Forgetting Friends' Birthdays and World Mental Health Day

It is another slow day because I had no coffee today, but I'm learning codependency of that sort is dangerous, so I'm fragile with a dash of "fine". I watch everyone in my family get through their day without 'needing' it like I do. I need coffee, I need that rush, because without it my brain is too slow for hard work and too jittery for just lazying around. So, I get through my day in regret, having wasted it and feeling so unaccomplished, even if I have worked on something, and the only hope I've survived on most days is that I'm not alone in feeling like this. All those people liking the same memes, posting the same stories about having wasted yet another Sunday? They're like me in this struggle!

When I get into my bubble, for which I have apologised to my friends, I forget to call people, to text them back, to answer their call when the phone is ringing right next to me when I see it, or forgetting their birthdays because I've been submerged into layer upon layer of tiring pain I try to tear through again and again, slowly. They tell me I don't need to apologise, but I do anyway.

We're all like this, anyone reading this post is, anyway! We love movies, music, art, food, dancing, laughing... We have something that we love, and that makes us, whether we like to admit it or not, like each other... And in likeness we defy loneliness... On most days.

Today is World Mental Health Day and I would like to share something with you that I heard from someone I respect and admire.

"Nothing is insurmountable". I don't mean to compare and spell out people's pain. I'm only one person. But it truly does get better, you grow, you heal, your body knows that so well... Wounds heal, wounds clot close. It is what your body does best, among other things.

This is not really a ME post. It's an US post, an altogether post. I've worked hard on something I want to do, and I'm too busy thinking about all the new things I could do but some days a tiny scenario, overthought in multitudes, plays in my head and all the doubts I have had, other people have had, will have crawl all over my brain like red ants. But I am here to tell you it gets better. You learn, you grow, hope, and heal.

Here are a list of things I do, that make me feel good when I'm going through a rough patch, and in our likeness of humour and the love we have for things, I hope it helps you too. Personalising, trying things out and discovering what works best for you is the optimum way to go Dear Reader!

First things first, get out of bed the minute you feel like it. If you get that hint of productivity lurking around on a bad day? Get up, move around chase it. Immediacy is the best policy here. If you show no interest in chasing it, the universe just lets it fade away from you to somewhere else. Don't let it leave. Cherish the minute hints of happiness that you find... Like little remnant memories of a time long past. Smile if you feel like it, don't force it away because the sadness feels heavier. Feathers are mighty too, so let the tiny things help you take flight.

If you manage to get out of bed? Shower. Run a bath if you can, but I think just a simple shower and the feeling of being clean makes things better. Be careful about the temperature of the water though.

Eat. Get up, go out if you can, or just eat at home, cook for yourself. The biggest acts of self love are sometimes the simplest. Make yourself a meal, put on some clean sheets, play music you like, put on something you like and sit there eat. I've been trying to eat my meals without any television or entertainment in the background. It hasn't been easy, but it makes me feel better, like I'm appreciating the meal before me, and I like that fluttering feeling every once in a while. It feels weird in the beginning, but it becomes something... quite simple in its beauty.

Read a book. Pretty basic? Works for me. You can watch films too but the act of turning the page and feeling a book in your hand feels like a more personal experience. Even reading on a Kindle isn't that bad of a deal honestly, I love it. Since I cannot really go on a vacation to read my favourite books, I pretend like I do. I put on soothing sounds in the background or play that 8-hour fireplace video on YouTube. I have an app called White Noise that has a timer, and an abundance of sounds that make me feel whatever I want to feel. It soothes me and fills me up with calm, to the brim.  You can slide this and

Since Self Care is now the currency of our times for "taking time off". I'll tell you a few ways you can manage that without putting a hole in your wallet, money-wise.

Ask for samples. We are sensitive skin stans, I am anyway. So, go ahead, get your samples of products you want to try. I feel like it doesn't really have to be something new? The act of massaging my face and taking care of my body like it does for me, without my asking might I add, makes me feel love for my body and not just myself... Even though my body inhibits myself... But let's not go there.

Talk to people, express yourself online or just with people. If you make an effort, there will always be at least one person there for you. Put time into making you, more expressly YOU, and it'll always pay!

I love doodling and drawing and sketching, and making tiny dragon flies and plants!

I love dragon flies, and I don't know knitting. I saw this drawing on Etsy. It was too flippin' cute not to recreate

Decorating notebooks with silly drawings is another thing I adore.

Plants make me very happy, ofc I draw and doodle those too!

More plants, different pens! and my tiny money plant!

Plants with a Sakura white gel pen 10

Let go of toxicity. It might manifest in new ways and old, in varied parts of your life, both professional and personal. Don't try and change specific aspects of yourself for another person. That doesn't make you an automatic enemy to change and learning! But it does mean that you shouldn't drag yourself through something, when your heart isn't in it.

And if none of these work? There are always organisations you can talk to and Meditation apps that help you put things and your mind in a better place! Read about them, distract yourself and then occupy yourself with it!

The key is to acknowledge that some days, even the simplest of things make the most significant of changes. Remember your effort and what they're worth, and give appreciation where it's due. I'm lucky to have good people in my life and when I launched this website, all my friends celebrated it with me, like a milestone we had all successfully crossed.

I would like to say today, that I am grateful for the people in my life, and the people that have come my way, nobody has walked in and out of my life without teaching me something or the other. I'm grateful for all the things I couldn't appreciate then, because growing now? I can and so I do.

I love me, and the snuggly, temperamental love I have for myself.

#WorldMentalHealthDay #Mentalhealth #love #selflove #daysoff #rest #peaceofmind #doodling #musicforpeace #yourpriorities #selfcare #bodytomind #AllLove

Also, remember, self love is nothing but love you choose for yourself, so choose it in abundance because you're going to be with yourself more than anyone else in the world.