This is an awesome thread and I have enjoyed every single post.

I think we can find joy here and there, but for those of us with metal illnesses, we must cultivate ourselves to get to the point of "peace of mind". By using "cultivate", I mean we must take care of ourselves like we take care of a small, struggling plant. We water it, we place l it in sunlight, we noursh it with plant food. We provide what it needs to flourish, and that is what we need to do for each of us.

We can't just jump to the "peace of mind" phase without working on the steps before it. I haven' forgotten my past, but I have been through therapy enough to know that my anger toward it is honest, and I accepted that I own it. Then, for the most part, I put it away. I have PTSD, so that was hard to do. That was one small step.

I've had to work on all the small steps to make my way toward peace of mind. Am I there yet? Not yet, but I sure am closer to it than I was when I started therapy. Do I have setbacks? Sure I do! Iv'e had more triggers in the last three weeks than I've had in ages. I became a wreck. I leaned on what I'd been taught and on my friends here and I am coming out of it.

I have one single thing thing hanging over my desk so I see it everyday. It's a quote by Booker T. Washington. It says: "Success is to be measured not so much by the positon that one has reached in life as by the obstacles which he has overcome while trying to succeed."

Sometimes you have to hop a lot before you can take off and soar.

January