July 18, 2025 • 8 mins
If you're just surviving your mental health struggles today, I want you to know: that's more than enough. Sometimes, all we can do is simply survive... yet that's still progress. Surviving gives us one more chance to work towards healing. Today, we'll talk about this. Let's feel some feelings!
Welcome back to Feel Your Feelings with Ethan Jewell! I'm not a psychologist, a doctor, or a mental health professional. Instead, I'm here to guide you through the world of mental health from a casual, relatable lens. I've been there, I've felt that, and I understand what you're feeling. Let's feel some feelings.
Poetry book and more on my website: www.ethanjewell.com
IG: @jewellboi_
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:00):
If just getting out of bed todayfelt like a full time job.
If you're listening to this while staring blankly at a wall,
unsure what you're even supposedto feel right now, if everything
just feels heavy, you're in the right place.
Because today I want to talk to you about something simple, but
something that we all seem to forget.
That sometimes simply surviving is enough.
(00:26):
That's it. Not thriving, not glowing, not
hustling, not totally crushing your goals, just surviving, just
existing. My name is Ethan Jewell and
welcome back to Feel Your Feelings.
It's overwhelming to live in a world that is constantly pushing
(00:48):
you to do more. A complete overwhelm of self
improvement content saying that you're not doing enough.
You know, you have to be more, you have to do more, you have to
achieve more. It's like there's a rule that if
you're not improving every single day, then you must be
falling behind. But that's just not how life
works, especially when you're struggling with your mental
(01:10):
health. And that's what we talked about
on this podcast. Now, I'm not a doctor.
I'm not a psychiatrist. I'm not a professional in the
mental health industry whatsoever.
I'm a normal guy who, just like you, has felt some big feelings
and wants to start the conversation.
You know, when you're anxious, when you're depressed, when
you're grieving or just burnt out, getting through the day can
(01:32):
feel impossible. And getting to the end of the
day often, and rightly so, feelslike a victory.
You know, waking up, brushing your teeth, eating a meal,
that's resilience, that's strength.
Yet we rarely see it that way. And often it goes even beyond
that. We're hit with a wave of guilt
for feeling like we're not doingenough.
(01:55):
I know personally, whenever I'm struggling with depression, and
I still do to this day, a lot ofpeople seem to think that I've
just suddenly healed. I haven't.
I just have learned to live withit a little bit better.
And whenever that depression hits me, there's some days where
I don't do much if I'm able to, you know, I, I spend my free
time just kind of existing, surviving.
(02:19):
You know, I don't write. I sometimes don't do the work
that I'm supposed to do. I don't go outside.
I barely talk to anybody. And whenever I would have a day
like that in the past, I would think to myself, what a waste.
I should have done something, anything.
God, I totally wasted the day. I and I would eat myself up with
(02:39):
this guilt of wow, I am just useless.
I am not improving, I'm not moving forward.
I'm just surviving. But here's the thing, I've now
realized those days aren't failures.
They're a pause. They're a breath, a survival
moment, and that kind of day matters just as much as the
(03:01):
productive ones because surviving gives you the chance
to keep going. And if you keep going, you give
yourself the chance to heal. You're improving your odds by
having nothing days. You're improving your chances of
healing by simply surviving. I want to ask you something.
(03:22):
Have you ever congratulated yourself for just making it
through the day? Not for being perfect, not for
checking off every box, but justfor being here, for waking up,
for carrying your pain just one more day?
If you haven't, let's do that right now.
Genuinely in your head or out loud say I'm proud of myself
(03:46):
because I've survived this far, I've carried this pain, I've
carried this weight and I will continue to do that because I'm
proud of you. I know how it is.
I know how how heavy the struggle can be.
I know how difficult it can be to carry that pain through that
day and to feel like you need toconstantly be productive and you
don't. Surviving is enough.
(04:07):
Now I know it's hard not to compare yourself to others.
You may see your friends or strangers online talking about
how they've been hitting the gymand learning new skills and
building businesses and startingfamilies and all these different
really, really impressive achievements.
But you're fighting battles thatthey can't see.
You're achieving things that they can't see.
(04:27):
You're carrying a weight that doesn't show up on social media.
So your version of success mightlook a little bit different, and
that's OK. Maybe success today means just
answering an e-mail, texting a friend back, drinking a glass of
water, just staying here. You're not behind, you're not
broke, and you're doing what youcan, and that's enough.
A lot of people don't understandthe complete debilitating nature
(04:49):
of depression. Yes, we hear that people are
depressed, we hear that they're anxious, we hear that they're
struggling with their mental health.
