At the end of the day, you have to be realistic.
Zoom out and look at life for what it really is—a ticking clock. Every moment is precious, because each moment will be gone forever once it passes. I noticed something recently. I saw people all around me who seemed bitter and depressed, and I'll be honest with you—I started feeling that way as well. I started asking myself, "What am I doing with my life, anyway?"
Let me tell you something—nothing is going to move unless you move it.
Change won't happen for you unless you put in the work, and you'll never accomplish your goals unless you can find the willpower to move a step forward day after day. the end of the day, everyone wants change. Everyone wants to heal, and everyone wants progression. Everyone wants to be the best version of themselves, but I'll be real with you—that doesn't happen overnight. That doesn't happen without discipline and consistency, which is why so many people settle for their own bad habits instead of becoming better. That being said, self-love is the prerequisite to discipline and consistency. After all, it's hard to love what you're doing when you don't even love yourself the way you need yourself to.
You can see the wrinkles in your skin and the fat around your belly, but it's hard to visualize your brain. Because there's no visual que, we tend to care about brain health a lot less than we should. In reality, the brain controls everything—your brain's health will determine how you think, how you feel, how you act, and who you ultimately are. Take care of your mental health, because for better or worse, mental health is what will determine the health of other parts of your life. If you're looking to break a cycle of negativity, start from within.
As the comedian Jerry Seinfeld said, the brain is sneaky. Thoughts come from all sorts of places, and even seem to take us by surprise. In reality, no matter how strange our thoughts may seem, they do come from somewhere. They're written in our genes, in the voices of our parents from when we were children. They come from the news, the music we listen to, and the people we spend time with. Far too often, our perception of the world is negatively skewed by trauma.
Instead of living in pain, prioritize your peace. You won't get anywhere carrying the weight of your trauma everywhere you go, so instead of working through the darkness, heal! In life, it's easy to neglect mental health. It's easy to forget to care for ourselves, because we've been indoctrinated by society to believe that self-care is unproductive.
In reality, you won't be able to accomplish much at all before you master your own brain.
It all starts with you.
