This past week was Mental Health Awareness week. If you’re like most people, the words “mental health” first conjure up a tough picture of a small part of the population, but the truth is that all of us should be concerned with mental health, just like we know we should keep our PSL’s to once or twice a week and get our butts to the gym regularly. It’s not as simple as the “mentally healthy” and the “mentally unhealthy” though, like most things, I think mental health comes in waves or seasons. Some days/weeks/months/even years, we’re on the up and up, and some we are far from it. And the way down doesn’t have to be a long spiral, it can come on quickly without notice. It can start with being consumed by one stress after another (work, finances, tough friendships, big decisions, overcommitment), and before we know it, we haven’t left enough enough time for ourselves or the things that truly make us happy.
Two months ago when I was in the middle of moving, I was excited for the next chapter. I looked forward to being able to walk to restaurants or coffee shops. I looked forward to making church a more regular occurrence in my week. I was excited about a routine and new traditions: weekend runs, church and brunch, long walks with Teagan….Then life happened: the craziness of moving, a busy work schedule, a death in the family, times of feeling unvalued, stress over money, stress over my car (also about money), daylight savings (the worst) and overall, feeling like there was a lack of balance and a lack of direction.
But because it’s a season, there’s also an end to it. I’m lucky to have people and forces in my life that show me when I’ve been down for too long; I have courageous friends that feed me hard truths, and I have the incredible gift of the Holy Spirit that tugs and nudges at me until I wake up to the things I’ve been ignoring. The truth is, I let this happen because I focused on the negative, “Whatever we focus on, we become.”. So, with a little help, I’m back to shifting my focus. The past couple of weeks I’ve been back to reading, back to writing every morning, back to creating foods that inspire me and make me smile, back to letting friends in and starting to reach out, and back to being kinder and gentler to myself and the people that I love.
Mental health awareness is not about the stereotype that we’ve created, its being aware of yourself too. Where have your thoughts been? Where is your focus? How are you, really? As we move into the holiday season and schedules fill up, finances get stretched, family encounters have us testing our every nerve and the cold keeps us closed up away inside, make time for the things that make you, you. What makes you smile? Makes you tick? Focus on those. Don’t give too much thought to the traffic you got stuck in, but instead get overly excited about your favorite song that played on the radio, and sing it loudly. You’ve heard it before, “your mind is a powerful tool”, take care of it.
~A
Amelia's Musings 