Tag Archives: Writing

Looks Like a DBT Skills Type of Day

Posted on by Gertie

Good Afternoon, World!!! It is early afternoon in my corner of the world. I have been dealing with a bump in the road for about three to four weeks now. It appears to be turning into a funk but if I have anything to do with it, it won’t get into a funk. But for those of us who deal with mental health challenges sometimes the funk is beyond our control which sucks shit.

As the symptoms of my mental health challenges appear to be increasing I realize it needs to be a DBT skills type of day. I say this because I have been fighting of dissociation due to the PTSD I struggle with. I am also struggling with Depression symptoms. Specifically, isolation. I am also struggling with self harm urges and want to reassure you that I AM CURRENTLY NOT AT RISK of harming myself.

Considering the type of symptoms, I am currently struggling with I realize that using my DBT skills today is key to my recovery and long term goals. Specifically, the DBT skills I will be using all have to do with creativity. For me being creative is what helps me with the dissociation. In fact music will be a major part of my day. I say this as if I am not playing my flute or harmonica, I will be listening to music as I am creative in other ways. I plan on doing some art. I am actually going to be painting. I have an idea or two for what I want to paint. I love painting as it helps me expression my emotions when I am having difficulty expressing them in other ways as well as not knowing what emotion I am currently feeling. Another way, I plan on being creative is writing. In fact I am writing right now as I blog. However, I am planning on writing some poetry as I feel a few poems that may be on the horizon. Poetry is another way to express my emotions. Of course I will be listening to music as I paint and write like I am doing now. Like I mentioned earlier, I will be playing my flute or harmonica at some point today. Of course I will not be listening to music when I am playing one of my musical instruments.

I am thinking that I don’t have much more to say that I will go end the post especially since I am hungry and in need of making lunch. I want to thank you from the bottom of my heart for reading my blog. It is greatly appreciated from my end of things. I hope everyone has a great Saturday and weekend. Peace Out, World!!!

Everyday Inspiration; Day 8: Reinvent the Letter Format

Posted on by Gertie

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

Posted on by Gertie

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

Posted on by Gertie

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

Posted on by Gertie

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 4: A Story In A Single Image

Posted on by Gertie

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

Posted on by Gertie

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

Posted on by Gertie

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.

Everyday Inspiration; Day 1: I Write Because…

Posted on by Gertie

I write because of the fact that people still need hope that recovery from a mental health challenge is possible and in hopes that people who don’t have a mental health challenge, that I show them that we who suffer from a mental health challenge are just like everyone else. I hope to help in the stigma that goes along with mental health challenges.

When I initially started to blog, I wrote in hopes to help in the stigma that goes with having a mental health diagnosis as well as to be a beacon of hope to those who do have a mental health diagnosis that recovery is possible. I still write for the above mentioned reasons. I, however didn’t realize until a year into blogging that is therapeutic for me to write about my mental health challenges so that is yet another reason why I continue to write as well as blogging.

I really do enjoy writing on my blog and hope that it helps others just as much as it helps me. I really do appreciate those who read my blog as if it weren’t for my regular readers I don’t think I would continue writing on my blog.

Getting Back In The Habit

Posted on by Gertie

Hello, World!!! It is me again. I did end up fixing some spaghetti for dinner and invited my friend from across the hall from me in my apartment building over. My friend was extremely grateful for the invite, the food and the company. We discussed a lot of topics. One which is crucial for my mental health and that is structure. As we discussed structure it occurred to me that I need to blog more and make sure it is scheduled into my day. In fact I brought up my blog to my neighbor and how I need to schedule it into my daily life. He a great suggestion of having an accountability partner and he offered to be my accountability partner for my blog and I his accountability partner for him exercising.  So, not only did I have great company for dinner, it turned into something that will be helpful for me in regards to my blog and mental health, an accountability partner.

So, now that I had time to do the dishes and to think about how to get back into the habit of blogging on the regular basis, I realize that if I do one of WordPress’s courses, it would and will be helpful. I know this from past experiences. I am planing on doing a course I have already done and plan on starting it on Monday. I plan on doing the course “Finding Your Everyday Inspiration.” It is a twenty day course and I have been told that it takes at least twenty one days to create habit. Some studies say it can take sixty days to create habit but the twenty day course will help me either way with creating a habit of blogging on the more regular basis.

Another thing I will start doing in regard to blogging is doing a Weekly Plans post every Sunday and a Weekly Check-In every Saturday. The Weekly Plans will start tomorrow (Sunday) and the Weekly Check Ins will start back up on Saturday March 9th. When I did this in the past I found it helpful for my mental health as well as keeping you my reader interested in continuing to read my blog.

I don’t have much more to say about my plans to blog more as many of you have hear this before from me. The only difference this time around is that I have an accountability partner. Oh yeah, I am also scheduling it and putting it into my calendar. I hope this time I actually follow through with it and hope you all can hold me accountable as well.

I don’t have much more to say. Thank you for reading my blog. It is very much appreciated from my end of things. I appreciate each one of you for reading. Thank you again for reading my blog. Have great rest of you Saturday night. Peace Out, World!!!