Hello all! I went to check to see what's happened since the last time I've posted, but honestly, it would be easier to ask what HASN'T happened since the last time I wrote. I performed in my last pop choir show and I still miss it; it's my favorite show every year, a super intimate and fun performance. I sang my last choir concert and had a lot of great large and small performances at those various concerts. I went to my first and last prom with one of my dearest friends. I went to a luncheon for a scholarship I was awarded. I'm highkey still trying to catch up on life. Life has been a huge blessing lately. I am so lucky.
It's still May, and it's still mental health month! And today's story is a story of PROGRESS!!!
Today isn't a personal account, it's just a statement that needs to be made. And I've been planning this post for a few weeks, and I think it couldn't have come at a more appropriate time. A lot of my friends, and I mean a lot, are being worn down by life right now. They're going through things that are kind of causing their mental health to take a decline, in some cases small and in some cases large. Like, legit, it's kind of breaking me. So many things are happening to them and I can't make it better.
I once saw this post someone wrote about depression, how their doctor told them in order to fight their depression, they needed to get plenty of sleep, eat nutritious foods, and exercise frequently. Which they pointed out were all things their depression was preventing them from doing. And everyone was agreeing with them, which I understand. Because it's true.
But guys. That's exactly the point.
Your mind controls your body. And so when your mind is sick, that really throws things off. Your body does not naturally want to do things it should naturally want to do. So yes, you can't sleep, you can't control your eating, and you can't make yourself exercise, or whatever else your specific illness is preventing you from doing. Because those are symptoms of your illness. But doesn't it only make sense that you try to do the things that will cancel your symptoms out? The way to kill something bad is to combat it with the opposite good. So you have to do your best to do those things your illness is preventing you from doing, the things your body needs to do to remain healthy.
Sleep. Sleep enough. Even if you can't, don't do anything that will help keep you awake. Which might not make sense to you since you can't sleep anyway, but you shouldn't do anything that will prevent you from getting what you need. You need to make sure you're eating enough, and you get a lot of good food in that will help your body feel better. And make sure you do something to exercise every day. Working your body makes happy chemicals flow through it, and makes it feel better.
And those things that you need to do to take care of your body, they're what makes people frustrated. Because your mind won't let you. You can't do it. And that just drives people crazy. I can't do it, so why are people telling me that to make myself feel better I have to do this thing I'm not even capable of?
But when someone tells you to take care of yourself so you'll feel better, they're not expecting you to do it perfectly right away, or honestly ever. The illness is inside you, and that makes it way difficult for you to fix these things that your body doesn't want to do but still needs. But if you give in to the illness, it won't ever get better. You don't need to be perfect at taking care of yourself. You just need to do your best every day. Take all measures you can. Even if you end up lying in bed all night unable to sleep, even if you eat too much or too little one day, even if you don't exercise for a few days, you don't need to be perfect. Just try the best you can every day. And you won't be perfect, and you will have setbacks, and they aren't things to get frustrated about. It's something glorious about humanity, the fact that we're able to have downfalls and then recover from them, and imperfections and then perfect them. We're so flawed, and it's so human. It's so alive.
It's okay to be alive. It's good to be alive.
So I guess the point is, don't give up. Really, don't. Just because it's not working. Progress takes time, a short time or a long time, and maybe that's what's frustrating because we can't tell which one it will be, whether it will be days or weeks or months or years. But that's what this post is about. Don't stop yourself from progressing. Be okay with small victories and small downfalls. They're the only way you're ever going to get better. Don't stop yourself from getting better. Don't do nothing.
I love you. I really do.
--Lizzo
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