Tag Archives: Recovery

Everyday Inspiration; Day 7: Let Social Media Inspire You

Posted on by Gertie

Good Morning, World!!! Today’s assignment is to let social media inspire a post. We were given a choice of five tweets from Twitter to write about. Sadly, none of those tweets from Twitter have inspired me to write. So, I thought I would go to my twitter account to see if I could get inspired from any tweets there and again wasn’t inspired. Since I wasn’t inspired by anything on Twitter I decided to go to Facebook.

As far as Facebook I really wasn’t inspired. I wasn’t inspired from Facebook because of the anger and hate from various people especially in Facebook groups. It seems that most of the hate and anger involves politics. People think that they can be cruel when it comes to being on the internet and social media. People wouldn’t say most of the shit face to face to someone as they do on social media. The worst topic that invokes peoples anger and hate is politics. Politics get people heated and when people get heated they tend to not be able to listen to the other persons side. Not being heard can cause even more anger. I just get aggravated when people start attacking each other especially if it is something people wouldn’t say or do face to face.

Well, I guess social media did inspire me to write about something but it is a topic I need to not discuss write now because I am livid about some things I saw on Facebook. I think I am going to end this blog post. I want to thank you for reading my blog from the bottom of my heart. It is greatly appreciated from my end of things because if it wasn’t for you my reader, I don’t think I would continue to blog. So, thank you again for reading my blog. I hope you all have a great day. Peace Out, World!!!

Nothing But An Isolating Type of Week

Posted on by Gertie

Good Afternoon, World!!! I have isolating since Monday and that is never a good thing for me. I was suppose to have therapy yesterday but didn’t go. I rescheduled for today and didn’t go again today. I am just waiting for my therapist and I to reschedule for some time this week which I don’t think I will have a session due to how busy he is and my own personal schedule. I personally do want to reschedule for this week but realize the reality of the situation of being able to do so.

Since I have been isolating, I have been doing some things to keep myself busy. I, of course have been spending time with my cat, Lil Gertie. Lil Gertie has been a saving grace for me especially the last few days. She is an amazing cat and I love her so much.

The one other thing that has been helping me a great deal is art. I have been color and painting. I am really happy that I have not stopped doing art because I fear that my depression is getting bad. When my depression gets bad I loose all interest in things. Art is helping me with expressing my emotions.

I do not have much more to say in this blog post. I want to thank you from the bottom of my heart for reading my blog. It is greatly appreciated from my point of view. I hope you all have a wonderful day. Peace Out, World!!!

Everyday Inspiration; Day 6: The Space to Write

Posted on by Gertie

Hello, World!!! Today’s assignment for WordPress’s Finding Everyday Inspiration course is asking about the space we write in. For me the space I write in varies on a number of factors. It various on what type of thing I am writing as well as what type of mood I am in and what I use to write with.

For instance when I write in regards to my blog I write on my laptop which means, I am usually home. There are times when I am not home when I blog and usually that is when I am out of town so I most likely would be in a hotel room when I blog if out of town. When I write for my blog it is always via my laptop.

As far as other types of writing, I really think it all depends on what type of mood I am in. When it comes to writing in regards to journaling, I have a journal, I write in and most of the time write with a pencil. I am not sure why I prefer pencil over pen when journaling but I do. When it comes to where I journal it all depends on if I am needing to journal to help me regulate my emotions and if I have the place and emotional space to do so. Most of the time I find a place to do so. I usually like to journal outside as it gives me a different perspective on things.

When it comes to writing poetry I usually do it with a paper and pencil or on my laptop. Using paper and pencil or my laptop makes it easier to changes things in the poem if it doesn’t seem right to me. When it comes to where I write, I think it is dependent on what inspires me to write poetry. I do have a journal I keep my poetry in and that is when I transfer it to the journal in pen.

As far as writing letters goes, I think it all depends if it is a business letter or personal letter. When it is a business letter I type it on my laptop. When it is a personal letter I tend to write it with a paper and pen. Sometimes I even write on a postcard. I tend to write letters from home or in a hotel if I am out of town. When I get a chance to travel out of town any where even if its only two hours from where I live I like to write letters and/or postcards to people as it is always nice to receive snail mail.

The latest type of writing includes a combination of drawing, coloring and writing in the form of comics. I start out with paper and a pencil just in case I make a mistake or want to change something. After I am done with the comic, then ink it and color it. I started doing comics when I took an art class about comics. In fact doing comics is another form of art for me to do that includes writing. As to where I do this is dependent on my mood and what stage of the comic I am doing.

Before, I end this post and assignment, I was asked as apart of the assignment to ask you my reader to give me suggestion via my contact page on what you would like me to write about. It is for a future assignment. It would be greatly appreciated if you could help me out on this as it is for an assignment and it would also help me out for future post that is not related to an assignment. I would like to know what you would like me to write about even when I am not doing a WordPress course.

I do not have much more to say in the post. I am sorry I was so long winded in this post but apparently I was inspired about what I write and where I write. I want to thank you for reading my blog. It is greatly appreciated from my end of things. Again, thank you for reading my blog. Peace Out, World!!!

