A to Z Challenge: H

April A to Z Challenge
Day 8: H
April 9, 2013

"A strong mind always hopes, and always has cause to hope." Thomas Carlyle

This past November I was admitted for an psychiatric evaluation. While I was at a doctors appointment I started feeling sick, and then I couldn't breathe. I had been discussing my pain levels with my doctor and this overwhelming feeling of hopelessness came over me. I have lived through the previous ten years with daily chronic pain - how was I suppose to continue living with this pain? (along with other stress factors) I was enrolled in an outpatient program where I had to meet with a psychiatrist, occupational therapy, and cognitive behavioral therapy. I also had to participate in group therapies like how to manage stress more efficiently and different forms of sensory that can help. 

Hope is something that we have to cultivate within ourselves. If society and other environmental factors are telling us that there is no hope, we need to reevaluate and say 'yes, there is hope!' take a negative and replace it with two positives. If you are looking through a magazine and start to feel depressed because you looked at a picture and started the negative backlash on yourself, then throw away the magazine. You are not cultivating the hope within you. Learn to control what you can and let go of what you cannot (read the Serenity Prayer). If someone is in your life and it is a toxic relationship, you have to love yourself more and say "this is toxic to me and the people around me" and either work on the relationship, or end it - right? 

I think people could live a happier life if they replaced the negative with positive to promote a healthy hope within. Until next time or the next... dream ~ K.E.Nowinsky