Art as healing… reinterpreting success

Success to everybody is different. Success, to me, is being able to get out of bed in the mornings, to remember to eat, to look after my self-care, to take my tablets every day and to raise my children the best I can.

It is to never give up hope. It is to ‘look back but not to stare’ and take some lessons with me.

Success to me is helping others find their own success. It’s taking one step at a time, it is acceptance in others and ourselves, it is having peace of mind.

I think success is finding the time to get to know yourself. It is bringing a smile to someone without looking for one back.

It can be having belief in yourself and having confidence in your abilities. It is not focusing on your mistakes but telling yourself that you are worth it.

Success is knowing that success is only a word that is not to be compared to others but in being successful for yourself.

For me, success is being well and when I’m unwell to believe that I am still successful if I just do one thing that day or don’t do anything. Just recover…

In my first collection, Seeds of Life and New Beginnings, I explore the potential of writing in general and poetry in particular as support through my mental health journey, including my experience of bipolar disorder, anxiety and depression. Here is one of my poems:

My philosophy, my love of wisdom…

I’ve always been a deep thinker sometimes staring at the sun,

for answers of the unknown I used to question why,

now I see that everything is in the eye of the beholder,

for everyone’s perception is different of what the top of the pyramid actually is.

Self-actualisation is something we supposedly never stop at,

we never really are content when we reach the top,

We strive to add another rung on to the ladder of success.

This ladder that we climb so high, and put each other and ourselves under stress,

to try to rush up its bars without enjoying the scenic view,

and let our worry overtake,

instead, have faith in the structure and maker,

cause worry can weigh it down and change the structure of the ladder,

but even if the ladder is upright and structure perfect,

it doesn’t even matter if it’s leaning at the wrong wall,

because we’ll get there sooner or later,

and in the end… it was never really about the ladder, or the wall, or the rungs or surround-

just the people who joined you on the ladder and who helped you when you thought you would fall.

• From Louise Ryan’s In conversation with event at The Mullingar Literary Festival at the weekend. Louise is a member of Inklings Writing Group, who meet on Tuesdays 11am and Wednesdays 7.30pm in the Annebrook House Hotel. All persons with an inkling to write are welcome.