Happy Holidays?

[Trigger warning]

 

As colleagues bid each other happy holidays, it’s not ‘happy’ for everyone.

 

Whilst various sources are inconsistent with whether or not there is an increase suicide rates during the holidays, one thing I know for sure is that those who use work as their crutch, will inevitably feel the sting of loneliness – if not despair.

 

Rewind back more than a decade ago. I was a fresh graduate, with altruistic dreams. I was working for a relative, to be groomed as the successor to that empire; working twice if not three times as hard, because I wanted – NEEDED to prove my worth.

 

To cut to the chase, it didn’t work out.

 

My health failed and I found myself on edge.

 

 

After a few failed suicide attempts, I wouldn’t feel anything. It was simply numbness. I prayed that I would feel something – anything.

 

Until a strong gust of wind knocked me back from the window, then FINALLY, I felt a little something.

 

The little something was Hope.

 

There was a way out, even if I didn’t know what, how or when.

 

When people attempt suicide, it’s because they want so desperately for the life that they know to end. I needed this monotony to stop.

 

Just because somebody might…

• ‘Have it all’

• Come from a ‘good family’, or

• Just be the type of person you never need to ‘worry about’ because they’re always smiling…

 

They may only be a shell of a person left.

 

Never assume.

 

 

This is a time where I feel such sorrow for my younger self, but I know I am not alone.

 

Through God, who is outside of time and space, I give my younger self strength and love. I forcibly make her attempts to end her life hard AND I make her work life so difficult so she learns it’s NOT for her.

 

I don’t call myself The LIFE Happiness Consultant because I see the world in rose tinted lenses nor had a breezy life without abuse.

 

I share my Christmas Story with you, only to give you a glimmer of hope that, after ‘lows’ (and many more since that day) I have come to find love, joy and peace for myself and clients.

 

When I’m at a low point, there’s only one direction, and it’s up. Up towards the divine.

 

Look up, there is Hope for a better life.

 

Don’t jump off that bridge

Don’t cut yourself

Don’t walk in front of traffic

Do get help

Call the authorities

 

Australia

Lifeline Australia: 13 11 14

 

America

Suicide Prevention Lifeline: 1800 273 8255

 

United Kingdom

Samaritans: 116 123

 

Hong Kong

The Samaritans: 2896 0000