“As long as I can see the beauty all around me, I believe that I will be okay”.
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When I was young, I mistakenly believed that life was going to be a relatively straight path. I mean, don’t we all? After all, we are told from a very early age. We are told to find a career we love, get educated for it and then, boom! Life happens. What’s next? Well, not too far down the road, we find the person Disney tells us we will live with happily ever after.
While this may be true for some, for many of us, we look at this in retrospect and say: “What a load of crap.” Nonetheless, most of us follow the path society conditions us for. The trouble is, we fail to give any thought into one very important and crucial fact: life is equal parts painful.
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The belief that adulthood is the promised fairytale land is, in my opinion, the driver that makes life’s actual reality so much more difficult. How do we defend ourselves from something we weren’t prepared for?
I am also inclined to believe that being slapped around by the painful realization that life can cut you deep, can make us more susceptible to mental illness. Man, life’s so much harder than one is led to believe, no wonder we are sick
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Unfortunately for some, mental-health disorders seem to be more intense. I feel like, from my experience, which being blindsided by mental pain is made worse by the lack of resilience.
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I have reached this conclusion simply because if we don’t have the mental tools at our disposal to deal with the harsher realities in life, we tend not to have strength to draw from to deal with them.
So, speaking for myself, I never imagined that I would end up with post-traumatic stress disorder, not for one second of my life. But sadly, PTSD and I have become constant travel companions down this road of life.
Because I bought into the idea that life was predetermined and more or less a template for us all, dealing with the symptoms of mental illness have been much more excruciating and thereby so much tougher than I ever would have imagined.
It’s safe to say that the lack of resilience was certainly part of the problem. My strong sense of denial also played a major role. These two factors have both contributed to my demise and thus this has spun my life out of control and into the realm of disability.
Want to hear the stories of people who are suffering from mental health conditions? Go to A New Dawn podcast and have a listen.
I guess the proper question here is “What’s the damage?” I have rightfully concluded that it has added time on to my sentence towards recovery. While this is most certainly the Fate I’ve been handed, as long as I can see the beauty that surrounds me every day, I know that I will survive. I am fortunate to live in a very beautiful part of the world and each path I take here renews my sense of purpose and commitment to my healing. I shall see the end of the road to mental wellness.
It is my hope that you will also be able to find the beauty that surrounds you. No matter how tiny it may be, it is still strong enough to lift the heart and cleanse the soul. All you have to do is look for it. It’s all around you to be found.
“As long as I can see the beauty all around me, I believe that I will be okay”.
Jonathan Arenburg.
Need help? Go to Our Mental Health Resources Centre
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Message from Jonathan.
As the Founder and Chief content creator for http://theroadtomentalwellness.com, I would like to thank you all for stopping by. We work hard on our content with the reader in mind. Our purpose, to help others by telling our stories. We hope that we are delivering on our mission. Please, let us know if you have found it helpful in the comments sections or follow us on social media and let us know there. Remember, you are not alone, we are all in this together. Please, like and share our content. Especially if you feel like others can benefit from our own experiences. We all thank you for taking the time to read and share our content. Please comeback and keep up to date.
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