There is a lot of work that needs to be done to accept people living with mental health issues. We fight daily stigma, misunderstanding, and conflict when living with a mental illness. Despite the world needing to change so much, we can make a huge impact when we speak up, even as one single person. Mental health issues are common. According to NAMI, 1 in 5 adults experience a mental illness. 1 in 25 experience that...
How do you know when it’s the right time to share your story? The best place is where you feel empowered, safe, and capable of inspiring others. But, how do you find this? Know that your story matters. It will change someone’s life when you share it. It will give them hope, and optimism, and remind them to keep going. You made it through and, by hearing you share your story, they will know that they...
Happiness is an awesome emotion. It’s enjoyable to feel and easy to embrace—it’s something we truly want a lot of in our lives! Despite it’s general awesomeness, it’s completely irrational to expect to have this feeling 24/7. For this reason, pursuing happiness as our main goal is not the smartest thing for any of us to do. I don’t want to discount how wonderful happiness is. It’s important to seek out and to strive for greater...
Feeling stressed when you think of self care? Like you’re not able to do everything you “should,” that you’re falling behind? Well, isn’t that kind of backwards? Self care should be about truly honoring our needs and it should come from a place of love and self respect, not obligation or pressure from society. When we treat self care like something we’re obligated to do, we set ourselves up for feeling bad if we can’t...
It is terrifying when our mental illnesses come back, completely out of the blue. We feel like we’re in the clear and then all the sudden we’re struck with a depression relapse or some other resurgence of symptoms. To add to the intensity, it always seems to feel worse than it did in the past. Our mental illnesses naturally come and go. It’s part of the healing process and—as we all know quite well—recovery is...
Pursuing a career you love can be incredibly fulfilling. It gives you a reason to get out of bed, it shows you how you can impact the lives of others, and you can feel accomplished and driven. Despite all of these benefits, working with mental illness can seem elusive and difficult. But, it is totally, completely possible. All of these wonderful things can find a space to exist in your life. It’s not uncommon to feel...
We are told to curse our anger, to push away our fear. We’re told that these are harmful emotions to experience, that they signal something is wrong with us. Sometimes, the same voices that tell us to unconditionally love ourselves tell us to damn our difficult emotions. This isn’t real self compassion. Self compassion is loving every bit of ourselves. It’s when we embrace our most critical voice, thank anger for protecting us and sadness...
Feel like it’s impossible to make friends that treat you well? Partners that respect you as a person? Maybe you find yourself always in relationships that end up turning out poorly. How to make friends that truly love us can feel elusive when we have a mental illness. It’s possible, though, and sometimes our loneliness is the gateway to these loving friendships. I used to think loneliness was a sign I was doing something wrong. That...
Have you ever lashed out at someone you love for no reason? Have you ever felt so exhausted that you hoped you’d sleep forever? That life was too overwhelming to want to keep going? These all have one cause: emotional burnout. And it can be avoided and handled well, without putting you or your relationships at risk. Emotional burnout is a serious thing. It’s complete and total emotional exhaustion. When we’ve used up all our reserves,...
There is one thing I wish I could make you believe, instantly upon reading this: You matter. You do not have a meaningless life. Your life is filled with purpose, potential, and expanse. When times are tough, it can feel like life is just a series of distractions. Obstacles we have to run around and climb over. Over time, we can start to dread this—it can feel like a never-ending and exhausting game. It can...