Though my healing journey is real, some days, and moments, are just hard.
There is an ebbing and flowing to how we are really doing. I say ‘we’ because we are all on a mental health journey. It is a part of living in a fallen world, a broken world, which has touched us to our very core. But, rather than the acknowledgment of this journey being a discouraging thought, it ought to encourage us.
Because self-awareness, or honesty with ourselves about how we’re really doing, is pivotal to finding healing and maintaining it.
I’d like to share just three things, that help me make peace with the ebbs and flows of mental health in my life:
- Our struggling means we are ‘fighting for the light’. If we aren’t asking ourselves core questions about how we are really doing, then our sense of the true battle we are each in may go unnoticed or unchecked. Positively, when we know there is a light we have through Jesus which is meant to pervade our being, we are fighting for this light which can never, ever, EVER be overcome. (John 1:5 paraphrase)
- Our journey is meant to be defined by Coming Home: We all live like prodigals. It is what it is to be aliens and strangers in a world that is not our home and the presence of God comes through faith and not (yet) sight. This means we each live in a level of lostness. Because of this reality, we are all in the process of coming Home to the perfect love of God throughout our lives. As we recognize this truth, our process of recognizing highs and lows becomes normalized instead of shaming.
- Mental Health draws us all together. There is a universal nature to the proactive need to seek robust mental health. When we realize this, we stop marginalizing mental illness. Not a one of our mindsets or mental wholeness is perfect. Yes, some of us, including me, have a diagnosis and need specific treatment. But we are all subject to the good and hard of this life.
The more we bring to light the hard things we all go through mentally, in our thoughts and how they affect our emotions, the more we are able to throw off the weight of shame and stigma. By removing the burden or heaviness of these two things, we give ourselves permission to be in process. And more, each of our journeys (or ‘skies’ as is the metaphor from ‘A Million Skies’ 🙂 can touch one another for the good and encouragement of all.
It is my sincere hope that, wherever your ebbing and flowing is today, you will find the open arms of others, and me (I am here–just reply to this email). And in the priceless nature of true community find the strength to pursue wholeness found in the great love of God.
Abigail
