On being kind to ourselves

Good morning friends! This weekend was interesting. Despite having so many wonderful events and moments of joy, I was in a funk. A lingering haze of negativity washed over me, and I was entirely unable to shake it. Part of my weekend was spent dancing the night away at one of my closest friends' weddings, which was a blast! That was followed by a day with my wife where we sat in a cafe and planned our upcoming European adventure. Both were incredible life moments, yet I was constantly battling my mood. Throughout the weekend I experienced many blissful feelings, yet there were also so many lows. Moments of darkness. Moments of existence we as humans typically hide from others, whether for fear, shame, or general discomfort. In an attempt to be open, honest, and vulnerable, I even shared with Facebook some thoughts on mental health:

This was so well received, I thought I'd write a bit more here, to each of you. While everyone experiences the highs and lows of mental health, there's still an incredible lack of public conversation about the darker side of life. Social media makes it easy to see the picturesque highlights of other people's lives, but rarely do we see in to the struggles, negatives, difficulties and lows. Those are often kept offline, within our innermost circles. Too often we beat ourselves up over the little things. We compare ourselves to others and experience judgments, fears, anxieties and more, often forgetting these are all part of human nature. While journaling last night I wrote to myself,