We all suck and that’s ok, but we should do something about our suckiness. :- ) 

The Heart as a Torn Muscle highlighted something that I am a big supporter of: taking care of your mental health. This piece uses our obsession with physical health and translates that to our mental health. The last sentence of the reading demonstrated exactly what I think many of us are lacking, “But for now, right now, put your hand to your chest and feel what beats. The only muscle you can’t live without needs to stay whole.” This is so important if we think about it. A broken heart is inevitable, but we must care for the heart as we would any other wounded muscle, with time and effort. Time and effort can be applied to other areas of our mental health as well. With self deprecating humor being the main running joke among young people, it is apparent we do not take our mental health seriously. “Edgy, depressed memes” are the only things I see on social media for the past few years. We all say “lol im depressed” but we don’t do anything about it! The below post is an example. This is a pretty tame one honestly, other ones I have seen are pretty brutal in terms of self deprecation. These kind of posts have always annoyed me for two reasons, 1. they aren’t that funny, millions of people saying the same form of a “dead meme” gets old fairly quickly and 2. it isn’t productive in addressing the real issue that many of us do face and struggle with.

SCHOOL IS ICKY, ICKY, ICKY! 😮

With the overwhelming amount of school work we have to endure there should be a better way to help ourselves and those around us. Posting memes and pointless self-pity are synonomous when it comes to the opposite of helping oneself. More young people should seek help from a therapist. A therapist can do wonders and help guide us to being our best selves, as cheesy as it sounds. As expressed in “The Heart as a Torn Muscle”, “If home remedies bring no relief in 24 hours, call your youngest and most bohemian friend.” I would say this is comparable to visiting a therapist. A therapist offers different, more realistic insight into a situation in the same way a naive, free spirited friend may offer support. I have been seeing a therapist consistently for over three years and could not imagine how my life would be without it. Therapy is free as a USF student, provided by the Counseling Center, which is where I go! School really sucks at times and we do not realize the toll it can have on our mental health which is 100% related to our physical health as well. If we start treating common issues, such as anxiety and depression, as medical emergencies we would all benefit. We all hate school sometimes and it is nice to know that others can relate, but we are all dumb and chose to be miserable in school because without a degree we are pretty much worthless it seems. We must deal with it and make the most out of it, because what the heck would we be doing otherwise??

We’re all gonna die so we should have a blast while we are alive!!

>:-)

Growing up in a medical household, my parents always stressed the importance of mental health. My mom has always said “stress will kill you so calm down” Focusing on meditation, mindful thinking, cognitive patterns, etc. has always been important to me and I try to emphasize these to my friends and family. These are all ways to alleviate certain stresses/triggers. The way in which “The Heart as a Torn Muscle” is written has the ability put mental health responsibilities in a different perspective. The entirety of the “Symptoms” section highlights the adverse effects stress can have on our bodies. Pain at rest, swelling, bruising, or redness, restlessness, inability to use the muscle at all; these are all symptoms listed in the reading that really do happen when any sort of distress has been placed on us. This allows for the reader to view the piece as if they were reading a medical document. This is a good start in the right direction of mental health awareness. Wow, what a quality meme!! I much prefer these kinds over the lame “lol i have soon much anxiety wahhhh im so edgy so quirky” memes.

Here are a few more for your viewing

What traumatized you most in life??

At some point or another we all have an event in our lives that dramatically impacts the way in which we think about ourselves and the world around us. If I read “The Heart as a Torn Muscle” six months ago I would have had a very different view of the piece as opposed to reading it now. Around three months ago I went through I pretty horrible break up and am still suffering with it. But despite this, I have grown more as a person more than I have in my life thus far. This is in part because I have taken the time to truly care for my mental wellbeing. Life moves fast and continues, but that does not mean you keep your emotions/feelings on hold. It is sooo important to really care for your mental health because it is more in tune with the rest of your body than you may think! We are all young and have no clue how to navigate our lives as much as we like to think otherwise. Growth takes time but you have to respect that time by recognizing your feelings and how to cope with them. The heart can literally be a torn muscle it seems like after a break up. This is quite lame, but sometimes my heart will be in pain and I think, a broken heart is real, mine is broken!! And then I do something I enjoy and feel better because I focused on myself and my emotional well-being. Something to take from “The Heart as a Torn Muscle” would be “Hold yourself together” and “Rise above” These can be applied to any stressful situation and I find myself repeating these phrases over and over when I am feeling down about something, like a break up. Even if I do not feel as if I will overcome this obstacle in the moment, we know it is important to fake it until you make it. 🙂 Here is a video I like to watch when I am sad https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OkO7be9Dn2c&frags=pl%2Cwn