As promised, our mental health challenge continues! Feel free to choose something from the acronym J.U.L.Y. that resonates with you and practice it.

 

Practice makes perfect and whatever your goal may be, we want to help you succeed! Learning, growing, and succeeding are all about expanding your mind, so let's do it together!

Judgment is something we all engage in. It helps us survive. We judge whether something is safe or unsafe, hot or cold, nice or not nice, male or female, on or off, and so on. Judgments can be matter of fact, emotionally charged, fair or unfair, instinctual, or well thought out. Others can also judge us based on our judgments. Judgment is controversial because we’re either told that we don't judge things enough, that we misjudged something, or that we judge too harshly or too often.

 

Speaker and coach Kyla Sokoll-Ward shares in her TED-talk Kyla Sokoll-Ward: The End of Judgement that we frequently misjudge situations, and discusses how ill feelings can often form as a result. Listening to Kyla, a personal memory of mine resurfaced. Back when I was 16, my teacher shared with me that she was going through a divorce. Giving it no thought, I blurted out that “if both parties engaged in a difficult relationship only tried harder, they could surely save that relationship.” To this day I remember her quiet gaze and the words that followed: “Life is a mystery, and sometimes no matter what amount of effort we put into something, things just don’t work out.” I remembered these words often when I faced the end of my own marriage. Despite my endless attempts to reconcile things, my marriage still ended in divorce.

 

Let us celebrate judgment! Judge for yourself today whether you wish to judge or refrain from judgment! You decide. Do you wish to accept or fight the judgments of others? Observe and learn how judging or abstaining from judgment makes you feel.

 

YOU are the most important thing in this world. Without YOU, there would be none of the experiences that only YOU make possible. YOU are controversial, just like the judgments you engage in. Who are YOU? Where are YOU going? What is YOUR purpose here? Depending on who YOU ask, the answers will differ. Well, today consider asking only YOURSELF, because YOU are the expert.

 

Who are YOU really? What is YOUR purpose? What are YOU learning in this journey called life? What do YOU wish to see happen because of YOUR life's work?

 

Physicists tell us that YOU are energy. Religion tells us that YOU are soul. Physicists tell us that energy can neither be created nor destroyed, so it is timeless and simply exists. Religion tells us the soul is immortal and that God created everything. Science says that everything is energy. Is it possible that they all discuss the same concepts using different words? Is it possible that YOU are energy, that YOU are everything, that YOU are GOD?

 

Consider for one day that YOU are pure energy manifested in human form. Consider for one day that if everything is energy, then everything is a part of you. Would you live your life differently if you were a part of everything, and everything was a part of you?

I simply love what the scripture says about love: “Love is patient and kind; love does not envy or boast; it is not arrogant or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; it does not rejoice at wrongdoing but rejoices with the truth.”

 

Love makes the world go round. Love is in everything we do and do not do. Love is the language of the world and the fabric of all life. Love is always present somewhere, and if you decide to connect with it, you will never feel alone again.

 

There are many types of love. But when it comes down to it, if you really pay attention, the feeling of love in your heart feels the same whether you feel love for a dog, or a tree, or a person. Love is love. Love is a skill, and you can learn it and practice it.

 

Let's practice together! I am sending love your way. Take a minute and feel it in your heart. Now, I am sending love my own way to me. I breathe deeply and I feel deep love for myself. I love you Alicja. Now, it is your turn. Please, send your love my way. I feel your love for me. I thank you and appreciate you for being this amazing, loving being. Now, send love your own way. Feel it in your whole body. I love you… Can you sense love passing through your body? You deserve to feel love. Remember you and me, we are one. Love your neighbor as you love yourself. I love you as I love myself. Practice. Practice. Practice. The feeling of love, simply – guaranteed!

It all starts with YOU, and it all ends with YOU. YOU are my love. YOU are my heart. YOU are my longing and my peace. I run away from YOU, and I run towards YOU. I start the day with YOU, and I end my day with YOU. There is no escape. There is only YOU and no matter what I do, I end up with YOU. If YOU are GOD, then I searched for YOU my whole life. I will never end my search for YOU, because as soon as I find YOU, as soon as I am united with YOU, I need to part with YOU, to remember that I am separate, and as soon as I am separate, I long for YOU and search for YOU again. In YOU I forgive myself all my sins and all my faults. In YOU, I genuinely love myself, because only YOU can love me exactly how I am.

 

Live today as if YOU absolutely loved and adored yourself, every bit of yourself, the light, and the darkness. If you feel a piece of you is missing, try to fill this missing with love. Breathe, observe, see how you feel.

Alicja Matusiak LISW-S, PMHNP-BC is a founder of Holistic Wellness Solutions. She has been interested in studying the mysteries of the human mind ever since her father was diagnosed with depression. She acquired a bachelor’s degree in psychology, a master’s degree in social work, bachelor’s, and master’s degrees in nursing, and committed herself to serve others who struggle with mental health issues.