By Stephanie Linehan
In 2020 I purged a lot. We probably all did, stuck at home. Donations weren’t accepted anywhere due to the pandemic. Garbage bags upon garbage bags of our stuff to be donated accumulated in our garage. Once secondhand shops did finally open, they had limited hours for donating and it was by appointment only. I made an appointment - that I so greatly looked forward to - and once I was able to get rid of it all, it felt so good! Cathartic.
Fast forward three years. I had just a few garbage bags of items ready to be donated. I walked up to the local secondhand shop. It felt so good to purge and donate. Once to the door, I held it open for someone carrying in this tray of beautifully arranged earrings. Each pair attached to a simply decorated piece of tagboard backing; all the earrings lined up in neat rows. It was very appealing to the eye. I asked the woman if she had made all of them. She replied no and that she just cleaned them up to be resold. A store volunteer warmly greeted the woman at the door to take the tray off her hands. You could tell from their interaction they knew each other and perhaps this wasn’t the woman’s first tray of refurbished earrings. My thoughts turned to what an example of beautiful servant leadership this was. That’s for another blog - wink, wink. Anywho, I placed my donations in the corner, was warmly thanked, and on my way feeling lighter and happy. This world is such a beautiful place.
I return home. Within a few hours, my sister, Allison, calls. She had gotten herself wrapped up in some back and forth on social media. And shared how she had been pretty assertive in recent exchanges among colleagues. She opened up, became vulnerable (Brene Brown!), and basically was getting at - why does she always do this? She wasn’t feeling very good about herself. Allison is a passionate teacher. She also is an incredible single mother of two awesome boys. She gives life and everyone she loves her all. Our conversation turned to realizing she needed (a healthier) emotional or physical release for all this stored up energy. It reminded me of storing up all those donations and the relief I finally felt as a result of giving it all away. Cathartic.
I’ll openly admit here. Some of you know. I was bulimic - or maybe as Glennon Doyle put it recently due to her own struggle/journey - a recovering bulimic or perhaps maybe … always a bulimic? It’s been nearly 25 years. The bulimic thoughts are always there; not necessarily the action. Bulimia is like donating to a secondhand shop. The binge and purge. The fill up and the release. Cathartic. Bulimia is also like smoking, in that it is always there for you. That’s how a friend once put it for me. When you’re sad, you smoke. When you’re happy, you smoke. Mad, worried, indecisive, etc. You get my drift.
Author and speaker, Jess Ekstrom, once alluded to writing as always being there for you. “When I feel overwhelmed, I write. When I want to start something new and don’t know where to begin, I write. When I feel anxious, I write. When I need to have a tough conversation with someone and I keep putting it off, I write. A study by Dominican University showed that writing stimulates something called the reticular activating system, RAS, which signals to the brain when something’s important … When we write something down, it actually helps us define and decide what we want to be true.” Cathartic.
I am the type of person who definitely needs catharsis. Uninterrupted time to write. Clean my house top to bottom. Spin it all out in spin class. An intense workout. A long hike. A good, long cry. And sometimes in not-so-proud-moments, a good scream. Cathartic.
“Art is a form of catharsis: emotional release, purging, cleansing, purifying.” ~ Dorothy Parker
“You should never suppress your emotions. It’s important to achieve catharsis.” ~ Urmijo
“Sometimes you’ve got to let everything go - purge yourself. If you are unhappy with anything … whatever is bringing you down, get rid of it. Because you’ll find when you’re free, your true creativity, your true self comes out.” ~ Tina Turner
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