Light & Darkness; Balance

When reflecting on mental health I refer to it as maintaining a balanced state of mind. It’s the important existence of positive and negative emotions. How they are often paralleled with light and dark. A standpoint of a human being who's able to feel.

Light led our sight to everything there is to witness. Exposing the world and evoking our feelings with the presentation of colours. Every colour appeals a different kind of experience. Darkness invites you to complex perspective of all things. It shades the colours and propose more possibilities about anything.

I charm myself with the endless curiosity of anything that is visible. Being meticulous wherever light and dark conjoins. 

Mental illness is something so enigmatic yet so powerful that when left unchecked it could cripple one’s entire life. It turns the world black and flows from one end to the other, one label to another, constantly moving and never in one place. Like a tender butterfly, it is difficult to nail down. However, mental illness isn’t something to be overcome, it’s meant to be felt and teaches us to heal ourselves no matter how slowly. Without darkness there is no light and without light there is no darkness. For those who suffer from mental illness, our darkness is darker than everyone else's. When the world is bleak and nothing seems possible, when we struggle strongly against ourselves and descend lower and lower into the void, when the thoughts get too much, there is always light waiting for us on the other side. 

Mental health is easily overlooked because it’s not easily seen. But what keeps us going? Getting up, getting out, living in the light, depends on being mentally healthy. There are days where shadows creep into thoughts, the road before you darkening. To some, a dark day can be lived through. To others, it’s swinging a sword blindly in the dark, fighting a losing battle against enemies that nobody can see. 

It’s when we are in the dark that we search for the light. We find comfort in knowing our surroundings, we seek solace in familiarity. As beings of connection, dark days shouldn’t have to be lived through alone. To illuminate your path, a light is needed. Oftentimes, that light is friends and family, treading that path alongside you. All it takes is a familiar hand in yours, the presence of a loved one, to see that you’re never alone.

“Mental health” is often thought to be associated with negativity instead of positivity. Let’s not forget that spreading happiness is part of mental health too.