I recently had a conversation in passing while at Pilates where one of the ladies made the comment “What problems, you don’t have any problems”. It wasn’t said maliciously at all. In fact it was said in admiration. But it got me thinking how we really don’t know what a person has to deal with on the daily and that we all have our own mountains that we are climbing day by day.

I went to see Strictly Ballroom The Musical with Amani in Guildford. My Apple Watch is set to give me a notification when my heart rate goes above 100BPM while I seem inactive for 10 minutes. As you can see in the photo I had 10 notifications between 18:00 and 22:00. This is an indication of how much anxiety I was experiencing being out at a theatre in crowds. But I did it because if I stop going to events like this I would stop living life, become isolated and sink into a deep and dark depression. Having been in a really dark place once before I am adamant that I will not get to that point again and so I push through

Your own mountain may appear as a mole hill if you compare it to others but that only leads to one thing and that is heightened anxiety and stress when you start to believe you aren’t doing so well compared to others. We are all in different stages of life’s journey, and I believe that we are all on this earth for a purpose so focus on the stage you are in and do the best with what you have in your hand. Your problem may be looking after poorly children and husband stressing you out or it could be dealing with a terminal diagnosis – whatever it is you can overcome your mountain.

And remember, you have already survived 100% of your bad days.