It’s okay to not have the answers yet. Continue your journey and trust the process. ~Simplereminders.com
The last couple months of my posts have explored in detail themes like healing the past, strengthening boundaries and connection and looking at contributing factors to mental illness. As much as I offer concrete tools and experience about how to recover from a mental illness, I am aware of the unique path each person takes in their recovery. There are so many perspectives on healing and/or living with a mental illness. I have read very different approaches to how people with lived experience have healed from mental illness and/or live in recovery. It is important to honour that each person finds the treatment and tools that work for them. The trajectory of one’s recovery in the future looks different for each person.
As well, change can impact our recovery journey with things that are out of our control. This week I found out my psychiatric GP will be leaving, and I will be getting a new psychiatrist. This brought up feelings of sadness, as my doctor has been a great person to work with. They have been thoughtful and gentle, allowing me significant agency in my own health. It also brought up some fear. A psychiatrist can be a very pivotal person on your mental health team.
Depending on their personality and views, it can either feel like working together as a team or it can feel like being told how to manage your mental health. They have a lot of power and it can be difficult to challenge them if you have different views. My current doctor assured me that she is going to recommend me someone who is compatible and reminded me that sometimes it can be exciting to work with a new person. I did some quick research into current psychiatrists at my mental health center and found there seem to be some psychiatrists that would be a good fit. However, from working in the mental health field, I know how many poor experiences people have in the same system. Fingers crossed that this change will be positive (or at least neutral). I have to remind myself that I can advocate for myself and that there are always choices.
This post is a liminal, transitional post. I have ten posts (including this one) left in the Mental Health Mapping series – one year of posts on mental health recovery. After that I will continue with blogging twice a month at a reduced cost. This allows me space to write on other platforms, as well as work on a larger writing and art making project. I’ll let everyone know the details of this transition closer to the time. These future posts will be more present orientated in my own recovery but also about my journey as a creative person as I go on to work on other writing and art making projects. I will also explore recovery topics that I may not have covered in this year’s series.
A look ahead can sometimes be helpful to be rooted in the moment. If we have a sense of where something is going, we can more easily make choices in the moment. It can also help us relax in the moment if we have a rough sense of what we want our future to look like. Recovery is a bit like that. We may not have a clear, detailed picture but we have some intuition about it. We have a sense that we want better health, or sleep or balance in our lives. And so, with this half-formed picture, we start making small (or large) steps in this direction. I see how goals, or intentions, are helpful for me with my mental health, as long as I can remain open and flexible with them. Life always has uncertainty however hard this can be to sit with.
This post is a pause in topics, a breath. Sometimes we need this when we are learning and digesting things. Sometimes we reach information overload. This post is meant to give some freedom in this learning and growing process. Below I share briefly the path of the next ten posts. But really I want to allow us to take a pause from the reflection and enjoy some freedom in our lives and creativity. For me, it gives me time to be in transition – to realize that these weekly posts will be shifting and that I will be committing to other projects as we enter into fall. This journey has been amazing so far but I’ll save my thoughts on this for my post on October 9th, the 52nd post of Mapping Mental Health series.
August is National Wellness Month which is about self-care. I will be introducing individual recovery topics. Here is a self-care short poem by Melody Godfred on self-care:
You can’t pour
From an empty cup,
But you can’t drink
From an empty cup, either.
Pour the glass.
Drink the water.
You first.
~ Melody Godfred
The posts for August and September are on specific recovery topics. In August’s first post I will address navigating the mental health system, which is such an important topic for many, many people. I will talk about what I know in reference to where I live, examining ways to access the system when in crisis. I will reflect about what I think is working in the system and what is not. I will also talk about supports outside the mental health system and what that can look like and how crucial they can be.
The second post in August, will be about medications and I will do a more in-depth exploration of side effects and strategies that might help with lowering medications in a safe way when this becomes a necessity. I will also talk about how to mitigate side effects through healthy lifestyle.
The next topic is about supporting a loved one with mental illness. I am in a unique position of supporting a family member with a mental illness, as well as having one of my own. I will talk about specific challenges and ways of looking after one’s own needs while still providing support for a loved one.
In the final post of August, I will explore life/work balance and the importance of following our passions for our mental health. Many people with lived experience of mental illness have had to reduce work or take long breaks away. I want to redefine how we look at success and offer potential questions that are important when considering the impact of our work life on mental health.
