Although I have had several friends throughout my life, there was one particular time when I didn’t have (close) friends, especially when I would have appreciated it the most. My childhood was rough for several reasons, and that led to me feeling so alone in this world at times, even with friends. Luckily, I didn’t have many child experiences of being friendless. It was thanks to my difficult experiences in middle school with bullying andread more
I haven’t completely abandoned the no or low buy challenge, but I actually realized after looking into my spending (lol, how embarrassing) that I hardly spend anything at all. 😂 As in… yes, I spend. But compared to the average person? In comparison to how much I save and invest? I’m pretty minimal in my spending. If I had to give you a total (not including my big Black Friday/Cyber Monday spending, and not includingread more
I haven’t been posting much in terms of music, nor blogging, nor video content. I’ve been feeling quite lethargic. I’ve been struggling since I’ve been back on medications. The meds have some side effects, and the major side effect that I’m dealing with is fatigue and tiredness. I feel like a zombie for a huge chunk of my days. I thought that this year, I’d be more productive, creative, and overall be making more ofread more
A few months ago, I experienced a second psychotic episode. I had a feeling that it was going to occur earlier in the year when my stress levels were much higher than usual. I also had body pains (my wrists and ankles) as well as a sore throat, which made it difficult to rely on coping skills or any diversions. I couldn’t journal or walk for more than a few minutes. Meditation was the bareread more
Earlier this year, I deliberately forgoed New Year’s resolutions and goals in general. There was no quarterly planning this time. I briefly thought I’d attempt another quarterly planning session for April through June, though that also got derailed. Perhaps it was a blessing in disguise. It’s still a bit too early to tell. But! I will say, a lot of unexpected events unfolded this year so far, and it’s not even halfway through the yearread more
Countless times in my life, I’ve been told that I’m not good enough, not talented enough, not smart enough, not pretty enough. Or, I’ve been told the opposite, that I’m too smart, too pretty, too kind, too nice, too good to not do XYZ. Listen, I’m not behind in life. And, I’m not unworthy of whatever I want to achieve in life either. Stop placing arbitrary standards onto me, and stop comparing me to everyoneread more
This blog post is a little different from usual as I am using speech-to-text technology to write a significant chunk. My reason for doing this is simply because I have painted my nails, and so I am trying to avoid using my hands for now. 😉 But while I was trying to figure out how to use dictation on iMac, I was thinking about how some people are opposed to CBT due to the typicalread more
(Note: I diverged quite a bit on this post… I don’t personally know much about Aaron Beck himself, just CBT and how it has helped me.) Dr. Aaron Beck was known for being one of the founders of CBT, cognitive behavior therapy. Although CBT is considered to be a form of psychotherapy, a lot of the techniques are pretty useful for people in general. He lived to be a little over 100 years old. Hisread more
Have you ever considered monitoring your daily progress through keeping track of motivational buffs and debuffs? This may seem like a concept of gamifying life, and while there is that aspect as well, I am mostly approaching this from a slightly different angle of bad vs. good choices or habits and how those decisions ultimately stack up and affect us. Motivational buffs are actions that we take that benefit us in some way. It mayread more
The other day, I came across this post on social media. I’ve seen it a few times before as well. But, I was surprised by some of the comments people left. It seems like a lot of people still don’t understand the disabilities are not always related to the physical, and even some physical disabilities may not be visible to others. If we break down the word disability itself, we have dis- (from Latin) andread more