Self-Help Links

In this link post, I have concentrated on some awesome self-help links:

http://www.moodjuice.scot.nhs.uk/mildmoderate/entry.asp
Get Self Help This is the self-help printout mother load!

Center for Clinical Interventions - This website has great workbooks for everything from managing bipolar disorder to stopping procrastination in it's tracks.


Positive Coping With Health Conditions - Is a self-care manual authored by scientist-practitioners with expertise in issues relating to coping with health conditions. This manual is designed for individuals who deal with health conditions, including patients, physicians, psychologists, nurses, rehabilitation professionals, and researchers. (description from site)     

Learning Commons- Lots of helpful articles, podcasts and printables for students.


Dbsalliance - The depression and bipolar support alliance has lots of helpful information and printables.

Hey guys I just wanted to let you know that this week has been insane for me but I am now back on the blogging bandwagon!!!!!!!

May in my Rearveiw

With longer days, a day in May seems like a month, but the month itself seems like a week, but I have my thoughts together, so here we go.

Favorite photo of the month: This was taken in Maeystown, IL.

Events That Stand Out to Me:  Flooding and tornadoes in St. Louis, MO as well as those  in Oklahoma earlier in the month.

Iron Man 3 came out in theaters!

On a personal note, I got a job!!!

Favorite Links I Discovered/Rediscovered:

Ifred - This is a pretty brilliant website. It has very helpful links and they do a lot to kill sigma related to depression. They also have a great list of help lines and online help support.

imalive - This is an internet emergency support line, all of their volunteers are trained. I think there is a small fee, but completely worth it if you need the help. You can also make a donation to help pay for the volunteers training.

dogshaming  - This website is always hilarious! For those that don't know what it is, people post pictures of their dogs with a sign that says what the dog did, example: destroyed the bathroom.

beautyschoolsdirectory - This website has videos to help those going into cosmetology with helpful tips, scholarship information, and directories to help find schools in your area.

maybelline - They and most makeup companies have great easy to follow tutorials. I now have a new makeup routine thanks to combining several of these tutorials.

My Favorite Read of the Month: Animal Farm - this was by far my favorite book I read this month. I had to read it for school, although it has been on my list for quite a while. The storyline was entertaining and fascinating from a political aspect.

What I Watched: Way more Supernatural than one person should watch in a month. Psych - I actually finished the season of something on time for once.  Doctor Who - as usual I watched a ton of Doctor Who, both new episodes and old ones.

8:00 am: Blog planning. First thing in the morning is my favorite time of the day to plan and write, because I feel refreshed and serene.

 9:00 am  Laying out photos and trying to keep the kitten off the board I was using.

 10:00 am About to have yummy banana bread for breakfast while doing the debate portion of history class.

 11:00 am Writing letters to some good friends, while listening to Of Plymouth Plantation on librivox.org.

 12:00 pm Eating lunch and organizing my close,t while still listening to Of Plymouth Plantation.

 1:00 pm Enjoying my wall of pictures.

 2:00 pm leaving for the gym,it was actually warm enough to wear flip-flops on the way there.

 5:00 pm Grace coming to greet me when I arrived home from the gym.

 6:00 pm Reading one of my favorite blogs loveelycia.

7:00 pm Doing a bit of math.

I then watched some tv and went to bed around 9 pm .

My thoughts on life

I've really been thinking about how in our society, we tend to always have something distracting us.  I know I definitely struggle with that. So I have been brainstorming ways to help me stay more present in my thoughts. 

My favorite idea is to have a TV/music free day, or more than one day.  I am planning on doing this tomorrow and blogging about it on Saturday.  I  realized that I needed to do this on Tuesday when I realized that I haven't been actively in my own thoughts in a while and that it is killing my creativity. So, I really want to craft without telly or music. I think it will be very beneficial for me to do that. I also think I will start sitting with my thoughts for an hour or so a day at least for a while and when I am in the car.

This will also give a nice respite from constantly doing something. My life lately has been more about completing tasks in someways than about being happy, and that is NO way to live life. To me life is first about being happy, second about making others happy, and then everything else.

Photo Essay

Photo Essay: These pictures are from Jefferson Barracks National Cemetery. This has quickly become my favorite cemetery to photography. There is something there that just takes hold of your soul and makes you fall in love with the people buried there, the land, the river that runs by, and every other aspect of this place. A feeling runs over you-- one of absolute peace and serenity.

Life Recently

Hello lovely readers, I feel like I should update you guys on what's up with me and the blog since my last few postings have been so sporadic.

Blog: I've been trying to get this blog to the point that I'm posting three times a week but it is taking a surprising amount of time and planning.  I will be posting twice a week for the time being. Future posts planned are: the history of Jefferson Barracks National Cemetery, May in my rearview, tour of my blogging station, and many more exciting posts.

The Road Of Recovery: There are no real new updates here other than I started going to lots of support groups.

