Tag Archives: Blogging

Why Can’t I Just Find The Time?

Posted on by Gertie

Long time no write. I don’t know why I am going weeks without blogging especially when I have stated very clearly my plans to blog. I love blogging. It is something I enjoy doing. Actually, it is something I love doing and brings me a sense of joy and accomplishment even when I am having difficulties with my mental health symptoms acting up.

Since I got on the topic of my mental health, let me up date you on it before getting back on the topic of blogging. Overall, my mental health has been doing well. My anxiety has been high and I will be talking to Diana, my therapist about it the next time I see her. In fact I think my job is helping a great deal with the symptoms of my mental illness despite not being able to see my therapist as often as I would like to or need to. I will be discussing the topic of being able to ask for time off to Diana the next time I see her because my recovery depends on it. In fact my job depends on me being in recovery.

Now that we have gotten even more off topic of talking about my mental health and recovery and how it ties into my job lets talk about my job. I love my job more and more everyday. The Department of Health finally made my Agency Affiliated Counselor Registration active which is something my boss has been getting on me about even though I had done everything I needed to do on my end. Now, I am working on my drivers license for work. I had failed my first drivers test this past Thursday. I just need more practice driving and will retake it again. I know when I inform my supervisor of failing the drivers test he wont be very happy but at least I am attempting to get my license. Like I said, I love my job. My job gives me a purpose in life.

A purpose in life just like blogging does. I am thinking that I need to set some time aside to blog. A benefit to blogging, I didn’t realize was going to happen was that it is a form of therapy for me. It’s therapeutic for me and its an added bonus for me because, it wasn’t my intention for my blog to do that for me. I really think if I go back to doing the weekly writing prompts I told you about as well as the weekly check-ins, it will help me get back in the swing of things when it comes to blogging. I am hoping that you all will hold me accountable to this. I’m also thinking about maybe signing up for a Blogging U. course that WordPress puts on even if its one that I have already taken and completed. The Blogging U. thing is just an idea at the moment. I just don’t want to put too much on my plate at the moment especially with blogging. I’m hoping I will come up with schedule with my blog and will inform you of it when I do.

It was nice to be able to blog about how things are going, well sort of. I hope to update you more on how my life is going in all aspect of my life. I hope everyone has an awesome evening and Peace Out all!!

Two Years of Blogging

Posted on by Gertie

Today, marks two years since I posted my first blog post. It’s hard to wrap my mind around that it has been two years already. In fact I am surprised with myself that I have stuck with blogging. I thought I would have given up on it for various of reasons. I could have multiple times and didn’t give up.

I could have given up when I miscarried. I could have given up when my mental illness reared it’s ugly head. I could have given up when I didn’t reach the amount of followers I think I should have by a certain time. I didn’t give up.

I didn’t give up because there is still stigma out there regarding mental illness. I didn’t give up because there are people out there still struggling with mental illness that needs to find hope. To find hope that recovery is possible. I didn’t give up because I have found out in the last two years of blogging that blogging helps me and helps me with my recovery. If fact I wasn’t even expecting it to be helpful for me. I didn’t give up because I have found a support system within the blogging community.

The blogging community has a sense of respect for each other that other social media does not. There is very little drama in the blogging community. There is some drama but it’s extremely rare and that is what I like. We all respect each other no matter the topic of our particular blog or post. We may not always agree with each other but we respect each other and our different opinions and point of views. Thank you for allowing me to be apart of an awesome community.

I need to be going. I need to get going and head for work.  Again, thank you for being so kind to me and allowing me to be me. Have a wonderful day and Peace Out!!

An Idea or Two

Posted on by Gertie

Good morning, everyone!! Or at least it’s still morning for another twelve minutes in my neck of the woods. I have come up with an idea or two for my blog. As many of you know that I recently acquired a writers magazine that has fifty-two writing prompts for every week of the year starting in on the first Monday in June. You may know that I have decided that I am going to do the weekly writing prompts here on my blog for the next year (52 weeks) starting in June. Of course this is an idea that I have had for a week or two and that  may or may not be new to you.

