Embrace the pain... but don't forget your spotters!

I just had a sort of epiphany...

I am going through a rough patch right now, a divorce in progress, learning how to manage a single life with kids, and a relationship with an ex that has proven to be quite challenging.

I've been spending some late nights working through issues and shedding some tears, and have posted things in my blog and on my wall to help me cope and work through this process. This morning, I realized something that I wanted to share... I hope that maybe it's a message someone else can use too.

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Just as physical strength and health is important, so is emotional strength and health.

Physical strength is achieved through hard work and determination and persistence. There are days when you push through the exhaustion, where you keep going in spite of how you feel. And that is often when you have your biggest gains. This path to physical strength is a lonely one, in that only YOU can build it. Only YOU can do the work that will see you become stronger.

Emotional health is not much different.

I won't grow emotionally if I don't push my own weight, if I personally don't do the work. I need to push through the emotional pain. To face it head on and attack it. I need to stop running from the pain, and instead choose to embrace it, knowing that it makes me stronger. And as a mother, I need to be as strong as I can be for my girls - to help them learn the same. To be that model for them as they grow up.

This is going to be a heavy lifting week for me emotionally, and I fully expect to be complaining about DOMS. (It's like the hate on for leg day). But just like you don't want to lift heavy without some sort of safety net (so you don't get injured), I know that I am not going this alone. My friends on here, and my close family members, are my spotters - to help me push through when the weight is crushing my chest.

My dear friend, Yoovie said it incredibly well:

I find that pushing through the exhaustion and the weakness in the gym, working against my own doubts in my head and proving to myself over and over and over and over again that I am stronger than I realize and more every day- IS making me mentally and emotionally stronger, and more emotionally responsible. It's proving to myself that I am physically strong that directly causes my mental strength to bloom beautifully.

I'm strong, I prove it to myself every day.

I'm up against something impossible? Well then, I'll start working on it right now and I WILL get there, because I KNOW ME.

I just want to encourage people to realize that emotional pain is not always something to run from... that pain is a perfect way to grow in strength... just make sure you have your spotters!