Questions that most often linger around in our minds are “will my situation be like this forever?” “will I ever be happy?” “will I ever be successful?” All of which can be answered by the choices we make today. Whether it is that you’re struggling with mental health problems like depression and anxiety, how we chose to react to certain situations and choosing the best possible solutions to combat these emotions will be key to allowing for growth and change. In this blog I will demonstrate how our actions and behaviors can influence thoughts that lead to a path of self destruction. Whatever the situation we face, no matter the circumstance, big or small, can all be resolved if we learn to take a different approach and implement plans to make our desires a reality. The road to approaching situations differently can impact the way we think, behave and act towards others. It all starts with first being aware of ourselves, recognizing the root cause of our problem and implementing an action plan to allow for change. Sometimes our pride gets the best of us, and we like to blame others for our failures and misfortunes, when in reality we are the reason for our own problems.
Self-Awareness
Self-awareness is tracking our discomfort, our feelings, our emotions and our beliefs. It is important because it is a major mechanism that influences personal development. Self awareness requires us to take a deep look into who we are without being judgmental and harsh on ourselves, and recognize why we do the things we do, and how we can better come up with solutions to fix our problems. But don’t get me wrong, an honest and thorough evaluation of ourselves can be very ego-draining and one that we must suck up our pride for and learn to accept the truth. Sometimes we have to be honest with ourselves and avoid justifying our actions and behaviors. I believe learning awareness can be a very humbling opportunity and a chance for change. I recently read this book by my favorite psychologist, Dr. Brene Brown and it was entitled “Daring greatly”. I must say it’s a book that we all must take a look at, as she talks about vulnerability and how Gods precious gift to us is the ability to feel and be vulnerable. She goes on to explain that vulnerability is no weakness, but a blessing in disguise. She quoted a harry potter line that really had me thinking and made me open to the idea of self awareness. “Your’e not a bad person. Your’e a very good person who bad things have happened too. Besides, the world isn’t split into good people and death eaters. We’ve all got both light and dark inside us. What matters is the part we choose to act on. That’s who we truly are”. After reading this line I had a moment. I realize that we as humans have the ability to completely flip the script on any situation. We as humans tend to be hard on ourselves. I know, because I too struggle with this. But to be able to completely get past any situation we must first recognize our faults and first learn to forgive ourselves. We need to understand that things happen for a reason and sometimes when we try to control too much. We ultimately end up losing sight of what’s really important. learning where we went wrong and how our actions and behavior’s influence most of the struggles we face today, is the first step to changing who we are and governing the outcome of everything else around us.
The root
What do you do when you have a problem at home or at school? Do you dive back and treat the symptoms, or do you stop to consider that there is really a deeper issue that needs your attention? If you only fix whats on the surface, the problem will almost certainly come back, and you will find yourself trying to fix the issue over and over again. However, if you look deeper to figure out the root of the problem, any underlying issues can be completely resolved so that it goes away for good. Going to the root helps us in identifying what is causing or what is making the situation at hand already difficult to deal with. All my life Iv’e struggled with my weight. Nothing in this life makes me more depressed than being over-weight. I would say that Iv’e been a bigger girl all my life but that’s no excuse to be unfit and unhealthy. I sat down and thought about why I was depressed and It all pinned back to the root of my issue, which was my weight. And what was causing me to be over weight? My eating habits. And what was another cause? My inactive life style. Once I learnt the root of my depression and corrected those issues, my depression seem to get better and it is no longer an issue that I have to deal with. Same goes for the question I brought up “will I ever be successful?”. I’m sure this thought have crossed our minds at least once during our entire life span. These questions can lead us feeling anxious and depressed when we wallow in self doubt. But question is what are you doing to make that dream a reality? Are you squandering in your comfort zone ? During my experience at University, I realized I had alot of old habits to unlearn and alot of new habits to manifest. When we recognize these habits and correct them we bring about change.
Change
In order for me to be successful in my studies, I had to sacrifice many things. Distractions like partying, social media, relationships and so on I had to put on hold. Some of the new habits I adapted was Putting God first. Then I organized myself, implemented a strict study schedule, made use of memoirs, sticky notes, highlighter pens to highlight my notes, I listened to instrumentals while reading, which seemed to improve my focus and the list goes on. This goes to show we have the ability to do anything in this world once we learn discipline. A heart break can squander your success and ultimately lead you to have poor grades in school. Failure can be a vehicle for depression and even anxiety. All you need to do is put your best foot forward and work towards making that dream a reality. Don’t be scared to fail, you only fail when you stop trying. Sometimes failure opens the window to endless possibilities once you make wisdom your teacher. When we adopt positive changes in our lives we see our situation improving and we would no longer suffer from what
SunFlower Thoughts 