Having friends by your side

Today is Mental Health Awareness Day. Everyone has some days where they struggle mentally. Today, ironically, was one of those days for me. It was a good, but overall hard day today. I didn’t know it was Mental Health Awareness Day till this afternoon/evening. Then I kind of laughed, because it was a rough day for me. I thought, “Huh! That’s ironic!” But a lot of things in life tend to be ironic.

Life is hard.

Right? I mean, there’s very few people that I know that do NOT struggle, if any.

I saw this quote today from a former US Soccer player named Jaelene Hinkle, and it really hit me. She said, “If you live for people’s acceptance, you will die from their rejection.”

Growing up, and sometimes still, I was a people-pleaser. I had to do what made everyone else happy, even if I was miserable. That does a lot to our mental health. Seriously. I still catch myself doing it, sometimes, but not as often. I still do things for others, but not because I have to, to make them happy; I do it because I want to, and I’m happy to do it.

So many times, there are people who think they have a lot of friends, and those that are closest to them, they can go to for anything. But then, when you go through something and you try to talk to them, they just shut you out. Anyone been there? The friends that you thought were going to be there, who said they would be there {no matter what}, and then they’re not?

Life can be hard. But it is also what you make of it. Sometimes we lose friends, but then we gain something, that could be even better than what we lost. It can be hard to see that sometimes, but when time passes and you realize, it gets “easier”. It doesn’t make the situation WHEN it happened, but it is easier now.

I’m thankful for the friends that have stood by me, even when it was hard to stand by me. And I know it’s been hard at times! Sometimes I don’t even want to be around me! But I feel like everyone has those moments, even if they don’t want to admit it. Sometimes we just get really stressed out, we just want to get away from everything and ourselves, except we can’t get away from ourselves or everything.

I have a couple friends that I can still talk to and tell them about what’s going on in my life, and they will encourage me and lift me up when I need it! Which lately, has been a lot. But I don’t like “bothering” my friends with my troubles, so I’ll usually keep it in or at least write it in my journal. Here are som pictures of those friends and the friendship we have!

I try to write daily, but with life and how crazy and hectic it has been, I haven’t been able to journal everyday. Does anyone else journal daily, or try to?

I used to journal all the time, growing up. I always enjoyed writing. I still do, just don’t have as much time right now! But that’s okay! When I can find the time, I write! It helps me relax, when I write!

Find those friends that are really there for you! Text them, call them up, tell them what’s going on in your life, and stay in touch with them, at least weekly! Ask them how they’re doing, if there’s anything you can pray for them about, pray WITH them! That’s always encouraging too! We need more friends who will pray WITH each other, not just FOR each other.