The idea or two that are new to you is that I was thinking about doing a weekly check-in with you all. I would do this weekly check-in with you all on Friday evening or Saturday morning or afternoon. It is my hope to engage you my reader a little bit more as well as to let you all know how things are going with me. Part of the reason why I am wanting to do this is I am realizing I am not blogging as much as I would like to and this will help me with being more regular about blogging.

The other idea of the idea or two is to have contributors to my blog. They would be people in my support network. For instance, I have Junior my fiancé to be a contributor and he thinks it’s a wonderful idea. Another contributor would be a friend of mine who has taken me under her wing and is a second mother to me. In fact she has been more of a mom to me than my own mother. I call her my Mama Bear and that’s how I will refer to her by here on my blog. Anyway Junior and Mama Bear both think its an “awesome idea.” They will both be posting at least once a month and posting from the perspective of having a loved one that struggles with a mental illness. They might even give the perspective of being first responders and dealing with the public and those of the public who struggle with mental illness. I am hoping with having contributors that it will give my reader and/or follower a different perspective on the side of mental illness and how it effects them and the stigma they to deal with.  I am not sure when my contributors will start but I will inform you when they do.

Before I go I hope that you like the idea’s I have come up with to keep you my reader and/or follower to continue to want to read my blog. I know when other bloggers I follow don’t post much, I start to loose interest and I hope that you all aren’t loosing interest in my blog.

Well, it is now exactly 12noon. So have a good afternoon everyone. I hope you all have a good weekend and Peace Out!!

Getting the Groove of Things

Posted on by Gertie

As I sit here at my laptop, I realize how much I love to blog. I haven’t blogged as much as have liked in recent months for various reasons.

One of those reasons is that I now work fulltime as a peer specialist. It’s a job I love and am slowly getting in the groove of things especially since we have been short staffed. The colleague I told you about two or three entries ago decided to quit and quit in a way that left everyone in shock. He left a text with my bossing he quit. Ultimately, this colleague was let go (or fired) for job abandonment for not quitting in an appropriate way that my employer would be okay with. So, with one colleague no longer with the agency has left me and my other colleague short handed. Short handed in a way that is not very fun for anyone especially someone who is learning the ropes. So, I am ultimately trying to get the groove of things at work as well as my personal life with now working fulltime which I am loving.

At this point in time, I am slowly re-learning time management skill with working fulltime and good self-care with my personal life. A lot of the things I have been doing outside of work happens to be work related. I am starting to learn how to drive or will be in a week and a half. I was reading the drivers book to get a drivers permit. I need a drivers license for work. I’ve never needed one because I’ve always lived in a major city with public transpiration. I have also been working on getting my agency affiliated counselor licensure. So as you can tell I am needing to do good self-care.

Part of the good self-care thing for me is blogging. I am needing to find time to blog for a multitude of reasons besides it being good for my own self-care and recovery.  I am wanting to continue with the education part of my blog. The education part is a two part deal. The first part is education piece of my blog is to continue to share my story and show to those who don’t struggle with a mental illness that people who do struggle with one can recover and recover in their own way. The second piece of the education part of my blog is to post facts about mental illness and various diagnosis and treatments. I’ve been failing majorly on the fact part of the educational piece of my blog. As many of you already know if you read my blog regularly, I started my blog to not only educate others but to help others who struggle with a mental health diagnosis that recovery is possible and show that there is hope. Hope  that recovery is possible. Another thing that I have come to realize in the almost  two years of blogging is that it is helping me with my own recovery.

Another part of my recovery is that I like to write poems and short stories. Yesterday, while at the mall I went into a book store and bought some magazines. A couple of the magazines that I bought are geared toward writers and/or poets. One of the magazines has 52 writing prompts to do starting in June. One a week for a year and it reminded me of what WordPress does with it’s daily prompts. So, it is my hope that starting in June I will do the weekly writing prompts for a year. I think it would be fun to do and it is something I could also schedule to post so if I start to struggle again or if work gets busy that you my reader wont wonder where I am at. I love to write and hope that it wont only be fun for me but fun for you the reader. Plus, it would be a given weekly entry. Again, all this will start the first Monday in June. I think most if not all of the weekly prompts are suppose to be fiction and I will attempt to keep them fiction if the topic allows.

