Hi Winged
I'm so glad you've got such a supportive family. Being a mum to a 17yo guy and 20yo gal, we're a pretty tight knit team who talk openly about life's challenges, mental health ones included. I think one of the keys to such a group comes down to all members having an open mind. Instead of words such as 'You need to stop overthinking things' it helps far more to hears such words like 'Do you know why you feel the way you do?'. The kind of conversations that invite wonder, exploration and answers or revelations are the kind of conversations that promote growth, compassion, lessons and mutual support.
I've come to see navigating life as like navigating unexplored lands and the verges I face are the cliff's edges I find myself standing at (as I look out surveying all that lays in front of me, as far as the eye can see). I technically face new lands while I teeter on the brink of the old. It's like, if you were to turn around, you might be facing the jungle you just navigated your way through, a jungle of demands, pressures, stressors, of all that you survived and cut your way through, all the old belief systems that led to this point and so on. Now the choice is...go back into that jungle that almost destroyed you or take a leap toward change. As you teeter on the brink, you know there's no going back to that. You barely survived it. There's no choice but to take that leap forward.
From a birds eye view, you can see all the verges you've come to over the years, all the brinks where teetering was involved, while also witnessing how you've managed to come as far as you have. The terrain was not always easy or flat and inviting. There were many cliffs and the nature of the terrain (life) means there will be more cliffs to come, involving more leaps of faith.
I think based on there being no choice but to face verges or much needed changes in life, I believe the key to facing them comes down to a number of factors such as who stands beside us, who shows us how to leap, who provides us with a vision of the new place we will be landing in and all that sort of stuff. There are times where I'm on the verge, exhausted, scared and completely lost, where I imagine someone grabbing my hand and saying to me with a reassuring smile, 'Okay. You ready? Let's do this! Lets' go' and then I soar before landing exactly where I need to be.
