We are wired for healing. Our bodies and our brains know how to heal, and move towards this phenomenon without our even realizing it sometimes. Think about a physical wound. You don’t have to tell your cells to begin to make new cells, to seal over the wound to protect inner layers from infection, to heal and recover. Your body just does it.
Sometimes, though, there are barriers to our healing. We keep getting injured. We don’t take time to slow down to heal. We push ourselves (or our relationships) too hard, too fast, too much. Or maybe we abandon ourselves and others, in both significant and subtle ways. And the healing gets hijacked.
What are we healing from? What is mental health awareness anyway?
I wasn’t raised in a home where we ever talked about it. Our culture at that time didn’t even have words to begin to understand it. My deep soul had a longing for being reached, heard, understood, embraced. It took me decades to find it.
I want to unfold some of the layers I’ve found of what mental health means to me, what it involves, and what we are healing from. In essence, I believe it is becoming your best self to show up in the world uniquely as you, and being supported well to do so. It is a process of understanding our humanity so that we can be fully alive, integrated, and whole. We are complex beings with lots of parts.
We need to be talking about it. Our culture is finally primed to open the conversations, and I’m so grateful they are happening. I’m hopeful this blog, and Community Routes podcast, can be resources for taking you deeper. We are getting ready to start into season 3, and I can’t wait!!! I hope you will join us!!!
For your reflection: We will be exploring some of the layers of mental health awareness in the upcoming posts, but before we do, what comes to mind for you? How has mental health been part of your life? What have you learned thus far and where does it show up in your life? What are you curious about? What might be some of your growing edges?
Action steps: What questions do you have that you wonder about mental health? Jot them down and feel free to share them with our community here or with the podcast. We can explore them together! Let’s engage in the conversation!
