I want to encourage you to evaluate if you are using unhealthy coping skills of distraction, avoidance or repression. It’s healthy to stop and take time to assess how you are doing emotionally and mentally.
Many are afraid that if they take time to evaluate their functioning, it may cause them dysfunction or lead to negative outcomes; the opposite is true. It’s OK to feel anxious, sad, overwhelmed or angry when facing difficult circumstances. Emotions are there to reveal to us changes we may need to make to increase our positive functioning. When my clients experience an emotion, I encourage them to ask, “What is it trying to tell me?”
I work with many in the medical and educational field, and find that they are growing exhausted trying to be what they can for everyone else, while internally they are avoiding their own functioning. It appears they are keeping themselves busy and going through the motions, and in turn, this is having a drastic negative effect on their own health. Take some time for self-care and just be still as a form of self-love and self-healing. Some examples of this could be journaling, guided mediation, prayer and even counseling.
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What people fail to recognize is that if they don’t take the time to explore their own thoughts and feelings, their struggles can compound and cause more problems for them. This could lead to self-medicating with alcohol, drugs or food, or lead to burnout and relational problems. Stress, anxiety and depression are at an all-time high due to the struggles we have faced over the past year, and I genuinely believe that many are avoiding evaluating how it has affected them.
It’s OK to take moments for yourself, shut off all background noise, technology and responsibilities and ask yourself how are you doing. It’s OK to be still while recognizing your health. Coping is paramount to all other things in your life.
If you have any questions, please don’t hesitate to contact me at dearstacia@gmail.com.