Tag Archives: Reading

A Random Wednesday Afternoon Post

Posted on by Gertie

Good Afternoon, World!!! At this very moment the symptoms of my Depression and PTSD and am grateful that I am able to nip it in the butt with skills I normally do. Sadly, I am not going to my writing group because I am not feeling well physically which is probably why I am having an increase of Depression and PTSD symptoms. Part of why I am not feeling well is because I according my doctor I have a “severe Urinary Tract Infection (UTI) and mild right Kidney Infection” which sucks and the antibiotic I am taking is making me nauseous. I really don’t like being or feeling sick but at least I am not in the hospital.

Being in the hospital sucks and since we are on the subject of hospitals, my dad is still in one. He is on the Intensive Care Unit (ICU) of a local hospital here in the Seattle area. His surgery went well and he is healing well from it. Sadly, my dad has fluid on the lungs and the doctors are trying to get rid of it. My dad has a history of pneumonia and is still in the hospital as a precautionary thing and is receiving IV antibiotics.  My dad is feeling better and wants to go home. He is eating solid food and the doctors say its okay that my dad drinks Diet Mt. Dew. So, I know my dad is feeling better when he wants his Diet Mt. Dew. I just wish the fluid on my dads lungs would hurry up at resolve.

I saw my therapist yesterday (Tuesday) and we discussed my increased Depression and PTSD symptoms and he is in agreement that the increased in symptoms are likely in part to my current health issues with my UTI and kidney infections. We discussed on ways that I could feel better as well as skill I could use to help with my increased mental health symptoms. One of the things my therapist and I discussed was the amount of time I was spending on social media, specifically Facebook because I am just aimlessly scrolling it as a way to help myself but it is becoming more of a hindrance for some of my symptoms. We talked about going on Facebook with a purpose like to post or say hi to someone and limit the time I am on Facebook. We discussed other things I could do instead which led me to having a conversation with my therapist about book suggestions I got from both white and people of color friends about race in America. We discussed that I as a white person one to better understand my white privilege and how I can be a better ally for not only friends but my clients who are people of color. I told him that I am expecting three books about race and racism as well as white privilege at some point today via Amazon. My therapist was “impressed” that I am wanting to improve myself and understanding of race and he “feels” that with me doing this will help me stay off Facebook and build a more meaningful type of structure I need for my recovery. My therapist likes the fact that I am wanting to educate myself to understand race, racism and white privilege here in America. We also discussed other ways to structure my time to help with my PTSD and depression symptoms. I really like my therapist and am grateful to have him as a clinician.

I don’t have much more to say. I just hope the books arrive today as “guaranteed” by Amazon so I can get to reading the books I ordered from them. I want to thank you all for reading my blog. It is greatly appreciated from my end of things. Again, thank you from the bottom of my heart. I hope everyone has a good rest of their Wednesday as well as their work week. Peace Out, World!!!

An Early Sunday Morning Post At Work

Posted on by Gertie

Good Morning, World!!! As, I write this blog post, I am at work. As I may or may not have told you, I work at a homeless shelter for young adults (18-25). My shifts are once a week at night for twelve hours. The first two and a half hours as well as the last two and a half hours are the hours that the busiest and the seven hours in between are the slowest as well as the most boring. As much as it is boring and slow, I find things to keep me occupied. Yes, I do have work things to do which I do however I also get to do other things like blog, color, reading, and go on Facebook. Right now, I am listening to music as write this blog post. I am listening to my childhood play list on Spotify.

This past week has been one of isolation due to the symptoms of my depression. With that being said, I did go to DBT group on Thursday and therapy on Friday. DBT group went well. We discuss a great deal especially on the skill of Mindful of Current Emotion. It was nice to have discussed this particularly because I tend to not want to be mindful of my emotions as they tend to be painful. As far as therapy on Friday it turned out to be a difficult yet extremely productive session. We discussed a couple of things that needed to talked about and through. My therapist even referred me to another group. A group that I did several years ago but willing to do it again as I am in agreement with my therapist that it could be helpful.

Something else I did this past week was order some coloring pages from Stuff2Color.com. I am looking forward to starting some new coloring project and hopefully have them finished by Christmas so I could give them as gifts to others. On the plus note about the coloring as it is helpful for me as it tends to be a type of mindfulness for me.

I am looking forward to later today so I can start reading a new book a colleague has lent me. It is about a story of a young person who is experiencing some hardships. So, of course it is something that is of interest of me. Reading someone else’s story is something that inspires me as well as it gives me hope.

