Mental Health Monday - 04.22.24

"When life hands you lemons..." You know the rest. While these types of folk sayings are generally meant in the most positive of ways, words don't solve our problems. Sure, words can make us feel better, but do they truly make up for the physical situations that we find ourselves in? We live in a world where the material aspects of reality do not care how we feel. If we are sad, the storms still come. If we are tired, we still must work for food and shelter. If we are anxious, the predator does not let up the chase, or give us a "flex day." The natural world is a rigid councilor and has no HT department to complain to. In essence; the world does not care how we feel. Life exists because of a miracle. Whether you think that is single cells in the primordial soup developing the ability to split, or whether you believe God created life as we know it, it changes nothing. The perfect circumstances for our existence were laid out, and it had been a struggle since then. To put it in terms of the graphic above, we have only ever gotten lemons. We just figured out how to use them. There is a way through your current struggle. You don't have to just sit there and be pelted by lemons. Sure, if your plan was to make lemonade and that didn't work, then try something else. You made the game. If you want to stop and try something else, you can. The physical world might not care about how we feel, but how we feel about the world can change it. Our attitudes and mental state have a physical effect on our health and our bodies. Our choices change the world around us, and our ideas manifest themselves in an altered natural landscape. When we have ideas, and we act on them, we create changes in our environment that can help us sustain ourselves and even increase our abilities. We are not powerless - quite the opposite. We are resilient, intelligent creatures, whose ultimate potential is still unknown. We face hardship and we persevere. We succeed, even thrive, in the harshest of conditions and circumstances. Planet Earth has been trying to kill us off for a long time, but we're still here. Keep going. Have a great week. Stay safe.Stay blessed. -DJR #MentalHealthMonday