Of all the blog posts I have done, the one titled “It’s Okay Not To Be Okay”, has by far been the most popular and received the most feedback. I thought about that post a lot. The words, despite their simplicity, have a powerful and substantial effect. In the same way that having the attitude “it is what it is” is useful when accepting that certain things are out of our control.
But why? Why are these basic and throw away words constructed into a basic and almost lazy sentence useful? Why is it “okay not to be okay? Well on face value it isn’t. Who in their right mind would be content being not okay? Not okay is what we are constantly striving to get away from. It is what we structure our life around. We don’t want to be not okay when it comes to money and relationships. We want to be okay. To be honest I’m pretty sure we want even better than okay.
So why the hell is that post and those words so popular and comforting? The truth is just as simple yet just as comforting. It’s okay not to be okay because it’s going to be okay. It is. How do any of us know that. Blind faith. Belief in a bigger picture.
As someone who is not very religious, it is an area I have somewhat envied. For all the negativity that can surround religion, the idea of faith that this is all part of some bigger plan is comforting and although you, like myself, may not be religious the fact that you are wrestling with these negative thoughts that are causing you “not to be okay” is because at some level you have faith that you will find an answer. That is why “it’s going to be okay”.
This post is not to provide answers, because I don’t have them either. It isn’t that I’m in the same position because we aren’t. The circumstances will differ, the adversity will differ, and our perception of the circumstances and the adversity will differ. But if you’re not okay and have a brain that just won’t switch off, I like to have faith that the reason it won’t switch off is because it is finding a solution.
So embrace the fact that it is “okay not to be okay” because “it’s going to be okay”. We may not know how but it will be.
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