Destination Self-awareness

Before my experience with higher education, I struggled like so many, trying to figure out what I wanted to devote my life to. I jumped from one possibility to the next with every outside influence that came my way. That changed my freshman year in college. On one hand, I was captivated by an introduction to Psychology class that I was taking as a requisite to become a veterinarian. It was fascinating for me to learn about theories and research that helped explain why humans do what we do. On the other hand, my deeply rooted values of the family directed me toward a minor in Marriage and Family Studies. So at the time, the result was a clear goal to become a professional family counselor.

It has been 10 years since the beginning of that journey. The path that lead the way was marked by both clarity and uncertainty resulting from the adversity I faced throughout. At moments, I felt reassurance, passion, and determination to continue. Other times, like during my parent’s divorce, I doubted myself and my decision. How could I help others find peace and happiness in their family life when I couldn’t even help my own parents? During times like these, I researched and took steps toward creating alternative possibilities for my future.

Fortunately, here I am a decade later. Somehow, things worked out in a way that I was given certain opportunities and experiences that turned me back to my values and desires. As I look back now, I see that adversity was not only at the root of the negative parts of my experience (ie: my pain and insecurities), it also played a role in the highlights of the journey such as room for greater empathy and connection with others as well as a deeper level of self-awareness. I understand that this knowledge can only be fully appreciated in retrospect. If you came to me before a certain point in my life and told me the same thing, I would probably dismiss your words as completely insensitive.

Working with clients has made one thing unmistakably clear. Adversity is a common human experience. We all live it, in different areas of life and throughout the course of our days. Life events, along with personal insecurities might have us second-guessing ourselves in one way or another. It could look like a middle-age couple that has grown apart, asking themselves, "How did we get here?". It could take the form of a child, a teen, or an adult making a new transition and wondering, "Am I cut out for this?". It might manifest itself in a mother, father, spouse or sibling when a loved-one passes away, leaving the survivor wanting to know, "What am I suppose to do now? How can I move on from this?" It also impacts every person who is disillusioned with his or her current life circumstances when compared to where they thought they would be.

So if you find yourself posing questions similar to these in the face of adversity. I hope that reading on will be helpful to you. My purpose in creating this blog is to share applicable insight from my personal training and continual efforts to acquire knowledge as it pertains to mental health. I hope that by sharing this information here, certain topics and principles will speak true to you and as a result you might come to make sense of how it fits into your life and personal adversity. The way we think and how we feel make up a very real and significant part of our human experience. It influences our bodies, our relationships, our motivation and so much more. As a part of this blog, I will do my best to include research evidence as well as other sources that not only support the information, but also help explain it in a way that readers can understand and identify with.

As a disclaimer, I make the important point that this is a blog. Therefore, although the topics are often the same ones I cover with clients in session, I will include here, my own insights and opinions of how I have made sense of them in my mind. You can expect that this would not be the case in therapy.

So please, join me every month and do not hesitate to leave comments below suggesting topics that can be considered for future posts.

Warmly,

Laura Ahlstrom