Whispers

Do you ever think about what makes yourself whole?

Not material things, but something less in control:

your personality, your body, your brain, and your soul,

all beautiful and bright, with a brilliant glow –

but where does the other side of the soul go?

The yin to your yang, the dark to your light;

when your day’s going well, it brings in the night.

That voice in your subconscious, you know what I mean.

It’s been in your head lately, but not just in dreams.

Throughout the day it distracts you and catches you off guard;

like its flipped a switch and now you feel odd.

It does what it wants; it’s playful and weird.

It makes your head fuzzy; it makes things unclear.

Sometimes it’s frustrating and difficult to manage

when you feel yourself slipping to someone else’s advantage –

But what if you sat and talked with it a bit;

pick its brain, what makes it tick?

What triggers this voice, causing you to implode;

To feel like you’re suffocating, beginning to erode?

As if you have no control of how you behave,

Distorting this as being your brain’s slave.

You have no control, you have no say

in the things that make you feel this way.

However, if you take a step back and give it a listen,

your shadow self is talking to you, don’t make yourself distant.

It’s simpler than you think, to accept yourself as you are.

Pay attention to the whispers, the things that seem small;

the tone of someone’s voice that makes you feel nauseous,

something someone says that makes you feel cautious,

when you’re out and about and panic sets in,

for no reason at all, you feel dread from within.

These tiny hints from your deep subconscious

are trying to tell you something that isn’t just nonsense.

These reactions from you are not without reason.

They’re your brain trying to get you to simply listen.

When you take the time to observe the cause

of these triggers without seeing them as flaws,

you open new ways of handling yourself,

how to cope and befriend your mental health.

You must embrace the parts of you that struggle,

the parts that sometimes cause you to crumble.

Speak kindly to yourself and try to remember

your soul is listening, always and forever.

So before feeling guilty for reacting a certain way,

tell yourself you’re safe and everything’s okay.

It’s who you are, there’s no need to change

something that’s part of you in such a beautiful way.

What’s wrong with loving your shadow self;

things that define you, like mental health?

When you sit down and think it through,

mental illnesses are things that create you.

Your deep emotions, thought processes, and episodes

reveal your shadow self – it is exposed.

Channeling through your soul,

you can’t just let it go.

It is part of you – it is you, you see,

your shadow self is part of your true being.

So we must accept the anxiety, panic attacks, the mood swings,

the manic episodes, the depression, voices, and things.

Talk yourself through it, your shadow self listens,

Although it may feel like a difficult decision.

Talk to yourself, let yourself be

the one that you are naturally.

Love to you always,

MKB