Monthly Archives: October 2023

Weekly Plans

Posted on by Gertie

Sunday

  • Mindfulness Meditation
  • Attend an online 12-step meeting
  • Volunteer at PAWS Cat City
  • Lunch with a friend
  • Read
  • Art (coloring and/or diamond art)

Monday

  • Mindfulness Meditation
  • Breakfast with my grandpa
  • Art (coloring and/or diamond art)
  • Read
  • Doctor’s appointment
  • Attend an online 12-step meeting

Tuesday

  • Mindfulness Meditation
  • Hang out at a mental health clubhouse
  • Read
  • Art (color and/or diamond art)
  • Attend an online 12-step meeting

Wednesday

  • Mindfulness Meditation
  • Attend an in person 12-step meeting
  • Art (color and/or diamond art)
  • Read
  • Dinner with a colleague
  • Attend an online 12-step meeting

Thursday

  • Mindfulness Meditation
  • Attend an online 12-step meeting
  • Read
  • Art (color and/or diamond art)
  • Attend an in person 12-step meeting

Friday

  • Mindfulness Meditation
  • Hang out at a mental health clubhouse
  • Clean apartment
  • Art (color and/or diamond art)
  • Read
  • Attend an online 12-step meeting

Saturday

  • Mindfulness Meditation
  • Go to the Farmers Market for a Breakfast Sandwich
  • Attend an in person 12-step meeting
  • Read
  • Art (color and/or diamond art)
  • Attend an online 12-step meeting

No Sleep = Online 12-Step Meetings

Posted on by Gertie

Good Morning, World!!! I am unable to sleep once again so it is another sleepless in Seattle type of night. It is just after three o’clock in the morning here in Seattle so there isn’t much to do right now but sleep but I can’t.

Since I am unable to sleep I have been attending online twelve step meetings to help with what is keeping me up. PTSD sucks but at least I have online twelve step meetings to attend. The cool thing about online meetings is my cat, Billie, showing his cute face.

I don’t have anything else to say except thank you for reading my blog. Peace Out, World!!!

Working on My Recovery

Posted on by Gertie

Good Evening, World!!! I am realizing that my recent trauma is causing a lot of shit to happen in my life and I am allowing some of it to happen. Some of the shit I can control while some of it I cannot. The things I can control, I hope will help with the things I cannot control.

One of the things that I have come to the conclusion of is attending a twelve step meeting that focuses on how I react and nurture myself coming from a dysfunctional family that is full of alcoholics. The particular meeting I am attending focuses on what I can do to nurture myself as well as how I react to my dysfunctional family. As anyone who is in a 12-step program is aware of, is that attending ninety meetings in ninety days is highly suggested as well as having a “home group” to attend.

Attending therapy regularly for me is a major part of my recovery. Talk therapy helps me a great deal as does other types of therapies such as DBT, CBT and Motivational Interviewing (MI). I think my therapist does a lot of Motivational Interviewing with me as well as some DBT.

Of course working on workbooks is helpful for me when it comes to my recovery. There so many different workbooks out there that are helpful. One that I am working on now focuses on mental health recovery.

One thing that also helps me is taking medicine for my anxiety, depression and PTSD. If I didn’t take meds it would make everything else I do for my recovery much more challenging to do but it is also not the only thing.

As I have mentioned in a previous post doing at least two mindfulness meditations a day helps a great deal. It helps me start and end my day with a mostly clear mind. It also helps a great deal with my anxiety.

Acupuncture helps my depression and anxiety a lot as well as helps with physical health issues.

Lets not forget my cat Billie helps. He is extremely helpful.

I don’t have much more to discuss in this blog post. Thank you for reading. Peace Out, World!!!

My Thoughts About Blogging More Regularly

Posted on by Gertie

Good Evening, World!!! If you have been reading my blog for a while now, you know every once in awhile, I attempt to come up with ways to blog more regularly. Sadly, a good portion of the time I do not follow through with the ideas which I have multiple excuses for and will not use them.

Let’s start with what I have done in the past and I know that I have followed through on it before but stopped which are my Weekly Plans on Sunday mornings and my Weekly Check-Ins on Saturday evenings. The Weekly Plans are just bullet points of what I plan to do for the week and I post it Sunday mornings. Weekly Check-Ins are checking in about how my week went and I post it on Saturday evenings. I will start the Weekly Plans tomorrow morning and the Weekly Check-Ins next Saturday.

An idea I came up with today is taking pictures of my cat, Billie, and posting them on Saturdays and calling Caturday’s with Billie. I am hoping to start this next Saturday in the morning. I honestly hope I remember to do this next week.

Another idea I have is Funday Sundays. I am not sure what this will look like or when I will start it but it will be something fun and posted on Sundays.

