In metaphoric preparation for entering the new year in the best condition possible, I set out in the early morning of January 1st to clean out my closet. I pulled everything out of its purposeful or simply convenient place and set it somewhere in my room to be inspected. Checking each item inside bins, trunks, and plastic shoe containers for its relevance to the past, present, and future. As I reviewed the things in my closet and practiced my role as judge, jury, and executioner of its fate to be donated, trashed, or kept, I realized there wasn’t as much to get rid of as I anticipated. I approached the task as if it was going to take me all day and put me through bouts of frustration and annoyance. However, I didn’t experience any frustration, and I completed the task in an hour and a half and was more than satisfied with the end result.
I couldn’t help but draw some association between this experience and the mental health journey I am determined to embark on this coming year. I have convinced myself that there is so much to throw out and deconstruct and not much to retain. When thinking about mental health, the “cleaning out the closet” concept had been so daunting that I kept walking past the “closet,” but what if the trauma of my life only needs organizing for proper usage and reference as I live life rather than be thrown away? Maybe the hardest step toward mental health is simply opening the “closet door.”
I think we convince ourselves that things are too hard to start, too big to manage, and too complicated to understand when in actuality, all we need to do is open that closet door and inspect one item at a time. My mental health journey may not be as simple as my cleaning closet experience, but why anticipate the worst and the hardest option possible? Trust me, I have been living that way for years, and it has not been helpful. Often, I manifest what I anticipate. Not because I have made the situation worse but because my expectations are catastrophic that any glimpse of hope and positivity is snuffed out.
Here's to a new year of changing the approach to problems, opening the closet to inspect one item at a time, asking for help when you don’t know what to do with what you see, and living for the best in life without anticipating the worst.
Cheers!
Happy New Year!
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