Often people with mental illness feel shame because their lives look different than others. I want to help people reclaim their own definition of what they want out of their lives and what makes them happy. I also want to pose reflection questions that help someone in mental health recovery design their life so that it can also be a life that works for their mental health wellness. I like this following quote by Melody Godfred as it speaks to what sometimes happens when your path changes and you need to come up with a different future.
New dreams take time.
If the door has closed
On the future
You thought you’d live,
Give yourself time to
Dream up a new one.
~Melody Godfred
As August shifts to September, my individual recovery topics continue. In September’s first post, titled the “Seasons of Mental Illness,” I will go over research about mental health in different seasons, which I have touched on but would like to go in more depth with. With a play on words, I will look at “seasons” of mental health recovery. From one’s first episode to being long into recovery, I want to explore what tools and reflections might be helpful at these junctures.
September 10th is World Suicide Prevention Day so I will honour this with a piece on suicide. I will explore what the statistics say about suicide rates in Canada, what factors contribute to suicide, and ways that people can access help if they are suicidal. This post is dedicated to everyone who has considered suicide and those who have lost their lives.
My final two posts for September take a different tone. I want to explore spiritual principles that are helpful for recovery. Practices such as acceptance, letting go, and gratitude, have all been pivotal my healing. Sometimes life is very hard with a mental illness and being able to draw from spirituality, however you define it, can help you through your challenges. Here is a beautiful poem by Rumi that contains a spiritual perspective towards accepting how you feel and what you experience because there are gifts within these challenges.
The Guest House
This being human is a guest house.
Every morning a new arrival.
A joy, a depression, a meanness,
some momentary awareness comes
As an unexpected visitor.
Welcome and entertain them all!
Even if they’re a crowd of sorrows,
who violently sweep your house empty of its furniture,
still treat each guest honorably.
He may be clearing you out for some new delight.
The dark thought, the shame, the malice,
meet them at the door laughing,
and invite them in.
Be grateful for whoever comes,
because each has been sent
as a guide from beyond.
~Mewlana Jalaluddin Rumi
The final September post will be about the importance of celebrating recovery milestones. So many people are working so hard to stay well from mental illness. It’s important to celebrate wins in this area. ❤️❤️❤️
The last two posts in this one-year adventure will be about closure. I will endeavour to create an art piece that will be representative of the theme, Mapping Mental Health, and finding one’s recovery compass. Just remember this won’t be it for my blogging, so stay tuned for the details.
I hope that some of these final topics pique some interest. And that this week can be a bit of a rest. I want this creative activity to be easy, gentle, and freeing. It is important to take breaks from working and reflecting and allow a pause. Things are always sitting in our unconscious working things out anyways. Rest and regulation are so important in recovery!!!
Okay, are you ready to dive into making art? 🎨
Therapeutic Arts Activity
A free activity in any creative form.
Instructions
Using any medium, do something freeing with your art. Don’t try to make it perfect. Allow yourself to play with the materials.
Materials Needed
- Choose any art material
This week is a break from reflection questions. 🎶🎧😴
This paper collage made with my favourite fun scissors, is a symbol for hope. I found pictures of Tibetan prayer flags and placed them over the horizon. They look like waves. When I see these flags I think about all the prayers that go out into the world. Fostering hope is one of the most important of my recovery values. I am thankful for all the people who have fostered hope for me in the dark days of my mental illness. I hope I can give a little of that back.
❤️❤️❤️ With care and kindness, Meegan
In the spirit of creating a community of reflection and art making, your comments are welcome. If you choose to leave a comment, it is important to know I respect your privacy. Your information will not be given, lent, rented, or sold to anyone. However, when making a comment on the site, your IP address and browser user will be collected. Please see full Privacy details on my Privacy Policy Page Privacy Policy. If you are having a mental health emergency, please take care of yourself, and call 911 or take yourself to emergency at your closest hospital.
Sources:
Godfred, Melody. (2021). Self Love Poetry. Andrews McMeel Publishing. Kansas City, Missouri.
Pick me up Poetry. The Guest House. https://pickmeuppoetry.org/the-guest-house-by-mewlana-jalaluddin-rumi/
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