Latest / feel your feelings with Ethan Jewell / if you're struggling today, this is for you

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if you're struggling today, this is for you · feel your feelings with Ethan Jewell

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  If just getting out of bed today felt like a full time job.
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  If you're listening to this while staring blankly at a wall,
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  unsure what you're even supposed to feel right now, if everything
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  just feels heavy, you're in the right place.
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  Because today I want to talk to you about something simple, but
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  something that we all seem to forget.
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  That sometimes simply surviving is enough.
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  That's it. Not thriving, not glowing, not
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  hustling, not totally crushing your goals, just surviving, just
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  existing. My name is Ethan Jewell and
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  welcome back to Feel Your Feelings.
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  It's overwhelming to live in a world that is constantly pushing
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  you to do more. A complete overwhelm of self
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  improvement content saying that you're not doing enough.
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  You know, you have to be more, you have to do more, you have to
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  achieve more. It's like there's a rule that if
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  you're not improving every single day, then you must be
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  falling behind. But that's just not how life
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  works, especially when you're struggling with your mental
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  health. And that's what we talked about
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  on this podcast. Now, I'm not a doctor.
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  I'm not a psychiatrist. I'm not a professional in the
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  mental health industry whatsoever.
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  I'm a normal guy who, just like you, has felt some big feelings
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  and wants to start the conversation.
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  You know, when you're anxious, when you're depressed, when
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  you're grieving or just burnt out, getting through the day can
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  feel impossible. And getting to the end of the
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  day often, and rightly so, feels like a victory.
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  You know, waking up, brushing your teeth, eating a meal,
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  that's resilience, that's strength.
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  Yet we rarely see it that way. And often it goes even beyond
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  that. We're hit with a wave of guilt
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  for feeling like we're not doing enough.
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  I know personally, whenever I'm struggling with depression, and
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  I still do to this day, a lot of people seem to think that I've
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  just suddenly healed. I haven't.
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  I just have learned to live with it a little bit better.
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  And whenever that depression hits me, there's some days where
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  I don't do much if I'm able to, you know, I, I spend my free
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  time just kind of existing, surviving.
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  You know, I don't write. I sometimes don't do the work
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  that I'm supposed to do. I don't go outside.
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  I barely talk to anybody. And whenever I would have a day
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  like that in the past, I would think to myself, what a waste.
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  I should have done something, anything.
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  God, I totally wasted the day. I and I would eat myself up with
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  this guilt of wow, I am just useless.
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  I am not improving, I'm not moving forward.
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  I'm just surviving. But here's the thing, I've now
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  realized those days aren't failures.
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  They're a pause. They're a breath, a survival
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  moment, and that kind of day matters just as much as the
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  productive ones because surviving gives you the chance
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  to keep going. And if you keep going, you give
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  yourself the chance to heal. You're improving your odds by
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  having nothing days. You're improving your chances of
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  healing by simply surviving. I want to ask you something.
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  Have you ever congratulated yourself for just making it
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  through the day? Not for being perfect, not for
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  checking off every box, but just for being here, for waking up,
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  for carrying your pain just one more day?
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  If you haven't, let's do that right now.
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  Genuinely in your head or out loud say I'm proud of myself
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  because I've survived this far, I've carried this pain, I've
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  carried this weight and I will continue to do that because I'm
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  proud of you. I know how it is.
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  I know how how heavy the struggle can be.
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  I know how difficult it can be to carry that pain through that
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  day and to feel like you need to constantly be productive and you
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  don't. Surviving is enough.
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  Now I know it's hard not to compare yourself to others.
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  You may see your friends or strangers online talking about
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  how they've been hitting the gym and learning new skills and
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  building businesses and starting families and all these different
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  really, really impressive achievements.
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  But you're fighting battles that they can't see.
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  You're achieving things that they can't see.
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  You're carrying a weight that doesn't show up on social media.
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  So your version of success might look a little bit different, and
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  that's OK. Maybe success today means just
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  answering an e-mail, texting a friend back, drinking a glass of
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  water, just staying here. You're not behind, you're not
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  broke, and you're doing what you can, and that's enough.
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  A lot of people don't understand the complete debilitating nature
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  of depression. Yes, we hear that people are
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  depressed, we hear that they're anxious, we hear that they're
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  struggling with their mental health.
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  But unless you've been directly through it, it's difficult to
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  understand what that means. It's difficult to understand the
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  weight that struggling with your mental health really brings to
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  the table and how impossible it can make life feel.
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  We tell ourselves that just surviving and making it through
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  the day isn't enough, but when you're carrying that weight,
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  that is a big achievement. That is a difficult thing to do.
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  It is difficult to wake up every day and think I'm suffering, I
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  feel awful, I I feel alone, I feel misunderstood.
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  Nobody gets me. And to make it through the end
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  of the day carrying that same weight, to go to bed knowing
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  that you're going to wake up the next day feeling just as bad,
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  but being so determined to survive that you do it anyway.
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  That is a strength. That is a beautiful achievement.
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  Just surviving is an achievement.
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  Every one of those days matters. The quiet ones, the still ones,
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  the ones where you feel like you're failing.
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  They all count, and they're all something to be proud of.
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  I want to leave you with one final thought.
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  You don't have to prove your worth by what you accomplish.
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  You don't have to earn rest. You don't have to apologize for
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  being tired. You are allowed to have slow
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  days. You are allowed to just exist.
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  Because sometimes surviving is more than just enough.
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  It's everything and don't let anyone tell you otherwise.
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  People who don't struggle with their mental health.
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  People who don't struggle with mental illness, we'll never
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  understand, and that's OK. Let them not understand and
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  instead focus that energy on to doing what you need to do for
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  yourself. And if that means simply getting
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  through the day, if that means your achievement, being waking
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  up that morning and getting out of bed, then do that.
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  Don't worry about what the pressures of social media tell
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  you, what the pressures of other people tell you.
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  Just survive. Just stay, because every chance
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  you give yourself to recover, every time you choose to stay,
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  every time you get through one more day, you give yourself one
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  more chance to get better, one more chance to heal, one more
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  chance to stay. And that is a powerful thing.
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  I personally am the healthiest mentally that I've been in the
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  last six years. I fought a long and hard battle
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  against depression, and that fight goes on to this day.
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  But the reason that I am where I am now, the reason that I can
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  wake up in the morning and say, hey, I feel pretty good today is
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  because I allowed myself to just survive some days and I allowed
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  myself to just get through it. And that's enough.
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  That's going to wrap it up for today's episode.
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  Thank you so much for being here today.
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  If this episode helped you feel a little less alone in this very
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  complicated topic, I'm so glad. Maybe drop me a comment and let
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  me know what you thought about today's episode.
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  If you need help feeling your feelings, you should check out
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  my music on all platforms under the name of Ethan Jewell.
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  I almost guarantee it'll make you cry.
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  So thank you for showing up today.
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  Thank you for listening. Thank you for surviving, and
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  thank you for understanding that sometimes that's all that you
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  can do. And as always, thank you for
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  feeling your feelings. I'll see you next time.