Some people will make you believe that there’s only two sides of things, a dark and a light. Nothing in-between, no moderation allowed. Us against “them,” whoever they are, or whoever one side wants you to believe is the “villain.”

They’ll make you believe that being “gray” is foolish and indecisive. They don’t care if it’s a place to make sense of the madness that both sides are putting on each other and themselves.

The gray ones are often outnumbered, but are rarely unmoved in their stance. It’s because they can see the rights and wrongs of both sides more clearly, and hope that they can see the same thing.

But those extreme sides are hard to change. They’ve been their ways for so long, doing anything different will shake them. One side must always rule. They feel that if you disagree, you’re no better than their enemy.

I’ve seen similar cases with the emotionally healed and unhealed.

The healed ones can either be relaxed about their knowledge and journey, or the others that will boast about their inner work. The latter can risk sounding no better than the unhealed ones that are confronted with any of their wrongs, down to using remixed gaslighting and deflection techniques.

The calm ones that are doing the spiritual work, they may not bother having both parties see their errors. They can see who’s authentic about their journey and trials, and instead choose to vibe with them.

They have the right to choose peace, because they’ve survived enough wars within themselves to not care about external reminders and influences.

The calmer healers will still have their moments of backsliding, though. It’s human to forget sometimes who we are, and who we want to be that’s far removed from the unhealed days. They’re far from bad for it, but even they need a reminder of why they started the healing.

Take the time to recognize what side you’re on in the mental health realm. It’s not too late to change your mind to be a safe space for others, just like it’s not an infarction to wave your flag of progress in other’s faces accidentally.

Stay vigilant, and others will come along with you.

D.F.