Your mental health recovery is a journey of self-discovery and resilience ~QuoteHive
I am going on holiday this week and next and so I am posting this early. The holiday is a celebration of a milestone birthday and also a celebration of almost a year’s worth of blogging mapping out mental health recovery.
There are so many challenges for a person with lived experience and their loved ones to navigate. It can seem like an endless road of struggle at times. We often wonder when it will get easier. Remember when I talked about what my mom said to me about my episode…that it was a blip in my life (even if it was a very big blip)? She recognized that I would come out of illness and believed in my strength to come back to wellness. And I did. And I had to do it after each episode. It was very hard…and each time I picked up the pieces and moved forward was a time to celebrate.
There have been many challenging moments on my mental health journey but also there have been amazing moments of recovery. I can think back about how good it felt to be out of psychosis or depression….or when I returned to school or work…or when I passed five years of being well…or when I got really stressed but found my way back to health. I think it’s important to celebrate personal milestones when you have a mental illness. To shift the focus from what feels lacking, and what is hard to focusing on what is working, and what has been gained. I believe resilience is built on a strengths-based narrative. Of course we speak to the difficulties. Of course we try to heal the pain. But we also need to draw strength from the things that are working well.
Sometimes these gains, these mental health victories, seem small. Perhaps you are in a depression, and you were able to get out for a 5 minute walk. That might be all you do in that day, but you’ve overcome your self-consciousness, your low mood and you acted despite how you felt. These small steps start adding up to greater change. Comparison can rob you of feeling good about yourself. It is important when recovering to look at what is significant for you, not what you think you should be doing or where you think you should be at. Give yourself permission to feel good about what you are doing for your recovery.
Again, I want to challenge the idea of life being measured by certain markers. It is not that these life desires are inherently problematic. In reality, they can bring so much joy. What’s a problem for me is when they are used as a yardstick for wellness, or for a “good life.” We decide for ourselves what is a good life. Being in recovery is no less of a life than being “successful.” Sometimes we think life should be perfect, like in advertisements (because that’s the desire that they are selling) but we know that life is more varied, diverse, unique, challenging, and nuanced than what we are offered in mainstream marketing.
Resilience by Rumi Kaur
“What is stronger than the human heart
which shatters over and over
and still lives?”
Celebrating milestones is an essential part of recovery. One of my past birthdays I decided to build myself an altar, which included a combination of photos, flowers, inspirational words, cards and pictures. It was something very personal that reminded me to celebrate life. It also reminded me of the love and care I received and was such a strong visual reminder of hope on challenging days.
Celebration interrupts the continued self-judgment and negativity. Life is not easy. I wish I could say I have had it easier and that I haven’t suffered. And many things have not gone as I wanted them to. But my recovery from mental illness has created some big gifts for me, such as my curiosity around healing and creativity. When working in the mental health field, it created a whole level of knowing and compassion where I could understand more of my clients’ experiences. Having to pick my life up so many times has created some fortitude.
My current learning edge is putting myself all out there as a person of lived experience, writing about it and talking about it and facing my fears of judgment. I realize that you can be kind, generous, and a whole host of other positive traits and people still judge. By talking about mental illness, it opens up space for people to be vulnerable. Sharing not only the pain, but also the joyful stories of recovery, is healing.
Important Note Below
Mental health is not only an individuals’s struggle for wellness but a collective examination of social contexts that contribute to making recovery very hard. There is a research article I came across that talks about this. The article, ““Nothing’s changed, baby”: How the mental health narratives of people with multiple and complex needs disrupt the recovery framework,” states that, “...people experiencing poverty, homelessness, intersecting oppressions (based e.g. on ethnicity, gender, sexuality, disability or class), and other forms of marginalisation remain under-represented in recovery research (Karadzhov, 2021; Morrow and Malcoe, 2017). All of these factors are known social determinants of poor mental health (Alegría et al., 2018). More inclusive research has therefore been called for (Lawrence et al., 2021), so that knowledge of recovery is not based solely on the experiences of those who are relatively well-resourced.”|
Recovery stories of personal transformation often do not acknowledge the role of priviledge and may not representative of those in recovery who face significant social challenges. If you live in poverty, it is difficult to afford to eat well for your mental health. If you don’t have income and are in an episode it may be challenging to hold onto and find housing. When I speak of celebrating recovery, I am not dismissing suffering or putting the blame on an individual for their struggles in recovery. I have to continually remind myself the social contexts which contribute to my mental health. I am also aware of where I’ve been priviledged that have made my recovery journey easier in some ways. It’s so important that we address and acknowledge the impact of marginizaltion on mental health.
On the Canadian Art Therapy website, in an article titled, “The Power of Art: Art for Social Justice,” Elene Lam speaks to the the problem of art therapy focusing on the individual and not contexts of marginalization: “Unfortunately, art therapy often focuses heavily on the individual. This means that therapeutic work emphasizes personal improvement over healing from or resisting injustice at the societal level. Going beyond the individual, and adopting an anti-oppression and intersectional lens can allow art therapists to become change agents in community and society” (2021). The beautiful thing about art is that it can be used not only to develop self but also to explore social justice. The poem below embodies a message of strength and hope that I have for people using art to challenge societial norms, give voice to social justice and find their voice. Nakita Gill is an Irish-Indian poet who published her first poetry book at age 12.
“Phoenix Rising” by Nikita Gill
“And then
like a phoenix from the ashes
I rose.
With each breath,
I grew stronger.
With each step,
I reclaimed my power.”
A Psychology Today online article, “The Power of Art in Mental Health,” connects art and healing: “Whether through creating, observing, or reflecting on art, we open pathways to self-discovery and resilience” (Shimlale, 2025). Art can be transformational. Celebrating recovery through therapeutic art making is not just looking at a “glass half full” picture of mental health. It is a process of developing inner strength and healing.
Okay, are you ready to dive into making art? 🎨
Therapeutic Arts Activity
Plan something to celebrate a past or present milestone in your mental health recovery.
Instructions
Pick one milestone in your recovery to celebrate. What would be a meaningful way of celebrating? There are lots of possibilities. They just need to be meaningful to you.
Materials
- This is completely open
Once you’ve completed this activity, here are some questions as guidelines for your personal explorations:
1. Name some of your recovery milestones. Can you find aspects of recovery you can celebrate even from challenging times?
2. Can you think of celebrations you’ve had for your recovery. If so, how did it feel to honour your journey?
3. How did completing this activity feel? If it feels right, talk to a loved one about it.
4. Name some people who can celebrate with you. If it feels right, approach family, friends or professionals to ask them to celebrate your recovery with you.
Celebrating recovery can be simple. You might just want to take time to be still, hand on the heart, breathing deeply and acknowledge all your efforts to be well. I think practicing this regularly might be grounding, especially when you struggle to feel your worth.
❤️❤️❤️ 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:
Lam, E. MSW (2021). The Power of Art: Art for Social Justice. The Power of Art: Art for Social Justice — Canadian Art Therapy Association
Joy Llewellyn-Beardsley, Stefan Rennick-Egglestone, Felicity Callard, Kristian Pollock, Mike Slade, Alison Edgley, “Nothing’s changed, baby”: How the mental health narratives of people with multiple and complex needs disrupt the recovery framework, SSM – Mental Health, Volume 3, 2023, 100221, ISSN 2666-5603, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ssmmh.2023.100221.
(https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2666560323000361)
Shimlale, J. (2025). “The Power of Art in Mental Health.” The Power of Art in Mental Health | Psychology Today
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