‘I think I’m more beautiful now, more so than I have ever been both inside and out.

It’s not about what we look like, it’s about how we impact those around us.

See the worth in yourself and your imperfections as your Superpower- because they are the strongest attributes you have.

Whenever you fall remember- Comeback arenas are not where Hero’s are made, they are where Hero’s come.’

-Mary

Like Sisyphus the king of Corinth in ancient Greek mythology condemned to continuously roll a boulder up a hill for eternity, so do I feel I have been condemned to the same fate.

Only mine is a nightmare that I can’t seem to wake up from or probably I’m awake but trapped in a living nightmare.

Faced with impending and unavoidable failure and disgrace like a deer caught in the headlights of an oncoming truck or moth drawn fatefully to the flames that will undeniably kill it.

When backed into a corner with no foreseeable exit I will like the cellist of Sarajevo, Vedran Smailović who during the siege of Sarajevo, continued to play Adagio in G Minor with grace in the midst of chaos and death; lift my chin, dress well and face the inevitable with Grace.

In our increasingly hectic day to day lives where we all show up to work day after day like a bad penny, invisible to everyone even ourselves; there has been an increasing demand to create mental health awareness or possibly a need to be seen to be advocating for mental health awareness in the workplace.

At most workplaces you get bulk mail asking, ‘Are you ok?’, or ‘Happy …. Day!’ or similar themed mail. But hardly do we really want to know the answer.

A lot of times people who do ask this question get this glazed-over look immediately after the question, indicating that they’ve probably switched off. And are taken aback when the response is ‘No. Actually I am NOT ok’.

A lesson that can be learnt, is that just asking ‘Are you ok?’ is not enough. Act like you would care if they were NOT ok. 

‘Be kind everyone is fighting a hard battle and if you want to see just look’- ‘wonder’.

On an Egyptian tomb there is an inscription

‘Ur deeds are ur momuments. Deeds are the things that matter most’.

A criminologist once said….

We create our own luck. Some of the luck is there no doubt. But it is how you put urself in such positions that is key as, nothing comes easy.Things are hard for a reason, but if you put in the hard work, put in the contacts, you will succeed. When you work hard you create opportunities that create the luck.

Food for thought

The one constant thing in life, apart from change is the fact that you always have to show up for it. Whether or not it passes us by or we it.

Imagine if showing up for life becomes a burden because, your tired all the time, bored all the time, sad all the time or agitated all the time.

These are somes signs that there is a problem with your mental health.

This is why good mental health is important. As it ripples towards every other aspect of our lives. Interfering with our quality of life.

This is a reason why we need to invest in our mental health.

What good thing have you done for your mental health today?

Creating awareness about mental health issues is important. Navigating our daily lives constantly keeps us in contact with issues that make us predisposed constantly to mental health problems. When we look at the world through these lens, we then see that people with mental illness are no different from us. Please pass on this awareness message.

Suicide is widely looked upon as a cowardly and selfish act, but unless one has been at the brink of despair one can never understand that to the ‘would be suicide’ this notion is usually farthest from their mind. If you have ever been fortunate to suffer from depression only then will you be able to appreciate the difference between feeling ‘sad’ and feeling ‘despair’.  The two emotions are completely different.  It is this feeling of despair that pushes a would be suicide to take the final heroic plunge and commit the act.  For most suicides resulting from depression the anguish of living is better soothed by death’s cool balm. At the point of taking one’s life one believes it is a selfless act, the only and best option for everyone involved. When we hear about suicides committed by people suffering from depression let us take a pause to admire their strengths not condemn them, after all according to Gene and Barbara Stanford in their book titled “Strangers to themselves”; “the difference between the mentally ill and the mentally well is just a matter of degree”.

It will come in time.

My five year old soon to be six asked me one day,”mum why are you always in a hurry?”. I finished the task at hand and as I went back to lie down I found myself really for the first time asking myself the same question. “Really, Mary why are you always in a hurry”. It seems that one is always hurrying to meetup with one deadline or the other; the achievements of the moment quickly forgotten as we reach out for the final one that is always just beyound our grasp. Never realising that the sun is fast setting and we haven’t had a chance to enjoy the day,; or that the summer is fast ending and we haven’t yet found that ever elusive time to admire the scenery. Sometimes we all need to ask ourselves “where am I hurrying to?”and without waiting for a response ,to sit down, relax and enjoy a moment’s pause, cause there are only so many minutes in a day and what’s gone is gone.

It will come in time.