I have sat with that question across every season of my life.
When my father passed, my mother became the final decision maker. Everything shifted. When the business owner passed, and his son assumed his role, everything shifted again. And I have watched the same pattern play out in relationships, in health, in households, in communities, basically, wherever life hands someone a new set of circumstances they did not ask for.
Here is the constant: when leadership changes, procedures change. When life changes, everything around it follows.
What is never guaranteed is how it will affect you mentally.
That part…… that is yours to decide.
But before you can decide anything, you have to do the hard work first. You have to face it.
Not perform strength. Not pretend the shift did not happen. Not rush past the discomfort to appear unbothered. Actually, face it, and acknowledge what has changed, sit with what it means, and then, only then, choose your next move.
Because here is what I know:
→ You can decide to RESIST.
→ You can decide to LEAVE.
→ You can decide to ADAPT.
All three are human responses. None of them are shameful. But none of them are available to you until you have first been honest with yourself about where you actually are.
This is Mental Health Awareness Month, and the conversation I want us to have is not just about crisis. It is about the everyday weight of navigating change without permission, without warning, and sometimes without support.
Your mental wellness is not a workplace benefit. It is not a seasonal campaign. It is the foundation beneath every decision you make, every relationship you show up for, and every version of yourself you are still becoming.
Protect it. Tend to it. And when life shifts around you, remember:
The glass is neither half empty nor half full.
It is refillable, but only when you choose to pick it up…..
– Dr. Cassandra G. Hill
“Not everything that is faced can be changed, but nothing can be changed until it is faced.” – James Baldwin