Journey to 35: Therapy

I don’t know who is going to therapy and I don’t know who isn’t going but I know I’m hooked. There’s hard sessions and less hard sessions but in every session I’m growing to a better version of myself so actually they’re all good.

Triggers
I didn’t even really understand that word earlier this year. Now I not only understand it but I’m also getting more familiar with my own triggers. Triggers are a hard thing. When you realize there’s something that just realllllly gets ya. It gets ya so good you can physically feel your body heating up. You can feel your skin boiling. Bam! There’s your trigger. But I’m learning to recognize and understand my triggers. I’ve also learned that some people I thought were friends are actually just giant triggers...undercover triggers. Acknowledging triggers might be one of the most powerful things I’ve done this year. For me, it takes the power away from the object or person that triggers me. It helps me stop and think why it made me feel that way. And most importantly it helps me react differently. It helps me walk away from toxic relationships - friend or romantic - that I would have previously brushed off as just a bad encounter and continue developing (or trying to develop) the relationship with that person.

Breath work
When I first started doing yoga and barre3 I thought this whole breath thing was baloney. Like I really didn’t get it...breathe into this part of your body...WTF, doesn’t air just go in your mouth? Wowwwwwww, I was wrong. The more I learn about my body and the more I learn about breath work the more amazed I am. I am so thankful I started learning this art a while back because it turns out breath work is great for triggers. It just slows everything down. It resets the mind and body. It helps you regain control.

Pause
It’s so important to pause but we never hear that. We are always being pushed for more. More at work. More at home. More. More. More. But when I look back over the years I’ve gained so much clarity and strength from my moments in stillness. Stillness isn’t easy. Stillness needs to be trained. Stillness is essential to moving forward in a meaningful way. Picture below is at the rooftop of my old building. I was thankful to find stillness there after a hectic day. I was thankful to be able to pause even though I was surround by so much.

Continuous improvement
I’m pretty sure I’ll be going to therapy forever. I don’t like to say that anything is finite but I am a true believer in mental health being equally important as physical health. I never know what the day will bring or what microagressions and mental impacts will occur so why not have that weekly touch point with someone that is completely non-biased, can call you on your shit when needed, can pump you up when you don’t even realize you did something celebration worthy and can help you sort through it all...like really help you get to the core of things.

On my journey to 35 I am thankful for access to therapy, meditation classes & physical fitness classes. The combination of these things keeps my mind, body and spirit in a state of constant growth and development while embracing the pauses within life. I am also excited because this is just the tip of the iceberg! Now that I’ve unlocked these tools I have a thirst to continue evolving and can’t wait to see what the future holds.