This might have been my weirdest year yet. My word for 2022 was Clarity, and I set some goals but tried to take it very easy on myself. Check out how I started the year here, and read on to see how the year shook out… CLARITY I wanted this word to impact multiple layers of my life. I was hoping to get clear on work, life, finances, goals… I was hoping to clear clutter and clear outdated expectations… As often happens with picking these focus words, they often don’t work out the way I expect. Did getting TMS therapy Read More
Tag: Given Context
50 Things I Am Proud Of
When my TMS therapy started to kick in, the first thing I wanted to do was to write more. I checked out a couple of books on writing from the library and I’m using my blog as a platform to complete some of the tasks. You may be familiar with The Artist’s Way, and one of the books, The Right to Write, is by the same author, Julia Cameron. The other book was suggested by a group that worked through a JC book together, it is Writing as a Path to Awakening by Albert Flynn DeSilver, which is designed to Read More
100 Things That I Love – in no particular order
My oldest kid My youngest kid My big, crazy family My pets My awesome friends My tattoos James Taylor Heavy Metal music All the weird alternative bands of my youth Autumn Craft Fairs Thanksgiving Eureka Springs Concerts Historic Hotels The 2014 Prius V My iPhone My Dragontree Apothecary Dreambook and Planner The internet Giving Free Mom Hugs Talking to friends I have had for 30+ years Cheese Pens, markers, Sharpies Having my own linktree (anyone can have one) 🙂 Writing Reading Talking about books/book clubs Trying to be crafty Coffee “Riding around with the radio up and the windows down” Read More
Changing Seasons
I am starting this post on Labor Day, the unofficial end of Summer. The mornings are starting to be a little cooler; the oppressive heat doesn’t last as long. Kids are back in school, and Halloween decorations are making an early appearance. The seasons are changing. This is my favorite shift of the year. My mood usually starts to pick up, and I look forward to milestones in the last months of the year. l have been doing some writing exercises, and one of them suggested writing about “I love fall leaves.” I am going to share what I wrote Read More
Adventures with TMS – Part 1
The past few years have been a struggle. You can probably relate. My mental health has gone from alright to bad to worse. It feels like my brain has literally abandoned me. I’ve been diagnosed with a slew of things, one of which is “treatment resistant depression,” which simply means that nothing helps. This is where it comes in handy to have a popular therapist who is very busy with lots of patients. When something works for someone else, I get to hear about it, which is how I heard about TMS. Keep reading below or watch my daily Tiktoks Read More
2022 First Half Update
We are at the halfway point of the year, and it’s time to check in. Normally, this would be an update on where I am with my goals for the year. This post will encompass some of that, but it will mostly be me talking about where I am now, how I got here, and where I’m trying to go next. This hasn’t been a very productive year, and we all know that our worth is based on our ability to produce, right? So this will be me trying to work through a lot of that. I have been off Read More
My Favorite Things – Mental Health Edition
May is Mental Health Awareness month. My mental health is not good. To even say that is an understatement. I wish I could blog more, but right now one post ever couple of months is the best I can do. If I told you how many times I worked on and edited this post, it would be quite embarrassing. This post is a shameless self-promotion by way of sharing Amazon Affiliate links, but it is also a real list of things I use to help me through the dark days of a “mental health crisis” as one doctor called it… Read More
Goals Update – End of First Quarter 2022
This is only my second blog of 2022. I haven’t written since I set out my goals for the year. I knew this would be a challenging year, but I didn’t know how truly difficult it would prove to be. I’m still in the midst of a mental health crisis, formerly known as a good old nervous breakdown. I am tempted to say this is my second in two years, but honestly, this has been ongoing since August 2019. I won’t dwell here and now on how it’s really NOT “okay to not be okay,” but I want to document Read More
2021 Year in Review
My blog has been silent for a while due to a mental health crisis, but I feel it is important to take time at the end of the year for reflection and introspection. This has been my space for an annual review for several years, so I am coming out of my shell long enough to write this. I’m starting to write this on the winter solstice, and it may take several days to complete, but during this darkest time of year I need to give myself whatever time and space necessary for this process. The past few years have Read More
Does this sound familiar? You thought this person had your back. You thought the two of you were honoring the same rules, sharing the same moral code, and respecting the same beliefs. This was a person you trusted. Then, in one painful instant, you learn that this person, possibly a family member, partner, coworker or friend, pulled the rug out from underneath you. Lies you so easily believed and actions you dismissed because it never crossed your mind that they’d ever deceive you. This is what it feels like when trust is shattered and…you’re not alone. If you’ve had this Read More