Thoughts bag: my experiences and how I coped(you can share your story too)

 There are issues rising from here and there in my life recently and I'd rather keep it to myself if you all don't mind and I don't mean to be rude, neither was my intention but you'll all find out soon one of those issues. We all experience ups and downs in our lives and we all think to ourselves sometimes often at most depending of the severity of our issues. "What should I do to make it stop?", "When will I ever be happy?", "Should I do what they told me to?", "When will it all end?"

 We all end up getting frustrated in what we should do and how we should do it. 

 We end up getting frustrated with our own reasons and the variables that may or may not affect our lives. Take society’s norms and standards for example. Variables that you’d unconsciously consider and apply to your problems as restrictions; don’t do this, don’t do that;  making you feel limited. I’d love to tell you that it doesn’t have to be that way. Because society does not own your identity, self-esteem, confidence, nor your body on what you should do to make it “socially acceptable”. All in all, they don’t own YOU.

 Here are some of the things I did to cope and to keep myself mentally and emotionally stable. I hope this helps someone or anyone who’s going through a rough time right now just like mine. 

1.  Love yourself
   I think this is already cliche but if you’re the type who blames themselves even though they are not the ones who caused the problem nor slightly involved and you only care for the sake of others. Don’t worry, being selfless and caring for others is good as loving yourself as well but do not forget to treat yourself as well if you’ve ever experienced helping the wrong people. Just think of the positive side of it, at least you did it with good intentions. Take time to heal your wounds from being underappreciated.
   
   Write poems, listen to music, sing songs, read the Bible, do everything you love doing. Here are some of my pieces as examples. It’s still raw and more in the free writing poetry side but I plan to at least make it decent somehow. I am not good with poetry however but this goes to show that I tried expressing myself in what I’m interested or “love” doing(yes I love expressing myself in somewhat artistic whether it may be sketching or writing poems like these).
   
   “Time”
   Why does it feel like time is slow,
   When you’re around?
   And quickens its pace,
   When you’re gone?
   Aren’t I being in love?
   
   “Cold”
   I was used to the warmth of my own love and was willing to give it all away
   If it meant for you to stay.
   You always shut me down, like putting off fire with water
   It was difficult to me at first,
   But I never gave up.
   I was your gas, your wood, your matches
   No matter how bad the weather is,
   I can withstand it.
   I gave you warmth but it slowly felt like you were sucking it all from me,
   Had I known you had in it too,
   But too naive to show me.
   Despite knowing the reason why you've decided
   To keep it to yourself,
   It still felt like you weren't telling me something I should know and have the right to know.
   I've learned to embrace the cold,
   I've learned to love the cold.
   With fire still burning inside, burning for you.
   Even though you're gone.
   I've slowly become cold.
   Cold as how you were to me.
   
   You can try to revise it and correct my pieces if you want to, I’d love to see your versions of mine or make your own pieces as well as sketch it if you imagine something different while reading these.(Thank you for taking the time to read them though)
    
2.  Take your friends' advice as it is, you have the power to assess and chose whether to follow it or not.
   Whatever it may be, if it will be beneficial for your life then go for it but if not then don’t, simple as that. Also, take into consideration of yourself by means of emotional, mental and physical health while assessing if you see fit.
   
3.  Learn from your mistakes, not repeat history itself.
   Don’t be afraid of making mistakes. Mistakes are a symbol of you being  human and it is a sign of you learning. Mistakes are there to teach you a lesson on what you should avoid or what you should do to make advantages for yourself.
   
4.  Do not be afraid to take risks or otherwise, resentment will follow.
   We’ve all been here before. Where we see something that caught our interests but hesitant and reserved for some reason resulting in not taking that chance or opportunity and the byproduct of that is either you’re fine that you didn’t take that risk because it was harmful to you or regret because you had the opportunity but you did not haul enough courage to take that opportunity that is dangling in front of you. It is good that you analyzed if it was good or bad but only with the right reasons. Notice I always mention to analyze everything, you ask why? You’re the one who’ll be benefiting from this, that’s why.
   
5.  Congratulate yourself for every progress you make.
   We all have a rough start in the beginning of this phase where we feel alone and hopeless but once you try to help yourself and you come up this far then treat yourself whether it may be fancy like a treat to Starbucks or just a simple pat on the shoulder and praise yourself for making it this far. Because yourself deserves to be treated much more than the negative things people say and tell about you and what they do to you.
   
6.  Never lose hope and never give up.
   This part may depend on what situation you’re in but nonetheless do not easily give up no matter what the circumstances are. It might take too long to accomplish or maybe in a span of months or years, do still try to push yourself. Think of it as this, the only person who can save you is yourself. If you give up, you’re giving up everything about you and yourself. Learn to care for yourself and never give up. It might be difficult and strenuous but it would save yourself from situations where you can never turn back.
   
7.  Have faith in God.
   This might be difficult to explain to some for I respect other people who are diverse in terms of religion(you go guys, I support that as well as long as it makes you happy and sane) but for the sake of my purpose of sharing this experience to you I would like to add this lastly. Never lose faith in God. You have come in a long way and you couldn’t achieve all of it if it weren’t for His love towards you. We may have turn our backs on Him but did not do the same to us. Instead, He kept us in check and whenever we needed help but didn’t know who to go to, to talk and to lean on to He was there for us. For He did not want us to suffer much more than what we are handling now. He’s guiding us to safety whenever we’re in danger.
   
   “When I walked away from Him, He didn’t turn His back, but kept looking, watching and waiting. His love is undeserved yet unchanging; often ignored but never withdrawn.”
           - Luke 15
   
   I would like to share a story of one lay minister of how he became a lay minister in a specific church, Padre Pio. Long story short, his son was diagnosed with cancer, I believe it was already at stage 4. So what he did is he prayed and asked God to promise him to heal his son on this specific date and in return he’ll share to the people about His love. At first it was very difficult for him because it seemed that there was no hope for them but that did not stopped him from praying and believing and low and behold his son was cured on the very specific date that he said to God as God promised to him. Now the next thing is how to fulfill his promise to God. And so there was an announcement in the church where they’re open for new volunteers to serve the church and God. So he went in to the admissions not knowing what he’s supposed to do but said to the lady at the desk that he wanted to volunteer. The lady at the desk told him to join the choir but he refused for he doesn’t sing very well but instead he asked if he could be a lay minister. And so, he found his calling.

And thus concludes my tidings on how I cope whenever there are rough times that comes in my way and I would also end it with this Bible verse that is sentimental to me.

“The Lord is faithful to all His promises and loving toward all He has made.”
         - Psalm 145:13

I sincerely apologize that I haven't been posting after our very direct to the point introduction on who we are and what we do with my co-author. As you can see, this account was formerly We Are One where we were supposed to post about random stuff that peaked our interests that we would like to share and to know what your opinions are on something we don't know. There were some issues that forced me to rename this account and to not include him anymore(my co-author).

With that being said, if you like this post please leave and upvote and I hope this helps someone out there who is struggling in life. Please don't give up and let us help each other in this time where mental illness is slowly losing its value to some. Once again, thank you very much and have a pleasant day!