Eat, pray, love. These three little words really spoke to me in a time when I decided that I needed to actively prioritize myself, learning to be a little more selfish and give myself a little extra love. I remember constantly thinking of what I could be doing to “live my best life”. And while I knew I was doing exactly what I needed to be a better me, something felt uncomfortable about putting myself first. I wasn’t used to it. Living for moments was hard when you have this constant nagging in your brain of all the things you should be doing or that long impending to-do list for tomorrow. Unlearning old habits is extremely difficult when you’ve built your entire life on what you should be doing. Do yourself a favor. Stop. Stop doing that.

But here’s the thing – the world put you here, the world wants you here, and the world undeniably needs you here. The Earth speaks to us every day, telling us exactly what she needs. This is truth. However, when we lose ourselves in our mind or in this world, we cannot see forward, we cannot listen, we cannot guide ourselves to do right by our world. And for that, there is one simple solution – feed your soul, nourish your soul, treat ‘em right. How can you do right by others when you’re not doing right by yourself? I would argue that as powerful beings, we have an inherent duty to advocate for others, whether other beings or the environment, innately making this a foundation of sustainability. However, towards that endeavor, we must take care of ourselves and our minds by prioritizing the mental health of ourselves and those around us.   

When it comes to mental health, I would argue that hardest things about dealing with mental health are 1) admitting that mental health is real and that your pain is real and 2) simply dealing. I started this blog long before I was ready or willing to write something I would actually upload to the internet. My final willingness to speak with the world meant overcoming my own internal struggles and vulnerabilities. Honestly, when it came time to acknowledging my own pain, I found it paramount that I confront someone else about it. Without doing that, I found myself constantly replaying these stories in my head but with no ending. Often I would obsessively replay these stories in my head, never feeling any satisfaction or closure. Mustering that courage to tell someone was and is still the hardest thing by far. By telling someone, you are admitting to yourself that your feelings are real and the problem is real.

However, I would also encourage you to write down thoughts, feelings, pains, struggles, and anything else that is negatively taking up space in your head. In my experience, simply putting the words in my head on paper was a way of acknowledging and validating my feelings, experiences, and reality. Paper can be more of a friend than you think. I found it to be very cathartic, even, finding myself uncontrollably crying about my issues, only just realizing they were severely impacting my daily life in a way that I did not know. However, through these motions, I was able to more rationally process my experiences and relate to them more objectively, ultimately allowing me to find closure and endings to those non-stop replaying stories. It let me feel those feelings that needed to be processed and to also let go of them. It allowed my struggles to become a memory or something of a reality, rather than a thing or a feeling that controls you in a way that you didn’t understand.

And while this post does not directly relate to sustainability – mental health is undeniably undervalued in our culture. Without self-love and self-care, you cannot be an advocate for humanity, the environment, and the systems that interconnect all beings small and big.