Monday, November 12, 2018

Ten Things For Which I Am Grateful. Mental Wellness Challenge Days 1 & 2.

Facebook is always full of people doing various challenges.

  • Thirty day squat challenge.
  • Twenty one day get fit challenge.
  • Thirty day muffin top challenge.
  • Twenty one days flat abs.
  • Fifteen day clean eating challenge.
  • Fourteen day booty beauty challenge. 
  • Ten day beach body challenge
The list goes on. You might notice a pattern here. All the challenges I mentioned are related to physical health and fitness. That's great but what about your mental health?

That's an excellent question. Thank you for asking.

I recently came across this twenty day mental wellness challenge on facebook and thought "What the hell? It couldn't hurt right?". So I rounded up a bunch of internet strangerfriends and made us a mental wellness event.

Here is the challenge:


I've had to adjust a few of the challenges, like the day you're supposed to pray. As a devout atheist this goes against all of my beliefs. But overall I'm going to try and stick to it. We're only on Day 2 but lots of people who joined the event are participating today and posting their lists.

So here is my list:

Ten Things For Which I Am Grateful
  1. My husband. He may be a pain in my ass sometimes, but he is also patient and kind, loving and protective. He is supportive of me in my creative endeavors, as well as when I am struggling with mental illness. He is my person. 
  2. My mom. She may also be a pain in my ass sometimes but I could not have gotten a better mom. We've had our differences (read: ages 12ish - 19ish) but even when she couldn't stand me she had my back. She threatened to punch a crazy neighbor in my defense, she told off the high school football coach when I pranked his daughter (she totally started it), she (5'1") squared off against my (6'1") ex-boyfriend until he backed down. She is fiercely protective, and even though I sometimes resented it, I am now incredibly grateful to have someone love me so much. 
  3. The Bloggess. Without her and her tribe of fellow weirdos my life would be poorer. Because of an idea she posted on her blog I have made countless strangerfriends. I have even found my twin-in-spirit. I cannot imagine my life without these people now. #BeepBeep #Potatoes. 
  4. Cheese. Because cheese! Delicious creamy, melty, crumbled, fried, grilled, baked, powdered, sprayed, canned, sliced, shredded, cheese. Glorious cheese. 
  5. Drugs. No not those kind. My medication. My one pill a day to keep the demons at bay. It means the world to me to be able to just let my brain work and not be constantly on the lookout for the moment that it turns on me. 
  6. My vocabulary. It may sound like a silly thing to be grateful for but hear me out. Because I have a large and well stocked vocabulary I am able to articulate my feelings. I can put into words what makes me sad, or mad, or grateful, or happy. I can ask other people what they are feeling: I can use the right words to draw them out. 
  7. My chosen family. Made up of blood relations, spiritual connections, and people I just really like. All my favorites. My soulmate, my heartmate, the big brother I always asked for, all three parents, cousins, step-cousins, new found second cousins (thank you 23andMe!), friends that have become indispensable. 
  8. Books. Books were my friends before I had real ones. Books were there to keep me company when real people were too much to handle. Books were there to keep me company when I couldn't sleep, when I was bored, when I needed distraction. 
  9. My parents divorce. I know. Weird thing to be happy about right? The thing is, it was the most amicable divorce I've ever heard of. My mom got full uncontested custody but my dad was in my life. Not just on weekends and holidays and two weeks in the summer. No. He spent every holiday with us, Christmas, Thanksgiving, birthdays, Mothers Day, Fathers Day. I rarely needed a babysitter, my dad would just come over. Never once did either parent say anything to me that they would not say to each other. Never did they bad mouth one another. My dad took me to buy the gifts and cards for my mom. My mom took me to buy the gifts and cards for my dad. They always sat together at my stuff, concerts, graduations, recitals, assorted ceremonies. I never heard them discuss money or child support, although I know they did because kids are really expensive. They managed to make their divorce so NOT traumatic for me that it's actually hard for me to empathize with other children of divorce. I'll never forget the way they explained to me why my dad was moving out. "Daddy doesn't like living in a house so he's going to go live in an apartment and he'll visit us here and you'll visit him there." And me, being 3 or 4 just said "Ok" because it made total sense. 
  10. This challenge. For forcing me to sit down and be grateful for things. 

My Day 1 of the challenge was only a half success. The challenge was to go to bed 1 hour later. I failed. But I had slept in that morning and got about an extra hour of sleep so I'm calling it a success.


*I do not know where this challenge originated. If anyone knows please let me know so I can give that person credit.  



4 comments:

  1. What a wonderful list, Meghan! In going to have to do mine a day late as I forgot until just now, partly because although I did go to bed an hour (or more) earlier, l did not go to sleep until several hours later. O.O
    (Since you're using Blogspot, it will only recognise my CSTS Vancouver blog ID and not my WordPress one.) - C. G. Seaman

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    1. Hey it only says go to bed and hour earlier, not go to sleep! I think it's really just to force you to relax a little earlier so your brain can wind down.

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  2. Do you mind if I copy/quote/reference your blog on mine? I do a family law blog, and the concept of an amicable divorce with children is so very rare as to be the Unicorn of family law. I like to point out that it IS possible not to ruin your kids lives in a divorce ;)

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    1. Absolutely! I'd be happy to ask my parents more questions and go into further detail if you'd like.

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