It seems to me that I am getting long winded again and I think I need end this particular post for now. I just wanted to update you on things as well inform you on what I am planning on doing with my blog. I love my  recovery and what I am able to do with my blog in regards to my recovery. I just hope I can be able to educate people to lessen the stigma that goes with having a mental illness and show people that recovery is possible. Recovery isn’t easy but is it possible and a lot more fun. Well, have good evening and I hope everyone has a good week. Peace out!!

Weekly Goals

Posted on by Gertie

It has bee quite some time since I last did weekly goals. I have  missed doing them. The weekly goals gives me something to shoot for, for the week. I am going to just start anew with my weekly goals.

Lets start with the more difficult stuff:

1)  Work on a self-help workbook; The Dialectical Behavior Therapy Skills Workbook by Matthew McKay, PhD., Jeffery C. Wood, PSY.D., and Jeffrey Brantley, MD. I thought I would be finished with this workbook by now however I will start it back up. It will also give me the structure I need on days I don’t have much or any structure at all.

2) See my therapist. I see my therapist on Wednesday (2/3/2016). Therapy is always difficult.

Now on to blogging stuff:

3) Start Writing 201: Finding Your Story. I love taking the courses WordPress puts on. It gives me a sense of structure on days I don’t have much or any structure at all.

4) Start my Friday Feature back up this Friday (2/5/2016).

Now on to fun stuff :

5) Work on jigsaw puzzle. Junior and I started a 2,000 piece holiday puzzle we got for Christmas.

6)  Color. I color various coloring pages and posters at a time. I am focusing on one in particular at the moment.

7) Walk up ten(10) flights of stairs twice everyday. Yes, I still have my apartment even though I spend the majority of time over at Juniors place. The apartment building I live in is ten(10) stories and I am practicing to do the next Big Climb which is in January of 2017. It is a fundraiser where people climb up 50+ flights of stairs. It might not sound fun at the moment but am looking forward to it.

I am happy to be getting back into the swing of things. I am thankful to be apart of this blogging event over at: http://greenembe.rs/category/building-rome-2/. Happy Monday and have a wonderful work week! Peace Out!

Improving My Blogging Once Again

Posted on by Gertie

Good evening everyone! I once again signed up for another WordPress course. I signed up for Writing 201: Finding Your Story. There are many reasons I signed up for this course.

The first is in improve my blogging skills. The second is to get back into blogging since I have gotten out of the habit of blogging due to my mental illness flaring up. The third reason is to give me some structure on days I don’t have much or any structure at all. Last but not least the fourth reason why I am doing this is to have fun.

I hope to have my first assignment done on my lunch hour tomorrow at work. Considering I work in the mental health field that might not happen but it is worth a try. I am looking forward to learning more about myself and blogging through this course.

Well, I am going to end this post for now. I don’t have much more to discuss at the moment. Have a wonderful rest of your weekend. Most importantly have a wonderful week ahead of you and peace out.

 

Goals for 2016

Posted on by Gertie

Happy New Years!!!! It’s that time of year where everyone makes New Years resolutions that many people wont accomplish. I don’t make New Years resolutions because I never was able to accomplish. I do make New Years goals and I have found that I do accomplish or come close to accomplishing by the end of the year. Below is the list of my goals for the coming year. I realize that some of my goals are partially dependent on other people  but that doesn’t mean I cant at least try to attain the goal.

1)  Get my tattoo touch up. (I actually accomplished this goal yesterday 1/1/2016 at 12noon.)

2)  Add to my tattoo. I currently have a semicolon tattoo and I want to add to it. I want to get the semicolon trinity and eventually the semicolon Sol Invictus. However right now its just the trinity I am aiming for.

3)  Read 12 books. It was my goal to do this last year but it didn’t happen. I did read 10 books last year. (Comic books don’t count)

4)  Drink less soda. I currently drink a liter of soda a day. My goal is to be down to one 20oz soda a week by the end of the year. Right now I am starting off with one 20oz  soda a day and hope to go down from there. So far so good but of course its only the second day of the year.

5)  Get my flute fixed. I can still play my flute however it desperately needs repaired. Plus, I want to get lessens.

6)  Take flute lessons. I love playing the flute. I am not very good at it but it helps me a great deal.

