#5 Mental Health

I saw a quote the other day that said that you should quit your job if it conflicts with your mental health. I thought about that for a bit. Well, that’s a lie-I had been thinking about it for a while. I feel like this idea strikes at the heart of my own struggles with the grind: do we have fun now, or later? It so often feels like we can’t have both. Or can we? For me, this has always been a balancing act. I don’t wake up excited to cut and prep pipe every day. The stuff is heavy, it’s annoying, and it’s awkward (much like the people I work around, too.) But that led me to ask myself: is it really fair to expect every day to be an all-time high, higher than the day before? If not, what do we make of the valleys we so often find ourselves in? 

The problem I have with the idea of putting your mental health first is that it’s easy to use that as a cop-out. When I did maintenance, I came home with scratches and cuts all the time. I would jam my thumb fixing a sink or scratch my arm trying to reach a tool in the shed. These things happen sometimes, but if we start to pay too much attention to the little aches and pains of everyday life, we can start to act like they matter far more than they actually do. 

But you might try to say that those things are just physical problems. The mind is a different beast, right? 

Wrong!

I am no stranger to hard times. Times that were so hard that they weren’t over when they were over. For a while, I had memories that were so terrifying that mentioning someone’s name could make my heart race and my hands get sweaty. But you know what I did in those moments, when everything started to turn to static? 

Nothing.

And you know what happened to those moments of panic? 

They went away. 

I’m not saying all problems will magically float away with the breeze if we just ignore them, but the number of problems that need professional help are far more few and far between than most people think. Most of us aren’t traumatized. We just have cuts and bruises on our brains. And those will heal if we ignore them. 

The only time we should really do anything is when we are contemplating extreme action. Thoughts of doing something harmful to yourself or others, or otherwise getting into an addictive habit are signs that you need to do something to change the situation. Otherwise, your brain is being a spoiled brat that is throwing a tantrum. It wants attention and you’re providing it, so the cycle will continue as long as you let it. So refuse to quit when things get hard. Push so hard that you feel a part of you begging you to quit. Rejoice when you have hit that moment and keep going. Because then, when you really need to be able to punch through, you will have the skill at the ready to be able to do so.

I pray that strength and inspiration find you today and that you have the courage to test the limits of your strength.

Until Next Time

May Peace be your Guide.