Slower, Wealthier, Happier

Good morning, beautiful ☀️✨

It’s Friday, I’m back home, I’m in my own bed, and after two weeks of being a caregiver to my mom, I am slowly getting back to myself. And one of the yummiest things I brought home with me is the realization that I am TRULY a mental health advocate. Y’all, I was basically a walking Lexapro commercial for two weeks. LOL. There were so many moments when I would stop, look around and think, this is a Lexapro moment. This could literally be the commercial. Because I was VERY aware that I was experiencing something differently than I would have before.

Let me give you a little peek into why. My home is just my husband and me, and over the years I have curated our life to feel exactly the way I want it to feel. From the food we eat, to the seasonal dishes I change out, to my morning routines, to the pace and flow of our home, I have intentionally created a life that feels good to me. Now, slide on over to my mama’s house. Baby! 😂 There is consistent ALL-DAY MOVEMENT, exactly the way she LOVES it. At any given moment there can easily be ten people in the house, adults, children, babies as young as six months old, people talking, kids running, toys everywhere, somebody cooking, somebody coming, somebody going. Just joyful chaos in motion. And they LOVE LOVE LOVE it.

Historically, my nervous system has not shared their enthusiasm. LOL. Normally, I find myself a corner and DON’T MOVE. I am trying to regulate, trying not to become overwhelmed, trying to find some quiet inside all that movement. But this time? Nope. The medication was doing exactly what it was created to do. I was chilled out. I didn’t need to run off somewhere and reload. I didn’t need to step away and get air. I didn’t need everybody else to become quieter so I could be okay. I was right there in the middle of it all. Now listen, I still had my corner because I am still ME. 😂 But this time, I wasn’t hiding in it. I was an active participant in everything happening around me.

I took my mom to appointments. I cooked breakfast, lunch, and dinner every day. I made sure she was taking her medication. I encouraged her to move. I talked, laughed, participated, helped, and served. I was present AND I was okay. And that distinction matters so much to me because the goal of caring for my mental health was never to create a life where everything around me had to be perfectly curated in order for me to function. The beautiful thing I discovered over these two weeks was that the support I have chosen for my mental health is helping me carry some of that peace with me, even when I leave the environment I created to protect it.

And THAT is why I am such an advocate for getting the mental health support you need, whatever that support looks like for you. Therapy, medication, boundaries, rest, routines, asking for help, learning yourself, changing your environment—all of it. I think sometimes we can believe that if we’ve done enough internal work, we shouldn’t need additional support. Or if medication becomes part of our story, somehow the growth isn’t completely ours. I don’t believe that at all. I have done the work, AND I take the medication. I have learned myself, AND I accept support. One doesn’t cancel out the other. Together, they have given me greater access to the version of myself I have been working so hard to become.

So maybe the question isn’t whether you should be able to handle everything on your own. Maybe the better question is: What helps you be fully present for your own life? What allows you to participate instead of merely survive? What support helps you remain yourself when the environment around you isn’t perfectly designed for you? Because sometimes the greatest evidence that something is working isn’t that life suddenly becomes quiet. Sometimes the babies are still crying, the people are still talking, the toys are still everywhere, somebody is still cooking, and the whole house is still in motion… and you realize, Wait a minute. I’m okay. Baby, if that isn’t growth, I don’t know what is. And I absolutely LOVE that for me.

Your most magical self,
Treshelle