It's Not Over

Katherine Warren

Here’s a not-so-secret secret, there is never an end to your battle for balance.

There is no cure for mental health. Every day, every hour, every season is different, and will be for the rest of my days.

Am I in a better place than I used to be with my mental health? Absolutely. Are there phases of my life I never, ever plan to go back to? You bet. (Cue my insomnia stage.)


But I want to be absolutely clear about something, I work every single day of my life on maintaining my mental health. Every. single. day.


There are days when things flow easier, when all feels right with the world and you catch yourself breathing into those blissful brief moments of immense gratitude. And then there are days where the brain kicks up, where the cloud comes over your mind, and you fight like hell with everything in your toolkit to get back to good (or good enough).

A woman is laying on a bed with her legs up on the wall

Here are a few of my go-to’s on what I refer to as “bad brain days”:


  1. Recognize your feelings as feelings. This is mindfulness 101 – feelings are just that, they are nothing that you need to react to or feel bad about having, and they certainly don’t predict future outcomes. See if you can name your feeling and/or focus on the physical sensation behind it (do you feel it in your belly or your heart, is it a feeling of heat, cloudiness, etc.) to ease it a bit.

  2. Go back to basics. I’ll admit my yoga and traditional meditation practices, even my baking, waiver when I’m feeling good, but I come running back to them when things go awry. Remember, this doesn’t have to be a deep or intense practice to do a lot of good, sometimes even a 2-minute sit and focus on breath will help (or a quick batch of cookies).

  3. Ask for help. This is a TOUGH one for me, but in this last year I am really learning to lean into the benefits of asking a friend, family member, or therapist for help when I’m in the thick of things and can’t quite shake them. If I can get past the trauma I have around asking for help, the benefits of a quick venting text to a friend, a lay down on my husband’s chest, or an extra therapy session can make an absolute world of difference.

  4. And when all else fails…sometimes as a last resort, I just have to sit with the suffering, breathe into it, clear my head for a few seconds when I can, and remind myself over and over again, “this will pass, this will pass, this will pass.”


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Do me a favor? If you’re enjoying this journey towards a balanced life please subscribe, share it, and follow my Instagram for smaller bites.


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