When you silence your needs,
your soul shrinks in isolation.
When you express yourself,
your soul comes out to play.
~Melody Godfred, Self Love Poetry
This cloud formation this week foreshadows changing weather. The sun of summer will change to more cloudy days as we move through fall. Winter’s hibernation is in sight. It is a great time to rest and to be creative.
Friday, October, 10th, is World Mental Health Day, a day celebrating mental health recovery, reminding us how important, how crucial, it is to invest in mental health services and resources. It also marks one year since I started my blog Mental Health Mapping, writing about therapeutic arts and mental health recovery. My writing has been an amalgamation of both personal and professional experience with mental illness.
It has been a year with highs and lows but the constant of the blog has been a resource for me. As I write, I heal. As I make art, I heal. The process has me searching, learning, exploring.
Blue has always been my favourite colour. It is evocative of water. Life is moving constantly: it is always changing, like the tides going out, the rain falling. Water is joyful to me. I spent so much of my childhood in water, playing, floating, and swimming.
Blue also represents grief. I have experienced a lot of grief around having a mental illness and having a parent with a mental illness. I grieve the struggle and pain, and the traumas along the way in both of our respective journies. As this year carries me through parts of my past, I have found that there is renewed grief or perhaps grief that was never allowed to be felt. The more time reflecting, re-experiencing, the more that grief surfaces. But after grief, things shift in me and settle in a new way. I see things differently, or understand more of my own history. I find grief is so close to another feeling: peace.
I like what Francis Weller says in his book, “The Wild Edge of Sorrow:” “Grief asks us to honor the loss and, in doing so, deepens our capacity for compassion. When grief remains unexpressed, however, it hardens, becomes as solid as a stone. We, in turn, become rigid and stop moving in rhythm with the soul. When we are in touch with all of our emotions, on the other hand, we are more verb than noun, more movement than a thing. But when our grief stagnates, we become fixed in place, unable to move and dance with the flow of life. Grief is part of the dance” (Weller, 2015). Grief, like water, is fluid. It needs to move through us, releasing.
I am sad (in a good way) about this year coming to a close. It has been a real gift to share my thoughts and creativity with this community. It has been wonderful to receive support for my writing. I am also looking forward to what is around the bend in terms of creativity.
My next creative project is to finish a book that i’ve started. To do this, I need to free up some of my time and focus. I will continue with my blog but I am changing a few things.
The content of these new blog posts will flow with what is happening in my current life with respect to my creativity and recovery goals. Below are some of the themes I will explore:
I am in progress monitoring how my medications are affecting my health. I also have a new psychiatrist whom I have yet to meet. Blog posts going forward will reflect on the continual journey of tweaking medications and increasing physical health through exercise, yoga, and eating well. I also need to pay special attention to my nervous system and emotional health as I navigate potential medication changes. I am also recovering from a very deep, long burnout (and long Covid), which has impacted sleep regulation, energy, and my nervous system. So my health is first priority. 💙
Many of you know that I am supporting an aging parent with mental illness and cognitive changes of dementia. I will share some of this journey as it is a significant one in my life. It’s also important for me to reflect on being a person with mental illness supporting another person with a mental illness because it has its own aspects of challenge (and joys). The need for self-care, and boundaries while being a compassionate support is something I am learning.
Finally, as I work on my creativity and business there will be a lot to share as this process unfolds.
The structure of my posts will change. They will be more fluid. When I think of them thematically, I think of a collage or mixed media piece filled with bits of poetry, quotes, images, art, stories, and reflections. I also will be posting bi-monthly instead of weekly.
********My next post will be October 23rd, 2025. As of October 23rd, 2025, blog posts going forward will be free.*******
If you want to access Mental Health Mapping blog series from this past year, there will be a one-time fee of 9.99 CAD starting November 1st, 2025. If you wish to read these posts, click on the first post of the series and after a few paragraphs you will find the Subscribe Button where you will be prompted to enter your credit card information. Click the link below which will take you to the first post: Welcome to Mapping Mental Health: A Therapeutic Arts Journey – The Art of Mental Health
For existing paid subscibers, you can cancel your paid subsciption at any point once you feel that you have finished reading the year’s content. As of November 1st, you would be charged 9.99 CAD, a one-time fee to access existing posts.
Anyone who wants to be a free subscriber and receive my bi-monthly posts in their inbox can enter their email below:
Each day, around the world, people with lived experience of mental illness, are learning about their recovery. There are so many commonalities between us and also many differences. Creativity is an energy that can help us tap into not only our own resources and resiliencies but can help us guide us toward mental health. Creative activities can be combined with other self-care and self-growth tools as in my blog posts.
This post is dedicated to my parents, my extended family, friends, and professionals who have provided support to me throughout my life and mental health journey. A big, deep thank you as well for those people who have subscribed to my blog. 🙌🏼💕
To all those with lived experience of mental illness in the world, I wish you healing and support. My hope is that my writing about recovery can unlock a needed door, in some way, for your recovery journey. Most of all I want you to to cultivate self-compassion for yourself and your struggles because I believe it is the foundation on which recovery is built.
❤️❤️❤️ With much gratitude, deep care, and respect, 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.
Source:
Weller, Frances. (2015). The Wild Edge of Sorrow. North Atlantic Books: Berkeley, California.
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