Ah, yes. The awkward introduction blog where I have to pretend like I know what I’m doing, and maybe you believe it or maybe you play along. If you’re still here: Hi. I’m Marissa. And I’d like to talk about mental health.

Now before you click away or scroll down to see how long this will take, I want to tell you why I’m starting this blog. In the last year, I’ve had to make some tough decisions that affected my happiness, and I’ve come to the conclusion that there is no job, no paycheck, no person, no item that can be exchanged for happiness. Life is a balancing act.

In college, I wrote a story about student athletes, in which I interviewed student athletes, coaches, administration, etc, and I remember one of my sources said that the students’ lives were broken down into three aspects—school, sport, social life—and most students only had time to focus on two.

Now imagine your life broken down like this:

You have your job (or school), your social life and your hobbies and home life (the things that bring you joy when you have “you” time).

For me, that includes freelancing, blogging, applying for jobs, calling my boyfriend, checking in with friends, cuddling my dog, playing guitar, writing and watching hours of YouTube. And I have other responsibilities (bills, cooking, cleaning, etc) that I can’t give up, so I have to actively work to keep up.

I’ll admit I’m not always the best at juggling the important things. Why? Because life happens. We’ve all been there: “I’m tired, can’t get out of bed, don’t want to eat, don’t want to move, just let me lie here in peace.”

And sometimes, it’s okay to have those days. What’s not okay is when those days turn into weeks. If you’re feeling down for a long time, it affects how much time you give to the things that make you happy. And if you neglect the things that make you happy, then you won’t be happy.

So now that I’ve lead you on a tangent of happiness, I want to tell you the second reason I’m starting this blog: No one is talking about mental health.

Obviously, many people talk about health, daily I’m sure, but that’s not what I mean. Have you ever told someone you couldn’t go to class or called off work with the excuse of “I’m sick?” Of course. We all have. Have you ever used “sick” as a broad, generalized synonym for depressed? Anxious? Riddled with crippling doubt?

I have.

And it’s horrible. It’s terrifying to tell someone “I couldn’t get out of bed today because I couldn’t will myself to do so.” It’s even worse to have someone of authority tell you that you can’t be excused due to laziness. I’m not lazy. I’m depressed. Why isn’t that acceptable?

So: Let’s talk about mental health. And hopefully, today, you can get that extra push to get out of bed. You can give yourself an extra minute to spend on you.

Fill your world with things that make you happy.

xoxo,
M