Everyone moves away. Whether that means physically, mentally, or spiritually-everyone moves away from something at one point or another in their lives.
I have always been a runner and a dreamer. I am inspired by the future and am constantly aiming towards it. I am constantly trying to move away from the past and run towards something better.
I have always been a runner and a dreamer. I am inspired by the future and am constantly aiming towards it. I am constantly trying to move away from the past and run towards something better.
There were times growing up,(especially in high school), where I distanced myself from my faith, family, and feelings. I tried to be as numb as possible and I sought out things that would make me forget my problems. I moved away from solving the issues.
Moving away can be so easy and the most comfortable thing to do. For me, it is easy to run away and I have to constantly push myself to stick around and fight for solutions.
Moving away can be so easy and the most comfortable thing to do. For me, it is easy to run away and I have to constantly push myself to stick around and fight for solutions.
Moving away can also be really difficult and incredibly terrifying. For instance, going to college can be a huge fear. It's the first time that we physically move away from everything we have known.
But going back to moving away being easy: where does this idea come from? Why is it so easy to remove ourselves from our problems instead of handling them?
Get ready for a major social critique:
Prepare yourself now.
Here it goes.
We grow up believing and internalizing images, words, thoughts, mass ideas and culture. As soon as we enter this world we become exposed to class structure, social norms, inequality, and an entire world who likes to manipulate everything we see and believe. We essentially grow up being immersed in someone else's image of us. This is the problem.
As a child and teenager, I watched on TV as teenagers and adults handled their problems with poor judgement and actions. The media was full of naked men and women, sexualized underaged girls, drugs, theft, drinking, partying, throwing up, running away. All of these things are glorified and made to look glamorous and inclusive. They are made to look like a form of acceptance and identity. Being exposed to these things as a child is inevitable based on the extreme invasiveness and push from powerful people. So even though I didn't understand what I was seeing on TV, magazines, and in real life, I still ended up internalizing those images and then regurgitated some of them later on.
So how do we move away from a mass culture? How do we decipher between the good and bad? How do we know that we aren't regurgitating images right now in this moment?
1) Self-Analysis is Incredibly important.
Maybe you've felt numb lately. Numb to everything and anything. Maybe you feel worthless and so you've been putting your worth into material items such as alcohol, drugs, or even a relationship. You have to think about: what in your life right now do you currently care about other than your self worth? Are you trying to rely on something else to give you happiness? If you find yourself saying yes to these questions, you have a problem. But that's okay. You can only change the problem once you realize that it's an issue.
2) Know that you have purpose. You are just distracted from it right now.
Yes, get used to the idea that you have purpose. You may not know what you want to do with your life, you may have had some crap happen to you in your life, or you may have no idea how to even start over again. Society tries to pressure us to figure out who we are and where we are going. It wants us to pick a school, major, career, spouse, etc., just so it can identify us as such. Everyday we are getting pressure from the world around us to hurry up and decide already. And when we can't decide, we view ourselves as worthless and purposeless. So we fill that void with distractions so that we don't have to feel anything. The world is constantly offering us multiple distractions. Think about it. Why are you doing what you are doing right now? The media has raised us by showing and glorifying negative and harmful things.
But you have purpose. You have worth. You have meaning. Each of us are given a purpose and talents to accomplish that purpose. The sooner you realize these things, the sooner you can start feeling genuinely happy and content with your life. Because at least that way, you will be aiming and striving for joy rather than wasting time being in a dark hole of depression and distraction.
3) Find people who value you.
This can be one of the hardest things to do, especially if you are currently distracted and depressed. Trust me, I know. I still have a hard time doing this. I can identify the problems I have and realize what is distracting me from my happiness, but when it comes to finding people who will lift me up and value me....it gets really difficult. You see because it is very hard for me to value myself at all. So trying to find people who do what I can't even do for myself seems impossible; because if I can't love myself, who the hell else is going to love me?
But we are meant to be in connection with one another. It's in our DNA. We all get lonely so easily and it is easy to slip into our rooms by ourselves and feel sad. We feel alone because it is not natural to be alone. We are supposed to have our people.
For me, I am constantly having temporary people. I'll start out having a group of people who I love and who love me. But then I go to college and they find different people to do that for them. So then i'll find people at college, but they turn out not to value me as much as I would hope. The people who I wanted so badly to keep on loving me drifted off and loved other people instead. It's hard to feel 2nd best. At least, that is something I struggle with. I struggle with comparison. I compare myself to everyone and everything. Am I good enough? No. Am I worth it? No. But these are all answers based on society's standards of me. I am trying to measure up to impossible pressures that society has ingrained in me since I came into this world.
The main thing I'm trying to get across here is that you are wonderful. You are worth more than anything. You have been given a purpose to integrate into your life. You are worth more than what society thinks of you or what you should be. Own up to your flaws, faults, and mistakes. Recognize that you are better than your current situation and it is time for you to change for the better. You deserve to be happy. Don't sit around and wallow in your self doubt and sadness. Fix it. Change it. Stop using everything as an excuse to not be incredible. The sooner you stop making excuses, the sooner you can change the world around you for the better.