But unless you've been directly through it, it's difficult to
understand what that means. It's difficult to understand the
weight that struggling with yourmental health really brings to
the table and how impossible it can make life feel.
(05:10):
We tell ourselves that just surviving and making it through
the day isn't enough, but when you're carrying that weight,
that is a big achievement. That is a difficult thing to do.
It is difficult to wake up everyday and think I'm suffering, I
feel awful, I I feel alone, I feel misunderstood.
Nobody gets me. And to make it through the end
of the day carrying that same weight, to go to bed knowing
(05:33):
that you're going to wake up thenext day feeling just as bad,
but being so determined to survive that you do it anyway.
That is a strength. That is a beautiful achievement.
Just surviving is an achievement.
Every one of those days matters.The quiet ones, the still ones,
the ones where you feel like you're failing.
They all count, and they're all something to be proud of.
(05:59):
I want to leave you with one final thought.
You don't have to prove your worth by what you accomplish.
You don't have to earn rest. You don't have to apologize for
being tired. You are allowed to have slow
days. You are allowed to just exist.
Because sometimes surviving is more than just enough.
(06:21):
It's everything and don't let anyone tell you otherwise.
People who don't struggle with their mental health.
People who don't struggle with mental illness, we'll never
understand, and that's OK. Let them not understand and
instead focus that energy on to doing what you need to do for
(06:41):
yourself. And if that means simply getting
through the day, if that means your achievement, being waking
up that morning and getting out of bed, then do that.
Don't worry about what the pressures of social media tell
you, what the pressures of otherpeople tell you.
Just survive. Just stay, because every chance
(07:02):
you give yourself to recover, every time you choose to stay,
every time you get through one more day, you give yourself one
more chance to get better, one more chance to heal, one more
chance to stay. And that is a powerful thing.
I personally am the healthiest mentally that I've been in the
last six years. I fought a long and hard battle
(07:25):
against depression, and that fight goes on to this day.
But the reason that I am where Iam now, the reason that I can
wake up in the morning and say, hey, I feel pretty good today is
because I allowed myself to justsurvive some days and I allowed
myself to just get through it. And that's enough.
(07:48):
That's going to wrap it up for today's episode.
Thank you so much for being heretoday.
If this episode helped you feel a little less alone in this very
complicated topic, I'm so glad. Maybe drop me a comment and let
me know what you thought about today's episode.
If you need help feeling your feelings, you should check out
my music on all platforms under the name of Ethan Jewell.
I almost guarantee it'll make you cry.
(08:09):
So thank you for showing up today.
Thank you for listening. Thank you for surviving, and
thank you for understanding thatsometimes that's all that you
can do. And as always, thank you for
feeling your feelings. I'll see you next time.
If just getting out of bed todayfelt like a full time job.
If you're listening to this while staring blankly at a wall,
unsure what you're even supposedto feel right now, if everything
just feels heavy, you're in the right place.
Because today I want to talk to you about something simple, but
something that we all seem to forget.
That sometimes simply surviving is enough.
(00:26):
That's it. Not thriving, not glowing, not
hustling, not totally crushing your goals, just surviving, just
existing. My name is Ethan Jewell and
welcome back to Feel Your Feelings.
It's overwhelming to live in a world that is constantly pushing
(00:48):
you to do more. A complete overwhelm of self
improvement content saying that you're not doing enough.
You know, you have to be more, you have to do more, you have to
achieve more. It's like there's a rule that if
you're not improving every single day, then you must be
falling behind. But that's just not how life
works, especially when you're struggling with your mental
(01:10):
health. And that's what we talked about
on this podcast. Now, I'm not a doctor.
I'm not a psychiatrist. I'm not a professional in the
mental health industry whatsoever.
I'm a normal guy who, just like you, has felt some big feelings
and wants to start the conversation.
You know, when you're anxious, when you're depressed, when
you're grieving or just burnt out, getting through the day can
(01:32):
feel impossible. And getting to the end of the
day often, and rightly so, feelslike a victory.
You know, waking up, brushing your teeth, eating a meal,
that's resilience, that's strength.
Yet we rarely see it that way. And often it goes even beyond
that. We're hit with a wave of guilt
for feeling like we're not doingenough.
(01:55):
I know personally, whenever I'm struggling with depression, and
I still do to this day, a lot ofpeople seem to think that I've
just suddenly healed. I haven't.
I just have learned to live withit a little bit better.
And whenever that depression hits me, there's some days where
I don't do much if I'm able to, you know, I, I spend my free
time just kind of existing, surviving.
(02:19):
You know, I don't write. I sometimes don't do the work
that I'm supposed to do. I don't go outside.
I barely talk to anybody. And whenever I would have a day
like that in the past, I would think to myself, what a waste.