On Wednesdays I hope to do Weekly Updates to update you on how my week is going so far. I am hoping to start it this Wednesday.

Another idea is to do book reviews on books I am reading or have recently read. Yes, I will put spoiler alerts on this as I don’t want to spoil a book for someone. This will start when I am done with one of the books I am reading.

That all I have for this post about blogging. Thank you for reading. Peace Out, World!!!

So Far A Good Saturday

Posted on by Gertie

Good Morning (again), World!!! I started the day off pretty well by doing a mindfulness meditation practice. I do at least two mindfulness meditation practices a day. One in the morning and one before bed. I find that starting and ending my day with a mindfulness meditation helps with my mental health challenges and my recovery.

I went to the University District’s Farmers Market to have a breakfast sandwich and to help support local farmers. While there I also bought me a sunflower as they are my favorite flower.

A breakfast sandwich I get at the Farmers Market.

The above picture is the breakfast sandwich I devoured. I devoured it because it was good and yummy!!! I got it at a vendor that only sells breakfast sandwiches at the University Districts Farmer’s Market. The U-District Farmer’s Market happens every Saturday, year-round from 9:00am to 2:00pm.

When I arrived home I decided to attend an online twelve step meeting that focuses on adult children that grew up with dysfunctional families and alcoholic parents. I really enjoy going to the twelve step meetings.

Now it is time to cuddle with my kitty cat, Billie. I love my cat so much. I’m thinking I might start a weekly post called Caturday Pictures of Billie for a Saturday post.

I don’t have much else to say in this particular blog post. I do want to thank you for reading my blog. Peace Out, World!!!

Got Some Good Sleep Here in Seattle

Posted on by Gertie

Good Morning, World!!! I feel like I got some good sleep here in Seattle. I love it when I get good sleep. Granted I didn’t sleep more than five hours and had nightmares but at least it was good sleep overall so I am going to try not to complain. I am surprised that I got good sleep as I took two naps yesterday due to not sleeping very well that night before.

I mentioned in past post that I recently experienced a trauma. A trauma that caused my PTSD to act up especially from past traumas. Anyway, my therapist is helping me through the trauma is willing to stick with me as I know I can be challenging. My session with my therapist yesterday went well. My therapist is beyond awesome.

When I had my session with my therapist yesterday, I wish I would have remembered to tell her something. Something that helps with my PSTD nightmares. That something is reading one of my favorite genres of books which is horror books. Horror books help me not remember my own horrors especially if I read them before bed as I end up with nightmares from the horror books which are so much easier to deal with than PTSD nightmares.

Another thing that I have found that is helpful dealing with my PTSD is mindfulness meditation. It helps because I feel like it calms my mind down. That is why I do my very best to start each day with a mindfulness meditation practice as well as end my day with one.

On to other things that are helpful to my recovery is doing some form of fine art and listening to music. This has been one of my go to’s since my early days in recovery with a mental health challenge. I love art and I love music.

Speaking of recovery I went to the grocery store yesterday to buy some much needed food. One of those food items was ice cream. I got a pint of Baskin Robins mint and chip ice cream. I ate about a quarter of it and plan on having some later today.

Something I started doing in the middle of the Covid-19 pandemic was attending a twelve step meeting for adult children who dealt with parents who are alcoholics. I loved attending and I really wish I didn’t stop attending. I am hoping to start regularly attending again as I found it helpful to my recovery.

I do not have much more to say in this particular blog post. I do want to say thank you for reading my blog. If it was not for you the reader reading my blog, I would not be writing my blog. Again, thank you from the bottom of my heart for reading my blog. Peace Out, World!!!

Nightmare Suck

Posted on by Gertie

Hello, World!!! It is the middle of the night in Seattle and I am unable to sleep due to PTSD related nightmares. I, so wish I didn’t have to deal with nightmares especially PTSD related nightmares. Nightmares that really suck which is why I chose to read.

I chose to read to help distract myself. In fact, all the authors I chose to read; Stephen King. The book I am reading is Pet Cemetery. I haven’t gotten very far in the book. I am only about twenty pages in but so far so good. I figured if I am going have nightmares already, I might as well as have them on my terms.

Part of how I came to read Pet Cemetery is by practicing mindfulness meditation. I practice mindfulness meditation by using the Calm App. The Calm App is an awesome resource for mindfulness. I know that both the Calm App and mindfulness help me with my recovery.

Something that I am realizing is that I am hungry. I am really hoping it gets here soon. I ordered from a food delivery company. I ordered from McDonald’s. I am really wanting some fries and I hope they are not cold or stale.

I do not have much more to discuss in this particular blog post. I do want to thank you for reading my blog. I hope everyone has a great weekend. Peace Out, World!!!