Focus on the Good (When You Need a Break)

Through all of the happenings in the world, it was easy for me to feel like I was going to lose. I was either going to die by Coronavirus or by racism. I had literally given myself a timeline. And then I got sick. So sick, mentally, that my body started breaking down so that I would definitely end up hospitalized at the rate I was going. And I had to make a change, and fast, if I was going to survive- mentally, at least.

So after I went through a depressive episode, I shifted the narrative. Not of what was happening, but of what I was choosing to see from it. Was I going to say Wow, there are so many racist people in this world. Or was I going to say Look at how many people are fighting for what’s right! I chose the latter.

I’m not trying to live in a bubble for my own sanity. I will not, I cannot, ignore what is going on in the world just so I can be happy. That is selfish, and I am too empathetic to do that. But I am choosing to take things in smaller doses, and to focus on where things are going, rather than who is trying to hold things back.

I am equally sad about the bad in this world, and happy about the good. And when I need to, I try to focus on that, the good.