Too Polarized, the name of this blog, was inspired by a personal experience with Bipolar. Bipolar disorder generally gives off a negative connotation (OMG, she’s so bipolar!) which perpetuates the stigma around it and other mental health disorders.

Well, I’m honored to have it. This definitely wasn’t my mentality about Bipolar when I was first diagnosed but I’ve come to a level of great acceptance. Those who have bipolar disorder are generally more creative, artistic, and have good leadership skills and/or leadership roles. I am, by nature, creative and artistic, thinking “outside the box” almost every second of the day.

So why am I honored to have this disorder? After all, a disorder means that you’ve crossed the line of normal to abnormal, sanity to insanity, right? Wrong. Having a disorder is just another way of letting you know you’ve got an added challenge in your life that can strengthen you if you choose to do so. No one is normal. No one is completely and utterly insane. We all have some elements of a natural bipolarity; I am blessed to have had this  challenge because I overcame it and I was taught at an early age what suffering truly meant which brought me to accumulate more empathy and understanding to other’s painful experiences or challenges that they have faced.

So what is this blog going to be about?  Well, just about anything! Whatever my outside the thinking box gets inspired to write, that’s that. However, this blog will also be an expressive and personal adventure for myself and those who read by the sharing of my polarized self and experiences. Bipolar isn’t all of me, it’s a part of me that I fully accept.

Reading this blog is like entering the inner workings of my mind, which will without a doubt be nothing but interesting.

~Peace & Love, Dana 

There is this unspoken rule that those higher than you in authority or position should be respected automatically. I want to challenge this and challenge I must.

Let’s take two different job positions: janitor of a high school & a principal of a high school.

Most students fear their principal due to punishment and teachers and faculty respect the principal. However, if the principal is unethical, rude, and pompous in attitude… should they have that automatic respect because of their entitlement? Answer is to most people: well, yeah they’re still the principal. My answer: Absolutely not.

As for the janitor, their job description doesn’t tell them that they have to have e certain personality (kindness, respect, etc.) to work in that job. However, this is true for a principal in some senses as well. But if the janitor is kind and respectful to students, he/she has earned respect from others even though he/she doesn’t necessarily have to carry out being kind and respectful to others (going out of their way to make others feel good, happy, etc.). As a principal, if you cannot respect your students, teachers, faculty/staff members you don’t automatically get respect, you must EARN it.

Basically, you can be the most famous person on this planet or the most powerful person on this planet but you will NOT have my respect until you earn it. It’s not a given. We need to stand up to rudeness, inequality, and disrespect when it is shown, regardless of whom is displaying those attitudes.

R E S P E C T 

Dana Barakat

There’s always that one person that makes a huge impression in your life. I’m not talking about the obvious people like your mother or your sister, brother or father. I’m really getting at that random person who shows up in your life, the person you’ve barely met, the person that sparks an inspirational flame that doesn’t go out quite so fast.

I’ve had many random encounters with people I’ve never met before, all of which were eye-opening experiences, and yet it seems like only a few of those have really been engraved in my heart. 

Imagine you are at Starbucks. Imagine you’re on your laptop, on Facebook, with headphones listening to iTunes, etc. when a lady simply asks to see the newspaper that is next to you. And so you hand it over… and little do you know that you and that lady will an interesting discussion. And that is exactly what happened. She was out of work, trying to find a job. We discussed my major (Psychology) and my possible future career ideas. We discussed politics, youth, the Arab Spring and Syria in particular, we talked about psychology and so many other random combinations of topics. In the end, she expressed her frustration at not being able to find a stable job. She said, however, that she was going to keep trying. Her story was inspirational because although she was jobless she was determined to keep going in her life. And there I was never giving a care in the world about what having a job means and what responsibility is. It was amazing to see how, although she was clearly struggling, she was making the absolute best of her situation and challenges.

Honestly, if you want to be inspired or have a new perspective on life or have your perspectives put into place, be open to the randomness and go with the flow. Seriously. 

Life is about learning, but sometimes learning from the same people continuously does no good. Learn from others around you that you may have only met once or twice, or even from people you have literally never seen before.

But in the end, it is not a person that lifts you up higher. It is God who does that. Actually, let me rephrase. A person who inspires you on the path of mediation and righteousness has guided you to the Supreme Being who will then pull you up and give you strength to continue life. You see, people like that are rare and they are worth finding or accidentally bumping into because once you meet That One Person, you’ll never be the same.

☮ Dana 

Time is strange. We age. We have a past: a history. Yet, time doesn’t leave all moments and memories impressionable. We don’t remember each day. We sometimes wonder how time has gone so fast, and how today, this very day, came. Five years ago we were a different person. Yes, we change. We change not only by time but by experiences. Time is strange because it moves and we cannot catch it or stop it. Time is strange because we can’t see it and yet it controls our growth and gives us wrinkles and gray hair.

Sometimes time makes us think. We think about the times we yearn to forget or change, but we can’t, ever.

Tick tock goes the clock, creating a mess, a havoc. It moves as it mocks, it took the key and it had to lock the safe that one day will have us flock, because the moment it does not tick or tock we no more rock, we just stop. When the safe is opened our death is immediate, for it locked away our youth and time, and when it’s up we are beneath the ground, never again to make a sound. Tick tock goes the clock, creating anxiety, creating infinity.

Passion. 

Where does it come from? My theory: We all are born with a passion, but not everyone’s is activated. It’s usually born from experience. For example, a painter wasn’t always a painter, were they? Until an experience occurred where the vision of art became seen and creativity was born, they were never an artist. Such an experience could be just by looking at nature or perhaps discovering other arts and art forms then bringing out the artist within. You see, we are all painters waiting to be painters… meaning that we have that passion but for it to come alive something must trigger it to come out of hiding. For some, it will bloom and for others it stays dormant. 

My passion you ask?

It is to help people. It is to be a source of empathy, compassion, and guidance. Sounds like a load of psychology doesn’t it? That’s exactly what I am pursuing at the moment: to become a clinical psychologist. But why pursue this route? Especially one that is terribly misunderstood? It began with an experience, an experience that happened eight years ago. 

Passion is a great tool in life. It will fuel your desire to make an impact on the world in some way or another. Passion will motivate you. It will keep your efforts alive. Most importantly, passion is a flame that will continue to burn until you decide to put it out.

My passion will always be to help people, whether or not I am in the working field of psychology. I hope that my passion will never be extinguished. And of course, do not forget, passion can be ever-changing. One day, that painter may no longer want to paint because a new experience has brought a new passion. Suddenly, the painter becomes retired of an artist life and instead is awakened to other passions, therefore putting out one flame and sparking another.

Passion. It is great, it is powerful, and it is what helps us to help shape the world around us.