The inevitability of time and how to keep looking forward.

I have learned the hardest thing about life is time: it never stops. We must keep going no matter the pain, no matter the hurt or sadness we feel, we can never stop.

In the short 22 years I have been on earth, I have faced a lot of struggles and overcame hurdles I never thought I would. I wanted time to stop, I wanted it to slow down so I could feel and just wallow for a little bit, but life unfortunately does not allow that.

For a lot of people, (even the people who end up using or abusing) have felt or feel the same way as me, they just want it to stop. This can go 2 ways: we want time to stop to feel, or we want to stop feeling because time will not stop. Either way, let's dig into this and find out how to cope.

We can take life head on in simple or different ways. Here are some of them.

1. Give yourself your own time to feel. Set time out of your day to allow your body and mind to accept the pain or feeling, and then move on with your day. Let up to 10 minutes each day to take that private time to wallow, feel bad, cry, scream, or even smile- whatever it may be, do it for the good of your soul.
2. Learn and move on. Life will teach us lessons, sometimes painful, sometimes amazing, and sometimes happy. Everyday we learn, no matter our age or our wisdom, we can never stop learning. Take the event as a lesson you now know and move on. Put it in the past and let it stay there, BUT, take that knowledge you gained from it and become stronger.
3. Invest in therapy. This is a touchy subject for many, but it also is an extremely healthy skill and coping mechanism that will give you tools on how to live a great lifestyle. Not to mention, you can spend up to an hour talking and venting to someone who will be there for you and completely focused on just you. We all need a little room to be selfish, so try and find the right person for you.
4. Acknowledge your feelings. The tricky part about people is that they feel the need to keep everything in, shelter the real hard feelings from others and ignore the honest feelings they have. If you are feeling a certain way, say it aloud, acknowledge the feeling and why you are feeling it, and understand it is okay. We all have bad days, it is okay to give yourself that extra love.
5. Reminisce. This may not be for everyone, as sometimes the past is painful. For me, it is a tool I use to keep my loved ones' memories alive. I can look back and feel that happiness. Although time has passed, and I am no longer able to see or talk to them, I can still look back to those memories and understand they were once a feeling and a person in my life, and I understand that time has taken some of that away from me. But looking back, I am still able to recreate those moments in my heart.

With these simple and short ideas, they may or may not work for people. If you do feel like time just won't stop, or a feeling won't stop- acknowledge it first, and then understand tomorrow is another day to live. Don't just survive to live, live to feel and love, live to love yourself and those around you. Never stop feeling alive. Time will never stop, but we can create time for ourselves each day to understand this.

Love Always, Mel.