Left of the Dial is the title of my memoir because I champion living a life in balance with the needle on the left of the dial of the VU meter. So that everything’s balanced. No loud noisy thoughts in a bar room brawl with your feelings. No severe symptoms veering into the red on the right.
The goal is to have harmony in your head, in your body and mind and spirit.
Harmony: that’s the word that’s the ticket to having an easier time of it in our lives.
Living a life left of the dial signals you live in harmony with your values first of all, no one else’s. So if you’re a mainstream girl in a body-pierced world, that’s your way of living your life left of the dial. If everyone’s sporting tattoos, you’re the rebel if you have none.
You don’t have to worry about other people not liking you for who you are. You just have to like yourself, and be okay with your choices. You find stability and security in a home of your own and that home can be in your own skin.
Here’s to every one of us who is starting out in life on our own. Here’s hoping that when each of us nears 50 (as I am) we can view our lives in a cheer-view mirror instead of a negative rear-view mirror.
I firmly believe that right where you are is where you need to be at this moment in time. And if it’s less than ideal, take action every day to change your life for the better.
As well I champion not being afraid to do your own thing: to stand up and decide what’s right for you to do at this time in your life. I fought a brave fight to be taken seriously in my goal of living independently and obtaining a full-time job in the early 1990s when it was unheard of for a person with SZ to do this.
I will tell readers now and I will tell readers always:
Dare. Take the risk that things will be better on the other side.
Risk doing the thing that scares you. Do the thing you think you cannot do.
Pay attention to the voice that tells you “I must try no matter how hard it is.”
Find your own happy house in your head and in your neighborhood.
Left of the Dial 