The Serenity Prayer

Hey guys! I hope that you're well!

This post was inspired by this lovely little youtuber here whose video about Giving Up Power has inspired this post, in part :)

In this video, Liz talks about what is known as The Serenity Prayer which at a glance, I thought I'd never heard of but I'm sure we all have at some point in our lives:

God, grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change,

The courage to change the things I can,

And the wisdom to know the difference.

What Liz talks about in her video is the fact that all of the things mentioned take courage.

You always need courage to be able to accept that some battles, no matter how fiercely you want to win them, that you have to back down and just them be the way they are. I think that this is immensely important because you can come to so much peace within your life when you stop trying to go against the current, which I believe is a topic I've discussed before. 

Sometimes it's hard to distinguish between battles worth fighting and battles that don't need to happen and where surrender is the best course of action but having the courage to look within yourself and without to search for the truth, no matter how hard it is to accept which in my current life situation, is definitely advice I need to take myself.

For me, distinguishing between circumstances around me that I believe are good for me and that don't need to change as well as recognising factors that are influencing my life more than I might expect is pretty hard. Life is never really black or white but what I'm learning in the most clumsy way possible, is that you've got to try and get the best that you can out of the life that you have and of the cards that you're dealt.

To everyone, you're a human being. That pretty much entails being flawed. 

Immensely so.

So don't be so hard on yourself, it's hard to know when to do things and when not to but just so long as you're ready to accept the consequences of your actions and you know that you've settled it within yourself, don't worry. 

And if you're not doing what you know to be right, maybe think again because you may not have the chance to put it right if you leave it much longer.

I hope that you guys enjoyed this post! Have a most wonderful time doing what you're doing and I hope to speak to you very soon indeed!

p.s. I'm sorry about the dodgy formatting, copying and pasting here doesn't work out too well :(

Uncontrollable Invisible Barriers

Hey guys! I hope that you're as well as ever!

Today I was struck by Paul Roth and his new bonus video which he released for the end of VEDA and it affected me for a number of reasons, some of which perhaps more than others. Before I go on, trigger warning for depression. I don't intend to go into specific detail as such but please be warned before you go on.

It's easy enough to say that you often don't know if someone's suffering from a mental illness because many people on a day to day basis learn how to cover it up. (This isn't necessarily because they don't want other people to know but just a coping mechanism for themselves - keep busy and it's much easier to keep at bay.) But then what happens if that person's a YouTuber? For me that struck me hard because though I can't claim to know Paul in a close sense at all, it just went to strike home just how randomly it feels like mental illness can strike. It doesn't discriminate between the different groups in society, it can affect anyone and I think that was a really important realisation that happened for me. It's not that I was ever in denial, no not ever really, but I think as with anything, it only becomes really real when you experience the truth first hand.

Paul's video also gave me further insight into the difficulties that people with depression face. It's easy enough to down play mental illness or to forget it's every day impacts for those who suffer from it when you're not the one who has to deal with it first hand but Paul referring to the month as 'lucky' when from the outset he appeared so collected was definitely something that hit me. It just demonstrated for me that we should never not appreciate the work that people put into any project and the willpower that they exert against forces that aren't in their control to do what they want to do. My hat comes off to all those people and to everyone to some degree because in any creative endeavour, you will always face some sort of hardship whether that be doubting your own abilities or the qualities of your work to even working out how you want to express yourself to actually carrying out that expression. Working past that even against forces which you literally have next to no control over is beyond my comprehension.

Art in all of its forms is a journey and the strength and perseverance that it takes to stay on track is more than it's usually given credit for. When you then factor in mental illness as a road block that is completely and utterly out of your hands, especially in the mornings when you have to often face it head on and get yourself out of bed and busy, I can't fathom just how hard it must've been.

It made me appreciate the amount that I take for granted and the amount of happiness I wish I could share with  more people. That's not to say these people are never happy because I don't believe that's true but I wish that I would be more appreciative of the relative high I experience a lot of the time that they don't have the privilege of. I don't believe anyone should wish to have a mental illness because it's one of the largest struggles you can go against, but in some ways it feels like there's no way I can fully appreciate the highs I go through compared to their lows.

This picture isn't directly linked to Paul but I feel
like it represented for me in a very brief moment,
a glimpse into depression.

All I guess I want to end with is the sentiment that I feel so lucky that I've been blessed to not have a mental illness nor have anyone close to me suffer with one either. I just hope that from now onwards I can appreciate my own happiness more and even during times when things aren't really going up or down, to be happy that I have that balance and that not everyone is as lucky. That's the one comfort that I can take from this, the wake up call and the personal reminder. The last thing I take from this is that creative endeavours, no matter how small and no matter how insignificant it feels like they are or how small it feels like the intention is, it's important and everything has value.
That's always, always, always something to remember.

Appreciate everything.

I hope that you guys enjoyed this post! If you did, I'm glad! Definitely go and check out Paul in general because he's an absolutely marvellous and inspirational human being!

I hope that you all have wonderful weekends and I hope to speak to you very soon indeed!