Mental Health

When Life Isn’t Okay

When life isn’t okay, it can feel like the world is going out of its way to make our lives difficult. Our grievances towards those around us, or society at large, can add up to a million paper cuts that are vulnerable to salt and irritated by everything.

It can feel like nothing is working out in our favor. That our hands are tied, and we have no options. We can daydream about magic pills that make life better. Or simple solutions that require minimal effort to add ease to our lives. Yet no amount of the chocolatiest of chocolates can ever alleviate such a sense of helplessness.

In truth, the only way out of a situation like that is to take small consistent steps back to ourselves.

Part of that process is having patience with ourselves. And the other part of that process is to trust that all will be well.

Sometimes being patient means that we must simply endure each moment as it unfolds. To intentionally focus on putting one foot in front of the other, instead of zooming out to the past and future. And when we falter, because we all falter, to have patience and understanding with ourselves.

The other part of the process is to trust that all will be well. Not to hope that all will be well, but to unequivocally believe that life will be more than okay. Life will be good.

As an anxious child, my mom would often tell me, “Everything’s going to be okay.” When I would ask her how she could be so assured of that, she’d say, “Because. There’s no reason it shouldn’t be okay.” When we can trust that the universe is supporting us, even our struggles won’t dissuade us from believing that everything will be okay.

When life feels difficult it can be easy, almost instinctual, to reach outside ourselves to find our footing. But the truth is that we already have everything we need to infuse our lives with joy and ease.

Taking the time to find your inner place of calm means you will always have the means to stand on solid ground, regardless of the turmoil around you.

All that being said, keeping a little chocolate on hand never hurts.


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Kate Smithson

writer

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