7)  Train to do the Big Climb in my area to support The American Lung Association. I am planning on doing the Big Climb in 2017 but I am starting the training now. (Actually, I started yesterday.)

8)  Learn how to drive (legally). Basically get my drivers license. This will come in handy for me both in my personal life and my professional life. Professionally many places require a drivers license.

9)  Get a job as a peer support specialist (peer counselor). This is one of those goals that is partially up to someone else  however if I do my part with applying for peer specialist jobs then I’ve accomplished what I have intended to do and that is to get my name out there.

10) Get back into blogging more regularly. Due to my mental illness rearing its ugly head I haven’t blogged much. I realize that blogging helps to me in many ways. One of those ways is that it gives me structure on days that I don’t have much to do.

11) Continue being engaged with my recovery no matter how difficult it may be at times. This means going to my appointments with my therapist and psychiatric nurse practitioner (ARNP). It also means doing “homework” my therapist wants me to do. It also means being open to suggestions my therapist has for me.

As you can tell I have a lot of goals this year. In fact one of my goals has already been accomplished. So one goal down and ten more to go. I hope that at the end of year I can tell you that I have accomplished each one of my goals. Have a wonderful day and have a very Happy New Years.

 

Daily Prompt: Inside the Bubble

Posted on by Gertie

In response to The Daily Post’s writing prompt: “Inside the Bubble.” A contagious disease requires you to be put into quarantine for a whole month (don’t worry, you get well by the time you’re free to go!). How would you spend your time in isolation?

As I was looking through past daily prompts, I found this one. I don’t know why but it grabbed my eye. For some reason this is an easy prompt for me to do. Maybe it is because, I have been in the hospital for a month and sometimes longer however it was not due to a contagious disease but mental health reasons.

If allowed, I would have my laptop so I would be able to have access to the hospital’s Wi-Fi. I would want to be able to not only keep everyone up to date on what was going on with me through various social media sites, I would want to be able to blog. Blogging to me is very important to me. Having my laptop would allow me to have access to music. Without music I would not be able to survive. I would also be able to play games on POGO at http://www.pogo.com/ with my laptop so I could help fight the boredom I would be dealing with.

I would also have plenty of books and comic books by my bedside. I would get extremely bored if I didn’t have access to a variety of reading materials. I would have to make sure that there are plenty of Wonder Woman comic books. Of course the books I would be reading would be Sci-Fi, Fantasy or Mysteries because those are the genre’s that most grab my attention and keep my attention.

Another way I would be spending my time in medical isolation is coloring. I would need plenty of colored pencils, a pencil sharpener and my coloring pages and posters I ordered from Stuff 2 Color at: http://www.stuff2color.com/ Coloring would be quite helpful and relaxing. Plus it wouldn’t take much attention to be able to do especially at the beginning of the month long isolation when I would be feeling at my worst.

I would probably be sleeping a lot to get better. I would most likely be going stir crazy as time went on. I would hope that I would be able to have visitors but not sure if I would able to have any because of being contagious.

Well, I need to end this post for now. I need to finish getting ready for work. Have a wonderful day everyone and peace out!!!

Improving My Skills In Blogging

Posted on by Gertie

As you can tell a number of my post have been Daily Prompts in recent days. I have quite a few reasons why I have done the daily prompts. One of which is, I was having difficulties coming up with ideas to blog about and they are extremely helpful in that way. Another reason why is I’ve been using Daily Prompts is because I noticed I wasn’t blogging as much as I use to, when I started blogging and realized that I had more people reading my blog when I was posting more often.

Another thing I plan on doing starting tomorrow is the Blogging U. 101 class that WordPress puts on for free. Yes, I am aware that the Blogging 101 courses might be a bit trivial and a repetitive blogs due to the assignments they give and for the fact that I have been blogging for just over a year now. I figured it wont hurt if I relearned stuff that I already learned by trial and error. Who knows I might even learn some new stuff. I am hoping that taking the Blogging U. 101 course will help improve my blogging skills. Granted, I realize some of the assignments they give me might have me blog about things or topics that I have already blogged about. It is my hope that you my reader don’t get annoyed with me and remain patient with me and my blogging process.