What I'm Reading: I'm currently reading The Office of Mercy, I am honestly not far enough into this book to know what I think of it yet.  Animal Farm, I am nearly done with this book and I honestly haven't wanted to put it down! Every aspect of Animal Farm is enjoyable; I love books with political undertones like this book and the other two books I am currently reading.  Mockingjay has been just as amazing as the other two books in the Hunger Games trilogy.

What I'm Watching: Season 7 of Supernatural, this has been a very enjoyable season far and away better than last season.

What I'm Listening To: Stuff You Should Know (How PTSD Works, How Foot Binding worked, and many more of these epic podcasts), and lots of Classic Rock :).

Things Making Me Smile: painted nails, my kitten, and organizing.

Funny Animal Stuff

Pictures of my animals with captions of what I think they were thinking.

"Can I enter the Bat cave?" -Spice

 "What are you doing, can I help?"

"What, you said no?"

"Why can't I?"

"Oh yeah,  I don't have hands." - Spice

"What do you think you are doing photographing me from my bad side?" -Whinnie 

 "MOM!" "Stop embarrassing me in front of the Doctor!" -River Song

"What is actually happening?" -Porter

Helpful Coping Techniques

In honor of May being Mental Illness Awareness Month, I decided to post my list of coping techniques:

Butterflies Wondering

1. Meditation – yoga, the make repetitive noise type of meditation, mindfulness.

2. Exercise –running, walking, jogging, weight lifting, swimming, etc, are great healthy way to release stress, anxiety, and anger.

3. Reading – is a great (safe and healthy) way to escape from reality or a good way to better cope with and understand reality.

4. Art - music, crafting, drawing, painting, looking at art, playing guitar, etc. 

5. Challenging my intellect – reading, listening to podcasts, writing, watching Doctor Who, listening to books on tape, researching, etc.

6. Games – board games, sports, cards, etc.

7. Photography.

8. Going out – to the gym, the library, the movies, the park, a museum, etc, somewhere cheap or free is best.

9. Talk it out – talk to someone you trust.

10. Writing –be it a crazy weird fiction story about an odd object or a blog post,writing is always relaxing for me and is a positive way to release emotions.

11. Pamper yourself – for me this looks like doing my makeup, painting my nails, and such as that.

12. Focus – hyper focus on a random object. Write out a step by step guide to what you need to do.  Focus on one thing at a time. 

So that is the list of my top 12 favorite alternatives. 

How to: Hair Edition

Give Your Hair a Coppery Tint/Lighten Your Hair.

Ingredients:
1/2 cup of c vitamins
2 Tbsps olive oil
2 tsps lemon juice
1 cup of tea tree oil shampoo

Instructions:
Grind C vitamins, then mix with olive oil and lemon juice.  Then then add the shampoo and mix together until at a frosting like consistency.  Then shampoo in the mixture and leave in for one hour or longer, then rinse, and blow dry hair. this should have lightened your hair  I usually do this 3 to 4 times.  If  your hair has a tendency to turn red  you should have a coppery tenant to your hair ,this can be a great alternative to having to dye your hair.


Add shine and Soften Hair
wash and halfway dry hair, then put about half a tablespoon of baby oil in hair.  Leave overnight.  Wash out with strong shampoo such as tea tree oil.

Funny Farm Story of the Week

Tonight after dinner,  Mom and I went out to check on the kittens. When we came back inside, one of our dogs ran into the house, up the stairs, jumped over the baby gate, ran into my bathroom. Then jumped into the bathtub and proceeded to lay down. It's now an hour and a half later, and the dog hasn't moved. I decided that I definitely needed to take some pictures of her for a post.  Do you have any funny animal stories?

Life Recently

I was reading blogs this morning and thinking about what to post and decided that I would update you about my life of late. 

The Road Of Recovery:  I have started seeing an art therapist, as well as a new psychiatrist, both things are going really well!  I discovered two new helpful websites Scar Tissue and Bipolar Burble both are great and as always twloha is encouraging me. I found two awesome mood charts I'm trying to decide which one I like better chart one , chart two.

What I'm Reading:  I just finished Frankenstein.  I'm currently reading  Mockingjay, this has been just as good as the other books in the "Hunger Games" trilogy.  The Noonday Demon: An Atlas of Depression, this book contains the most accurate descriptions of how depression feels and what it is, I have ever read. I highly recommend it to anyone wanting to know more about depression.

What I'm watching:  Season 6 of Supernatural, this honestly hasn't been my favorite season so far, but with that said, it's still amazing and a must watch for any fan of horror/drama because special effects are amazing .  BBC's Robin Hood series 1, we just finished the second episode and are hooked!

What I'm Listening To:  Anything Mumford and Sons, Jake Bugg's Lightning Bolt, and La Santa Cecilia's Monedita .

Things Making Me Smile: Cats that don't understand why i cant scratch their ears 24/7.  

 Wet & Wild's disturbia, nail polish.   Baby Animals.  And mostly nice weather.               

Waterloo Cemetery

I took these toward the end of February at the Waterloo Cemetery in Waterloo, IL.

I'm not sure if you can read it, but it says "Our Home."

 Loved the broken off headstone.

I thought that this and the last one were really cool because of how far inland we are .