A Random Wednesday Post

Good Afternoon, World!!! I am struggling at the moment with writing my resignation letter for work. I am not sure why I am struggling with writing it as I have written one before. I am think I am struggling with it because I have some pretty awesome colleagues, a supervisor that is extremely supportive and I do enjoy what I do. The main reason I am resigning is because its an on-call position that is a twelve hour over night shift. I think if I had a regular schedule that the twelve hour night shift wouldn’t be so bad. The job schedule is affecting my mental health and that is not a good thing for me.

As much as I am dreading writing my resignation letter for work, I am looking forward to the free blogging courses I will be taking through WordPress. I signed up for three courses and have taken all three of them before. The courses I signed up for are Finding Everyday Inspiration, which is a twenty day course, Developing Your Eye 1 which is a ten day course and Intro to Poetry which is a ten day course. I am not sure if I am going do them consecutively or at the same time. I’m thinking I will do Finding Everyday Inspiration as I do one of the other courses at the same time and when finished with one I’ll do the other since two of them are ten days each. But at this point in time I am not exactly sure how I am going to work the courses.

I do not have much more to say. I do want to thank you for reading my blog as it is greatly appreciated from my end of things. I hope everyone has a great day. Peace Out, World!!!

Improving My Blogging Skills

Good Morning, World!!! It is five o’clock in the morning in my corner of the world and I still have not been to sleep yet which is extremely frustrating. As frustrating as it is to not be able to sleep due to insomnia, it does have its pros. Granted there are not very many pros to having insomnia or not being able to sleep but there are some. One of those pros to having insomnia is being able to think of ways to be creative and/or do things when you are not able to sleep or even to do during “normal” waking hours. One of those things that I could do and will do is to improve my blogging skills. You may ask how I will do this and the answer is that WordPress offers free courses on blogging. The three that I have chosen, I have done before and really enjoyed participating in them. I am not sure I will being doing the courses concurrently or back to back. Two of the courses are ten days long and on is twenty days long so I could technically do both concurrently and back to back if I do the twenty day course while I do one ten day course and when that one is finished I can do the next ten day course. I guess, I will figure out how I am going in regards to the courses I am going to take.

I guess you are wondering what courses I am going to be taking to improve my blogging skills. I will tell you what courses I will be taking and why I am taking them and what I hope to learn from each course. The twenty day course I am signed up for is Finding Everyday Inspiration” and for this course I hope to not only be inspired to write daily but to be inspired to write about the things I experience in this world or even things that can inspire others.  The other course I am taking is a photography course called “Developing Your Eye.” In this course I hope to learn a different form of art through photography and being show you how I see the world around me with the picture I take and share with you. The third course I signed up for is “Intro to Poetry”  and I hope to learn different way to write a poem and hope that I can create poetry to share with you my reader and the rest of the world.

It is my hope that signing up for these three course that it will help me build some structure in my life. Structure that will become more of a routine for me. Building structure and routine with blogging will ultimately help me with my blog as well as having set times on when I will blog and not have it feel like a chore. There have been times where blogging felt more like a chore than anything and am wanting to have fun with my blog with creating some form of structure with it and think this is a good way to start building the structure I need for my life personally as well as  for my blog. I hope this paragraph makes some sense. If no, I hope you my reader will let me know.

I really don’t have much more to say about this. I just hope you my reader will continue to read what I have to say. I want to thank you for reading my blog. It is greatly appreciated from my end of things. So thank you for reading my blog. Have a good Tuesday everyone. Peace Out, World!!!

Everyday Inspiration; Day 8: Reinvent the Letter Format

Dear Reader,

I, Gertie, am writing you this letter as an assignment for the writing course I am taking through WordPress. I am also writing to those readers who may not be doing so well for whatever the reason especially those who are struggling with a mental health challenge. I am writing to you that what I have said in previous post gives you some hope that recovery is possible. It is by no means easy but hope that I can be a beacon of hope for you. Life isn’t easy however it has a lot of fun things in it to experience. I don’t have much else to say except that, if you need to talk don’t hesitate to leave a comment or contact me on my contact page.

