Share Your Struggles

I am in a bit of a rut right now. And when I get in a rut, I eat too much. Of course, I don’t eat too much broccoli or zucchini; I eat too much chocolate and chips and muffins and pizza. I might not eat all of those things every day, but lately I have been eating at least one of those things every day. I have a huge weakness for dark chocolate, and while I’ve heard that a little bit of it can even be good for you (I’m not sure I totally buy that), even if that were true, I know the experts who tout this aren’t talking about half a bar of chocolate (sometimes even more) in a single day.

Here is the thing though–I want to change but if I am being totally honest, I know I just don’t want it enough right now. I haven’t been taking any action to change this behavior, like not having chocolate or chips in the house. I haven’t sworn off any foods completely, which, believe it or not, actually has helped me in the past. Something about not allowing myself the option of even eating a little of that chosen food made it easier for me to cut it out of my mind (I’m not saying it was easy but it was easier than trying to rely on willpower alone to make a decision because the decision was already made).

We always talk about our struggles after we have triumphed. But we rarely talk about those struggles when we are raw and bare and broken from the struggles. We don’t want to admit that we have a problem and that we might or might not want to change. Well, often we do want to change, but we don’t want to more. We don’t want to talk about it when we have been doing the same thing over and over and over even when we know it isn’t good for us.

But maybe, just maybe, it is okay to sit in your own crap and admit that you are sitting in crap and don’t know exactly how to get out. Maybe the very act of being honest enough to admit the truth can have a kind of jump-start effect toward us taking the next step. And maybe the willingness to speak out on our struggles will reach someone who is struggling too and help them recognize that they aren’t alone.

We all go through periods where we struggle harder. It could be mentally, physically, emotionally, or spiritually. But when we know that we are not completely alone in the struggles we are fighting, it feels good, it feels comforting. It can also be encouraging when someone around you confesses their struggle as well and might even offer a solution that helped them move forward.

We were not meant to go through life alone. And while very few of us are really alone, we can feel alone when we don’t share of ourselves honestly. It’s not that we have to share every thought we have, but when we hide away all the parts of ourselves that we worry might be perceived poorly by someone, that can get very restricting very fast.

Perhaps one answer to the question of how to work through struggles is to be a little more honest when we are struggling.