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

Posted on by Gertie

You gain strength, courage, and confidence by every experience in which you really stop to look fear in the face. You are able to say to yourself, ‘I live through this horror. I can take the next thing that comes along.’ -Eleanor Roosevelt-

A couple of days ago my friend and I were discussing our favorite quotes and we started talking about how Eleanor Roosevelt had some pretty awesome quote. I shared with my friend one of my favorite and why and my friend did the same. The above quote happens to my friends favorite Eleanor Roosevelt quote right now as they are just climbing out of some difficult shit. I really like the quote because I can relate to it in many aspects of my life. One of which is due to the trauma I experienced as a child. Another is that as someone who experiences mental health challenges I face many fears people without mental health challenges don’t face and I face them head on. That means for me that this quote from Eleanor Roosevelt is a recovery based quote or at least that is how I see it.

I don’t have much more to say but I want to thank you for reading my blog. It is greatly appreciated from my end of things. Again, thank you for reading my blog. Peace Out, World!!!

Everyday Inspiration; Day 4: A Story in a Single Image

Posted on by Gertie

This image doesn’t inspire me to “write a story” but it does inspire me keep doing what I am doing when it comes to keeping myself both mentally and physically healthy. When I first saw this image I am inspired to go out and enjoy nature especially since I live in the beautiful Pacific Northwest. For me this image inspires me to make plans to do what I enjoy especially since it is summer and easy to do the things I enjoy in nature.

In fact this image reminded me of the plans I already have planned to do with friends. Plans to go do a day hike every week with friends who like to do day trips but no time do go on multi-day trips to go camping. I also have plan to go on two camping trips with friends and we plan on going hiking then.  Going camping and/or hiking helps me a great deal. It helps me get into nature so I can connect to nature.

I live in the city. In fact the city I live in is Seattle. Yes, it is easy to connect with nature in Seattle due to all the awesome parks we have but going out to the middle of the forest connects you to nature that city parks can not do. So, for me going hiking and/or camping helps me connect with nature. Being in nature helps me reconnect to what is important to me and my recovery with mental health challenges. Its like a type of therapy for me.

Even though I already have plans to go camping twice this summer and weekly hiking trips, I am wanting to make plans with fellow peer counselors. Plans to at least go for a day hike. I think after this post I will reach out to fellow peer counselors to see if at least a handful of us would be able to schedule at least a day hike. So this image inspired me to get people together to at least do a day hike.

I don’t have much more to say in this post. I do want to thank you for reading my blog. It is greatly appreciated from my end of things. Peace Out, World!!!

A Random Sunday Evening Post

Posted on by Gertie

Good Evening, World!!! It is yet another Sunday evening in my corner of the world. I have not really done much today. I am not sure why I have not done much but am grateful that it has been a lazy day for me as it seemed like it was something I needed.

I may have not done much today but I have been productive in little ways today. I did go with a friend who happens to be a neighbor to a local Catholic church to have a free meal. There is Catholic church in my neighborhood that puts on a free meal for homeless and low income people every Sunday afternoon. The cool thing about this meal is that it is not a requirement to go a church service to be able to eat the meal like it is at some other churches around the area. The other cool thing is that this particular Catholic church has been doing this free church for over forty years and there a couple of volunteers that have been volunteering since the church started doing the free meals. In fact many of the volunteers have been volunteering more that twenty years. I think it is extremely cool that people are willing to help low income and homeless individuals. I am grateful to be able to attend this free meal every Sunday with friends who live in my apartment building. This one free meal a week helps me a great deal to save money. Money that I need for other things.

Speaking of money and before I go on to the other semi productive things I have done today, I want to remind you my reader of something. As you might be aware of is that I have advertisements on my blog. Yes, I am well aware of how annoying they are but every time one is clicked on that fully loads I make a cent or two from you just clicking on it. The only way I get paid is when it accumulates to a hundred dollars. I am now on my second round of trying to accumulating one hundred dollars as I finally hit one hundred dollars last month (June). So, it will be highly appreciative if you could click on advertisements so I can make money. I hope to get to another one hundred dollars by the end of November so I can buy holiday presents for family and friends.

Okay, enough with my begging for you to click on to the annoying advertisements for me to earn money and on to what else I have done today. After getting home from the free lunch at the Catholic church I spent the rest of the day doing art and listening to a podcast about philosophy. The type of art I did was coloring a poster for my therapist and painting something for a friend. I listened to a podcast about philosophy because I am really getting into the subject and love learning about it. I am grateful that I am into philosophy and learning about it as do my art work. Being able to learn as I do something creative is always a good thing for me even if some don’t consider it as being productive.

I do not have much more to say without repeating myself so I am going to end this blog post. I want to thank you from the bottom of my heart for reading my blog. It is greatly appreciative from my end of things. Again, I want to thank you for reading my blog. I hope everyone enjoys the rest of their Sunday evening. Peace Out, World!!!

Everyday Inspiration; Day 3: One-Word Inspiration; Hope

Posted on by Gertie

HOPE:

NOUN:

1) A feeling of expectation and desire for a certain thing to happen.

2) A feeling of trust.

VERB:

1) Want something to happen or be the case.

