Has anyone ever asked you if you were ok, and you said yes, when you weren’t?

I’ve spent most of my life telling people I was ok, when I knew that I wasn’t.

I’d get up in the morning and I would lie to myself as I wondered … 

If we’re always lying to ourselves, and we’re to always lying to each other, how could we ever have truth between us?

I thought life was happening to me, not for me, because I remember feeling powerless and scared as I realized nobody else wanted to talk about it. 

Those thoughts made me sick to my stomach.

Like I was all alone.

And when you feel all alone, your brain starts to tell you stories.

You begin to withdraw from the world and hide in isolation.

You feel anxious.

You feel depressed …

Because those stories have you thinking that maybe it’s you that is the problem.

The days turn to nights and before you know it, life calls you back in.

Gives you another opportunity to tell the truth.

And what do you do?

Most likely, the same thing I did.

Instead of leaning into that discomfort, you walk away.

Because, after all, that’s easier, right?

Well, until one day, it isn’t.

You finally realize, like I did, that all those problems you thought you were walking away from, you’ve just been dragging them behind you,

Now they’re too heavy to carry and you have the face them,

Because life will keep taking away those you love most, and the only decision left will be to tell the truth

Day after day after day after day after day after day you will have to keep making that decision.

It takes courage and strength to believe you can change, but, can you really afford the cost of staying the same?

Create a space where you can get away from who you were, in order to reveal who you truly are.

Empty your heart and open your mind to rebuild every inch of yourself. … inside and out.

In today’s world, information travels faster than our ability to process it.

People are constantly stressed, over-worked, hyper aroused and under loved.

They don’t know themselves, they don’t know their bodies, they don’t know their purpose and they will die having lived a life not worth remembering.

Is that how you want to go out?

As someone who lived quietly, desperately and settled for someone else’s dream?

That was the life I was living, the story I knew.

A person who didn’t exist.

I grew up believing I was supposed to be seen, and not heard.

Sit down, shut up, get a job, have kids, white picket fences blah blah blah blah.

Nobody told me I could write my own story.

So … I just did.

That’s when I noticed the people who were telling me it couldn’t be done, were getting in the way of me doing it .. and I stopped listening.

By embracing my humanity, owning my story, and speaking my truth, the world is connecting me with people who are ready to change their story …

To be present for someone, and not just in their presence, is the greatest gift you can give

That person can be vulnerable and will grow stronger because you have created space for them …

Only then, when your eyes are truly opened, like mine had to be, will you see who is watching you … and who needs you to be a little more human

My life doesn’t just effect me.

Talking about it and working through my darkness, with those I choose to call my family, has been the medicine my soul needed.

I Am Not Ok…And That’s Ok

Now, when life gives me the chance.

I tell the truth … or I don’t lie.

 – John Bair