The Journey

Be Kind

— everybody/anybody

How to start to open up..

Everybody is fighting their own battles. If we all speak about how we’re feeling, removed from fear of judgement that can only be a good thing. I’ve found that writing helps me. I’ve kept all of my writing private until now. It was only for me. If people don’t like what I have to say they can stop reading; or they can laugh.

I have written this sentence in my head at least four hundred times. How do you start?

How do open up, at your most vulnerable, and tell people you’re not ok? How do you open a body of text in a way that doesn’t come across as preachy, new wave or hippy? How does one sound genuine without condescending? How do you tell your story? How do you open up?

I don’t have the answer to those questions yet.

I can, however, tell you it’s a process, like waves rolling on the shore.

Sometimes the waves are big. A ‘big wave’ might mean you have a very deep, meaningful conversation with someone, covering past ground which puts your mind at ease. Maybe it’s a small wave, creeping up the shore and dissolving into the sand. That small wave may be something as simple as telling your mate you’re feeling a bit shit. The small wave might be choosing to cancel plans because you need ‘me time’.

A larger wave may be choosing to quit your job and head to Asia as I’ve done.

I’m by no means asking for sympathy. I am very excited about the future. There was a storm brewing in my brain for about a year and I couldn’t quite work out what was wrong. I’ve still not fully worked every detail out yet, but I feel 3x the person I was 6 months ago.

The process in itself is cathartic.

What I have found is that everyone has their own waves, in their own lives. What is a tsunami for me may be an insignificant raindrop to you; that’s okay. We don’t have to compete. BUT we do have to be aware. And we MUST be kind.

Everyone navigates waves everyday. When the waves get too much you find yourself caught in a storm.

If you were a captain, you would call mayday & ask for the nearest boat to come to the rescue. Yet unfortunately the same can’t be said for so many people, stuck in their own storms.

It is a problem that is not solved by money. It is a problem that is solved by speaking.

Mental health issues are hidden in plain sight:

Caroline Flack killed herself yesterday. Another casualty of the times we live in. I dread to think of the storm she was trying to navigate, only magnified by her position and fame. I think Craig Ferguson said it best years ago, when Britney Spears was in the midst of her storm. She was the same age as me at the time, was very famous and had two children…

I wish hindsight was a wonderful thing.