It is difficult for many to maintain a healthy mental space in any given year, but the last three years have tested many more than they can bear. I know it feels nearly impossible to secure mental health in an unhealthy world.
Protests, riots, economic collapse, pandemics, explosions, wars, bans, ethnic cleansing, executions, and political vacuum, normal ceased to exist. Everything is new and uncomfortable, and we get horrifying updates daily. Yet, amid completely unprecedented times, people worldwide were and still are trying to find hope. It does not lie within any of us to be entirely sane. Maybe bipolar disorder, depression, and anxiety are healthy responses to an unhealthy world. Perhaps, people and their minds aren’t the problems – maybe it’s a normal, healthy response to an unhealthy situation. I watched and engaged as humanity unfolded before my eyes. The only downside is that humanity doesn’t just mean love, kindness, and compassion. Sometimes humans can be cruel and selfish, and dangerous. I stare at the perpetual parade of horrible scrolling past me, from the second I wake up prematurely in the early morning until the stretched-out nighttime moments I try unsuccessfully to fall asleep—and how I question my grip on reality. I know the disbelief I feel in the presence of loved ones, friends, and leaders who now seem to be speaking some strange foreign tongue that I can’t make any sense of. I hear the nagging question I ask inside my head a few hundred times a day: “Is it me, or has a huge portion of the world lost its mind?” I don’t think I’m alone when I say that the world, and all that goes on top of it, crushes my spirit and body most days. I have turned off the news in a superficial attempt to reduce anxiety. But ignoring the world does not provide an escape from the knowledge that we live in a broken world where some people can just “turn off the news” and maintain peace while others wake daily to utterly desperate circumstances. The human experience constantly undulates between good and evil, new and old, pretty and ugly. So the question I have been asking myself over the last three years isn’t how do we stop this? Or how do we maintain normalcy? Instead, I have been asking myself, how do I (we) navigate these ever-changing waters? I have only come up with a simple answer: Stop trying to figure it out. We must learn to set ourselves up to be healthy in a world where being unhealthy is the easier choice. #1 Practice having grace on yourself daily. Be gentle with yourself when everything feels overwhelming. Do your best to feel what you feel when feeling it because there is no step-by-step guidebook. No one knows how to feel right now. No one knows what to do. No one knows what’s going to happen next. #2 Get comfortable with being uncomfortable. If you haven’t already, that’s okay. We are still in a global pandemic, fighting injustice, and we all still have so much going on. Acknowledge that there is time to grow and do your best to give yourself the space to do so. It may not be easy, but hopefully, it is worth it. #3 Learn to amplify awareness. Become attuned to what’s going on inside you and around you. We live in a culture filled with distractions, but it’s helpful to be aware of what triggers and excites you. For example, what situations make you want to stress eat? Or when you have a better-than-average day, what conditions led to that? You can then take action based on what you’re noticing. #4 Preemptively repair. Get ahead of the damage that’s done to you just by living in an unhealthy culture. This could include eating healthy food before you’re ravenous or taking a break before feeling frazzled. If you do these things before they become critical, you’ll have more available energy and resilience. #5 Invest in continuous growth and learning. Acknowledge that being healthy in an unhealthy world requires skill and a particular knowledge base. So strive to learn about healthy living, search for things that might help you, and experiment to uncover what works best for you. Tomorrow will bring hope and despair. All we can do is ride the wave. This, too, shall pass.
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AuthorI was born in 1986 in Lebanon. I'm still trying to find my passion in life and in the meantime I'm learning to navigate my bipolarity and redefining stability. Archives
February 2024
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