Punched in the Mouth...

I recently have been taking these classes with a pretty rad company called Field Craft Survival. The classes are all about preparedness. We cover topics from knot tying to first aid, survival skills and self defense among many others. The key is being prepared, having a plan, having a skill set, and knowing what are your tools? While these classes are addressing many physical aspects of survival such as what tools do have and what are you abilities, one of the biggest emphasis is always on the mindset. Are you mentally prepared and capable to deal with sometimes life threatening situations? How are you going to handle, it what’s your plan, what’s in your tool box?

As Mike Tyson said "Everybody has a plan until they get punched in the mouth."

We prepare our venues with emergency exits, we secure our homes with locks, cameras, we carry a first aid kit in the woods. We do out best to protect our physical environment, what about our mental environment?

I have spent a good amount of my life gaining mental health tools, sometimes out of necessity sometimes out of joy. Some work for me some don’t. Most recently I have had to dig in, to find new tools, the ones I had weren’t working. I found myself in the black hole again, that space I never wanted to revisit, the space I thought I had beat. What I realized the most about my mental health tool box, is sometimes it needs a tune up, it may actually need a mechanic. I could no longer do it on my own. The hole was consuming. I needed tools I didn’t have.

I found a “mechanic” called bloodwork, to find out my hormones are all over the place, that my VIT B + D were shot, my DHEA though the roof and my stress hormones were the highest in the morning. I am the most stressed when I wake up? That just feels like being punched in the mouth everyday. The tools I have of prayer, journaling, hiking, meditation, cooking, dancing it out, riding my horse none of them were working. As a matter a fact I didn’t want to do any of them. My body was desperately just trying to survive, not even think about thriving. More I felt like I had been lost for quite a while. This did not happen over night, it was a long time coming, so give yourself grace if you are relating to this at all.

I am sharing this because our bodies are magic and they will do anything to survive, well mine it was shutting down, physically and mentally, trying to survive and I wasn’t listening. I kept saying I got this. I share this so that if you are questioning your mental health, your depression I encourage to get bloodwork done, find out what is really going on in your physical environment. I hope we see change that getting help when you need it is not weak, it is strong. A change that we look into hormones, vitamins, herbs and nutrition more for mental health, before the problem occurs. Rather then numbing it with pills, booze actions that cause more harm. That when someone says they don’t want to live or I can’t do this anymore we look at the chemical make up of what is really happening, don’t just say well change your thinking, or just get some sleep (I would have given a million dollars to just sleep and still would)

I hope we begin to listen with more empathy, encourage each other’s dreams, talk to our neighbors like we used to. I hope we can begin to light each others flames instead of dim them. More I want you to know I understand, there is a way out of whatever your blackhole is, there is a way to feel like you haven’t been punched in the mouth everyday. I know even hearing that sometimes, makes you go, you don't know, there is no way.

But remember everything and anything is possible.

and there may not be one right way but what I know is there is a way…

If you have any questions about any of this I am happy to chat.

Just shoot me an email info@plantseedsco.com