This is for the women who feel too much.

Dear Woman,

Have you ever been told you’re too sensitive? Too emotional? Too soft?

I have, more times than I can count.

For a long time, I believed them. I thought maybe I really was too much. Too fragile. That I needed to toughen up. That my feelings were a problem I had to fix.

So I tried.
I tried to stop caring so much.
I tried to shut myself off, hold in my emotions, hold back the tears that always came too quickly.

And that isn’t something I need to apologize for.
It’s not something you should apologize for, either.

I acted like I didn’t feel everything so deeply, like I was fine, like nothing touched me.
And eventually, I became cold.
For a couple of years, that was me. I didn’t let people in. I built walls instead of bridges.
But the truth is, I hated every single day I lived like that.
Because that’s not who I am.
I love having emotions. I love feeling deeply. That’s how I understand myself, how I connect, grow, and heal.
So I had to learn how to feel again. How to control my emotions, not suppress them.
How to get closer to myself, instead of further away.

I’ve spent years trying to understand why sensitivity is treated like a flaw when it’s actually a strength. My emotions aren’t weaknesses to be buried. They are guides, messengers, reminders that I’m alive, that I love hard, and that I care.

For so long, I expected people especially the ones I loved, to understand my pain. To see me clearly. To make me feel better. But most of the time, they couldn’t. Not because they didn’t care, but because they simply didn’t get it.

And when they didn’t, I thought something was wrong with me.

Especially in relationships when a partner couldn’t meet me where I was, I’d start to feel like I was too much, or that I was losing myself.
But I wasn’t losing myself.
I had already lost myself by looking for someone else to validate what only I could heal.
I was drowning for so long before I realized: if I don’t stand up for myself, no one else will.

Men expect a woman to give everything.
But here’s the truth:
A woman will give you everything only when she feels safe. Protected. Loved.
Loyalty is not just a bonus - it’s the baseline.
When you give us safety, you get our softness. Our warmth. Our full heart. Our support. Our respect. Our body, our love, and our strength.
Because when a woman feels truly loved, she builds a world around it.
Your softness doesn’t make you naïve. It makes you human.
It makes you strong in a way the world can’t always understand.

It’s the kind of strength that bends but doesn’t break. That holds space for others, even when you’re hurting. That feels deeply, and still keeps going.

This world doesn’t need more women who’ve hardened just to survive.
It needs more women who dare to stay soft and still rise.
Because softness is not weakness.
It’s wisdom.
It’s resilience.
It’s power the kind that doesn’t shout, but stands tall anyway.
And if that makes us “too much” for some people?

Let them go.

We were never meant to shrink to fit their small definitions of strength anyway.

With love,

Felipa ❤️