Find What You Love

Find What You Love

I think one of the most important aspects to healing is focus. Specifically WHAT you are focusing on. Obviously the default answer would be to solely focus on God and his will and all should work out fine. And I agree. We should always set our sights on God and I believe when you do this… it will help shift your focus to what I am about to talk about.

When suffering from an eating disorder/anxiety/depression/OCD what ever it is… you tend to focus on nothing but that. You become all consumed with what you are suffering from. I know for me it is primarily focusing on food/calories/exercise. I explained previously the conversations and battles that went on(sometimes ill admit they still do) inside my head. Most of the time it is unavoidable. You really cant CONTROL it per say… how ever there are things you can do that I found help.

Find your passion.

Find your niche.

Find your purpose.

Find out the situations in your life that trigger the negative responses or the relapses or the moments that sink you back into the dark times. AND DO EVERYTHING YOU CAN TO REPLACE THOSE WITH A NEWLY INSPIRED FOCUS.

This is where you (the person from yesterday that is seeking to help a loved one) become very important. Do everything you can to encourage the sufferer. If they are having a good day and ask to maybe go do something…. DO IT! If they come to you with an idea or a thought or anything that they seem excited about… ENCOURAGE THEM. (obviously  use some discrection. Probably not a good idea to encourage an anorexia sufferer to sign up for the 100k Ultra-marathon) But for example, in my situation… I told Erin one day I was really nervous and scared but felt like I needed to have a really honest, tell-all, confession conversation with my Dad. Erin encouraged me and after the hour long, tear-filled, standing outside in our backyard in the freezing cold one night, I felt great. I genuinely think that this one conversation sparked my quest for healing. So that being said the take-away from this is you never know what or when someone might turn the corner. You never know the stimulous that will spark the desire for change. Or atleast the understanding for the need to change. This blog is another perfect example. I was scared to death to start this. I was ready in my mind to quit on Day 2. I knew I would. I always do. This was going to be the most embarrassing One-Post Blog ever. But hearing, seeing, feeling and experience the love and encouragement from everyone who has been following me, has inspired me. I found my purpose. I found my niche. I found my passion. Right now I feel as if I am put on this earth to help others heal and beat what ever it is that is holding them back.

The love and encouragement that everyone has shown me has helped me tremendously. As I hear about ways this blog is helping people it makes me want to beat it even more. I can be the living witness that people need. I know I can. I want to be. I have been “tearing down the walls” not for me. But for you. For your loved ones. And for God.

But back to helping people find there purpose. One of the greatest things that helped me was understanding that my passions/interests/hobbies are MINE and not anybody elses. I have always pretended to like things I never did because in the eyes of everyone they were “Cool” or “trendy” or what everyone else was doing. People shouldn’t judge you for what you like. But they will. Some will atleast. But encourage your person to open up. Don’t judge them if they say something weird. Or you find funny, or odd, or out of the box. Even a slight giggle can be detrimental to their confidence. Because in the end CONFIDENCE is what we need to build in eachother. Like I said I always hid my true passions because based on the status-quo they were not cool. For example. I love Celtic Woman. (yes the women singing group) I always have loved that kind of music. I love the storylines to the songs. I love the melodies. Those girls can freaking sing! I love Josh Groban. I love the Piano Guys, Pentatonix. But I would have never admitted that 5 years ago. That wasn’t cool. You’re a 23 yr old dude. Punk Rock/Metal or rap is cool. Not some frolicking Scottish woman singing to bagpipes. Second example for me was painting and my love for art. I love painting. I love drawing. Specifically childrens books and artwork. I would rather read The Polar Express or Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs then the latest James Patterson thriller. But it wasn’t until I confessed these “weird” things to people that I realized I am not weird. My first painting was loved by everyone. I realized I shared interests with so many people but since I never spoke out about them it never knew. Just assumed I was the only one. And when we assume we are the only one or alone is something… we create a false understanding of ourselves and dig into solitude.

So the big picture takeaway… Help your person FOCUS. FOCUS on finding there purpose and passion in life and ENCOURAGE them to pursue with all their hearts. Hopefully with a renewed sense of purpose and life they can begin to spend more time thinking and focusing on those passions and less time focusing on fighting the everyday battles within their minds.

ENCOURAGE a FOCUS on PASSIONATE pursuit of PURPOSE.

And never for to keep your eyes focused on the Lord as well.

Just incase you didn’t know… I love you all. I have heard from people I haven’t heard from since high school. Thank you. It is helping me so much. My life is beginning to feel full again. Thanks again and I love each of you. Hopefully today’s post inspires someone out there to try something new or something they have never had the courage to pursue today. That is my prayer. JUST DO IT! You may never perfect whatever it is. But if YOU LOVE IT and you give it your ENTIRE HEART…. It is perfect.