Stop moving away from things that matter and stop moving towards things that are harmful to your spirit and self worth. Value yourself enough to create a better life for yourself. You got this, I promise. You got this.
Moving away can be so easy and the most comfortable thing to do. For me, it is easy to run away and I have to constantly push myself to stick around and fight for solutions.
Moving away can be so easy and the most comfortable thing to do. For me, it is easy to run away and I have to constantly push myself to stick around and fight for solutions.
Moving away can also be really difficult and incredibly terrifying. For instance, going to college can be a huge fear. It's the first time that we physically move away from everything we have known.
But going back to moving away being easy: where does this idea come from? Why is it so easy to remove ourselves from our problems instead of handling them?
Get ready for a major social critique:
Prepare yourself now.
Here it goes.
We grow up believing and internalizing images, words, thoughts, mass ideas and culture. As soon as we enter this world we become exposed to class structure, social norms, inequality, and an entire world who likes to manipulate everything we see and believe. We essentially grow up being immersed in someone else's image of us. This is the problem.
As a child and teenager, I watched on TV as teenagers and adults handled their problems with poor judgement and actions. The media was full of naked men and women, sexualized underaged girls, drugs, theft, drinking, partying, throwing up, running away. All of these things are glorified and made to look glamorous and inclusive. They are made to look like a form of acceptance and identity. Being exposed to these things as a child is inevitable based on the extreme invasiveness and push from powerful people. So even though I didn't understand what I was seeing on TV, magazines, and in real life, I still ended up internalizing those images and then regurgitated some of them later on.
So how do we move away from a mass culture? How do we decipher between the good and bad? How do we know that we aren't regurgitating images right now in this moment?
1) Self-Analysis is Incredibly important.
Maybe you've felt numb lately. Numb to everything and anything. Maybe you feel worthless and so you've been putting your worth into material items such as alcohol, drugs, or even a relationship. You have to think about: what in your life right now do you currently care about other than your self worth? Are you trying to rely on something else to give you happiness? If you find yourself saying yes to these questions, you have a problem. But that's okay. You can only change the problem once you realize that it's an issue.
2) Know that you have purpose. You are just distracted from it right now.
Yes, get used to the idea that you have purpose. You may not know what you want to do with your life, you may have had some crap happen to you in your life, or you may have no idea how to even start over again. Society tries to pressure us to figure out who we are and where we are going. It wants us to pick a school, major, career, spouse, etc., just so it can identify us as such. Everyday we are getting pressure from the world around us to hurry up and decide already. And when we can't decide, we view ourselves as worthless and purposeless. So we fill that void with distractions so that we don't have to feel anything. The world is constantly offering us multiple distractions. Think about it. Why are you doing what you are doing right now? The media has raised us by showing and glorifying negative and harmful things.
But you have purpose. You have worth. You have meaning. Each of us are given a purpose and talents to accomplish that purpose. The sooner you realize these things, the sooner you can start feeling genuinely happy and content with your life. Because at least that way, you will be aiming and striving for joy rather than wasting time being in a dark hole of depression and distraction.
3) Find people who value you.
This can be one of the hardest things to do, especially if you are currently distracted and depressed. Trust me, I know. I still have a hard time doing this. I can identify the problems I have and realize what is distracting me from my happiness, but when it comes to finding people who will lift me up and value me....it gets really difficult. You see because it is very hard for me to value myself at all. So trying to find people who do what I can't even do for myself seems impossible; because if I can't love myself, who the hell else is going to love me?
But we are meant to be in connection with one another. It's in our DNA. We all get lonely so easily and it is easy to slip into our rooms by ourselves and feel sad. We feel alone because it is not natural to be alone. We are supposed to have our people.
For me, I am constantly having temporary people. I'll start out having a group of people who I love and who love me. But then I go to college and they find different people to do that for them. So then i'll find people at college, but they turn out not to value me as much as I would hope. The people who I wanted so badly to keep on loving me drifted off and loved other people instead. It's hard to feel 2nd best. At least, that is something I struggle with. I struggle with comparison. I compare myself to everyone and everything. Am I good enough? No. Am I worth it? No. But these are all answers based on society's standards of me. I am trying to measure up to impossible pressures that society has ingrained in me since I came into this world.
The main thing I'm trying to get across here is that you are wonderful. You are worth more than anything. You have been given a purpose to integrate into your life. You are worth more than what society thinks of you or what you should be. Own up to your flaws, faults, and mistakes. Recognize that you are better than your current situation and it is time for you to change for the better. You deserve to be happy. Don't sit around and wallow in your self doubt and sadness. Fix it. Change it. Stop using everything as an excuse to not be incredible. The sooner you stop making excuses, the sooner you can change the world around you for the better.
Stop moving away from things that matter and stop moving towards things that are harmful to your spirit and self worth. Value yourself enough to create a better life for yourself. You got this, I promise. You got this.