“You are not required to set yourself on fire to keep other people warm.”

How can I prioritize my mental health, and what happens when I neglect it?

In some Christian circles, there is an idea termed as God’s common grace, a general gift of God granted without any specific belief, any particular request, or any certain discipline. It’s breath in the lungs, a feeling of optimism out of nowhere when you don’t know why, or an unexpected sunny day when you thought it was going to rain.

I recently learned a parenting stat that’s riddled with this sort of grace. It blew my mind, and it gave me hope. Let me take a few moments to distill it.

After something tough or unexpected happens in life - whether an event or conversation or whatever - I’ve often found myself thinking that I understand what happened, but I don’t understand what I feel. I can piece together what took place, but I can’t piece together what’s within me. Above the surface, I see some details and conjure up a decent explanation of what occurred. But below the surface, I’m left bewildered and likewise pretty disengaged emotionally. Been there? Me too.

Most, if not all of us, have experienced loneliness at some point in our lives. Social isolation brought about by Covid-19 has increased feelings of loneliness among many. While the world around us is somewhat getting back to “normal,” the effects of loneliness still linger.

Most of us, at one point or another, have wondered whether our struggles are burdensome to those around us. Sometimes that message has been directly communicated, sometimes it has been implied, and other times we have assumed it must be true.