“Evil will never tell you how good you are, how strong you are, or what a difference you can make to improve the world.
Evil despises your capacity to love, and your potential for good, which promotes hope, and hope makes it harder to control us with fear.”
Stacey iBold Stibbards
This month I encourage you to be mindful of how your thoughts might be trying to harm you, and how you might be controlled by the lies you believe. I’ve come to refer to those things that whisper lies in your ears, and which try to plant thoughts in your head, as demons, devils, and flying ghost monkeys. (I hate the Wizard of Oz, and especially the flying monkeys. When I picture something attacking my mental health, it looks like those little buggers, but a little “ghosty.”) Those voices might take on the personality of people in your life today, or people that spoke into your life decades ago. Those offhand comments from aunts or adults when you were a kid are a great example; “He’s not too bright, is he?” “She can’t be an author because she’s not a reader.”
The lies arrive small and perhaps un-noticed or as a momentary sting. (“Did she mean that I usually don’t dress nicely when she said that the outfit I was wearing today was flattering?”) But if they take root, they can grow and fester and become debilitating.
There is freedom for you to find by exposing the truth. The heaviness that weighs you down can be lifted when you shine a light on the situation. Bad stuff hates getting exposed and hates the light of truth shining on it. (Ever turn on the lights in the kitchen and stuff scurries a zillion directions? If not, you’ve never lived in Florida.) .
I started digging into the lies in my life 8 years ago. Your results may vary, but I keep finding things buried out there, so it’s an ongoing discovery process.
I want MY truth.
Not my parents’ or grandparents’ truth.
Or the voice of family, friends or strangers.
I don’t not want what is popular and normal.
Nor do I want success as defined by the world just so I’ll look successful.
Sometimes it’s as simple as asking yourself a question; ‘Do I really hate cats?’. That led me to discover that my Grandmother had a bad cat experience as a child, and she passed down her ‘cat hatred’ to her children and grandchildren. Now I have two cats; one I love and one that tolerates me; but I don’t hate either one.
Sometimes the truth takes a little more digging; “why did I put down my pen when I was 15 and planning on being an author?” That led to a really exciting conversation.
We are all dealing with some pretty ugly demons, but we don’t have to believe everything they say. I encourage you to spend May getting ready to introduce a new way of thinking that will equip you for a battle, for your future that does not look as bleak as those cagey bastards; the demons, devils and flying ghost monkeys, want you to believe.
Find your truth and it will change your life. Mental Health month should be about checking in on yourself and maybe walking away with a new perspective that makes you better.
There is hope, no matter what you might hear or believe.
#unloadthedemons #mentalhealth #mindfulness #MentalHealthAwarenessMonth
Exposing the Lies of our Demons, Devils & Flying Ghost Monkeys 