My Message To Those Who Are Struggling With Life

I want to let you know that things will get better. I know that some of you have no idea what is wrong. You can’t leave your room, you cry at work, you have a lingering feeling that you have failed something or disappointed someone. Maybe, you think you are simply a bad person, or a weak person, or screwed up in a way that no one can help you. You keep remembering the people you disappointed, the shame you carry for thoughts or actions, so many things, you don’t know where to start. Maybe you feel that you don’t deserve to get help, because your problems aren’t that big, because your life looks so good, because you should be able to figure your problems out. The fact that you haven’t is further proof that you are a lost cause.

You might feel that you are not worth the effort. That whoever you are, you’re not that good a person. That even if you were able to be better, you would never be good enough.  

You might feel you are too big, and too messy, too angry, and too much.  Who would be able to navigate through this shitshow with you?

I have walked this path, I have felt this shame, I have been too big and too much and too little. I am here to tell you that you are worth it. However messy, however broken, you are worth it. However complicated, there is a way through. Please keep going. 

Ask for help.  Speak those words to someone safe. I need help. If you are afraid, whisper them under the bed covers, look in the mirror and mouth the words and then tell someone. Call a hotline, tell a doctor, ask a friend, call a community counselling service. 

I have learned my story, and by understanding my life with the help of another, as a clear-eyed adult, I have come to a place of healing.  I have learned that we are connected by our stories and our experience of being human. No one is untouched by life’s sorrow. Life can be heavy, and terrifying and sad. To share our confusion, our sadness and our shame with another is to invite hope, to begin to find a way forward.

You. You are made of light, and love and so much brilliance.  You deserve love.  Love, not for anything you did or didn’t do, but because you are a perfect creation of energy and spirit.  You are good just as you are. Please keep going.