Mental

"How could you rise anew if you have not first become ashes?"   ~Nietzsche~ In ancient Greek mythology, there was a creature that would live for a time, be consumed in flames and be born again from the ashes.  They never truly died.  These were the phoenix's. In life, there are times we feel like we have failed or are utterly deflated and defeated. When I first learned I could no longer work or go to school due to my disabilities, I felt useless.  I became dependent on social security (SSI- for my non-American readers, this is a government welfare program for disabled people with a strict wage limit). It felt like I had died.                             For a long while, I was able to live on the wages, as long as I had a roommate who also received wages of some kind.  There were times it was a very meager existence and there were times it was pleasant.  I was doing ...

Yesterday, there was a shooting at a library in Clovis, New Mexico. (Clovis had a population of 39,373,  as of  2017.) A 16 year old boy shot 6 people.  2 female victims died.  This is according to the 8 pm (NM time) press conference I listened to yesterday. Many people were responding to the news story as it developed and I noticed two things. 1) There were a lot of people using shocked language (i.e. OMG!) and 2) people, strangers not even from the area, were chiming in with opinions, some of which were very unkind or judgmental. A friend of mine is a teacher in the area and is directly affected by this.  Out of respect for her and others effected by this, I am not giving details of how she was or was not involved.   It is along these lines that I am writing this blog post. October 1, 2015, my world was flipped upside down by a shooting on my former campus. The speech and opinions of those who knew nothing of my school and the community...

Sometimes I feel like I am completely incapable of contributing to the world around me. I think of myself as broken and needy. After all, how can someone who needs so much help in life be helpful or useful to others? A long time ago a friend gave me a copy of the book "The Blessings of Brokenness: Why God Allows Us to go Through Hard Times"  by Charles Stanley. (The book is written from the Christian faith perspective but I think the general message of faith and taking the long view of the situation can apply to anyone.) This book really helped me see how the trials I go through are teaching me how to help other navigate their trials. Had I not struggled with being mental, I would not know the things I do about navigating mental health, social services, and other agencies.  I would not have the skills I do in self-care, mindfulness and Dialectic Behavior Therapy.  I might be much more judgmental and less kind to those who experience mental illness and the issues t...

“Being safe is about being seen and heard and allowed to be who you are and to speak your truth.” ~Rachel Naomi Remen~  Most of us know what the basic human needs are for survival.   1) Water.   2) Food.  3) Shelter.   Once these needs are met, we have what we need to live with on the most basic level of survival.   When our physical safety is met, we are able to move on to the emotional aspect of being human.   Not only do we need to be safe in the physical sense, we need to FEEL safe emotionally.   This goes beyond our basic needs. What is emotional safety? From what I have learned, there are two main aspects of emotional safety.  The first part is that our emotions are safe.  To me, this means that the emotional state I experience is not causing me harm or impeding my basic survival. It means that I have healthy levels of fear, sadness, anxiety, love, and anger.  In addition, emotional safety means that ...

"Isolation is the worst possible counselor." ~Miguel de Unamuno~     As some of you may already know, mindfulness is about paying attention, on purpose, in the moment.  That means listening to your body, your emotions, or thoughts with intention and focus or in some cases it means shutting out external stimuli.     One aspect of mental illness is usually intense emotions or feelings that persist and cause a disruption in the normal functioning of a person.  Many times, it is fear or depression, in some cases it is anger.  This is the way we typically think of people with mental illness. Something inside (emotion or thoughts or hallucinations) become too much to handle and this exhibits in mental illness.  What also happens with some forms of mental illness is that a disconnect can happen.     For me, this disconnect happens because I “shut down”.  I am hypersensitive much of the time.  Sound, light,...