Mental Health Adventures

What does it take to truly bounce back from life’s challenges? How do we forge resilience in a world that constantly tests us? To me, resilience is the ability to bounce back from being knocked down. Or standing solid on a firm foundation and enduring setbacks with patience. “Victory belongs to the most persevering.” Napoleon Bonaparte. David Goggins describes the ‘cookie jar’ concept, where each ‘cookie’ represents a past challenge overcome, reminding us of our strength in tough moments. When facing significant challenge, it’s good to remind ourselves of who we are. We are the sum of the experiences we have and the choices we made as we went through them. But what happens when you’re young and you haven’t faced significant trouble? In my humble opinion, we should seek out adversity. Seek out new experiences that will challenge us. We need resistance in order to grow stronger. "Strong people are made by opposition - like kites that go up against the wind."  Frank ...

Life has a way of throwing us curveballs, doesn’t it? Like many others, I’m navigating a particularly challenging season in one area of my life right now. The saying “This too shall pass” is comforting in theory, but it doesn’t always make the present struggle easier to endure… Sometimes I have hope and sometimes the hope gets beaten out of me, until I pick up my hope and start again. When you’re facing a big problem, it can feel all-consuming—like it’s taken over your entire world. It looms large, like an elephant sitting smack in the middle of your neatly kept lawn, impossible to ignore. If my life were a pie chart, this problem would feel like it’s taking up 99% of the space. But recently, I’ve started to approach it differently. By stepping back emotionally and thinking more rationally, I’ve found a small but meaningful way to cope: distraction. Not the kind of distraction that ignores the problem entirely, but one that focuses on building up the good in other areas of my life. I’...