“Life’s challenges are not supposed to paralyze you, they’re supposed to help you discover who you are”

I always enjoy it when I read a blog post that inspires me to write. I enjoy it even more when that inspiring post is written by a blogger I have never “met” before.  Today I was inspired to write a post about my challenges in life and my reaction to them by a blog post written by Amy Steelman-Prueter titled Do Challenges Stop You?.

My life feels as if it can be seen from two different time lines, the beginning of each one represents a birth.  The time lines are named, Life Before Depression Treatment Begins (LBDTB), and Life After Depression Treatment Begins (LADTB).  My reactions to life challenges are different from one period of time to the next.

In the time period of Life Before Depression Treatment Begins, my reaction to challenges in my life was often to become paralyzed with fear, worry and anxiety.  I literally became unable to move and it almost felt as if I could not breathe.  I would let challenges stop me in my tracks.  Whenever I could, I would get my husband to deal with whatever was challenging me.  However, there were some that he could not take care of, so I would be left to face them myself.

The problem was, I would almost never actually face them.  My thought was that if I could ignore whatever was challenging me  long enough, it would eventually go away.  Can you see the problem with this line of thinking?

Because I was not dealing with a challenge head on it, my fear, worry and anxiety would increase drastically.  Building up negative thoughts about what I was facing to such a degree that the only outcome I could envision was one of disaster and mayhem.  It never quite sunk in that ignoring it is what usually caused the negative outcomes.  In addition, because I just sort of let things happen to me, instead of tackling things head on I felt as if no one really listened to me.

After I had been in the time of Life After Depression Treatment Begins for a while things began to slowly change.  In the beginning, the challenges I had to face were my daily struggle to not give into my suicidal thoughts again, going to therapy once a week, and trying to be there for my family.  As my mind became healthier, I was able to take on more challenges and began to see that by facing them, I was growing and changing as a person.  I no longer experienced paralyzing fear and worry when I was facing challenges, in fact I began to welcome them, seeing them as an opportunity to learn more about myself and to become a healthier person.

There are times when I still feel some anxiety when I am facing a challenge in my life.  I think that anxiety is born out of a fear that I might not know how to handle what I am facing.  However, I have learned the quickest way to get over that anxiety is to go ahead and face whatever it is that is in front of me.  After all, I do have the tools to overcome most challenges, and in cases where I do not, I have people in my life who can help me.

There has been a wonderful side effect to being proactive in the face of a life challenge.  I feel stronger and healthier.  Every challenge that I successfully overcome causes me to feel more empowered and also creates an aura of self-confidence that I do not remember experiencing during the time of Life Before Depression Treatment Begins.

What about you?  Do you tackle challenges head on, or do you allow them to stop you?  Are you like me and have experienced a time where you let them stop you, but you changed how you reacted to life challenges at some point?