I’m On The Lookout For My Sanity
You’re the only one who can look out for your sanity.
I’m fairly certain that I lost my sanity around my freshman year of college. In fact, I spent an afternoon looking all over the campus for it. This included opening my mailbox and asking if my sanity was there, walking around calling for it like a lost dog, and then a friend said she saw it run off…with her sanity.
All kidding aside, it’s increasingly difficult to maintain sanity in the world. Between the never-ending comparison inherent in our culture, ludicrous narcissists running the government, and the massive decrease in overall kindness, compassion, and empathy – it’s not that surprising, really.
Then, to add insult to injury, we’re in the middle of a largely ignored, massive mental health crisis. When the COVID-19 pandemic led to lockdowns, it shifted the world in ways that we have neither fully addressed nor acknowledged. Instead, too many of the influencers and businesspeople of the world tried to return us to how it was before – while utterly ignoring the deep impact it had.
My sanity has taken quite a beating from all of this, and more. And the stark truth is that only I can look out for my sanity. And, likewise, only you can look out for your sanity.
Gaining insight into yourself with mindfulness
The only person in my head, heart, and soul is me. Nobody else is in here thinking these thoughts, feeling these feelings, intending, approaching, and acting for me but me. This is also the truth about you and your head, heart, and soul.
Yet lots of those in power, in leadership roles, or in any way taking a role of influence, really want you to ignore that. Instead, they want you to look to and turn to them for how to be. Never mind that none of them are or can be inside of you and your mindset/headspace/psyche self. Yet they cajole you to do it like them or face ridicule, shame, mocking, and worse.
It’s on you alone to recognize and acknowledge your state of being. To do that, you need to begin by checking in with yourself here and now. This is something that can only be done in the present because only the present moment is wholly literal and actual.
To check in with yourself here and now you just need to ask questions like:
- What am I thinking?
- What am I feeling?
- How am I feeling?
- What is my intent?
- Am I approaching things from a place of positivity or negativity?
- What actions am I taking?
Each of these shows you who, what, where, how, and why you are, right here and now. This is where you gain insight into yourself and, ultimately, can see your sanity.
Looking out for my sanity
Please, allow me to acknowledge that this is not the traditional, medical definition of sanity, per se. In this instance, I’m generalizing that sense of being, wellbeing, self-awareness, self-care, balance, and centering all rolled into one neat package. Ergo, sanity.
For the sake of all the above, I’ve been spending less and less time on social media. Watching the ongoing awfulness of my home country being torn apart in the name of a small minority of, frankly, scared man-children, is super disheartening and depressing. While I recognize the necessity of being aware of what’s going on, I also acknowledge that I don’t need every nuanced detail – for the sake of my sanity.
Lots of my friends share every little terrible happening they come across. I get why you do that, but frankly, unless you can offer a plan of action to go with it, all you’re doing is creating more reasons to be afraid, angry, and uncertain.
For the sake of my sanity, I’m making choices to limit my intake. For the sake of your sanity, you can choose for yourself how to approach that.
It’s on you alone, but not necessarily alone
You are by no stretch of the imagination alone in trying to find and maintain your sanity in these wacky, unprecedented, confounding times. While it’s on you and you alone to be mindful and consciously aware, here and now, of who-what-where-how-why you are – you needn’t do so alone.
Stay in touch with like-minded people. Follow those who show paths out of this quagmire. Choose where to boycott. Be mindful of what and when you consume. Get help via therapy, counseling, like-minded groups, and so on.
Most of all, practice kindness, compassion, and empathy. Start with giving them to yourself to find your balance and your sanity. Know that you are worthy and deserving of experiencing mental, emotional, spiritual, and physical wellness and wellbeing.
Looking out for your sanity isn’t hard
It’s all about practicing mindfulness of your thoughts, feelings, intentions, and approach to direct your actions.
When you recognize and acknowledge that you’re the only one in your head, heart, and soul, you can practice active conscious awareness – mindfulness – to find and maintain balance and your sanity. Knowing that you can control who, what, where, how, and why you are helps you be better centered, find and maintain balance, and mind your sanity for your ultimate health, wellness, and wellbeing.
This empowers you, and your empowerment can empower others around you.
Consciously choosing your approach to life towards positivity or negativity – from the vast cylinder that exists between them – shifts life in a way that opens greater dialogue. From that broader dialogue, you can recognize, explore, and share where you are between the extremes and how that impacts you here and now.
Choosing thoughts, feelings, actions, and intentions for yourself employs an approach and attitude of positivity for realizing amazing potential and possibilities for your life.
The better aware you are of yourself here and now, the better you can choose and decide what, how, and why your life experiences will be. When you empower yourself, that can spread to those around you for their empowerment.
Thank you for coming along on this journey.
This is the five-hundred-and-seventy-ninth (579) entry of my Positivity series. I hope that these weekly messages might help spread positive energies for everyone. Feel free to share, re-blog, and spread the positivity.
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