Welcome to my Blog! You may have found your way here due to my experiences with mental health. Or you may well be feeling the way I have felt all my life; that there is more to life than being a modern-day slave to consumerism and globalisation.
After losing my job at Christmas (2014), I became painfully aware of the crossroads before me: one path was clear and well-travelled but made me miserable; finding another office job that would never fulfil me felt like a prison to my soul. The other trails were less traveled, but still didn’t allow me the FREEDOM that I so desperately longed for.
And so I decided to risk it all and follow my dream by going down what I call The Unmarked Road; a road that no one has gone down before, which I can mould and create as I go.
I HAVE ALWAYS FELT LIKE MY LIFE WAS JUST ABOUT EXISTING. NOT LIVING.
Like a passenger just taking in the scenery and experiencing the things that were happening to me without any real control or influence. An over-thinker and emotional empath, this has often caused bouts of depression. Suffering from anxiety has meant that I have throughout my life felt very isolated in every way that I felt. Feelings that wouldn’t let me sleep at night or let me live peacefully without intrusive thoughts that this wasn’t MY life – that MY life was meant to be something else – plagued me so much that I thought I wasn’t normal and so for a long time I silenced those voices. I tried to ignore what I now believe to be my soul purpose.
Throughout my 10-year journey of overcoming self-destructive behaviour, what I have come to realise is that to live the way I want, the only person to make my dream a reality is me. No one is going to give me the perfect life.
WE ARE 100% RESPONSIBLE FOR MAKING THE CHANGES IN OUR LIVES TO ACHIEVE WHATEVER IT IS WE WANT.
So what do I want?
- I want to help people who struggle the way I struggled for so many years with various mental health problems. You are not alone.
- I want to connect with people who understand that our reality is not controlled by anyone but ourselves and that to take the power back we have to forget everything we see on tv and read in magazines. These are tools used to make us buy into a system that will never reward anyone but those in control of it.
- I want to write about these issues; honestly, openly, and without limits.
I want to take the really overgrown scary road which looks like it’s clearly not meant to be gone down for a reason! and to document it, hopefully showing people that, while the path may look dark and frightening, the journey is worth overcoming that fear. Because what’s on the other side is everything you could have ever dreamed of and more.
So that’s what started it all. This blog will not only serve as a diary to see if and how I find a way to break down the boundaries of our society that try to categorise us and put us into boxes, but will also hopefully give others the courage to go out and do the same.
I hope that through it, it may bring some people comfort in knowing that they are not alone and that there is a way out of the confines of our own minds. That there is another way. That change is possible if you’re willing to put in the commitment and take responsibility for the actions required to bring about change.
YOUR PAST DOES NOT HAVE TO DEFINE YOUR FUTURE.
And so my journey down the Unmarked Road begins! Every day is a chance to be in the driving seat. This is my story. This is our story. Let’s make it one worth telling.
Dani xx
The Unmarked Road 