Hang in there !!

Have you ever felt so weak and broken that you had no courage to get out of your bed or leave the house. The thought of facing people brought chills down your spine. The fear of seeing someone close might burst the dam to your repressed emotions and you may break into tears. And well !! You don’t want anyone to see you like that and hence you hold it all together and pretend all is well. While suppressing your emotions might let you wear a mask of pretension for sometime, but in a long run it is not good.

Exactly a year back I went through a rough phase in my life. I suffered a knee injury. I wasn’t able to walk, sit down on my sofa or get up without pain. I have always been an active person and not being able to do the day to day activities got me a lot of mental and emotional pain. Then there were comments from people on ‘How early in my life I am suffering a knee pain’. Well, I don’t give a damn about it now but a year back those looks and statements made me cry for hours. And hence I decided to not meet anyone or even step out of my home till I am back to my normal self. Luckily lockdown happened and it was super easy for me to go inside my shell. So what I am saying is, that it happens and is totally normal. However, here are a few things that helped me to cope with everything in last one year :

1. Supportive family and friends – I am so blessed when I think about my support system. And this is an important aspect in any kind of healing. You must have people who you can talk to and share what you are feeling without the fear of being judged. 
2. Acceptance – Everything became easy once I accepted things as they were. Instead of continuously fighting the unpleasant emotions related to this event, I concentrated on small things that brought me joy.
3. Focus on your strengths – My strength through all this was my ’Never giving up’ attitude. It was difficult to bear pain as the first thing in the morning while getting off the bed. Getting ready and showing up for my physio sessions, that didn’t always have a positive graph of healing, but I never gave up. Find your strength and focus on it.
4. Gratitude Journal – This I would highly recommend. Notice at least one thing around you that you are grateful for. It can be as small as leaving your bed in the morning. Yes, I mean it.. I know sometimes even that seems the most challenging thing to do. I still read my journal when I feel low and it helps.
5. Positive Affirmations – You know ‘you’ play the most important role in understanding your worth and knowing your value. It may come naturally to some, whereas I had to deliberate tell myself ‘I am strong’, ‘I am worthy’, ‘I got this’, ‘I can do it’. I can understand if this seem like a very small and useless thing to do. However, It had a great impact on my mental and emotional well being.

I hope you find my experience helpful and most importantly I want you to know that you are not alone. And no matter how perfect lives seem on social media, with perfect vacation, perfect bodies, perfect companionship, perfect homes etc. it is not the whole reality. Having times of darkness, brokenness and depression are equally real. However, you can overcome it…

So Breathe and Just Hang in There..

The Seeking Soul