Since, I do not have much more to write about, I am going to end this blog post. But before I go I want to thank you from the bottom of my heart for reading my blog. It is greatly appreciated from my end of things. Again, thank you so very much for reading my blog. I hope every has a wonderful day of them as well as an awesome week ahead. I know I plan on having a good week despite having some unwanted chores and errands ahead for the week. Peace Out, World!!!

A Random Monday Evening Post

Posted on by Gertie

Good Evening, World!!! As I mentioned in my last post today was and still is a day for me do good self care. So far doing good self care has been challenging to do however it is something that continues to be accomplished. The most challenging of the self care acts was that of taking a shower. Not sure why it has been the most challenging but it was. I did take a shower shortly after my last post and am grateful that I accomplished it.

As accomplished as I feel taking a shower, I feel just as accomplished with the other things I have done today. In fact, I did a great deal of walking today and feel proud that I walked as much as I did today. In fact all the walking I did today led me to walking to a park and enjoying myself there.

When I was at the park, I was there for about an hour and a half. I just sat there enjoying the beauty of the park as well as read. I read some comic books. In fact the comic books I read today at the park were Wonder Woman. If you have been reading my blog for awhile you are well aware that I am a huge Wonder Woman fan. I have been a Wonder Woman fan since I was a kid. My dad got me into Wonder Woman and I greatly appreciate him for that.

Since returning home from the park, I decided to listen to a podcast about mythology. In fact if it wasn’t for being a big fan of Wonder Woman, I don’t think I would be interested in learning about mythology. After each episode of the podcast about mythology, I go online and look up what was discussed so I am educating myself even more on the subject of mythology.

As I listened to the podcast on mythology, I did some art. Specifically, the art that I did was color. I love to color for a multitude of reasons. One of which is that it is a type of mindfulness practice for me. I am coloring a poster and hope to finish it to give to my therapist. For me giving people finished coloring projects is gratifying.

I don’t have much else to say and really should get going to I can get me something to eat for dinner. I want to thank you for reading my blog. It is greatly appreciated from my end of things. I hope everyone has a great rest of their evening. Peace Out, World!!!

Back to Basics in Recovery

Posted on by Gertie

Good Afternoon, World!!! Over the last few weeks I have realized that I really need to get back to basics. Back to basics in regards to my recovery as it appears that the last two and half years haven’t been the best for me in regards to my mental health symptoms and how I have been dealing with them. I haven’t been dealing with my symptoms in a way that that I would personally like to so that means that for the sake of my recovery I am needing to go to basics. Going back to basics also means having a routine.

Anyone in recovery especially in the early stages, or when symptoms increase, or when relapse happens routine is key to helping the person get to the life the want to live. In Dialectical Behavior Therapy (DBT) terms; a life worth living. For me personally, routine has always been something I need throughout my life. Routine is something that has been quite helpful for me and my recovery and I think having more of a routine is something that will help me get to where I was when I was doing much better and be in a better place than when I was at my best.

When I was at my best I wasn’t isolating as much as I am now which means going back to basics not only means building more of a routine but going the basic DBT skills I did when I first made a decision to be in active recovery back in late 2003. For me those basic DBT skills include music and art. When I talk about music not only do I mean listening to music but playing music on my flute. Music has been a major part of my recovery. In regards to art and my recovery, coloring is the most basic thing I did because it was and still is one of my go to skills.

As for other skills that I have learned along my road of recovery is mindfulness. Mindfulness has been quite helpful for me. Yes, it is challenging at times but it is quite helpful for me to get into a better state of mind. A better state of mind that helps me use other skills needed to continue on the road of recovery.

Since I am on the topic of mindfulness and going back to the topic of routine something that I have thought long and hard about as well as started doing as a part of my morning is a mindfulness exercise. Usually, the mindfulness exercise I do is on the Calm app. I find doing mindfulness first thing in the morning quite helpful to start my day.

As I was thinking of other ways to build more of a routine throughout the day is to incorporate various things that I know will be beneficial to me, my life and me building a life worth living. The things, I will be incorporate into my daily routine is of course doing some art by coloring, music by setting a time to practice my flute, doing mindfulness exercises at least three times a day, reading a book or comic for a minimum of thirty minutes a day, walking twice a day for at least mile and listening to one episode of a podcast that I am currently enjoying a day. I realize that listening to a podcast, practicing my flute, reading, coloring, walking and mindfulness doesn’t sound much of a routine but I know it will help me get back to where I want to be in addition to going to appointments and making other plans for the day.

I don’t have much more to say. I do want to thank you for reading my blog. It is greatly appreciated from my end of things. I am grateful for you my reader. I hope everyone has a good Monday and work week. Peace Out, World!!!

