Learning to thrive, rather than merely survive, can be a significant shift after living with mental illness for a time. It is common to become attached to struggling when life has felt like a struggle for an extended period. Therapy is a healing space where you can begin releasing identities that do not align with your true self and explore who you are outside of the attachment to struggling.
When experiencing the same reality repeatedly, it can become one you expect and then willingly create because it is familiar, even when it is not how you would like to be living. To thrive rather than just get by, you need first to get curious about what it would feel and look like to grow, heal, and evolve.
Shift Your ExpectationÂ
Maybe you have had more experiences of chaos, inner turmoil, conflict, and hardship than peace in your life. This often results in waiting for the other shoe to drop, as your nervous system has learned to stay on high alert to keep you safe from harm. It seeks chaos because it is familiar, even when you desire peace.
Life can work for you rather than against you when you shift your expectation of how your life should be. Just because it has been a certain way for a long time does not mean it has to continue to be that way.
Trust YourselfÂ
Learning to embrace uncertainty in change and the unknown can feel overwhelming. However, permitting yourself to be uncertain, accepting the unknown as the breeding space for unlimited possibilities, and cultivating safety here is how you can begin trusting yourself outside of an attachment to the identity of struggling.
DecidingÂ
You get to decide how to act in your life in a way that makes sense and feels good for you. Choosing how to be can lead to empowerment, healing, and wholeness rather than living in constant states of fear, anxiety, self-doubt, and chaos. By consciously choosing relationships, habits, and other actions that lead to your desired state of being rather than those that take away from it, you can take control over your life.
Deciding to live a life beyond simply surviving is an act of radical self-care, love, and responsibility. It is how you can begin to reconnect with and discover your true self.
Just because you’ve experienced pain and struggle doesn’t mean you have to do so forever. Shifting out of a pattern of suffering is a matter of deciding that your life can be different now and allowing the uncertainty to guide you. Although you may become attached to pain, you can learn to live another way. At Avalon Malibu, you will be among a team of professionals and peers who can support you in this process unconditionally and nonjudgmentally. Call us today to learn more about our treatment options at (844) 857-5992.Â