Thank you for reading my blog as it is greatly appreciated from my end of things. I hope every has a good work week especially after springing forward. Loosing an hour sucks but at least we know spring is almost here.

Sincerely,

Gertie

Everyday Inspiration; Day 7: Let Social Media Inspire You

Good Morning, World!!! Today’s assignment is to let social media do the inspiring. Well, in all honesty, all I have is a Facebook account. I don’t do other social media sites as trying to keep up with multiple social media sites is way too time consuming.

On that note, if I did let social media inspire me, I would end up discussing politics. I really do not want to discuss politics at this time as I do not want to deal with any drama that could be brought up. I am wanting this course to be as drama free as possible. I know I don’t have to allow comments on my post as I approve them before it shows up on my blog but I still have to read the comments and I don’t want the drama nor to be triggered.

I guess I could find something on my Facebook to inspire me but at this point in time the only thing I see a lot of is political post. So, I am not feeling very inspired over politics at the moment.

Since I don’t have much more to discuss about being inspired by social media, I guess I will blog again later. I really don’t want to discuss politics at the moment. I don’t mind talking about politics, it is just I want to take a day off from it.

Weekly Check-In

Hello, World!!! As I stated in a post sometime late last week, that I would start my weekly check-ins back up on Saturdays. So, here I am doing the weekly check-in. I don’t have much to say this evening as I have discussed most of what I wanted to talk about through out the week.

The big event that happened this past week was my 40th birthday on Thursday. My birthday turned out to be a good one which I am quite grateful for. In fact I am still celebrating my birthday this weekend. Due to my birthday I have been spending time with both family and friends. It has been great spending time with those care about me. It does still feel weird to have folks celebrate me as I still feel like I do not deserve to be celebrated.

Something I started this past Monday was a writing course that WordPress puts on. I am doing a writing course called Finding Your Everyday Inspiration. I decided to do the course to help me get back in the habit of blogging on the regular basis again.

Another thing I started this week was a workbook called “The Artist Way.” I started it yesterday and I have to admit it seems quite overwhelming and challenging and it is only day two. It is a twelve week workbook course. I am doing this workbook at the suggestion of my therapist. My therapist thinks it will be helpful for my recovery and helpful in regards for me to build structure in my life which I am all for.

The other thing I started back up was going to Dialectical Behavior Therapy (DBT) group. I have had the group facilitators before and I like them. The teach the DBT skills quite well. Speaking of DBT I need to do my DBT homework for today.

I don’t have much more to check-in about. This week has overall been a good week. I hope that everyone has a good rest of their weekend. Peace Out, World!!!

Everyday Inspiration; Day 6: The Space to Write

Good Morning, World!!!  Today’s assignment is in regards to writing space and what method of writing do we prefer. For me it depends where my mindset is to where I write and what method I use to write.

When I blog, I obviously use a computer. Actually, use a laptop. Most of the time, am home when I decide to blog like I am now. There are a few occasions where I am not home when I blog. Those are times when I am out of town for whatever reason. A couple of times I have blogged from a city part here in Seattle as well as when I was in Olympia (Washington) visiting family.

When it comes to journaling I usually use a pencil with a journal that has paper in it. It doesn’t matter where I am when I journal. I have been known to journal on the city bus. When I journal it is usually when I have something on my mind that is really bothering me however I do journal at least once a week to just say how my week went. One of my favorite places to journal is when I am near a water like a river or ocean.

I don’t have much more to say about the space I write in. My cat tends to want to “help” me write whenever I blog or journal. We all know that cats just want to get attention when we are try to do something. I love my cat.

