It’s All In Your Head

Yes and No.

A friend of mine Amber shared online about being sad and how she is determined not to be sad anymore.  While I was surprised to see her post online and then share via Facebook and Twitter a link to what she wrote, it dawned on me, that I had seen what she is talking about.

More than a few people have said “You’re like Amber with the volume turned down.” And that’s exactly how I’ve felt. 

I thought it was the busyness of her life.  Over the past 5+ years that I’ve know Amber, she has switched jobs, started a company with her husband, added more and more activities and duties to her everyday life and I thought she was just busy.

I was wrong.

Yes she was busy, and she was running full speed ahead.  But the weight of life was pressing down. Personal stuff that can make you said like  the passing of her grandfather whom she loved dearly. The mixture of wanting to do it all and having just 24 hours in a day.

This article is not really about my friend Amber. I am only sharing what she has shared combined with my own observations, because she shared first and inspired me to talk about this topic.

The topic of “it’s all in your head”.

The reason I say No, is it’s not just a function of our intellect.  It is also our spiritual side.  Our soul that  cannot be measured by science is involved too.  Keep that in mind as you read on.

Ambition is great, wonderful, something we applaud in others and want for ourselves.  It can also push us too much.  It can be a dark cloud that rains down condemnation when we don’t accomplish what we (or others) determined that we should do.

Life is not a steady climb up a mountain.  Each slip and fall should be a learning experience.  But sometimes we are too close to the situation to recognize the lessons right away.  Or too determined that we keep trying again and again the same way with repeated failure because we thought it was us that was the problem and not the path we were taking that was wrong.

While I am not a doctor, I know that sometimes there are links between our emotional health and mental health that can create deep scarring and may require a medical treatment to restore or control a mental health issue.

I’m not going to dive deeper into the whole mental health rabbit hole, but I’ll dance around the surface.  I have friends and relatives that have required meds to stay on top of their mental health issues.  Don’t consider yourself a freak if that’s your situation.  Instead, I urge you to seek answers.  And just because there are no visible signs such as a broken bone, there are folks among us with mental health problems that need help.  Don’t shun them.  Take it serious.

Again I must applaud my friend Amber for her courage to stop and see what was going on and then to spill her guts with everyone.  There have been words of support and thanks and encouragement all over Facebook and I’m sure in person too.

Most of our friends and family won’t do what Amber did, so we need to pay closer attention to one another and ask each other how is life for you ?  We also need to be honest and not let ourselves always say, fine, when we are not.

One last link to share with you.  I subscribe to a free email from a blog called Dumb Little Man, which is a dumb title but that’s what it is.

The article about worry is appropriate for this discussion.