3 Changes I Made (in the last 19 months) That Changed My Life.

It is wild to think that anything positive could possible come out of the last 19 months.

It has just been dark.

Watching the world unravel, watching society change, watching atrocities happen on the news, watching riots, watching bodies get discovered in unmarked graves — the tragic list goes on.

Because we were largely locked down and mostly became homebodies it was easier to really hear voices calling for change because the chaos was there to watch unfold.

And the truth, is it is easier to distract ourselves from the pain and get caught up in the darkness.

I digress.

Despite all that — I had some life changing breakthroughs.

Here I am — feeling my most grounded, present, and aware.

It has been a hard year and a half.

It has been fucking lonely.

And, everything has changed.

There are 3 things that I worked on that changed my persecptive on life:

1. MANAGED MY ADDICTIONS

The real truth of the situation is addicition can come in many forms — when I say addicition most people think substances. But there is also food, sex, social media, gambling etc

Early on in the pandemic I decided I would not drink my way through the pandemic and I didn’t. I didn’t smoke my way through the pandemic either.

I have always been one for excess. I went from someone who partied too much, to then travelling excessively, to over working, to all the sudden nothing. All the sudden I needed to sit with my own shit. Depression, guilty, shame — all the dark stuff that bubbled up and fuck it was tough. Every demon I ever had surfaced and it was torture.

I had a choice to make. I could finally deal with all the traumas or I could drink, smoke, eat all my feelings. I choose to deal with the demons.

Dealing with my addictions has been so worth the time because unravelling at the source has made me make HUGE changes in my life.

2. MANAGED MY MENTAL HEALTH

I got a therapist and then I got another one.

Friends are not therapists.

Friends are not impartial — same with family.

There comes a time when you need help outside of advice from your inner circle. Everyone could make use of therapy.

My doctor has brought up the topic of depression with me for years. But because of addictions I was very hesitant to take medication. I definitely toyed with the serotonin levels in my brain and for a long time and it was time to manage my mental health.

The pandemic has been hard for a lot of people — being home and uninspired for almost a year was REALLY shitty. Getting help was exactly what I needed.

I was just sad and I didn’t know how sad I was until that feeling went away.

My family doctor did not hand over a perscirption then that was the end of it. I had to have regular check ins with her, with a therapist, there was journalling and there was regular exercise.

I want to be clear the treatment of mental health is different for everyone HOWEVER, my point is to just treat it and figure it out.

Working on yourself, and your mental health is worth all the pain that needs to happen to work through it.

3. MANAGED MY EXPECTATIONS OF OTHER PEOPLE

I constantly seek approval from other people. I allow other peoples opinions of me take over how I live. Which really sucks when you are someone who likes adventure and the people around you view things differently.

I for a long time had expectation of people to behave a certain way and for them to support anything I wanted to do.

The obvious choice was to stop caring about what other people think about the things I dream of doing. I stopped sharing my shit with people around me — in particular I stopped asking for permission from people that don’t understand my life.

It isn’t linear, I still ask for advice but if you want to live your dream you need to not seek approval from people that would never do the things you dream of doing.

These 3 things have dramitically shifted how I am as a human. Sometimes you don’t realize how much you aren’t taking care of yourself until you start to do it. You start to feel better and be better.

What are the 3 biggest changes you have made in the last year?

• ** I am on the creator race to 100; if you made it this far, please drop me some claps and a follow. Means the world to me.