Life is what you make it

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"Never belittle love, no matter where it comes from."

"Life is what you make it" is a book by Preeti shenoy. I'd like to quote her when I talk about the book,
"The book is not just about bipolar disorder. It is a story of courage, determination & growing up. It is also about how life can take a totally different path from what is planned, and yet how one can make a success out of it. It is a story of faith, belief and perseverance too and charting your own destiny." 

How often we have heard people say that life is what you make it?
Especially when it comes to talking about mind related issues, we hear so often that, it is all in the mind and that we can change our thoughts and control ourselves. How easily we blame ourselves for feeling or not feeling a certain way and consider our mind to be weak when shook by an event! It is easier to tell someone that life is what you make it  and expecting them to get a grip than to truly understand what they are going through. What we fail to understand often is that some people are better at handling some things and some are not. What affects her might not affect you and what bothers you might be trivial in her eyes.
We are all different and the intensity of the same things that we experience are different.

I am not going to write about the bottomless abyss of  mental illness. I am not going to share the story of the person in the book. I am going to share what I took from it.

I shouldn't feel guilty for something that was out of my control. I shouldn't agonize over not being to 'snap out of it' and blame myself, telling myself that it was all 'in my head' and if I wanted to I could just change my thoughts and be fine again. Because it doesn't work that way. Just as people sometimes have no control over physical ailments, they have no control over mental illness.

The battle with mental illness doesn't end in one go. It might reappear but this time you are better enabled to deal with it. Just like Maris Degener  said, "when it shadowed its darkness upon me again and tried to swallow me in its darkness, stealing the sunlight, I rose with a sun of my own. The light within me shined so bright that it fought the darkness and prevented me from falling."

I don't think anyone will be able to fully comprehend what exactly the person with it goes through unless they themselves have gone through it.

I will quote the message that has beautifully been described by Preeti Shenoy,
"There is only a fine line between sanity and insanity. Who is to decide that someone is insane and others are 'normal'? If somebody does not conform to set norms of behavior, the society terms them as eccentric, odd, mad and crazy. Is it really fair? There is a stigma attached to anything to do with mental health. There is so much fear and so many apprehensions.
After going through this, I can see beauty in life. Each day, I feel, is a gift to be truly cherished. If you do not laugh for a day, if you have not made someone's day happier, if you have not appreciated something good that has happened to you and if you have not felt thankful to be alive, then you have wasted that day of your life on earth.
I have realized that love and faith can indeed work miracles. I have realized that love and friendship do have a power."
"On the way, I stopped to admire a bunch of yellow chrysanthemums that has just bloomed. I sucked in the air deeply, I rejoiced in the sensation. And when it began to rain, I smiled in delight, admiring each drop as it fell to the earth."

This is exactly what I have learnt to do. I smile at the sky, moon, talk to the wind, laugh at nothing in particular, smile at nothing and everything. I am happy for no reason at all.
And this is because of what I went through. I have a newfound perspective and love. I am in love with everything! Life just seems so beautiful and I am grateful for everything I have been through, for my heart break, for set backs, for failures, for love and loss.
Let's be happy because why not?
If you believe that you are as much sad as you are happy and the intensity of each is same, so it is better to be neutral. I say my friend, you have experienced the high of happiness that makes the lows of sadness worth it. Life isn't to stay neutral. Life is to sway, step and experience with open hands, with every emotion it has to offer. Be life-sensitive! It is worth it :)


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