Heidi Powell, a trainer, bodybuilder, fitness guru posted this image on her social media recently. I had already been feeling led to write a blog on mental health and this just confirmed to me that the time was right. I believe the stigma in not discussing mental health has come a long way; however, I feel like it still has so far to go! Everybody wants to talk about our physical health, but nobody wants to discuss our mental health. I am by far no expert, but I believe the two go hand in hand. In the day I was raised, it was thought to be that if you believed in God, which I 100% do, that all you had to do was pray and that was it. If you prayed and trusted God, then you shouldn’t be depressed, or anxious. I believe God takes care of us, but I also know how hard life can be and sometimes you need a little more help. It makes no sense to me that if you believe in going to a medical doctor for medical conditions, a trainer or nutritionist for physical conditions, but no counselor or therapist for mental conditions?
Over the course of my adult life, I have seen a few therapists. I saw two different ones during my divorces, I saw one over my infertility issues that literally almost caused me to believe I was losing my mind, and honestly, I am seeing one right now. Just like I knew I needed to hire a trainer to help with my nutrition and training and losing weight and getting physically healthy. Just like I go to a doctor when I’m sick, and to my dentist and to my eye doctor each year to maintain good health. There is no shame in therapist and counselors or whoever you need to go talk to. There is absolutely no shame whatsoever, and I hope that if somebody is reading this right now and is letting the judgment of others stop you from getting help, that you stop right now, and go get the help you need!
You can’t sit around and be depressed and have anxiety, and things going on your in your mind, and think they’re just going to go away. Just like you can’t sit on the couch and feed and shove food into your mouth and think you’re going to be toned and fit and healthy. It’s the same concept. What you feed into your mind ultimately leads to your mental health, just like what you feed into your mouth ultimately leads to your overall physical health. You shouldn’t medicate your depression with food, just like you shouldn’t medicate your mental issues with drugs and alcohol or a plethora of other things.
We all have things in life that we have to deal with that are hard, but the keyword there is deal with it. I am in no way saying that the things we go through in life are easy. We deal with death, we deal with loss, we deal with financial problems, we deal with family issues, kid issues, the list goes on and on and on. Nobody has a perfect life! If all we do is sit around and focus on the things in our life that we don’t like and that bring us down, we are only going to bring more of that into into our life. We cannot feed our minds with negativity and expect to live a positive life. We have to seek out the help we need to turn this stuff around. Life will not improve until we do. Trust me, I get it. I used to spend so much time sitting around looking at all these women who have kids, and don’t deserve them, don’t take care of them, and they’re not mothers, yet I couldn’t have a baby myself. For sure, life isn’t fair, and I used to tell myself that every day. But you know how I spent those days? Sad, anxious, angry, bitter and depressed. It wasn’t doing me any good, or anybody around me.
The worst thing that you can do is medicate your depression and your anxiety with drugs and alcohol and sitting around talking to your friends all the time about how bad your life is etc. and not seeking out the help you truly need! Or locking yourself in a dark room and just wishing the world would go away, or worse yet, end. We cannot control how our brains are wired, but we can do so many things to turn it around and still lead a positive and fulfilling life!
One thing I do know for sure, your life is not going to change without you doing something about it! I have never really been a person who has had to deal with anxiety, yes, I have been anxious before, but I don’t deal with anxiety on a daily basis. I do; however, deal with depression at times. One thing I have had to realize is how I start my day makes all the difference in setting the tone for my day. I have talked about it before in other blogs, but I HAVE to get up every day and pray, mediate, do my devotions, write down what I am grateful for and train my mind to be in a place of gratitude. Working out also changes my overall mood! I also listen to a podcast while I am getting ready. I have to train my mind to be in a good state every single day! When I don’t do those things, my days are so much worse! I wake up fearful, anxious, tired, mentally drained and I see the day from a bad place and when my day starts negative, the day is negative! You have to give yourself time every day to do what you need to feed you! You may say I don’t have time. I bet you have time to sit on the couch and play on your phone, be on social media and watch mindless TV every day right? It’s all priorities, and if your mental health and your physical health are not a priority to you, then I hate to say it, but your life most likely isn’t going to improve.
Wherever you are right now, decide right now that this week, you are going to start by doing just one thing for yourself, just one thing! You can find time to do one thing to improve your life and your overall mental state! I promise you, you can turn your life around, and if you need professional help, please go get it! God didn’t put us on this earth to live sad, depressed mediocre lives! You can lead a fulfilling life, even if you deal with mental health issues!
With love for you all,
Shauna
Shauna's Sisters 