Everyday Inspiration; Day 5: Hook ‘Em With a Quote

Image result for eleanor roosevelt quotes

Today’s assignment is to hook all of you with a quote so I decided to post a quote by Eleanor Roosevelt. The above quote is one of my favorite quotes because I believe I can accomplish my dreams and that is my future. If it weren’t for believing I can succeed then I wouldn’t have any hope. It is hard to write about this quote as I feel like it is pretty self explanatory.

Everyday Inspiration; Day 4: A Story In A Single Image

Today’s Finding Everyday Inspiration is based on a story in a single image. WordPress gave us some images as suggestions and well, I am not feeling particularly inspired by their suggestions. So, since I wasn’t exactly feeling inspired by their suggestions, I decided to look through my own photo’s and still wasn’t exactly feeling inspired. I also looked on the internet to see if any images inspired me and still not feeling inspired.

I am not sure why I am not feeling inspired as today is a great day. A great day to feel inspired because today is my 40th birthday. There was a time in my life where I honestly didn’t think I would live to be forty. I thought because, I thought would have died by suicide. No, I am not feeling suicidal at the moment but there was a time in my life where I didn’t think I would make it because of being so suicidal. Thankfully, I have made it to my 40th birthday and I plan on living a very long time. So, I am very proud of myself for making it to today. Like I said, I should have seen something that inspired me today as it is my birthday and a happy one at that but I am not feeling inspired. I think it partly because I am having a slight case of writer block. I am hoping that maybe sometime later today, I will find an image or photo that inspires me to write something.

I don’t have much more to say due to writers block and the lack of inspiration. I hope everyone has a good day. Thank you so much for reading my blog. It is greatly appreciated from my end of things. Again, thank you so much for reading my blog. Peace Out, World!!!

Everyday Inspiration; Day 3: One-Word Inspiration

Today’s assignment is base on one word to get inspiration from. We were given a list of six words. I chose the word HOPE.

Hope can have different meanings to different people for various reasons. For me, hope can be different to me depending on the circumstance however I will discuss hope from the point of  being a person in recovery with a mental health challenge. Having some form hope is crucial for one to be able to make an active choice to be in recovery. With the help of others such as Peer Supports can help one find the much needed hope.

For me to help other find hope, gives me hope. It gives me hope to see someone find their hope because you can see it through their experiences as well as through new eyes. Hope is an extremely powerful experience. An experience I hope you have had or able to have.

Everyday Inspiration; Day 2: Write A List

Today’s assignment for Finding Everyday Inspiration is to write a list. We were given a list of topics to use for idea’s for a list. I chose from one of the topics as it resonates with me.

Things I Have Learned:

  1.  How to meditate, as it has helped bring peace in my life.
  2. How to do mindfulness. This has helped me calm my mind and bring peace to my life.
  3. Dialectical Behavior Therapy (DBT) skills as this has helped me a great deal with my recovery with mental health challenges.
  4. Learned how to read music when I learned how to play the flute. Playing the flute and reading music has helped me in many areas of my life. Music was the first way I learned how to express myself and my emotions.
  5. Learned how to play the harmonica. If I didn’t learn how to play the flute and read music I would have never learn to play the harmonica. This too has helped me in many areas of my life. Just like playing the flute it helps me express myself and my emotions.
  6. I learned the are of writing poetry. This has helped me express myself in ways people can relate to.
  7. I learned how to paint. In fact I am still learning how to paint. This has helped me express myself when I am unable to use words to express myself.
  8. I am in the middle of learning how to enjoy life even when difficult situations arise. I hope that someday I will be better at this especially among the difficult times.
  9. I learned how to do self care and how to appreciate it. This has helped me a great deal in my recovery
  10. I learned how to accept another persons love. In fact this is something I am still learning how to do. My cat, Lil Gertie, is helping a great deal with this as I have accepted other people’s love a lot easier since I adopted her. It is still a challenge for me but it has become easier since adopting my cat, Lil Gertie.