It is my hope through this process that it will improve my skills to be a better advocate for those with mental illness as well as to better educate those who do not have a mental illness. It is my biggest hope with this blog to help eliminate the stigma those is associated with having a mental illness. Discrimination against those with mental illness is why many people who struggle with one don’t seek out help. It is for them I share my story of recovery and hope that my story can eliminate the stigma that goes along with it.

Now that you are aware of what I am going to be doing, I ask for your patients and understanding. The course will last three weeks and I hope to learn a great deal with it. Peace out and have an awesome day.

Daily Prompt: Strike a Chord

Posted on by Gertie

In response to The Daily Post’s writing prompt: “Strike a Chord.” Do you play an instrument? Is there a musical instrument whose sound you find particularly pleasing? Tell us a story about your experience or relationship with an instrument of your choice.

As I was searching through past topics of the Daily Prompts, this particular topic caught my eye instantly. It caught my eye for a multitude of reasons and decided that I would do this daily prompt before heading out to work today.

Yes, I do play an instrument. I play the flute. I’ve been playing the flute since the sixth grade. That was back in September of 1991. Holy shit, that was 24 years ago. The story around why I started playing the flute is quite humorous. I originally started playing the trombone and my arm was to short to slide to the fifth and sixth positions and even with the extension I was still unable to slide to the sixth position. Since I was unable to play the trombone due to short arms, I had to choose another instrument. I was debating between the oboe and the flute and was ultimately persuaded into choosing the flute by my best friend, who was learning to play the flute at the same time as well. I am beyond grateful that I was talked into playing flute but part of still wishes I picked up the oboe. The oboe has a beautiful yet unique sound and is an instrument that catches my ear.

I find many musical instruments quite pleasing to my ear besides the above mentioned instruments. One of the instruments I find particularly pleasing is the bagpipe. Yes, the bagpipe. People tend to laugh at the fact that I not only enjoy the sound of the bagpipes but want to learn how to play them as well. Over the years I’ve come to study the history of the bagpipe. The reason being is because it is a part of my heritage. I am half Irish and identify as Irish. Yes, I do know it’s also a part of Scottish heritage however, I don’t have any Scottish in my blood. A cool side note about bagpipes is my fiancé, Junior can play the bagpipes quite well. In fact he is a part of the pipes and drums with the fire department. He in fact is a firefighter and paramedic. The cool thing that I find about Junior playing the bagpipes is that he is Mexican and isn’t afraid to do so. (Junior is also able to play the trumpet and plays in a Mariachi Band).

Playing the flute has been a life safer to me in many ways. Playing the flute in the high school marching (and concert) band is what helped stay in school and prevented from dropping out. That’s why I am so passionate about keeping both the performing and fine arts in schools. The arts keep people like me in school.

Not only did playing the flute keep me in school, it has helped me enormously in my recovery with mental illness. Playing the flute helps with my mental illness in several ways. It helps keep me distracted at times. It relaxes me. Most importantly it helps me focus on my breath and breathing well. When I am dealing with severe PTSD symptoms I tend to forget to breath and the “normal” breathing techniques and exercises don’t help me much. The “typical” breathing techniques and exercises tend to make my PTSD symptoms worse due to some trauma. That is where the flute comes in to helping me focus on my breath. You need to breathe well to be able to play the flute properly. That means, me being able to breathe well not only helps me with playing the flute helps with the symptoms of my PTSD. You can say that playing the flute has been a type of therapy for me; music therapy. Unforantenly, not many places offer music therapy despite how helpful it is to many different people in this world.

When I chose this particular daily prompt, I had absolutely no idea where it would lead. I honestly didn’t think I would be discussing how the flute helped (and still helps) with my PTSD. I thought I would me discussing more how band kept me in school and how I now have life long friends because of band. In all honesty, I have my best friend since the third grade to not only to join band by picking an instrument but persuading me to choose the flute over the oboe when I was not able to play the trombone. Playing a musical instrument gives one a community that they will always be a part of.

Now that I’ve done this daily prompt, it brings joy to my soul that I was able to share one community I belong to, to you the blogging community in which I to belong to. Thank you for allowing me to share all this. I am going to have to end this blog for now because I have to go to work now. Have a wonderful work week everyone. Happy Monday and peace out everyone!!!!