"Stories to Inspire" blog series: Learning to Laugh at Myself
This blog post (part of the "Stories to Inspire" series ) is a little bit different- but something tells me it's still an important reminder that will hopefully inspire someone. The theme may be more geared towards mental health-- but it's very true that our mental health is directly tied into and related to our spiritual health and well-being also.
For example, these last couple of weeks have been very mentally exhausting and filled with sleepless nights and stressful moments. It has been difficult to find as much time or energy to focus on some of my own personal daily spiritual practices: daily devotionals, gratitude journaling, prayer, and attending mass (quite literally could not get to church this past Sunday as we were sitting in the Immediate Care with one of our children... thankfully everything is fine now but it was definitely one of those crazy/stressful life moments...)
And after a while, it started to feel like I was in "survival" mode. Just going through the motions... starting to complain a little more... feeling negative about things... then starting to get down on myself a little more... little by little feeling a little more distant from God... a little more of that "void" feeling creeping in.... a little more "on edge" and reactive to situations. My mental and spiritual health were not looking too good. I wasn't exactly radiating joy and kindness at times if I'm being honest.
But thankfully, God always tends to have a beautiful way of sort of bringing us back to Himself. I happened to catch a couple of different inspirational sermon series and shows that really snapped me back into shape. Back into the right perspective. A perspective focused on gratitude and the importance of staying close to God. He is the vine and we are the branches. We need to remain in Him. (see John 15).
But it's an important reminder that this life is a journey and we need to be KIND to ourselves in the process. I sometimes think that if all we had to do all day is sit around on a beach in Jamaica drinking Mai Tais then maybe we'd all be cool as cucumbers and happy as clams. I don't know, maybe. But the reality is that this life can actually be extremely hard/trying/stressful. Real life isn't always fun. Real life can be so dang hard at times.
So we need to give ourselves A LOT of grace. We need to be kinder to ourselves when we don't act the way we "should have" acted. When maybe we are a little too crabby or stressed or (let's be honest) hungry. Or maybe we are rushing a small child to the Immediate Care center and very worried about them and the lady at the front desk isn't exactly welcoming and calls you "ma'am" in a disrespectful tone (Jesus, take the wheel).....
Let's give ourselves some grace and remember that it's okay to not take ourselves so seriously sometimes. It's okay to remember that we need Jesus and when we try to do things "in our own strength" - it might end up looking like my tired toddler at bedtime. It might end up looking like that one time I had a meeting in a fancy conference room for work and they had those fancy chairs with wheels on them.... and so when I stood up to hand someone something, I didn't realize that the chair had actually rolled away behind me. And yes, I sat back down to only quite literally fall right on my behind. Oh yes, I had to learn to laugh at myself in that moment (God also tends to let me fall on my behind sometimes to most likely remind me that I need to stay close to Him). Sometimes, I think God has a pretty good sense of humor also. But anyways, I can only speak for myself and the amount of really dumb things that I have said and done. It would be easy to start feeling really down on myself and to be overly self-critical. But I've also overcome my share of mental health battles. And I know many close friends who are still battling suicidal thoughts. And also many people that just simply don't like themselves.
So instead, I've made up my mind. I'm determined that I'm going to like myself. And when I do silly things, I'm going to laugh at myself. Laugh it off and move on. God is good and if I'm being honest, sometimes I am not. For goodness sake, even the Pope said the other day that he is a sinner and needs God's grace. We are all sinners and need God's grace (and yes, I'm going to mention one of my favorite songs of all time - "Sinners Like Me" by Eric Church because you should go listen to it right now). And I'm also going to mention one of my favorite quotes- "We are all broken but that's how the light gets in".
Too many of my friends are quite literally fighting for their life with mental health struggles. Let's remember to be kind to ourselves and also be kind to others (and yes, I did apologize to that lady at the front desk at the Immediate Center because Lord knows I was not initially kind to her when she came at me with the "ma'am" attitude in that moment.....I think there's a way to be direct AND kind and I definitely missed the mark on the "kind" part.... just being honest...)
And let's also remember to CELEBRATE our wins each day whether big or small. One of my friends sent me a message the other day that she was celebrating a small win for the day of just actually taking a shower and getting ready. It's an important mindset to have where we celebrate these types of "little" wins/victories - no matter what we are going through. Stay focused on gratitude. And learn to laugh it off when things don't quite go right. Always remember the old saying that laughter is the best medicine. Learning to find the joy and being able to smile in tough moments is so key. Also, I'm going with a group of friends to see an actual stand-up comedian in a couple of weeks and I'm so looking forward to it! When life gets stressful, be determined to smile at least once that day. Be determined to laugh somehow. Put on your favorite funny movie of all time. Spend time with that friend who makes you laugh so hard that you cry (luckily for me, I'm married to one of the funniest people I've ever met).
Yes, life can be so dang hard at times. But it's also worth it. Cherish the beautiful moments and the glimmers of happiness wherever you can find them. And if you can't find any, then please reach out because we'd like to send you a free, encouraging Care Package to hopefully bring a little joy into your day and make you smile.
I hope this post inspires someone to laugh (or at least smile) today ❤️
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