How I Cope Through My Mental Health

Hey Healers! Mental health has been a hot topic lately and a very important one that I see so many people reaching for help and guidance. I was thinking the other day about how I manage my mental health. Having had such an extensive history with depression, anxiety, an eating disorder, self-sabotage, anger, OCD, PTSD, and mood swings (yes, I’ve endured a laundry list of mental health issues and I’m proud to have the first hand experience of dealing with and understanding them!) – I can definitely say I not only have the credibility to helping people work through those aspects of their mental health, but I also have the compassion and tools for coping through those tough times. I say “cope through” because that means to actually overcome something instead of just exist with it. Since I was a kid, it was normal for me to have this sort of cloud over my head. I suffered for many years without proper understanding of the why and sustainable solutions for how to fix it, because, believe it or not, any mental health issue can be cured. Something that I’ve learned to be essential in a healthy mind is a positive self image. So many of us are walking around with low perceptions of ourselves. We think we’re mediocre, not good enough, ugly, fat, etc. Whatever comes up as negative self talk shapes our self image. We created these perceptions from somewhere else and they don’t match up with who we truly perceive ourselves to be. So we feel disconnected. We want to give up. We don’t necessarily want to leave our physical existence in the 3-D world, but we’re so unhappy living as this facade in this current dimension that we feel stuck. We also want to control everything outside of us that we lose control within us. Once we remember that the only thing or being that we can control is ourselves, we become empowered to make better choices. We also have a tendency to try to compare ourselves to others. It’s so hard to feel like we measure up when we are in this constant state of comparison. When it feels like no one understand and you’re seemingly on an island by yourself, that’s the hardest place to be. It’s lonely to feel like no one understand, but I promise people really do want to understand; they just don’t know how to because they haven’t been there. Or they have been, but they know it’s beyond their control to pull you out of the hole. They feel so ill-equipped to help and it bears a weight on them sometimes because they feel helpless for you. At the end of the day, they have to take care of them first. And you have to take care of you first. So, finding ways to cope through those dark, heavy times is our responsibility and no matter how much help we might receive, we’re still the only one who can fight through and pull our head above sea level and dismiss those clouds. We’re the only ones who can drop the heavy weight and decide to move forward. Whenever I find myself in the mental state of falling down the rabbit-hole of a negative self-perception, I remember a time when I pulled myself through a really challenging time. A time that felt so difficult and so low, no one could help me but myself. This is such an empowering, simple practice that I use and always helps me find the courage, strength, and positive mental attitude to climb my way out of the hold. To turn that ship around and head it in a better direction. It’s only you, babe. And you should be grateful that only you can do it. From challenges, we grow and become strong. From low points we’re able to jump high and we’re in control of that. So, we get to experience first-hand our greatest potential. And we get to experience what it’s like to feel the deepest connection of love. That’s the love from within.   With love and gratitude, Drea