What follows are the thoughts and realizations that can happen when you truly lose yourself:

What can happen when you finally lose yourself in order to find yourself? Everything. And Anything. All at once or over a long period of time, agonizing or sweet, addictive or productive, steps backward and light bulb moments. All of it important. All of it broke you and shaped your views of the world for better and worse or whatever you chose to make out of it.

Mentality is everything. Uphill is a battle sometimes but along the way you start to realize what really matters to you at the end of the day. You isolate yourself while at the same time always meeting new faces. You observe. You figure out who you are to different groups of the people. Figure out how you like to be treated. You teach people how to treat you. Because you realize your worth now. Confidence.

Self-discovery. Losing friends to change of lifestyles. Just phases. No one can make you feel inferior without your consent. Fall in love, fall out. Heartbroken. We accept the love we think we deserve, for better or worse. Forced to face your inner loneliness. Stare right at it. Self-reliance becomes self-assurance become self-appreciation becomes self-love. Inner peace.

God. Reexamining what faith means. You had optimism. Hope. Not drive. No direction. Try new things, find what you love. Find whats rewarding now and whats rewarding in the long run. What would future you look like if you saw yourself as happy?Vision.

What fuels you is the difference between working a job or making a living. Prioritize. Back to family. Back to basics. Back to the drawing board because all of the sudden your life has a game plan you need to draw up. Plan. Set boundaries. Direction.

Realization that you will always be growing for the rest of your life. If you keep learning. Keep an open mind. Taking time to take care of you. Respecting yourself.

Finally seeing that you only felt lost because you forgot that you are layered. Every year of your life, every version of you, layered and layered. All important to who you are today. Acknowledge the wisdom of a simpler you. What would ten year old you think of who you are today? Can you live with that? What do you understand now that ten year old you was too young to understand? Maturity.

Perspective is everything. Experience creates wisdom that is known not just understood. What was the cost of that knowledge? Ignorance is bliss, but also blind. Enlightened. See that there are many layers of you yet to come. Accept that you only ever felt lost because you tried to understand yourself through other's eyes instead of taking the time to really look within. Soul-search.

You look at your ethics to see if you really act upon them or not. Dispel any cognitive dissonance. Decide what you still believe, knowing what you know now--reevaluate as needed.

Start to use your new confidence, maturity, faith, drive, direction, self-respect and perspective to navigate you every day. Trust yourself.

You had to lose yourself to find yourself because life is chaotic. You build your house on sand and you will never be happy. You never know what can happen. Your mental health was being pulled too many directions.

To navigate chaos you see the obstacles in your life as opportunities. You keep moving. You see that losing yourself was just cutting all of the strings of the things you thought you had to be. Expectations. Pressures. Past chains, cut loose. Finding your own purpose, no matter what layers of you are yet to come. Finding yourself is acceptance that you are an ever-growing thing.

So call me lost.