Tattoo #4

“Count to ten and breathe.” Seems so simple right? I’ve struggled with anxiety and depression for quite a few years now. My mom used to always say this to me “count to ten and breathe.” At the time this seemed so useless to me, it wouldn’t make this feeling go away, it wasn’t that easy. And at the peak of this it truly wasn’t.

The word ‘breathe’ seems so simple, obviously you have to breathe to live and you can’t just stop yourself from breathing. But when I had severe panic attacks it didn’t feel that way, it was hard to catch my breath and at times I would feel like I was going to faint because of this. As I’ve grown up I’ve started to learn how cope with my attacks better and have found ways to calm myself. Although it seemed so silly to me at the time every time I’m having a panic attack I always in my head say to myself “count to ten and breathe” if you’re going through anxiety and depression like I was then you’ll know how useless this sounds because its not as easy as counting to ten and breathing to make it go away and most of the time it doesn’t.

This quote I found kind of explains how I feel about it.

Breathe. You’re going to be okay. Breathe and remember you’ve been in this place before. You’ve been this uncomfortable and anxious and scared, and you’ve survived.  Breathe and know that you can survive this too. These feelings can’t break you. They’re painful and debilitating, but you can sit with them and eventually, they will pass. Maybe not immediately, but sometime soon, they are going to fade and when they do, you’ll look back at this moment and laugh for having doubted your resilience. I know it feels unbearable right now, but keep breathing, again and again. This will pass. I promise it will pass. -Daniell Koepke

This is my fourth tattoo but the first one that isn’t matching with a family member. For my first own tattoo I wanted to get the word breathe to remind myself to breathe and calm down and everything will be okay.

xx,

Liv