For mental health: Embracing radical acceptance and more

So many tools can help us in crisis. Join me in a journey through the challenges and lessons of the past year ...

Before I launch into today’s important topic, I have to pay homage to what might be the most amazing quote all time — and certainly, the most amazing hyphen of all time — from disgraced U.S. Congressman-elect George Santos.

“I never claimed to be Jewish,” Santos told the New York Post. “I am Catholic. Because I learned my maternal family had a Jewish background, I said I was `Jew-ish.' ”

Kneel before the glory of these words, before this one-of-a-kind, magical rationalization.

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OK. Now, to today’s main event. And to lead things off, for real, an amazing quote.

“But what we call our despair is often only the painful eagerness of unfed hope.”

— George Eliot, Middlemarch

I do a whole lot of therapy and a whole lot of journaling. Pairing them together reminds me of the challenges I’ve faced and the tools I’ve worked on to meet those challenges.

This week, as I review my journal from the past year, I want to bring you along that painful but fruitful journey with me.

Some of this is about my process, digging into my pain and asking questions that might not have immediate answers. And some of this will offer revelations that might be obvious to you but were hardly ever obvious to me. Either way, the lessons are extremely valuable.

Moreover, because I am tied to this brain, I’m capable of forgetting my revelations almost as soon as I learn them. For example, you’re going to see the idea of “radical acceptance” come back again and again. I can’t be reminded of it too much.

So here is part one, in all its semi-coherent glory …