Worth Living Ambassador Jess Harvey
I’m a mother of 2 who let my depression run my life for way too long. After losing my father to cancer when I was 30, I spent 7 years trying to deal with my grief and understand all its stages. It’s not something that defines me anymore, and Now I want to offer strength and inspiration to those around me by speaking out in the hopes that I can give someone else a voice. Please visit my personal blog www.jessharvey31.blogspot.com
When you find a way to be stronger than your depression, life gets brighter ~
This is What Progress Looks Like
So today I decided to do things a little differently after a conversation last night with one of my best friend. I realized that I’m not the only one who often has the feeling that you’re having a midlife crisis.
I’ve written about this before about the uneasy feeling that lives inside of me, the feeling of fulfillment, the feeling that I’m not successful enough or like I have so much more I want to accomplish but I’m always unsure how to accomplish it, or maybe it’s the anxiety of failure that stops me from doing it.
It seems that my problem is going from step A – which is me deciding what I want to do, to step B – which is me actually accomplishing said task. I think I lack the ability to put a plan into motion, this is my weakness… AKA Fear!
Which is weird because I’m a very well organized person.
My plans usually sound really good and would make me feel very accomplished if I achieve them, but I don’t always get there.
Sound familiar? It should.
I’ve been writing about this in my blog for years stating that I know that there’s more I’m supposed to be doing, I know that this isn’t “it”for me, and I know that I’m not alone when I say that. So now that I have activated my body and my mind is in a healthy state, I am more excited than ever to finally put the steps in place in order to fulfill all of my goals.
What I’ve discovered is that baby steps are my key to success.
First off, let me explain what my goals are. This will help keep me accountable.
It should be no surprise to any of you that I have a passion for helping people, I want to advocate for mental health, and I want to teach people about body image, self-confidence, and especially kindness as I used to lack all of the above. (Except kindness, I would like to believe I’ve always been kind) but I don’t feel like these things are discussed often enough.
Believe it or not, I am excited to speak in front of people and help them get to a healthier place in their life however it scares the hell out of me. I want to make an impression on people because I know what I’ve had to overcome to get to this place. I’ve lived through something I never thought I could.
I lost my dad, and it rocked my world. I never thought I could feel “Normal” again.But I made it through, even though there was many times I wanted to give up, I had zero drive or ambition. To make it through a day it took everything in me.
If you’ve never had depression or anxiety or any other sort of mental illness, you’re very lucky. However, I think that there are more people faced with this then they choose to admit.
I want to help change that.
I want to empower people to believe in themselves and realize that in order to start overcoming some of those demons you must start with yourself. For me, a journey of personal growth has been the most beneficial part of my life. Starting with learning how to appreciate who I am, learning how to get rid of negative energy in my life, and learning how to stop giving a shit about what other people thought of me
Of course I say that with the upmost respect but truthfully if more people just stopped worrying about what everyone else thought about them, I’m sure their own image of themselves would become much brighter. Once you step out from behind the shadow of other people’s opinions, it’s amazing how bright your days will become. Giving people that power over you is like adding more weights to the backpack that you’re carrying around every day, it weighs you down, tires you out and it drains your energy. Worst of all, your anxiety FEEDS off this like the disease that it is.
This is part 1 of the things that I want to help people understand. Self -Talk is the key to Self- Improvement
This will be a process and at this point I’m unsure what people’s response will be but I’m certain it will reach at least one person. That’s a victory.
One small step for me, one giant leap towards my goal 😉
So far I’ve survived 100% of my worst days, you can too 💛