I’ve been thinking a lot about strength recently.  Mental strength.  Resilience. The ability to keep on going despite challenges being thrown our way as we go through life.

I am in constant admiration of my clients.  They go to school/college/uni, they do jobs they love (or are temporarily doing jobs they hate so they can create the opportunity for doing a job they love), they have friends and boyfriends and husbands.  On the surface, with the vast majority of them, it would appear to most people that nothing is wrong.

And yet underneath their relatively ‘normal’ exterior they struggle on a daily basis with crippling anxiety, dark depression, minute-by-minute battles in their head about food and deep insecurities about their worth and love-ability.

Through my work with them, they start to win some of these battles.  Very tiny battles to begin with.  And we celebrate those little victories together, because each obstacle overcome represents a step in the direction of becoming who they want to be.  Gradually the battles they win become bigger, more significant.  The strength they have inside of them to keep on going, to keep fighting, to stay strong despite the voice in their head attacking them on an almost constant basis, is incredible.  Most of the time they don’t recognise that they have that strength and I have to point it out to them regularly.  Eventually they start to see it for themselves and begin to believe that maybe they are strong enough to win the biggest battle of them all and let go of everything.   It’s beautiful to watch.

We all fight battles that no-one else knows about, myself included.

In the last two months, many stressful and upsetting things have happened and my husband is the only person who knows about all of them.  I’ve learnt that communication is key and that keeping it all inside my head doesn’t work.  Together we are stronger.  We are facing some of those battles as a team.  And he is standing by my side supporting me as I face other challenges alone because we both know that it’s only me that can overcome them.

Today is Time To Talk Day, a campaign to raise awareness of mental health.  The campaign asks that everyone takes five minutes today to talk to someone, to ask them how they’re doing. It’s not much, but it could make a real difference to that person because they know that they are no longer alone.

Staying strong doesn’t mean doing it all on your own.  If you’re struggling, ask for help.  If you see someone struggling, offer help.

It could be the difference that makes the difference.

I’d love to find out your thoughts and experiences about staying strong, because staying strong means something different to everyone.  Sharing your ideas might help someone else who doesn’t feel ready yet to ask for the support they want/need.  And remember to take five minutes to check in with someone and ask them how they’re doing.

Please leave your comments below and feel freee to share this post with anyone you think might find it useful.