Saturday, February 20, 2016

Take a Walk, Girl, You've Earned It

     I think often we don’t even realise how much pressure we’re under every day. We’re supposed to do lots and we’re supposed to look good doing it. We should be good wives and mothers, or we should be preparing for this role if we don’t fill it already. Be involved in the church, the school, the community. We live under this “be who you are” ideal but we all know the reality of visual bias and we feel the pressure to look nice, look young, look sexy; all these different things. And it’s stressful.
     It’s incredibly stressful for us.
     I said at the beginning of this year that I wanted to try to be honest, or at least as honest as I reasonably can be when posting things on the internet for the world to read. So in a moment of internet-safe honesty, I’m willing to admit that I’ve been feeling this pressure a lot lately.
     Leaving for college after Christmas break was maybe a little more emotional than I really wanted to admit at the time. I think I was home just long enough to remember why I love being there, with my family and my friends and the town I’ve known for years. Then I had to leave again, back to a place that is still unfamiliar, still not quite comfortable, 1,800 miles away from everything I consider to be “home”. The day before I had to leave, I got sick of packing and thinking and all of that, so I went for a walk.
     There’s nothing like Colorado sunshine to remind you that God is still good. It was a little chilly, but it was peaceful. It was a kind of peace that I know I’ve been missing for a long time because I didn’t ever set aside a place for it. And now, being back under the pressure to perform, succeed, all of that stuff that I mentioned back at the beginning, I’m remembering that peace and kind of wondering why I do this to myself. Seeking God’s peace is the ultimate, lasting relief to the pressure and stress that we deal with every day.
     Emotional health is just as important as physical health. I know when I’m stressed, I start to lose track of the ways I should be honouring God. I lose my temper. I stop “working for the Lord and not for men”(Colossians 3:23). And it’s important to take care of ourselves emotionally because God didn’t create us to be tired and stressed and overworked. Take care of yourself, girl. You need it. You deserve it. Take a night off. Take a walk. Stop arguing with yourself and eat the ice cream.
     We’re all under pressure. We all need a find a way to cope with that, and we all need to remember that no one else gets to tell us we shouldn’t take time to ourselves. Your emotional health is important, girl, and it’s important for you to learn how to take care of it.

Thanks for being so patient! As I mentioned, I'm kind of dealing with a lot in terms of my own emotional health currently, but I'm still trying to keep up. As always, feel free to email or Facebook me (see the "Contact Me" link in the sidebar). And as always, God bless.
~Sheridan

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