Hello World!

No More Disappearing Acts

Facing the World and All Its Troubles

We can't afford to be invisible!

Again I feel the need to apologize for my lack of posting recently. This past week has been a never ending struggle. I slept through most of my classes, am terribly behind on my work, and had my Mom come in to the city to help keep me going every day this week. I suppose it's natural for some weeks to be more difficult than others but I was not expecting this week to knock me on my butt the way it did. I feel as if I was on an emotional landslide that just continued to carry me downward. But I survived and am her now ready to face the world and refusing to disappear ever again (or at least any time in the near future.) The world and life is full of challenges and troubles and it's too easy to let them get to us. Sometimes it just feels simpler to hide, stay in bed all day, and pretend that the world and all its troubles don't exist. This is the role I played this past week. The issue with taking on this role is that eventually you have to cut out the disappearing act and when you reenter the world you get hit with all the troubles and issues you've been avoiding. Everything becomes worse when you refuse to face them and allow all the issues to mount up while you are on hiatus. The best way to handle the world is to take it day by day, issue by issue, and not allow yourself to become disable by feelings of stress, anxiety, and upset. Luckily I had my Mother by my side to help me reappear (it can awfully difficult to do on your own.) She came into the city to wake me up for classes when I couldn't do it on my own. She ate meals with me when I couldn't bring myself to eat by myself. And she was there to talk, listen, and offer advice when need be. Thanks to her I am back in the world and ready to handle the troubles that have been concerning me recently. Today I am turning to Winnie-the-Pooh to provide us with some words of wisdom about facing the world and coming out of the holes we dig for ourselves.

"You can't stay in your corner of the Forest waiting for others to come to you. You have to go to them sometimes."

- A.A. Milne, Winnie-the-Pooh

Time to step out of our safe corner-

So I know this quote doesn't exactly tackle the issue of facing the world and the troubles it brings but I wanted to use it regardless because there is definitely relevance. It feels safe to stay in our bubble and protect ourselves from potentially dangerous and/or stressful elements- other people, challenges, trauma, work, negative feelings- but doing so will not help us to tackle these issues. Sometimes we need to step up and take a walk in unfamiliar or uncomfortable territory. Staying in our "corner of the Forest," our safe zone, hidden for an extended period of time does not benefit us in any way. When we engage in a disappearing act we are acting cowardly. Being afraid of what we have to face is ok but we cannot allow it to stop us from facing it. The only way to conquer these fears and overcome challenges is to act and be visible no matter how badly we want to be passive or pretend we don't exist. We exist. Challenges and problems exist. These are facts we cannot deny. Pretending the either don't exist will only serve to create more difficulties in the future. Today I am reappearing and saying hello to the world! Part of me really doesn't want to. It feels safer to hide in my "corner of the Forest" and ignore the challenges in my life and the troubles that the world brings. But there is another, stronger part of me that is insisting that I look the world in the eye and say I can face you, I can beat this, I can do this. Lets listen to these strong voices within ourselves and exclaim no more disappearing acts! We are too important to hide under the covers all day. Other people need us and love us too much- we cannot let them down. But more importantly we deserve our lives and we cannot let ourselves down. Come out from under the covers and face the world. We will face our challenges one at a time and hopefully come to realize that being in the world is not so bad after all.

Good to talk to you again friends,

xo

It feels good to reappear and chat with you again !