I should have done something, anything.
God, I totally wasted the day. I and I would eat myself up with
(02:39):
this guilt of wow, I am just useless.
I am not improving, I'm not moving forward.
I'm just surviving. But here's the thing, I've now
realized those days aren't failures.
They're a pause. They're a breath, a survival
moment, and that kind of day matters just as much as the
(03:01):
productive ones because surviving gives you the chance
to keep going. And if you keep going, you give
yourself the chance to heal. You're improving your odds by
having nothing days. You're improving your chances of
healing by simply surviving. I want to ask you something.
(03:22):
Have you ever congratulated yourself for just making it
through the day? Not for being perfect, not for
checking off every box, but justfor being here, for waking up,
for carrying your pain just one more day?
If you haven't, let's do that right now.
Genuinely in your head or out loud say I'm proud of myself
(03:46):
because I've survived this far, I've carried this pain, I've
carried this weight and I will continue to do that because I'm
proud of you. I know how it is.
I know how how heavy the struggle can be.
I know how difficult it can be to carry that pain through that
day and to feel like you need toconstantly be productive and you
don't. Surviving is enough.
(04:07):
Now I know it's hard not to compare yourself to others.
You may see your friends or strangers online talking about
how they've been hitting the gymand learning new skills and
building businesses and startingfamilies and all these different
really, really impressive achievements.
But you're fighting battles thatthey can't see.
You're achieving things that they can't see.
(04:27):
You're carrying a weight that doesn't show up on social media.
So your version of success mightlook a little bit different, and
that's OK. Maybe success today means just
answering an e-mail, texting a friend back, drinking a glass of
water, just staying here. You're not behind, you're not
broke, and you're doing what youcan, and that's enough.
A lot of people don't understandthe complete debilitating nature
(04:49):
of depression. Yes, we hear that people are
depressed, we hear that they're anxious, we hear that they're
struggling with their mental health.
But unless you've been directly through it, it's difficult to
understand what that means. It's difficult to understand the
weight that struggling with yourmental health really brings to
the table and how impossible it can make life feel.
(05:10):
We tell ourselves that just surviving and making it through
the day isn't enough, but when you're carrying that weight,
that is a big achievement. That is a difficult thing to do.
It is difficult to wake up everyday and think I'm suffering, I
feel awful, I I feel alone, I feel misunderstood.
Nobody gets me. And to make it through the end
of the day carrying that same weight, to go to bed knowing
(05:33):
that you're going to wake up thenext day feeling just as bad,
but being so determined to survive that you do it anyway.
That is a strength. That is a beautiful achievement.
Just surviving is an achievement.
Every one of those days matters.The quiet ones, the still ones,
the ones where you feel like you're failing.
They all count, and they're all something to be proud of.
(05:59):
I want to leave you with one final thought.
You don't have to prove your worth by what you accomplish.
You don't have to earn rest. You don't have to apologize for
being tired. You are allowed to have slow
days. You are allowed to just exist.
Because sometimes surviving is more than just enough.
(06:21):
It's everything and don't let anyone tell you otherwise.
People who don't struggle with their mental health.
People who don't struggle with mental illness, we'll never
understand, and that's OK. Let them not understand and
instead focus that energy on to doing what you need to do for
(06:41):
yourself. And if that means simply getting
through the day, if that means your achievement, being waking
up that morning and getting out of bed, then do that.
Don't worry about what the pressures of social media tell
you, what the pressures of otherpeople tell you.
Just survive. Just stay, because every chance
(07:02):
you give yourself to recover, every time you choose to stay,
every time you get through one more day, you give yourself one
more chance to get better, one more chance to heal, one more
chance to stay. And that is a powerful thing.
I personally am the healthiest mentally that I've been in the
last six years. I fought a long and hard battle
(07:25):
against depression, and that fight goes on to this day.
But the reason that I am where Iam now, the reason that I can
wake up in the morning and say, hey, I feel pretty good today is
because I allowed myself to justsurvive some days and I allowed
myself to just get through it. And that's enough.
(07:48):
That's going to wrap it up for today's episode.
Thank you so much for being heretoday.
If this episode helped you feel a little less alone in this very
complicated topic, I'm so glad. Maybe drop me a comment and let
me know what you thought about today's episode.
If you need help feeling your feelings, you should check out
my music on all platforms under the name of Ethan Jewell.
I almost guarantee it'll make you cry.
(08:09):
So thank you for showing up today.
Thank you for listening. Thank you for surviving, and
thank you for understanding thatsometimes that's all that you
can do. And as always, thank you for
feeling your feelings. I'll see you next time.
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