Stop attacking yourself with your thoughts

Nearly two out of three people suffering from depression do not actively seek nor receive proper treatment, according to the Depression and Bipolar Support Alliance. Oftentimes, I believe it’s due to many not realizing they’re in a state of depression. In the mildest of cases, life may feel like it’s closing in on you, you’re more sensitive to what never used to bother you, or you overthink about how much you overthink, etc. 

These are all things I’ve experienced. And it’s a rollercoaster. I don’t write this because I’m fully out of it. I had to begin therapy and without that, I may not even be writing this article at all. Life is hard enough. But do you know what’s even harder on us? Our own mind. We can create the craziest scenario of torture and pain in our head and begin to believe it’s inevitable for our lives. 

But I want to share with you something an awesome Pastor shared with me. He didn’t even need to meet me for this to resonate to my core. He simply said, “You don’t have to believe everything you think”  I froze.
Since childhood, many of us love to dream, it's a way to escape reality, and our dreams can be so vivid that we just know it's bound to come true someday. I had so many occupations before I ended on entrepreneur! On the reverse side however, that means our nightmares can be vivid too. 

Then we mix some reality with it while we grow up. We gain more experience of our world, realize kids can be mean (and it really never stops even into adulthood), feel our first heartbreak, and it proves to be the exact opposite of our little girl dreams. 

It doesn’t matter how old we get, that little girl will always be inside of us. Likely still holding onto her unchecked wish-list. But as an adult, sometimes that unchecked list can fester into beliefs we are doing something wrong….when the reality is, it's okay to just dream. According to WebMD, we have 4-6 dreams every night depending on our sleep cycles and all the dream catchers in the world won't help you catch 'em all. So would you stress about those lost dreams if all it took was the one that really mattered?  

I believe we can still honor the little girl in us while remaining tough and pliable with life’s twists and turns. We just have to reject impure thoughts that don’t serve our purpose or happiness. Facing reality is beneficial to course direction but reality should never make us believe we can’t live happily in it. 

So I hope you take this secret to the little girl inside of you and tell her to keep dreaming (because dreams are ideas) while you live your life and face the obstacles that make you stronger. If you want to check out that sermon that inspired this article, look up “Thought Bubbles” from Pastor Steven Furtick.