Plans for a Self-Care Saturday

Posted on by Gertie

Good Afternoon, World!!! My sleep has been off lately and it sucks. My sleep normally sucks but as of lately is sucks even more. It appears as of lately that I have only been able to fall asleep around dawn and sleep for my usual three to four hours. As much as I don’t like getting up before five in the morning, I would rather get up before five than start falling asleep around five or six. Well, this morning I fell asleep around five and then woke up at eleven thirty which means I had about six and half hours sleep but I feel like I have wasted most of my day with sleeping a good portion of the daylight.

I may feel like I have wasted my day away with sleeping most of the morning but realistically I know that I had planned to not do much today. My plans for today is mainly because I have realized that I need to do good self-care day for myself that are both intentional and spontaneous. I say both intentional and spontaneous because I need to be intentional about doing good self-care for myself today and have some spontaneity to it as well because you never know what opportunities that might come up for good self-care.

One of the things on my self-care list is to do some reading. I am wanting to catch up on reading the latest Wonder Woman comics. My grandpa bought me the last twelve issues of Wonder Woman because I haven’t bought them due to trying to save money for things that are more of a necessity like rent, food, meds and other such things than comic books. My grandpa realizes that keeping up to date on Wonder Woman comic books is a necessity for me and my mental health so he bought the (recent) issues I don’t have for me. Not only will be I reading Wonder Woman comics I will be also reading one if not both of the books I have been reading off and on for a couple of months. I love to read and hope that I can make a dent in reading at least one of the books I am reading.

Of course another thing I plan on doing today for good self-care is doing some art. Actually, the type of art I am planning on doing today is painting. The reason why painting is because I am trying to teach myself a few things a friend suggested I try when it comes to painting. Not only that another friend wants me to a paint a few things for her to sell at a farmers market she sells her art work at. She thinks some of my paintings will sell. I don’t paint to sell it, I paint to get out my emotions that I have trouble communicating with words.

While doing art and something I am doing now as I write this post is listen to a podcast. Specifically, a podcast on philosophy called “Philosophize This.” I started listening to this particular podcast a few years ago in hopes to catch up to the most up to the last episode but sadly I stopped listening. Not really sure why I stopped listening because I really enjoy “Philosophize This.” I learn a great deal from this podcast about philosophy. I learn my listening to it and then looking up the information I hear from the podcast. I listen to “Philosophize This” podcast on Spotify and am grateful that Spotify has podcast.

I don’t have much more to say. I want to thank you for reading my blog as it is greatly appreciated from my end of things. I hope you all have a great day and weekend. Peace Out, World!!!

Plans for the Weekend

Posted on by Gertie

Good Evening, World!!! It is the beginning of a three day weekend here in the United States. It is Memorial Day Weekend which is a holiday we honor the fallen men and women who fought for our country.

I plan on doing nothing on Saturday and Sunday. By nothing, I mean not leaving my apartment and spending some much needed alone time with my cat, Lil Gertie. I plan on doing some art. Not sure what genre’s of art yet but I will be doing some art. I will also be doing some reading. I will be reading a couple of books that I am in the middle of as well as some comic books. When reading comic books, I most likely will read Wonder Woman since I am a huge fan of Wonder Woman. So I plan on being a hermit this weekend.

On Monday which is Memorial Day here in the United States, I will be going to a service that honors our fallen soldiers at the request of my best friend who lives in another state but served our country. In fact when I told my grandpa what I was doing he wanted to attend with me as he too served in the military. He is “grateful and pleased” that I have decided to do this and hopes that I will make it a tradition for myself every year even if I am out of town. I informed him I would and make sure if I am on a trip that I would plan it to be part of the trip. My grandpa had a smile on his face when I said I would.

I think it is time to turn of the computer and do so reading and then some art. Thank you for reading my blog. It is greatly appreciated. Have a wonderful weekend. Peace Out, World!!!

Yucky Weather Type of Day

Posted on by Gertie

Happy Friday, World!!! It has been one of those yucky type of days weather wise to where you don’t want to do shit. Since it has been one of those days you want to stay inside, I have been doing just that. When the weather is yucky this time of year in Seattle, I tend to stay inside. I have been reading since my last post and have been enjoying it. I love to read and find any excuse to do so and today I am using the excuse of not so pleasant weather. In fact reading helps me a great deal. It helps me get out of my head and forget my problems. It is like a vacation without all the hassle of planning one.

Not only have I been reading, I am about to head out in this yucky weather to go to the free art class I am taking. The class I am taking is called Beginning Comics Storytelling and I am enjoying it. It is an eight week class and sadly I missed last week due to traveling out of town.  I love the fact that the art class I am taking involves things I enjoy which include; art, comics, storytelling and writing. I am grateful that my therapist suggested signing up for the program that offers the free art classes.

