Last weekend I had terrible anxiety. I had anxiety about things not even directly related to me, such as a meeting my husband had coming up at work. I cried randomly and for no reason. I had a hard time enjoying myself at a baseball game we went to on the 4th of July. I dreaded going to work on Monday and worried about it all weekend. I found little joy in the fact that it was a 3-day weekend.
It made me question what was happening. Was it a lowpoint in my mental health? Was it hormones from being, I think, a perimenopausal woman? Was it both?
I don’t know what it was. But this weekend is different.
This is what good mental health feels like.
It feels like…
…driving down a long road to the store listening to a playlist of random songs and becoming eager to work on my book again because a song came up that brought me nostalgic feelings of being a teenager in high school.
…being excited to sit on the couch when I get home and knitting on a sweater that I all of a sudden am obsessed with working on and finishing.
…stopping at Lowe’s on the way home and happily chatting with the cashier about the concrete slab I was buying because we both know about the TikTok trend of cats and concrete slabs.
…tasting the mix that my husband will be putting in my new Ninja Slushi maker after dinner and being super excited to try it and share pictures with my sister who hopes to get one for her birthday next week.
All of that feels like optimism. Like having something to look forward to. And that’s just from today.
I share this because I think it’s important for those struggling to know that days like this are coming. And it’s importnat for me to remember that days like this are to be treasured because days like the ones last weekend are also coming again. I don’t know when, but I’ve learned that they will come, but most importantly, they’ll also go. This isn’t forever. Keep fighting.
As Frasier Crane would tell his listeners at the end of his radio show, I wish you a good day and good mental health.
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