Suffering and mental illness are unfortunate parts of both the past and present world we all live in. These words ring truer than ever over the past two years. However, this doesn’t mean that there can not be great joy and growth that comes out of the hardship. Tough times always offer two choices. The first choice is to stagnate and regress to the state of anxiety and suffering. The second choice is to harness the momentum of hardship and ride it to growth, strength, and increased resilience. We all will be presented these two choices in one way or another throughout our life. Whether it is an individual struggling with a severe medical problem, or a person battling with the existential crises of if they are wasting their lives in their current profession. No matter the severity of the hardship no human being will be able to make it through life without being touched by it in some way.

 And now to what we can do with this hardship. Physically and emotionally embrace it. Dive into it and feel the heart ache and the anxiety and the pain. Do not push it down with distraction or chemicals. Although in the moments of that hardship it might feel worse than anything you could imagine there is always hope. Grab on to that hope, and more importantly grab onto others. There is nothing to be gained from trying to battle every obstacle in life on your own. True strength comes from learning how to process the hardship and pain within yourself and with others that love and support you. This is where resilience is born. Not from toughing it out on your own. Not from trying to be the tough guy. It is built from facing your struggles head on and allowing your tribe to help carry you through to the other side.

Here at Harvard Avenue Counseling Services, PLLC we have a mission to help build this resilience in our clients. We are here to be apart of that tribe that helps carry you through the pain and hardship. Life is not meant to be easy or traveled through alone. So, if you feel like you are in a place where you don’t know which direction to turn to overcome the struggle you are dealing with, please reach out and let us help.