Over the past few weeks, I have been working at finding ways to cope with all the residual baggage that I have in my life. The thoughts about the past will not go away. Family issues and so on. I have determined that I must work at establishing and deploying healthy coping strategies to manage the stress and keep the thoughts at bay so that the stressors do not overtake my day.

It can be so easy to hold captive the ruminating thoughts that are in my brain. Thinking about things that I think should be or that I deserve the payback that I want for the feelings that I have about life as it is today. I have had to start to accept things as they are, or the thoughts are never going to disappear. They have been there for a long time, and I have been told by my treatment team that I need to think about something else. That is so much easier said than done. But I am working at finding healthy coping strategies to use in those situations where my brain can be quite challenged to think about things that I am stressed out about or have no control.

I want to assure you that what I must experience in the present moment is not as bad as it seems, but because there is such an embedded history of where the thoughts are developing, they are resoundingly apparent. It is important to be kind to myself and to give grace in those moments when it is harder for me to be able to cope with the challenges I am facing.

I know that for the coping skills to be successful, they must be ones that I am going to be able to deploy and are enjoyable, otherwise, they will be useless to me as a relentless piece of paper. As time goes on, I am learning to better cope with the situation at hand. I cannot say that it is 100% perfect, but within time it is getting better. I must realize that the flawed thoughts that I am experiencing cannot be changed nor can the situation that I must experience, therefore I must be more prudent at using the coping skills when the thoughts arise, and I want to take out my frustrations at myself or others.

It is also learning to find new things that I find as something that I am going to enjoy and want to do and keep at it for some time until the thoughts dissipate from being intense in my headspace so I can move on to something else other than the negative, flawed ruminating thoughts in my head that are occupying my brain. I have so much to not only think about, but also offer the world than thinking flawed thoughts that should have never been thought of are healthy to be entertained in the first place.

As times change, I must be willing to move forward with life. It cannot hurt to find healthier coping strategies that are going to help me beat the thoughts in my head that I hope one day will dissipate for good. I am such a joyous person and will overcome the struggle that I am facing in the darkest of moments soon and be a much better person because of it.