It's okay to not be okay.

In this short and deeply honest episode of The Western Hippie Podcast, Michaela shares what she’s learning in real time as she navigates grief after losing her childhood horse — her heart horse.

This episode explores a truth that often gets pushed aside in personal development and healing spaces: sometimes the healing isn’t in being okay — it’s in letting yourself not be okay.

Michaela reflects on how our culture is obsessed with managing, numbing, or bypassing pain instead of allowing it to do what it’s meant to do: transform us. She shares how grief, sadness, anger, and discomfort all have a purpose — and how suppressing them often leads to trapped emotions, physical symptoms, and deeper disconnection from ourselves.

She also revisits a pivotal moment in her own healing journey and explains why saying “it’s okay” when it isn’t can quietly create distrust within ourselves and block our intuition.

This episode is for anyone who:

• Is grieving the loss of an animal or loved one
• Feels pressure to “be okay” before they actually are
• Notices themselves numbing, scrolling, or distracting instead of feeling
• Needs permission to sit with uncomfortable emotions without fixing them
• Wants a more honest, embodied approach to healing

You don’t need to rush your grief.
 You don’t need to manage your pain away.
 And you don’t need to pretend you’re okay to be healing.

Referenced Episode (Highly Recommended Listen)

Michaela references a powerful earlier episode in this conversation — one she still revisits herself — where she first learned that freedom came from admitting something wasn’t okay:

Listen here:
https://www.buzzsprout.com/1968454/episodes/11174797

Keywords / Tags (for podcast platforms)

grief after losing a pet, pet loss healing, animal grief, emotional suppression, trapped emotions, healing grief, nervous system healing, intuition and trust, trauma-informed healing, western hippie podcast