Raina Ash's Blog: Slowly Taking Over the World - Posts Tagged "updates"

TLDR: I hit a Top 100 list for the first time. Life is hard sometimes, but you should keep trying.

Dating Mr. Reeves hit the Holiday Fiction bestseller list on Amazon! I've even got screenshots.

This past weekend I was watching with bated breath as it kept teasing me. It would go up to rank 107 then to 140. 115 then 132. Up and down. Up and down. Until I decided I needed to stop checking for my sanity.

I was prepared to write this post with a title like I almost hit a bestseller list! and then I was going to talk about celebrating small victories even when you don't fully accomplish a goal.

Then the book hit! Achievement unlocked! It's my very first visit to a Top 100 list, so I'm excited.

I'm still going to talk about small victories.

I know I'm just words on a screen, an author logo and name behind a book, so it's hard to convey myself as a person with struggles and pains and dreams. Beyond the glamor, I'm a mental health advocate. I always have been, even before I assigned myself the label "advocate."

Mental health is something I've had a rocky relationship with my whole life. Call it my neurology, call it those messages I got as a kid about, "Crying never solves anything." I always had a strong sense that a person shouldn't be made to feel bad about themselves and their emotions, even as others made me feel that way.

I've also suffered a lot of trauma. As a kid. As a teenager. As an adult.

The thing about difficult life situations is that they steal joy. They can make you hopeless and nihilistic.

When I was in the deepest parts of chronic pain, I thought, "Is there a reason for me to get out of bed? Because all I'm going to feel is pain, pain, pain all day."

Or, "If bad things are going to keep happening to me, what does it matter if I try to accomplish anything?"

Through my experiences, I've become a hardcore realist. I don't like sugar-coating life. Because it's hard. Difficult things do happen. Emotions and getting through the day can be a struggle.

That doesn't mean it will always be that way. The difficulties and pain of life make love all the more meaningful and beautiful. Sometimes you climb a mountain only to get knocked off.

But that's okay. Because you can get up and try to climb the mountain again.

Dating Mr. Reeves hitting the Top 100 in Holiday Fiction may not be earth-shattering. I'm certainly not a New York Times Bestselling author who is getting interviewed by Oprah next week (Oprah, if you're out there, call me!). But it's a victory in my world. Because it means I'm making progress when I've spent so many years in limbo.

Why am I going so deep into personal story hour?

Because I'm a person just like any other person. Just like you. If you're in limbo right now or if life is challenging you and you've slipped into that part of your brain that says, "Why even get out of bed today?", I want to remind you that it's okay to be there. It's okay to feel sad or hopeless or any feelings you have right now. You're doing your best, and that's always enough.

The one constant in life is that it's always changing. It'll change for you, too. We all have to focus on our small victories. Find those moments when the sun breaks through the clouds and you can't help but smile as sunlight warms your face.

The sun is always there. Sometimes, it's just harder to see.
Dating Mr. Reeves Trilogy (Books 1-3): A Billionaire CEO Romance