Mental Wellness Challenge 2023, May 11 I hope the last few weeks have been very good to you. I experienced something over the past few days that I hadn’t/haven’t had to walk through for a long, long time.  The past week I experienced a full blown, 100%, ‘no way in hell…’ anxiety/panic attack. This was precipitated by my irrational fear or phobia of dentists.  I had an angry tooth and...

Mental Wellness Challenge 2023, April 27 You can lead a horse to water, but you can’t make it drink.   Some folks will just go through life pushing doors marked pull. …I’ve been rubbing up against those two ideas the past while.  I have had interactions with folks that ask for help – but then, when the help is offered – the folks asking ignore the help… I recognize that these...

Mental Wellness Challenge 2023, April 06 There’s a line in Desiderata that goes something like –“Avoid loud and aggressive persons; they are vexatious to the spirit. If you compare yourself with others, you may become vain or bitter, for always there will be greater and lesser persons than yourself.” I’m in a struggle with that lately… actually – I struggle with this piece a lot. I...

Mental Wellness Challenge 2023, March 30 Another week flies by… I challenged myself and you to some thinking and some doing…  So – I’ll check in with how I did on my challenges…  They went something like: Tell someone who supports you, that you appreciate them. Have a little look the way you see your interactions with the world… do your attitudes come from a “position” or from...

Mental Wellness Challenge 2023 - March 23, 2023 WOW – its been a long time since I have posted.  I won’t say sorry – because I needed the space… and I needed to look after myself in other ways… so I did. That was my last challenge – give yourself some space.  That sounds like a simple thing to do, but it’s a difficult thing for me to sometimes.  I hope you were able to take the...

Outofthedarkness Blog For 1-27-2023 I have to change my writing for my blog – I am still going to challenge myself at the end of each blog, but I need to turn my blog back inward again.  My ‘dry spell’ for my writing and my blogging isn’t the lack of things to write about or share… it isn’t the writing really at all.  Anyway – I am just going to write and see where this all ends...

Mental Wellness Challenge 2022, December 01 I haven’t posted here in a while.  A month basically. I’ve been doing some writing and thinking – just not stuff that I can really blog about… hope that’s ok. I should mention that I am considering “giving up the blog”… not the writing piece or the sharing my journey with others, but just the “OUTOFTHEDARKNESS.CA” piece…  A piece...

Mental Wellness Challenge 2022, November 3 Hey there… My last challenge went something like this: Cut yourself some slack. Give yourself some space to accept that you don’t have to be perfect… that you’re just fine the way you are. Try to take 10 minutes each day to just be. To practice being… not thinking, not evaluating, not weighing facts… just being.  (You can look online for a...

Mental Wellness Challenge 2022, October 27 Hey there… Last week I challenged you to: Perform an act of service. Do something unexpected for someone else. Reflect a little on someone in your life that maybe deserves a “Thank you for being there.” And then tell that person that you appreciate them… Remember someone from your life that isn’t there any more. Give that person a little of...

Mental Wellness Challenge 2022, October 20   It’s been a long stretch since I have posted here.  I didn’t give up or quit – I was just in a place where sharing was too much and/or maybe sharing the stuff I was experiencing would have done others more harm than good. It’s taken me a long time to set to writing this post.  To decide what to include and what not to include.  I’ve...