Mental health isn't about quieting the Storm inside,but rather about how to build an arc. It begins with the simple art of recognition–to look at the rising waters of anxiety or the frozen edge of depression and name it without judgement. This is your first and most stable plank in your boat: The refusal to connect with the weather of your own truth. Here,you can gather your equipment–the anchor of a deep breath to stabilize you in the present, the sails of a gentle walk to catch a new breeze,the compass of wise friends' voices  to steer you back into the moment.  

These are not one time tools constructed, but an ongoing practice of shelter-building for the soul. It is the purposeful act of setting down three things that did not put you down today, of grounding the heavy texture of your own body in a chair, of allowing yourself to curl up when the waves are high. You're not failing by needing the ark; you're surviving because you made it. Healing is not the absence of the storm,but growing in your belief in your capacity to survive it.