Earlier this week, I shared a post about the importance of feeling your feelings. Though there are a lot of ways you can do this, one of my favorite ways is through journaling. Journaling slows me down, and gives me time to collect my thoughts and figure out what I’m really feeling. It has a way of cutting through the noise and find what really needs to be shared. Even though I don’t journal as often as I’d like, I’d still recommend it for anyone who hasn’t tried it before. Here are five benefits of journaling!
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Building a Foundation of Memories
Last week, I wrote about the summer and how it’s flying by. This weekend, everything I did reminded me of the classic phrase “time flies when you’re having fun.” While it might feel our lives are moving faster than we can handle, that can also mean we’re doing things we enjoy and are with people we love. And even though those feelings of enjoyment can be fleeting, being intentional about feeling them can actually go a long way toward long-term health and wellness.
Continue readingI Am Not My Depression
There’s a phrase I see a lot when I am scrolling through social media or finding mental health resources on the Internet that always gets me thinking. The concept behind them all is that you (or I, or anyone) is “more than” their mental illness. So for instance, I am more than my depression; I am more than my anxiety; I deserve to be known for more than experiencing mental illness. And while I do think it’s a helpful approach to shrinking the stigma, this type of approach – overcoming obstacles, “beating” mental illness – is still difficult for me to manage. That’s why I want to offer an alternative phrase to use today, and see how folks like it.
Continue readingWhy My Mental Health Makes Me Feel Stagnant
It happens to all of us every now and then — at certain points in our lives, we feel stagnant. We feel like we’re doing too may things and not enough at the same time; we feel like we’ve accomplished so much, but at the same time haven’t accomplished anything of value. And while I have tried to figure out ways to deal with these feelings (keep an eye out for Thursday’s post!), today I wanted to write about how that makes me feel because here’s a secret: part of the reason I feel stagnant is because in many ways, my mental health is improving. And while that can be good, I don’t know what to do with that.
Continue readingFive Ways To Cope With Limitations
As I wrote about earlier this week, it’s been a very interesting road to coming to terms with some of my limitations. Identifying my limitations (whether they’re physical, mental, emotional, etc.) is an important part of growth I’m coming to terms with. But the next step is more challenging: how do I cope with these limitations? How do I manage my feelings around them so they don’t make me upset, annoyed or depressed? I found five things I’m going to start trying in an effort to cope with some of my limitations, and I hope these offer some help to anyone looking to do the same!
Continue readingWhy I Can’t Stand Feeling Tired
It happens to all of us often – several times a week, I get stark reminders that I’m only human. Sometimes those are conscious reminders, but many times the reminders are because of my physical limitations. Like many people, one of the biggest reminder of my physical limitations is that I get tired. I push myself physically, mentally, emotionally, etc., and by the end of the day (or few days) I am exhausted. But because of my mental health challenges, I have a lot of negative connotations with feeling tired, and it’s something I’ve come to loathe. Here’s how I figured this out – and how to figure out what’s next.
Continue readingAre We Really Talking About Mental Health?
I am tired. Tired of a lot of things, but today I’m sharing one specific reason I’m tired. I’m tired of seeing mental illness get weaponized. Tired of seeing mental health being brought up in bad faith, in harmful, disingenuous and shameful ways that undo the work people have put in for decades to shrink the stigma surrounding mental health. And because I’m bouncing back between rage and sadness (which is just what it is right now) over this and have been for sometime, I just want to express those feelings today, because they need to get out.
Continue readingWinding Up Versus Winding Down
Every so often, I deal with situations or moments that I’ve come to recognize as “winding myself up.” I know that it’s a pretty well-known phrase and this happens to a lot of people, but I wanted to talk about my experience with getting wound up because I think it’s a unique insight into what it’s like to experience anxiety. Even though it can be extremely easy to get myself wound up, it’s much, much harder for me to calm myself down in a similar fashion. So today I ask – why is it so much harder to get wound up than to settle down?
Continue readingA Look at Mental Health in the LGBTQIA+ Community During Pride Month 2022
For the past few years, I’ve done research surrounding mental health and the LGBTQIA+ community during Pride Month. I think it’s important to understand what mental health challenges exist for unique communities and groups of people, and these statistics help paint that picture. There is a lot to unpack here, but one thing is clear – there are many, many LGBTQIA+ people, both youth and adults, who are unable to get the mental health care they need and deserve.
Continue readingI Took Time Off And It Felt So Good
I’ll be honest – it wasn’t my plan to not write a post last week. I’d had a few things planned but never hit the button to schedule them, so they didn’t happen. But for the first time in a long time, I took a vacation where I was totally, completely and 100 percent offline for a whole work week. And let me tell you…it was wonderful. And I’m writing to you today not to advocate for vacation (which I think you already know is great), but to make the point that actually being offline – whether that’s personally, professionally, etc. – is something that’s sorely needed every once in a while for our mental health.
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My Brain's Not Broken 