Happiness Is Not The Marker Of Wellness
Raise your hand if any of this sounds familiar:
You’re tired. Overworked. Stressed about money and worried you’ll never be able to retire.
You stay up late fretting about your aging parents. You want to have kids but don’t think you can afford them. You desperately need a vacation, or at the very least a personal day, but can’t manage to make your car payment on time.
No matter what you do, you can’t put your device down (even at 2am), trapped in a social media rabbit hole of endless comparisons, wondering if you’re anywhere close to living up to the curated and photoshopped feeds you find there.
As the world returns to some idea of pre-pandemic life, you struggle with lingering feelings of isolation and depression. You can’t deal with going out because you don’t want to lie through your teeth and tell everyone you’re fine.
Dear friend, we have some good news and some bad news: you are not alone.
Today’s 24/7 lifestyle leaves very little room for the most important person in the room – you! So it’s really no wonder that we’re seeing depression and anxiety at all time highs, and addiction to social media and the demands of a completely unsustainable work/life imbalance taking their merciless toll.
And what would be better, you ask? How do I get “better,” you wonder? Why is happiness eluding me? Great questions.
Well, we want to let you in on a little secret – happiness is not the goal. It gets sold to us all the time as the marker of wellness, but the honest truth is that happiness is kind of like a ray of light – you can only know it if you’ve first known the darkness. And to know the darkness, we have to be willing to sit with the discomfort that comes from owning our fears, grief, and yes, even hopes and dreams.
We started Stori to give people a place where they could learn to get comfortable being uncomfortable on their own terms, with professional, affordable support. Because seeking help is more than just okay. It’s brave and it’s wise and we are in awe of those who do.
If you’ve yet to try talk therapy, don’t let stigma stop you. Leave the misguided cultural shame at the door. It’s not yours to carry. And while we can’t guarantee therapy will “fix” everything or make you “happy,” we do know it’s a doorway to finding more acceptance and peace.
Some people call it homeostasis, others refer to it as being zen. We look at being in balance as the state we can achieve when we’re actively being with all parts of ourselves – from our shining star qualities to our messy wounds, and exasperating limitations.
When you’re ready to reconsider the plot or even write a new chapter in your life, we’re here for you.