Mental Wellness Challenge – 2022, March 10

Mental Wellness Challenge
2o22, March 10

Another week has slipped through my hands…

Last week I challenged y’all to:

  1. Listen two times more than you speak. Be intentionally attentive.
  2. Keep your opinions to yourself. Good bad or otherwise – let’s all work to turn the heat down on and in our experiences.
  3. Find some way to blow off some steam – sing, dance, shout, cry, laugh, run, jump, ride, drive, saw, scream, build, cook, sauté, soak, swim, hop, dip… do something to burn off some steam.

I sincerely hope that you did better than I did.

I did my best to listen more than I spoke.  While I wasn’t stellar – I did OK.

I worked really hard at keeping my opinions to myself.  Choosing to leave things alone when I found myself disagreeing about things that I have no influence over.  Keeping my thoughts to myself was quieting in one way and a little unsettling in another.

I did a little bit to relieve some pressure… my stomach/guts haven’t been very good at all – and its gnarly enough that it’s a gamble to go for a decent walk – so I yelled a little, screamed a little and ya, cried a little.  Being down mentally and not feeling well physically is getting to be incredibly frustrating.  I know that I am working on things – I’m not very patient though.


I don’t honestly feel a whole lot like sharing much this week.  Plain and simple – feeling stressed out and having to work harder than I usually do to stay even keeled.  Applying the boating metaphor – I’ve got a load on and I’m near my maximum draught… some would think that should yield some stability, but I’m running with my seas lapping at the gunwales… and to be honest – that’s a really uncomfortable place for me to be in…  To be sure – I’m at the ready with my bilge pumps and bailing pails…  uncomfortable but not untenable.  It’s a good thing I’m floating a Boston Whaler…

I am doing a decent job at staying away from the news.  I know there’s a war going in Ukraine, and I know its not good.  There isn’t a pile that I can do about it – and I am doing what little I can.  I know that letting myself obsess about the horrors over there won’t help me at all, and I’m 100% useless to anyone if I fall apart.  I still take a look – see that Russia has bombed a maternity hospital and flatly denies it, that this and that have happened.  It is so very unsettling.

The part of all of the war “stuff” that bothers me the most is the way the media sensationalize everything.  EVERYTHING.  I know there isn’t a whole lot of good things to focus on in a war, I get it, but the media obviously hypes every thing they can.  The other part of this is the Russian governments denial of fact.  Its “Trumpian” – FAKE NEWS…  and its so frustrating that there’s nothing I can do about it at all.  Other than to not support the purveyors of all of that stuff.


This week I’m going to challenge you to:

  1. Tell one person, every day, that you love them. You don’t have to use the words – you can show your caring through your actions – and perhaps that might even be more meaningful that just words.
  2. Give a friend, family member, family pet a huge hug. Feel loved.  Feel connected.
  3. Practice patience. Patience with yourself, patience with your family, patience with strangers.

I know this was short – but that’s it, I challenge you!