Friday, March 29, 2024

IT’S OK TO ASK Survive this chaos with resilience

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ANDREA CARMACK

Andrea Carmack, M. Ed., Crisis Counseling Program Counselor (CCP) Pecan Valley Centers for Behavioral & Developmental Health, is a member of the Comanche Peak Coalition for Mental Health.

Do you ever have a song lyric that keeps running through your head? How about this one: “I’m sitting here trying to find myself, I get behind myself; I need to re-wind myself…I feel like number one, yet I’m last in line…I take too many pills to help ease the pain.” — Kid Rock, Only God Knows Why

Song lyrics, but how relevant. Maybe pills aren’t your “go-to,” yet people who are feeling like they are in a state of personal chaos run to something (shopping, work, food, alcohol, social media, tobacco…) only to find the escape becomes an entrapment. What’s the answer?

It is inside of you — it is called resiliency. It’s your innate capacity to recover from difficulties, your toughness; also defined as the ability to spring back, your elasticity.

So as resiliency tries to claim its rightful place in your soul, what stops it in its tracks?

The mind. The part that succumbs to fear, worry, self-doubt, past trauma.

If someone were breaking into your house, would you stand by and let them steal your belongings, or kick-butt and take names?! Exactly — kick-butt and take names! You are resilient.

Do your part to better humanity, then let the fear, worry, anxiety go.  Let go of people and situations you cannot change … take courage to change the things you can and the wisdom to know the difference.

It’s also called benevolent detachment (ability to walk away, emotionally, soulfully once you’ve done your part — feeling at peace, the rest is out of your hands.)

Closing with the above-referenced song… “I will keep walking with my head held high, I keep moving on and only God knows why.” That is resilience!