Awareness Toward Wellness

She sat across from me, her hands tightly clasped, the air around her full of silence.

“I don’t know what’s wrong,” she whispered. “I just know I don’t feel okay anymore.”

She wasn’t alone. In fact, she could’ve been anyone—your neighbor, your coworker, your sister, or even… you.

We live in a world that teaches us to function rather than feel. To perform wellness instead of practicing it. But what if I told you that the first and most important step toward real healing isn’t about fixing anything?

It’s about noticing.

The Day Everything Changed

For this woman, wellness began not with medication, not with a big breakthrough in therapy—but with a moment of awareness.

One day, instead of pushing through her afternoon slump with more coffee and self-criticism, she paused. She closed the laptop, looked out the window, and whispered to herself:

“I’m not okay. And maybe… that’s okay to admit.”

That small sentence cracked open something inside her: space. Space to feel. Space to ask for help. Space to begin.

Awareness Is the Doorway

In my fifteen years working with people facing addiction, trauma, depression, and burnout, I’ve learned something that no textbook fully captures:

Awareness is the moment healing begins.
Not action. Not solutions.
Awareness.

When you pause long enough to notice the knot in your stomach or the tear you swallow back every morning, you’re not being weak—you’re being wise. You’re allowing your body and soul to speak.

You’re saying: I’m listening now.

From Numbness to Knowing

We often think emotional wellness means being happy, calm, or unbothered. But the truth? Emotional wellness begins when we stop running from ourselves.

It begins when we:

• Pause before the glass of wine

• Ask why we’re scrolling at midnight

• Notice the tightness in our chest when someone raises their voice

• Recognize that our “motivation” might just be masked anxiety

These are not failures. They are signals.
And when you learn to read them—not judge them—you begin to heal.

A Daily Practice, Not a Destination

You won’t always get it right. I don’t. My clients don’t.
But the goal isn’t perfection. It’s presence.

One moment of honest awareness a day is worth more than a hundred days of numbed-out coping.

You might start with:

• A quiet breath before the kids wake up

• A journal entry that begins with “Today I felt…”

• A prayer whispered in your car at the red light

And slowly, something shifts.

You stop fearing your feelings.
You start partnering with them.

And from that place, wellness doesn’t feel like a performance.
It feels like a return.
A coming home to yourself.

Final Words

If you’re reading this and feel like you’re just holding on…
If you’re tired of smiling when your insides are screaming…
Start small. Start now.

You don’t need a 10-step plan.
You need one breath of honesty.

Say it with me: “Something inside me is asking for care.”

That is awareness.
That is courage.
That is the beginning of wellness.

By Ed Aimé, LMSW, Clinician & Mental Health Advocate