight of who you’re supposed to be, you become who you were meant to be.

The darkness makes you appreciate the light. You can see everything so much clearer when the light turns on after being in pitch black for so long.

And that happens when it gets better—

because it DOES get better.

This post originally appeared on the author's Facebook. Her book Living FULL: Winning My Battle with Eating Disorder is available on Amazon: https://amzn.to/2O4mJId