Trigger warning: This article talks about suicide and mental health. Should you be triggered, reach out to a health professional or call 911.

What is peace to you? Is it the calmness of the mind? Is it happiness? Is it being able to sleep at night? Is it the calmness of the waves of the sea or the serenity of ripples after ripples? Is it like giddiness with being happy or lying 6 feet underground.

To take one’s own life perhaps to a sense of a sensible mind is too much to fathom. But why do people do it? It’s just not one reason, fact is – it’s a myriad of events and choices in life. It may even be heartbreak or grief. It may be caused by anger or animosity against the world or a certain person. It may even be too much confusion or too much hyperactivity.

Some say that a person who has bipolar tendencies, can think of harming oneself or ending one’s own life a lot of time. But it is when one is at his lowest, that one doesn’t want to move especially in a depressive state. This concludes perhaps that harm and ending one’s life is done because there is confusion and hyperactivity in the mind – the ones where racing thoughts are literally racing!

I don’t know if this still holds true now. With the affordability of fatal means to lose one self, maybe depressive or manic mood is inessential anymore? Or maybe it happens, in an in-between state of mind – the not so depressive and the not so manic?

There is this one woman who chose to die by falling from a cliff in Benguet. She has been known to have been taking anti psychotic and anti depressant medicines. Her bag showed a knife, probably, for a use we couldn’t be sure of. She was a notable and intelligent person who succumbed perhaps to pressures because of lack of peace.

Why? Peace, especially peace of mind, is very important. It helps one manage emotions and think clearly – to decide, then focus on things that matter most.

She could have done more. She could have been a state witness or she could have been put to jail. Maybe, in a world of power, this woman failed to discern the future. What I can say is that life is a surprise, however you think your mind is crapped-up.

I am a testament to this. Your life is a testament to this too. So keep going. There is hope after all. Find that light even in the darkness. Find that peace lurking within you. Choose your peace always.