Both have seven letters.

One you make and one you take.

Choices and Chances.

We have many choices in life. It is up to us to make each one. We may feel that we have no choices left; yet we must exercise our power to choose. We can choose our attitude. And our thoughts. We have more freedom than we may realize. We can choose good for our life or stay in the same routine. Sometimes by not choosing, we are making a choice to stick with what we know best.

Taking chances is a part of life. We all have a different risk tolerance and need to be able to accept the consequences of the chances we take. Some of us are more of a risk taker—it is a matter of time till we get bitten by our chances. We need to be careful.

Others of us may have gotten stuck in a negative rut. We need to take some action to take a chance—perhaps leave the house or talk to someone. Feel and be empowered with the choices you make and the chances you take. Intend to have good consequences in your life.

Live with the consequences of your choices. Consider the cost. Seek the counsel of others that you trust to help you with decisions. Learn to gain more independence in your life to look after yourself. Remember the power you have with every choice you make and every chance you take.

You deserve good in your life. Don’t get stuck in a rut—make choices and take a chance on getting out of your rut—if you are in one. Is there anything holding you back from accepting good into your life? Is there something that you need to let go of? Learn to grow and cultivate good in your life. Cultivate good thoughts. Be kind to yourself with the choices you make and the chances you take.

He went away for a while into a distant hospital so that his own community did not know that he was in. It is hard to enter a psychiatric facility. What will people say? 

This was not too many years ago. Have we changed for the better regarding getting help for mental health? I believe in some ways that we have. And in other ways we have only started our community journey.

I believe that we need to be brave to face the challenges of mental illness—as individuals and as communities. Can we accept that we are all on a mental health journey?

There are many nuances of mental health/mental illness. Many people hide their mental illness challenges, sometimes out of survival. We can lose our jobs because of it. We can lose our opportunities for advancement. We have to be careful about who knows.

Can you imagine how hard it is to hide an illness? It takes a lot of energy. It is a challenge to look after ourselves when we are ill. And we have to pretend that everything is okay so that people will not judge us.

Is our community supportive for mental health? Mental Illness is a complex, community problem that requires many solutions. Perhaps we need to surround a mentally ill person with love and flowers and goodness. Discrimination, ignorance, and fear does not serve us.

What about treating human beings with excellence on the subject of mental health? What about our courageous emergency workers and first responders? They run the risk of mind injury serving our community. We need to all grow skill sets to help ourselves and one another. My firefighter friend now promotes the importance of de-briefing.

It is time that we grow compassion for the mentally ill. We are in this together with our veterans, our first responders, our mothers, our brothers, our families and our friends. Each and every one of us is experiencing mental health. It doesn’t matter if we have one or what our diagnoses is, we need to be empowered to work together to look after ourselves and each other. 

We can all learn more on the subject. Just imagine a better future for our children and their children regarding mental health. There are many services available in our community and online to get help. Please be brave and reach out. You are worth it.

Without the proper tools, I turned to other substances to medicate my mind and emotions. Three years later I entered a detox centre cold turkey. My mind worsened and I required hospitalization.

Early Intervention with mental health is vital to not get stuck in a rut. Whether it be life events like grief, divorce, or moving—these all make the stress lists and require strategies to deal effectively with them. Some of us need assistance from others to navigate these challenges. 

The sooner we reach out for help the better our outcome will be. We need to promote early intervention; whether it be for depression, psychosis, or anything else. Our old model (still in use in some places) waits until we are in crises to get help. Using this approach can take longer to get better. 

We are worthy of assistance and can reach out for help. Please remember that it can take several tries to get the help that we need. It can be difficult to learn to look after ourselves; or to even receive goodness into our lives. It can be a challenging journey. 

When is our self-care enough and when do we need to use our support networks and mental health service providers? There are screening opportunities to catch things early. Ask your health professionals.

Self-medicating with various substances can be a real focus when we do not have the right tools in our self-care toolkits. It is vital that we strive to discover what helps us. We are all different and have unique needs. And what used to help us may no longer work and we need to work with our support network to discover what works now.

Be brave to reach out. Catching it early and getting the right help can bounce us out of potential ruts and prevent us from getting stuck. Please remember it is never too late to seek help. You can do it. You are worth it.

I discovered in psychiatric facilities that there were many people also facing challenges of the mind. There were young and old people from all walks of life. I discovered that I was not the only one to struggle with my mental health. I was not alone. 

Yet the silence and community awkwardness on the subject of mental illness can make it seem like we are alone. It is when we feel that we are alone in illness that it can do the most damage. We can self-isolate in shame, illness and fear. We can even have prejudice against ourselves. 

We need all the courage we can muster and all the help that we can find. Few of us are given tools and techniques to care for ourselves. We were not given a user manual when we were born and even when we are diagnosed it can be tricky to find what works for us.

What doesn’t tend to work in my observation is to ignore it and it will go away. The best defence is an offence. Early intervention helps promote getting out of crises quicker. Reach out for help early and it will tend to lessen the negative impact on your life.

We need to lead the charge to know what works for ourselves with self-care. It is our responsibility with the assistance of our health care professionals and support networks to learn what helps us out. 

The hard part is to sometimes make the effort to do what we need to do like go for that walk. Sometimes I trick myself into motivation by thinking of how doing something like a hike in the forest will make me feel better after doing it.

I hope that reading this has helped you feel that you are not alone. It can be hard to reach out when we get stuck in isolation. You can do this. You’ve got this. Discover what you need to do to help yourself out and work toward it. Build your toolkit and treat your support network with excellence. Please remember that you are not the only one. 

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