Self-Care & Mental Health and Doing Everything-from-Home
About two years ago my old job offered me a chance to travel to spain for a couple of months. That gave me the opportunity to travel to a few spots in Europe that were on top of my bucket list; Amsterdam, Paris and Barcelona. I traveled to these places by myself, something I never thought I would've dared done. But I did and I was happier than ever. Then something awesome happened. I was staying in this airbnb in Barcelona for a couple of days and it turned out that my host was an art therapist. She told me about an art therapy school in Barcelona and answered a lot of questions I had about the field. I felt like God was talking to me, to keep going with my plans.
Long story short, I applied to art therapy school as soon as I came back to the US and shorty after I moved to Barcelona. I was making progress towards my goals and it felt great. But then a couple of months after the pandemic hit, and because I was in Barcelona, one of the worst places in the world were covid hit, I was soon in full quarantine, barely able to leave my house for groceries. That lasted for almost a year and all of the progress I thought I had accomplished disappeared and my anxiety and depression hit rock bottom.
It's very triggering to even write about that period. It was the most difficult time I've experienced in my life and I felt very alone, away from my support system and in a new place. But I had God and my faith, and it turned out that was all I needed. I had heard that was doesn't kill you makes you stronger, but that phrase hits different when you live it out yourself. Those difficult times really made me stronger because it took all of my strength and all of my faith to not give up on loving myself and loving life. I started going to the gym everyday, I worked on my skin care, I finished art therapy school and enrolled in a Masters program in psychology to become a behavioral therapist and I'm happy to say that I'm the strongest I've ever been.
But sometimes I don't feel feel strong. Things still feel very strange. I do most things from the house and work-from-home can feel frustrating at times. Mental health and self-care is more important and more difficult now that ever. Even when you think it won't happen to you, the negative parts of working-from-home, studying-from-home and doing everything-from-home will sneak up on you and suddenly you will be in this negative loop without knowing how or why you got into it. It's normal...but you gotta catch yourself because sometimes it can be hard to tell what's going on. So what can you do? gather all of your strength and work hard. I know that sounds redundant but it really comes down to that. Make a routine, get disciplined and count your blessings...every day. Trust yourself. Don't be too hard on yourself. Have fun and make any excuse to come outside and get some sun and fresh air.
Some days even after you do all of these things you will still feel down and there is nothing to do about that but to not believe the lies our head tells us. No matter what, don't give up, because God isn't giving up. Love you guys, hugs ♡.
