You’re Not The Only One Who Feels That Way
It helps everyone to recognize and acknowledge this truth.
I think it’s quite obvious that we’re in the middle of a massive mental health crisis (and for the sake of brevity I’m putting mental, emotional, and spiritual all under the aegis of mental health). This is especially true in the United States.
First, there was a narcissistic President elected (Trump) who induced anxiety and caused division in ways we’re still dealing with (especially with him somehow running for reelection despite being a convicted felon and attempting to overturn the results of the 2020 election). Then, a global pandemic, which caused a degree of fear and uncertainty like nothing else. Unfortunately, this was followed by active campaigns to go back to how it was before that have shunted it away so that most have practically forgotten it (despite it not being gone at all and still killing people daily). Now, as already mentioned, an election that will quite probably decide if the United States remains a democracy or turns into a dictatorship/kleptocracy.
Is it any wonder our mental health is taking a beating?
What’s more, all the elements I’m lumping together into mental health are often taboo, shunned, or given lip service at best, rather than treated as the issues and elements of your overall health, wellness, and wellbeing that they are. That mental health matters are still not treated like any other health issue is seriously problematic.
But this is why you’re not the only one who feels that way. Not by a longshot.
Mental health should not be taboo
One of the reasons I write about my mental health struggles is to help others dealing with the same. Let’s face it – mental health (again, lumping mental, emotional, and spiritual health together) is a taboo topic.
Why else would drugs for maintaining equilibrium be so expensive? Likewise, why is seeing/finding a therapist/psychiatrist/psychologist/social worker more challenging than finding an MD? Why else are so many people unwilling to get help for psychological/mental/emotional/spiritual issues without feeling wrong, dirty, or generally bad?
Yet 1 in 4 people have mental health issues of one sort or another. That’s a lot of people in the grand scheme of things. That’s why I say you’re not the only one who feels that way.
Depression, anxiety, and other matters of mental health tend to be lying liars that lie. They tell you you’re the only one who feels that way, that you are not worthy, that you’re lacking, that you aren’t deserving of this, that, or the other thing. These mental health matters lie to isolate you and keep you all to themselves, locked in your subconscious mind.
Your subconscious mind, the vessel of your beliefs, values, habits, and memories, will run wild unchecked. When you aren’t working from a place of active conscious awareness, here and now, the subconscious will keep you isolated in dark places only you have access to.
Your subconscious mind will tell you in no uncertain terms that you are utterly, totally, always alone.
This is not the truth, however.
You’re not the only one who feels that way
You are very much not alone. Even a little bit.
I think it’s important that more of us admit we’re feeling this. With the tremendous, often intimidating amount of data and info we’re all exposed to and bombarded by regularly, overwhelm has almost become an accepted state of being.
Yet that’s another element of the problem. All that information being constantly washed over you wears down your psyche. It gets into your head, and if you’re not being mindful, it will create ideas, notions, and things you might otherwise not desire.
Sadness, uncertainty, depression, and a general sense of things not being right. You feel off, uncomfortable, and/or some combination of feelings. Those feelings, you might believe, are incorrect, wrong, that you are all alone in feeling, and the like.
You’re not the only one who feels that way. When it comes to mental, emotional, and spiritual health, the feelings you feel will vary wildly. The main theme tends towards negativity, sadness, and uncertainty. Mental health issues like depression and anxiety, in your subconscious mind, tell you that you’re alone. They tell you that nobody else feels that way.
This is not true.
The more people who acknowledge this, the more we can make it common, normal, and a less taboo or touchy subject. Then, from there, that can influence the overall position of the fear-based society you and I live in.
There’s one other important thing to address.
You’re not defective or wrong
There is nothing wrong with you in any way, shape, or form. Period. When you are 1 in 4 people who feels that way, who copes with mental health matters, you are so not alone.
Because nobody teaches you how to be with yourself, and how to be mindful, you alone must choose to learn. This can be really challenging, but you can learn it. It is your right to take steps toward improving your health, wellness, and wellbeing. This fully applies to not just physical, but mental, emotional, and spiritual, too.
Mindfulness is a matter of active conscious awareness. It can be practiced simply by being in the now, present, and questioning what you’re thinking, what and how you’re feeling, your intentions, if your approach is positive or negative, and your actions. That knowledge opens you to working with what you already have and changing anything you desire.
The choice is yours. When you make it, you become empowered, which helps you to work with not only what you have now, but to what you can have and do. This tends to be far more than you credit yourself with. That is a huge positive.
You’re not the only one who feels that way. There is no time like the present to work with this notion more. That’s because your feelings are valid and you have the power to alter them as you desire.
Seeing that you’re not the only one who feels that way 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 not the only one who feels that way, you can stop letting your inner monologue keep you down, and then seek commiseration with others. Knowing that you’re not the only one who feels that way, you can do any necessary work without guilt or shame to take action to move past that, and even seek help from others having similar experiences.
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. With a 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 it can spread to those around you for their empowerment.
Thank you for coming along on this journey.
This is the five-hundred and forty-sixth (546) 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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