Mental Wellness Challenge

2022, November 3

Hey there…

My last challenge went something like this:

1. 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.
2. 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 simple guided mindfulness exercise if you like.)
3. Try to get to bed a little bit earlier for the next week… maybe just 20 or 30 minutes… give yourself just that little bit extra rest… Maybe swap twenty minutes from your morning to pillow time – that will give you 20 minutes more in the morning to enjoy the start of your day.

I hope you had great success with my challenge.

On cutting myself some slack… This is a part of my experience that I have been better at… Maybe that’s just age???  Anyway – I’m learning that I’m OK the way I am… Sure – I have stuff that I would prefer I be or do better at – but I’m getting better at just being me.

I have been working on “Being” more.  Not just lately – but for a long time.  For me – Being is a bit of a weird space… I want to be doing…

I managed an earlier bed time 4 nights in the past week.. I know that I feel more “awake” when I have had a little more sleep… the other piece is that I enjoy not having to race in the mornings… I can take a little more time to get rolling at the start of my day.

I’ve been thinking about what I want to share about this week… and I am a little stuck with what… I feel a little like my sharing is round and round a bit… and I’d love to have something super creative or inspiring to share… but the reality is – life is OK right now… and I don’t have anything spectacular to put into words… I suppose – that is somewhat like – No news, is good news… Nothing terrible to report…

I have been doing a bunch of thinking about – my circumstances, my experience….

The pieces aren’t new to me… Like – how I know I am “sorta depressed” but mildly.  This is the persistent depressive disorder…  I’ve experienced major depression so many times in my life that I have this cloud – not unlike Pigpen in the Charlie Brown cartoons or Schleprock from the Flintstones.  Well, sort of but not exactly… Pigpen toted a cloud of dust around with him and Schleprock was a perpetually gloomy and depressed character with exceptionally bad luck… and I’m not exactly either of those…

This persistent depression does hang round like a cloud… and it does colour or tint my experience… just like dust would… Unlike poor ol’ Schleprock – I don’t ALWAYS proclaim – “Woe is me”… although I do know that I can sometimes be like that… I can and do take a more positive outlook on things.

I know that if don’t check or challenge the persistent depression, it will drag me down.  The persistent depression isn’t an albatross about my neck…  While PDD does shade my experience – I’m aware of it… and I do take steps to create a healthier outlook.  Tough sometimes… difficult to not get discouraged because of the pretty much constant extra effort involved.

I suppose – its not a pile different than someone with a physical disability which hinders their mobility.  They have to work harder at getting through their “everyday” than folks without the disability.

So, I keep on, keeping on.

I’m grateful for the freedoms I have in this awesome country I live in.

I’m grateful for the friends I have and the support they give.

I’m grateful for the opportunity to support others too.

I’m grateful that I was fortunate and got some top notch coaching from some pretty incredible mental health professionals along the way… if not for these very talented folks, I’d likely be totally lost in some super dark, lonely, scary place… they helped me learn about myself.

I’m grateful for so many, many things…

This gratitude is a tool that I use to help clear away the dusty gloom that PDD is.

This week I challenge you to:

1. Read something you wouldn’t normally read. Give your brain a change.
2. Eat something you wouldn’t normally eat.
3. Talk to someone you haven’t spoken with in a long time.

…Change your mind…

That’s it – I challenge you.