The Need for Therapy
We all want to live fulfilling lives. Our entire lives are an endless pursuit for more- joy, love, peace, wholeness, healing, and purpose. When we care for our mental health we are making an active and conscious choice to live fulfilled. We are prioritizing our need for “more.” The need to restore what breaks us and fill what empties us. The need to live vibrant and satisfying lives.
But so many of us fail to prioritize our mental health. Let’s face it, caring for our mental health can be a little intimidating. The question that launches every therapeutic process is where do I even begin?
When you examine your mental health, it can bring to the surface many things you’ve hidden so well. It can lead you to difficult conversations that leave you feeling vulnerable. It can resurface old experiences, especially the ones you’ve worked hard to forget. It can even knock down many walls you’ve built to protect yourself, leaving you feeling completely bare. Therefore, the taxing and sometimes arduous journey of caring for your mental health can result in many neglecting their mental health altogether.
When your mental health is neglected new identities begin to take shape, which breeds new and oftentimes irrational beliefs, harmful behaviors, unhealthy relationships, and crippling emotions. Your mental health can even impact your physical and spiritual health. There is a lot of research that reveals your mental health plays a crucial role in how your body functions. When you feel hurt, your bodies hurt too. Have you ever felt so disgusted you wanted to throw up? Or felt so stressed that your head began to ache? That’s your mind and body working hand in hand.
Spiritually speaking, when your mind is not well, your spirituality suffers too. Many people who experience a lot of trauma and emotional turmoil, struggle to experience the world as safe, nurturing, and benevolent. When this happens it is easy to begin questioning one’s values, ideologies, and purpose.
Your entire life can become something so far from the truth of who we are and the life you yearn to have, just by neglecting your mental health.
The good news is that we are interdependent beings. We were made for communion. We were made to help one another. This means you don’t have to face the uphill battle of tending to your mental health alone. This is the intersectionality of mental health and therapy. Therapy provides you with a connection to another person who is willing to tend to your mental health with you.
Through the support of a therapist, together you will discover what stands in the way of improving your mental health. You will get through the difficult and sometimes awkward start of opening up. You will let go of shame. You will embrace vulnerability. You will learn new skills. You will experience new feelings of strength, healing, and hope. You will live a more fulfilling life.
So what’s stopping you from taking the next step? Because the truth is, we are all in need of this kind of support from time to time. There is absolutely no shame in receiving this kind of support when you need it the most. Or perhaps, when you don’t really need it the most.
Wherever you find yourself, prioritizing your mental health is always a good idea, and prioritizing it with an attuned and compassionate therapist will only enhance the overall quality of your life. You deserve to experience this kind of fulfillment.