With bipolar, I often felt upset, angry, and defensive. When I discovered how to maintain my internal peace, I learned to control myself and my emotional reactions.
Have you heard the saying, “Never in the history of calming down has anyone ever calmed down by being told to Calm down”?
It shows how we don’t understand the importance and necessity of calming ourselves. This suggestion or strategy gets automatically rejected, shot down, mocked, and ridiculed, even though calming down and learning to maintain Peace, calm, and comfort is exactly what we DO need to maintain our mental well-being.
I was diagnosed with depression, anxiety, and bipolar over 20 years ago, and I can tell you that what has helped me most, from all of the spirituality, positivity, and personal-development movements, was finally gaining a true understanding of the importance—to me and my mental well-being—of maintaining calm, peace, and comfort.
Recognizing and sustaining that inner peace is a direct mechanism to bring balance to my mental and emotional well-being and happiness to my quality of life.
Finding Peace & Defending against Reactionary Responses
Once I understood this, I found ways to maintain my inner peace, so I don’t get wrapped up in a fight and the mental anguish that goes along with it. As much as possible, I do try to operate and meet my needs from a place of calm, comfort, and peace so “demons” don’t get stirred up within me and my mind.
It was not too long ago that I made this realization. I finally discovered the feeling of peace within. It was buried, and I did a lot of healing work to clear blocks and trapped emotions. I also taught myself how to stay calm as a strategy, a new defense strategy against becoming reactionary and getting upset.
I found that learning to teach myself how to stay calm went hand in hand with teaching myself how to be comfortable, too. It started with a lot of coaxing and positive self-talk when I was out of my comfort zone and feeling uncomfortable. But, soon enough, I was able to create a new basis of calm and comfort, and I sought to adapt and to follow new strategies and mindsets so I could maintain this as my state of being.
Controlling Myself & Letting Go
As if a green light had turned on, I changed all my priorities to center them around being calm and maintaining comfort and peace. I really did feel a lot better—almost like instant gratification—and it allowed me, for the first time, to feel in better control of my actions and reactions.
Because I have discovered that my peace is within my control, I always choose maintaining calm as being the right course of action. And now I am more aware of my own mental peace and less inclined to disturb it or allow myself to fall into emotional upset over something out of my control.
I have also learned to let a lot of things go. With bipolar, it’s too easy to be stirred into upset and a fight. And this could also run the risk of escalating to mania or even a depressive episode. I experienced many manic episodes and bouts of deep depression before I started learning different ways I could help myself manage my mental well-being and my life.
A Commitment to Personal Development
Thankfully, there is so much more information today for people living with mental health issues. And there are several pieces of advice that can truly change the lives of people who are struggling. I aim to share information that directly helped me the most to manage bipolar and live my best life, something I thought wouldn’t be possible over 20 years ago.
This personal-development work takes effort, commitment, determination, focus, perseverance, and discipline, but I believe we can overcome our greatest challenges or limitations when we set our mind to it and we know what to do to better ourselves. I also personally feel that everyone—with or without mental health challenges—should be working toward being their best self and living their ONE best life.
The Mental Health “Puzzle”
If we look at it as pieces to a puzzle, the new “you” or the new “me,” the pieces that were missing and helped me to be my best version of myself, more in control, and proactively managing my mental well-being and quality of life were:
- Maintaining being calm
- Maintaining being comfortable
- Maintaining my peace
- Maintaining lower stress levels
- Maintaining my posture and health
- Maintaining my diet and my sleep
- Maintaining fun and happiness
- Maintaining assertiveness
- Maintaining a needs-based way of operating
Prioritizing Internal Peace
As I mentioned and as you can see, there was a big shift in my priorities just by stumbling upon my own inner peace. It changed me for the better, and it changed the quality of my life. It is possible to prioritize staying out of fights, especially when living with bipolar, when you learn to prioritize yourself around peace, calm, and comfort. I have found this to be the easier path and the path of personal happiness.
In a world where almost everyone has a chip on their shoulder and wants to fight, you can find peace, be the peace, and stop the fight. But this comes from within and can be the greatest gift you give to yourself and for your own mental well-being and emotional stability.
When calm, comfort, and peace win, the fight is over. For good. And for good.
Originally posted May 16, 2022
The post The Importance of Peace & Calm to Managing Bipolar appeared first on bpHope.com.
