My Biggest Success | Healing Mentally

I am so very successful. Not because I have a degree, not because I can travel, not because I own nice things.

I am going to tell you my biggest success.

If I asked you what comes to your mind when I say "success", you may think of school, a career, money, a home, a family. That's exactly what I thought. Up to several months ago that is.

I graduated from university with a degree in Psychology and Sociology. I have a career. I bought a new car and I have traveled to California. I can afford to live comfortably. I am blessed to have these experiences and opportunities but they did not make me feel successful. 

I mentioned it in previous blogs, but I I grew up with distressing, intrusive thoughts, compulsive behaviors as well as anxiety and panic attacks.

As a child and young adult, I was desperate to find something to help me. I didn't care what. My life was passing before my eyes and I was stuck in my own thoughts, never in the present moment.

That was my biggest challenge to date. I spent years of my life practicing yoga, meditation, positive thinking and more to put an end to these thoughts.

And my efforts did not go unnoticed. I begun the healing processes and I started to form new thinking patterns even though I didn't really see the results until later. 

My life changed when I began my spiritual journey, studied Psychology and took a leap of faith in my early 20s. I started to heal. I remember feeling excitement and motivation again. My grades improved and I actually enjoyed studying whereas before it was something I avoided as I was unable to get out of my own head space long enough to have some quality study time.

I took on hobbies too. I discovered I am decent at (and more importantly, love) to draw and paint and do other crafty projects. I have fascination for dance. I love studying people while they dance. I often learn choreography to dance routines I like and when I find the right dance class, I plan on joining. I do yoga and meditate on a near daily basis.

For a lot of people, this might not seem like a big deal. You like to spend time at home and draw. So what? But up until several years ago, my mental state prevented me from expressing myself creatively. Having a poor mental state and not having an outlet to express my creative side contributed to a viscous cycle of anxiety and panic. 

Anyways, fast forward several years later. I was having a conversation with my friend and we were on the subject of mental health, our struggles, and what being happy meant to us. It was then I realized what my biggest accomplishment was.

Mentally, I am free. 

I have finally put the demons inside to head to rest. This has allowed light to shine through and a life of freedom to transpire. And when the demons wake (which they sometimes do), I am mentally strong enough to allow them to be there. I accept and embrace them and because of that, I am much less impacted like them.

I see the world differently now. I am the happiest I have been and I know it will only get better. I did this without therapy, drugs, and treatment. (Not that I'm against this options; at the time, I didn't know they were an option for me).

It took a lot of faith, a lot of change, and a lot of work. But it was worth it. And that it my biggest success in life.

Tell me your biggest success.

Please share and subscribe to my blog for more content.

Sincerely,

Ang

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Here are links where I discuss more about my mental state and how I healed:

Do you have repetitive, distressing thoughts? Read this.

Want To Let Go Of A Thought, Fear, Or Worry? Read This For The One Thing You Need To Know.

Want To Let Go Of A Thought, Fear, Or Worry? Read This For The One Thing You Need To Know.

You're worried that you won't have enough money to pay the bills next month? Accept it.

You haven't been feeling well lately. You think you might have cancer and you only have a few months left to live. Maybe so. A lot of people die of illness.

Your partner has been distant. You keep thinking that they are having an affair with one of their coworkers. So what? You will be able to find someone else too.

Have you ever had a thought, worry, or concern take over your life? Maybe it was one that I mentioned. Maybe it was something else. Either way, it takes over your life. It's literally all you can think about.

You probably google signs and symptoms. Maybe you keep replaying a scenario in your head over and over. You keep making assumptions.

I have been in this situation for almost my whole life. It gets to to the point where you would do anything to have a peace of mind. To get your life back.

I know that my responses to the above scenarios sound harsh. But this, acceptance, has been a pivotal point in my life.

I believe one of the reasons that we keep obsessing over things is because of the uncertainty. Not necessarily the outcome itself. And this uncertainty causes us to conjure up the worst case scenarios. I guarantee that if one of those situations were true, we would handle it with courage and confidence. People do all the time.

If you really want to put your worries/obsessions or whatever you want to call them to rest, you need to do one thing: accept it. Yes, it's scary and yes, it takes a leap of faith. But just try it. Look at all the possible outcomes to your troubles (good and bad) and accept them. Tell yourself that if this is how it's going to be, you will handle it. Remind yourself that the world will not spin out of orbit if your fears come to fruition. Tell yourself you will worry about it once it actually happens (it usually doesn't). People are put in challenging situations all the time. You (and me) are no exception to that. You just got to deal with it.

Once you accept all the possible outcomes, anxiety about the unknown goes away. It has no choice but to. They are polar opposite ways of thinking and feeling.

Accepting the unknown outcome was what really allowed me to change my thought process. It gave me so much mental clarity. I never thought I would make it to this point. But I did and you can certainly can too.

I hope you find this helpful.

Ang

I wrote another article on a similar topic. You might find it helpful:
https://confessionsofanawakenedyouth.blogspot.ca/2017/04/do-you-have-repetitive-distressing.html