May is Mental Health Awareness month and I want to encourage “everyday awareness” of mental health needs – within ourselves, within our families and within our community. We don’t have to look very far to see lives that are affected by stress, anxiety, mood issues or relationship problems. It happens at some point in every life and in every family. Some issues are temporary and resolve over time; others are chronic and can escalate without help.
Everyday awareness means that we don’t ignore what’s going on or avoid getting help when needed. It means making mental, emotional and relational issues easy topics of conversation with your children and families. We all have concerns at times and the more we make these health issues part of “normal” conversations, the easier they are to address.
If you’re not sure is a problem requires professional help, make an appointment to find out. It’s totally okay to see a therapist to find out if you’re managing well enough on your own or if more resources would be beneficial.
In an effort to raise everyday awareness I regularly share free tips and thoughts on mental and emotional wellness on the Whole Health Wise Facebook page and on Instagram. Here’s a favorite from the last month.
“Emotional discomfort, when accepted, rises, crests and falls in a series of waves. Each wave washes a part of us away and deposits treasures we never imagined. Out goes naivete, in comes wisdom; out goes anger, in comes discernment; out goes despair, in comes kindness. No one would call it easy, but the rhythm of emotional pain that we learn to tolerate is natural, constructive and expansive… The pain leaves you healthier than it found you.”
These words by Martha Beck ring so true to my experience. Therapy often involves helping others “learn to tolerate” the rhythm of emotional pain so that it may serve them and not be in vain.
In the midst of emotional pain it can be hard to imagine that it can leave you healthier and stronger than you were before, but so it is. The art is to allow the emotional energy to rise, to move through and to be released; very much like the the rise and fall of a wave. Too often emotional pain rises within us and then fails to finish the natural cycle. In our desire to control or suppress it, we create more pain than is necessary.
Nothing can make emotional discomfort easy, but it helps me to remember there is something to be gained if I am open to it; if I can tolerate the discomfort and trust a process that is as old as the ocean waves themselves.