Speaking of my art class I need to get going so I can be on time to my class. I want to thank you for reading my blog. It is greatly appreciated from my end of things. I hope everyone has a good weekend. Peace Out, World!!!

A Goodnight Post

Posted on by Gertie

Hello, World!!! It is 11:30pm on Monday night in my corner of the world and I am getting sleepy so I think it is time to go to bed. Even though I am really sleepy and about to go to bed, I want to continue to read the book I am reading. In fact I have been reading since my last blog post. A cool thing is that my cat, Lil Gertie, has been cuddling with me for most of the last few hours as I read.

Tomorrow, I don’t have much going except that I have an appointment with my therapist. I really need to attend my appointment tomorrow (Tuesday) as I miss my appointment last week. We have a great deal to discuss as well as work on. My therapist is extremely cool and he cares about his clients or at least that has been my experience.

Other than seeing my therapist tomorrow, I don’t have much else planned. I think I am going to do the same thing I did today, tomorrow. That is to have scented candles burning with music blaring as I read or do some form of art. Not sure what type of art yet but some form of art. I figure if I do what I did today it will help me be more chill especially since I have a therapy appointment tomorrow. Therapy is never easy and if I am able do good self care tomorrow like I did today then I will be all good for the most part.

Good self care is an essential part of being in recovery. For me, what I did today is only part of my self care routine and is something I enjoy. Of course, I can’t always do today’s form of self care because of responsibilities I have to tend to but when I am able to do what I did today, it is well worth it. Self care looks differently for everyone and it changes daily.

I don’t have much more to say. Thank you for reading my blog as it is greatly appreciated from my end of things. I hope everyone has a good nights sleep. Goodnight and Peace Out, World!!!

A Lazy Type of Day

Posted on by Gertie

Good Evening, World!!! It has been a relaxing Monday. I haven’t really been productive today except with getting my meds and some wet cat food for my cat, Lil Gertie. Other than the two errands I did, I pretty much have been lazy today. It’s been a pretty lazy day because I really didn’t have much to do and the weather here in Seattle has pretty much sucked most of the day. It is nothing uncommon for Seattle’s weather to suck in early spring like today.

I have spent most of the day including now as I write this post is having some scented candles burning. This has been quite soothing to me today because the symptoms of my mental health symptoms have been high. For some reason it helps calm down the symptoms.

Another thing that I have spent most of the day doing is listening to music. There is something about music that soothes both the mind and the soul. Music is also something you can have on in the background doing other things.

As I was listening to music like I am now, I was also coloring. Coloring helps me be mindful of the current moment. Being mindful of the current moment is something that is greatly needed when things aren’t exactly going they way you want or need them to be. For me coloring helps with that.

While coloring my cat interrupted me on several occasions. It was obvious that she was doing her typical cat thing of wanting to “help.” So, when she wanted to “help,” I gave her the attention she was wanting and appeared content for another hour or two. I love my cat, Lil Gertie, so much.

Since I pretty much colored most of the day, I am going to read this evening once I am done writing this post. I love reading and it seems like an appropriate way to end to the a nice relaxing and lazy day. I really love reading. Reading helps me go to places, I would otherwise not be able to go. It also helps with my imagination which helps me forget my own problems and issues. Of course as I read, I will continue to have the music on and the scented candle burning and maybe my cat, Lil Gertie, will be willing to cuddle up with me as I read.

I don’t have much more to say. Thank you so much for reading my blog. It is greatly appreciated from my end of things. I hope everyone has a good rest of their Monday evening. Peace Out, World!!!

Yucky Weather + Nothing to Do = Lazy Weekend, Reading

Posted on by Gertie

Good Afternoon, World!!! Well, it is another weekend and I have realized it has been four days since I last blog and I apologize for that. I don’t really have any reasons or excuses of not blogging except, I really didn’t feel like it for some reason.

Well, as many of you if not all of you know, it is the weekend. What many of you may not know is that the weather people here in Seattle keep saying we are suppose to have a couple of spring storms this weekend. Storms that are suppose to bring strong winds, pouring down rain and possible power outages due to strong winds. I can tell you right now from looking out my window that the wind is blowing due to the trees moving but it is not raining even though the clouds in the distance look ominous.

Due the so called spring storms coming, I’ll be a bit on the lazy side this weekend. Specifically, I will be doing quite a bit of reading. I will be reading Yesternight by Cat Winters. Hopefully, I will be able to finish it this weekend. I am really enjoying the a book immensely. I highly recommend the book. I will also be reading comic books; specifically, Wonder Woman.

I really do not have much else to say. Thank you for reading my blog. It is greatly appreciated from my end of things. I hope everyone has a great weekend and is able to enjoy whatever you may doing. Peace Out, World!!!