Go DO Something

I just read a meme that said, “Sometimes it’s okay if all you did today was breathe.”

Can you imagine that being said in some rural South American village? “I mean, you know, the whole village is going to starve to death because you didn’t get off of your ass and plow the field, but hey–at least you BREATHED.”

I recognize that there are people with legitimate mental health problems. I work around them every day. But I also run into people who have ‘anxiety attacks’ and similar issues, because they have been told their entire lives that ‘it’s okay if you don’t do anything’. So they never have, and they have no idea of how to deal with life when they actually DO HAVE TO DO SOMETHING.

Some of the most amazing transformations I have seen are people who use this as a catalyst to start engaging in life–even if it’s just going to a gym, to begin with. Doing SOMETHING, taking responsibility, begins the process of making them stronger, better people. It also begins producing dopamine and other pleasure hormones they’ve probably never experienced before, and the lack of which has had them on antidepressants.

So, no; unless you’re in a hospital, it’s probably not okay if all you did today was breathe.