We All Have A Story To Tell

I recently saw a t-shirt that said "Don't Judge What You Don't Understand" and it resonated with me. It humbled my feelings of self-pity and emphasized my thoughts of being okay with being different. Having a mental illness drives the feelings of "poor me" to the surface which therefore suffocate the positive thoughts. On a good day, I can work on self-care but sometimes it is difficult. And on the hard days, I try my best to offer myself grace, patience and understanding that the negative thoughts are the illness speaking and not my healthy brain.


When I tell people that I struggle with a mental illness, sometimes I am offered loving comments and other times I feel judged. For instance, I was talking with a woman about my physical and mental health (not as a complaint but rather I was sharing my truth) and her response was, "well at least you don't have cancer and you are not dying". While there is validity in these words, the statement does not diminish the magnitude of my own story. And although I genuinely agree with the comment, what I do not stand for is comparing my illness to that of others. I have my own story to tell and my own battles to face and just as I do not pass judgement on your life, I would appreciate the same in return related to my own illnesses.


I believe that we each have a story to tell throughout our own personal journey. Life is not a competition for who has more suffering nor a comparison of who is happier living in this world. Instead, it is a genuinely honorable reflection of the combination of my past history, my present situations and my hope for a different future. By looking at life this way, we can honor a shift in perspective from judgmental to grateful. I am thankful for medicine and doctors and I am humbled by how I choose to handle mental and physical pain. Yet, we need to own that each of us feels differently in our own skin and there is nothing wrong with how we are living our lives in tandem with one another.


We can make a choice to be grateful for where we are in life or, we can feel burdened by our current conditions. We can compare ourselves to others, or we can choose to accept that everyone has a battle of their own to face. And finally, we have the ability to judge someone else yet we do not know anything about the world that they live in day in and day out.


So today, as you slide your feet into your high heel shoes, I ask you a simple question: Will you chose to be grateful or feel burdened by the day you are facing?  And I hope you will choose gratitude.  However, if you decided to feel sorry for yourself then I hope you will also offer yourself grace and not compare your life to what anyone else is going through. Because, my dear friends, we all have a story to tell.


Love Note: With all my heart, I genuinely request that due to the content written, please seek the guidance of professional help should you feel you need it.