“Hope” is the word I chose to give me some inspiration to write about for my “assignment” for Finding Everyday Inspiration. I have chosen hope mainly because if it wasn’t for hope I wouldn’t have chosen to be in active recovery. If I didn’t choose to be in recovery, I wouldn’t have gone into an intensive outpatient Dialectical Behavior Therapy (DBT) program and become the person I am today. Granted, I am not in the best of places at the moment regarding my mental health however I am in a better place than I was in when I started being in active recovery. Then again I have a better grasp on reality and have more hope and holding on to that hope. If it wasn’t for hope I don’t think I would be alive and am grateful that I have hope.

Hope is something I hold on to like it’s going out of style. I want to thank you for reading my blog. It is greatly appreciated from my end of things. Peace Out, World!!!

Plans for a Simple Saturday

Posted on by Gertie

Good Afternoon, World!!! I didn’t sleep last night and ended up falling asleep at around dawn and then woke up around twelve noon in my corner of the world. I really wish I didn’t have insomnia as it doesn’t help me living a productive life and a life worth living.

My plans for today are simple as I know myself all too well. With me knowing myself all too well means that having simple plans for today will help me with dealing whatever may come my way. I am pretty much planning on staying home and being a hermit. Being a hermit can be a good every now and then for me.

Part of me being hermit today means, I get to spend time with my cat, Lil Gertie. It is always a good thing being able to spend time with my cat. I enjoy being able to cuddle with her. In fact the I enjoy that she sits on my chest or lap because it puts me into a good state of mind. Being in a good state of mind helps me with making wise mind decisions.

Another thing I plan on doing while being a hermit today is some art work. The type of art work I plan on doing is both coloring and painting. I plan on doing both types of genres is because there will be points in time while I need to have the paint dry before adding to the art work so this is where the coloring comes in. I am thinking I might even add some collaging to my paintings but it is dependent on how the paintings come out.

As I do some art work, I will be listening to podcast. I will be listening to two different podcast. One on philosophy and the other on mythology. I find both subjects are fascinating to me and tend to have some very cool similarities.  Similarities I will share in another post sometime soon after I educate myself more on both subjects. One of the cool things I do after listening to any episode of a podcast, I look up the information that was discussed and I feel like this helps me educate myself on the subject. Ultimately educating myself helps me with communication skills.

How does educating myself help with my communication skills, you ask. It helps with my communication skills because I now have new things to discuss with other people. Being able to discuss new things with people helps build relationships. Relationships that could be a good thing for someone like me who struggles with isolation.

I do not have much more to say in this blog post. I need to go eat something so I am going to end this blog post. Before I end this blog post I want to thank you for reading my blog. It is greatly appreciated from my end of things. Again, thank you for reading my blog. I hope everyone enjoys their weekend. Peace Out, World!!!

Everyday Inspiration; Day 2: Write a List; Things I’ve Learned

Posted on by Gertie

Things I’ve Learned and Why I Learned Them

  • To play the flute; I learned to play the flute in elementary school. I started out playing the trombone but my arm was too short even with an extension so my best friend talked me into playing the flute.
  • DBT (Dialectical Behavior Therapy) Skills; I needed to learn DBT skills for the reason that I didn’t learn good coping skills growing up and DBT skills helped me learn better ways to cope with everyday situations as well as how to deal with the symptoms of my mental health diagnosis. In fact learning DBT skills is what helped start my recovery with mental health challenges.
  • Painting: I love art and one of my neighbors is teaching me to paint. He started teaching me to paint when he found out that I enjoy coloring as well as collaging.
  • Philosophy: I have found a new love passion about philosophy and have learned a great deal over the last few months. I started learning about philosophy while listening to a podcast when the podcast was suggested to me. After each episode I then do my own research on what was discussed in the episode. In fact I am still learning about philosophy.

Everyday Inspiration; Day 1: I Write Because…

Posted on by Gertie

I write for several reasons. Reasons that are personal to me in which I will share with you. I started my blog for several reasons. Reasons that I have mentioned many times before and will share with you again in this post and most likely again in future post.

I originally started blogging for two reasons. The first reason was and continues to educate those who do not live with a mental health challenge in hopes to help end the stigma for those who have a mental health diagnosis as well as to show those who do not have one that we who do have one can live productive lives. The second reason why is to give people who do live with a mental health challenge that there is hope and that recovery is possible. Hope is one of the things that is needed for those who live with a challenge and it my hope that I can be a beacon of hope to those who are struggling.

Little did I know when I started blogging that it would be helpful to me. Helpful in ways I never imagined and am beyond grateful for. Blogging has helped realize how to find a voice that I didn’t realize I had. It helped me find life long friends. Blogging has been a type of therapy for me. It also helped me an advocate for others as well as myself.

So as you can see blogging about mental health is why I write. I continue to write on my blog because of you my reader, my audience. If it wasn’t for you I don’t think I would continue to to blog.

I don’t have much more to write about on this post as I feel like I got straight to the point. I want to thank you may audience for reading my blog. If it weren’t for you I wouldn’t be writing. Thank you from the bottom of my heart. Peace Out, World!!!