When I watch movies, there’s a specific type of scene that always makes me jealous. Before we see our characters go off on their adventure, we sometimes see a morning routine montage – a quick-cutting, crisp shot-by-shot look at how these people get going in the morning. Maybe it’s because we know their world is about to change or because of the way it sets the scene, but that peek into a character’s life is such a great way to get to know our heroes of this story. But on occasion, it also makes me wonder – why can’t my days have more of that sort of rhythm?
Continue readingTaking Pressure Off My Coping Techniques
Over the years, I’ve added many coping techniques and strategies to my mental health toolkit. While these techniques have provided a lot of support on my mental health journey, they’ve also created some problems. I realized I was putting too much pressure on my coping techniques, and that’s what I want to share today.
Continue readingWe All Deserve Nice Things
Today’s post might be short, but that’s because the message is simple. Over the weekend, I checked off one of the biggest things currently on my bucket list – I saw my favorite musical on Broadway. And even though it still makes me uneasy to gush on this blog about things I love (here’s hoping I can get more comfortable with that!), I want to share some thoughts about what came to mind when I’d realized I’d done something that made me incredibly happy.
Continue readingSpring Is Here! Kind Of. Maybe?
As I write this, I am looking out the window to another 50-degree, so-so winter day. But I don’t care because to me, March means one big positive for my mental health – the no-good, rotten, very bad days of winter are almost at an end. And even though spring isn’t “officially” here yet (at least not according to the calendars I looked up), I’m an early adopter of spring because of what it represents and what it can mean for our mental health.
Continue readingBreaking Old Habits and Building New Ones
After writing my post earlier this week, my mind drifted to the topic of habits. If I’m being honest, I was never too interested in forming and practicing habits. I understand their value and how they can help people improve their lives – what I didn’t like was the attitude I created toward my habits, especially in the past two years. Almost every habit I’ve created since March 2020 has been to cope with the pandemic, and it’s evolved into a mix of good habits and (mostly, in my opinion) bad ones. So how can I undo this change and reset?
Continue readingWhen Bad Habits Hide in Plain Sight
When it comes to marking moments and memories in my life, I tend to reflect whenever a significant marker comes around. I think about what the world was like in that moment being marked and how I fit into that specific moment. Sometimes I pick and choose what to reflect on, which is what happened last week. Though I haven’t quite sat with the March 2022 of it all (yes, that’s two years of pandemic for us in the States), I’ve come to realize that in those past two years, I’ve created many habits. While some of them have been positive, I’ve also developed negative habits as a result of the pandemic that have increased my anxiety and fear. With the massive way the world has changed in recent years, how can we make sure our habits help us and not hurt us?
Continue readingThe Value of Taking Baby Steps Toward Mental Wellness
One of the most exciting things I’ve experienced was watching my niece learn to walk. It didn’t happen overnight; there was a long time of her getting comfortable at different stages of scooting, standing and moving, but one day it all came together, and she hasn’t stopped moving since. I thought about her today because it made me realize just how important those little steps are – a fitting metaphor for dealing with mental health challenges.
Continue readingWhat Does Depression Look Like? More Than You Think
Recently, I came to terms with the fact that I’ve been experiencing a tricky bout of depression for the past month or so. It wasn’t easy to spot, and even though I’ve lived with depression for almost a third of my life, I couldn’t recognize it for a long time. However, it took putting some dots together (and a very patient partner who gives as much support as she can) for me to realize I was living under a fog of depression.
Continue readingMental Health Breakdown: What is Compartmentalization?
Language is one of the most important aspects of mental wellness, and how we talk about mental health can go a long way toward shrinking the mental health stigma. This recurring feature on the blog will tackle different words and phrases that I use when talking about my mental health. I know that other people use this language as well, and defining some of the more relatable terms can help others understand what it means, instead of having to explain it constantly. Today, I’ll be talking about compartmentalization.
Continue readingThe Challenge of Recognizing Our Shortcomings
I don’t know when I realized this, but I’m awful at compartmentalizing things. For a long time, I didn’t even know what it meant to compartmentalize things and when I did learn, I wasn’t sure how to put it into practice. It can be very frustrating to discover you’re not good at something, and that frustration can grow even more when you realize it’s holding you back from wellness in an area of your life. Here’s how I handle it, and how I deal with the challenge of recognizing my shortcomings.
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My Brain's Not Broken 