For years, I defined mental health as feeling happy.
Does feeling happy really mean being mentally healthy?
What is happiness? Can happiness be achieved?
The more I aimed to achieve happiness the further away from it I grew and the more mentally ill I became.
This chase continued until I started my journey to learn and discover what mental health really meant for me.
On my journey, I learned that mental health is not a destination but a journey. On this journey, I have good and bad days. And I started to shift my perception of the good and bad days. Reality is life is unbalanced without the separation between our mental highs and lows. So I started to accept this shift as the inescapable and much necessary reality.
Instead of wishing my bad days away, I learned that the bad days were the days when I learned about myself and achieved growth and resilience. Without the bad days, life becomes still and monotonous. We become still and monotonous. Self-growth happens most when we are challenged. So the next time you are having a challenging day, try to think of it as a growth day. A day for achievements and on your good days celebrate the achievements you made on your challenged days.
