Gratitude List

Things I'm grateful for this month:

Claire Baker's September Celebration
New kettle
Radox Feel Blissful bubble bath
South Coast Shimmy
Early Hallowe'en chocolates!
Getting a new electric toothbrush (although I need a new adaptor to charge it!)
Madron/the Autumn Equinox
Early autumn sunshine


And because Madron, also known as Mabon and the Autumn Equinox, is a time of thanksgiving, I'm going to write an extra list of 10 things I'm grateful for in general:

1. Books
2. Music
3. Chocolate
4. Sunshine
5. Family, friends and pets. :)
6. Living by the sea
7. Living near the country too
8. The internet
9. Sunsets
10. Notebooks

Feeling Your Emotions- Sadness and Depression (Part 2)

This is the latest post in my Feeling Your Emotions series. So far I've looked at Anger and Sadness and Depression. You can read the Introduction post here: https://fallingpetalsuk.blogspot.com/2017/11/feeling-your-emotions-introduction.html

I split Sadness and Depression into two parts. Last month I did the first part which you'll find at this link: https://fallingpetalsuk.blogspot.com/2018/07/feeling-your-emotions-sadness-and.html

Now here is Part 2. :)

Disclaimer: I'm not a doctor, so if you're having mental/physical issues please seek medical help in addition to reading this. :)

Last time I looked at sadness and depression in general. In this post I'm going to be focusing on feeling better and healing. As I mentioned in Part 1, the focus is on healing depression, since sadness is a natural state that we all feel at some point. But I'm also talking about feeling better in general as well.


Self harm and suicide

Note: I'm discussing quite sensitive subjects, so please read with caution if you feel you may be triggered. :)

Important: If you are feeling suicidal here are some links to where you can find people qualified to help you right now:

http://lostallhope.com/help-me


UK/UK and Ireland specific:

Samaritans: https://www.samaritans.org/how-we-can-help-you/contact-us

NHS links (UK based): https://www.nhs.uk/conditions/suicide/ 

Childline (for children and young people): https://www.childline.org.uk/info-advice/your-feelings/mental-health/suicide/


Australia and New Zealand: https://www.blackdoginstitute.org.au/getting-help/emergency

US and UK: https://psychcentral.com/lib/telephone-hotlines-and-help-lines/


International:

https://ibpf.org/resource/list-of-international-suicide-hotlines/

https://www.befrienders.org/other-helpline-organisations

https://www.nowmattersnow.org/help-line

https://metanoia.org/suicide/

Update 12/9/22: I was getting an antivirus warning for the Metanoia link above and the page wasn't  loading (the Suicide link specifically).But it seems to be ok again now.

Gratitude List

Things I'm grateful for this month:

Lammas
Last full month of summer
Hot weather
Spindle's End by Robin McKinley- currently re-reading it
The return of the sunshine after the rainy spell!
Inspiring websites like Spiritually Empowered and The Whimsical Wildling*
Katie Holland's free Awakened Bellydance course- taking it at the moment
The strawberry cream milkshake I had at Buckingham Park cafe



*11/9/18: Now Eternally Elle.

Gratitude List

Things I'm grateful for this month:

The hot weather (although I have struggled a bit adjusting to the heatwave!)
Summer!
Ice cream at the park and beach
Going to the Black Rabbit pub in Arundel
New series/season of Bring It! showing in the UK (Mondays at 9pm on Lifetime)
New penpals
Skin-on fries (have had them while out and at home recently)
Having a meeting at Alcampo Lounge in Brighton with my belly dance group

Feeling Your Emotions- Sadness and Depression (Part 1)

This is the next post in my Feeling Your Emotions series. It follows on from Anger- Part 1 and Anger- Part 2. You can read the Introduction post here: https://fallingpetalsuk.blogspot.com/2017/11/feeling-your-emotions-introduction.html

Disclaimer: I'm not a doctor, so if you're having mental/physical issues please seek medical help in addition to reading this. :)

Note: It's taken me a while to write this, I think like with anger, it's not a particularly easy subject. As with the Anger posts, I've decided to break it into two parts. This post will focus on sadness and depression in general, and the 2nd part will look into healing and what you can do to feel better in general.

I've titled this post "Sadness and Depression" because I believe they're different in the way that sadness is a natural state that everyone feels at some point in their life, whereas depression is more of an intense, prolonged sadness and it's classed as a mental health condition. I've also heard depression described as "anger turned inwards". So I'm looking at them both. For more on the differences you can read these articles:

https://www.psychologytoday.com/gb/blog/the-squeaky-wheel/201510/the-important-difference-between-sadness-and-depression

https://www.healthline.com/health/depression/depression-vs-sadness#symptoms

Update 4/11/19: This post explains it well: https://www.blurtitout.org/2018/01/04/understand-difference-sadness-depression/

Gratitude List

I normally post on a Sunday or Monday, but got behind, so it's a Tuesday post for a change!

Things I'm grateful for:

Hot weather
Going to the beach
Litha/the Summer Solstice
The proper start of summer!
Ice cream
Library books
New vampire book I bought
Positive online connections

Mid-2018 Reflections

Last year I did a post called Reflections writing a bit about how I was feeling then. You can read that here: https://fallingpetalsuk.blogspot.com/2017/05/reflections.html

It was last May, so it's already over a year since I wrote it. I thought that since we're now halfway through 2018 I'd do a mid year reflection post. (Seems strange that we're already in June!).

On New Year's Eve I wrote a post called Letting Go of 2017 which you can read here:  https://fallingpetalsuk.blogspot.com/2017/12/letting-go-of-2017.html

I always find it hard after the excitement of Christmas; New Year doesn't seem that exciting to me and then January is bleak because all the celebrations are over, and it's winter and cold. I like spring and feel better as the weather lightens up, but this year it seemed to take until May for me to feel like I'd really "eased into" the year. I enjoy following seasonal cycles and celebrating the Wheel of the Year, so I think a lot about how the seasons affect me. As I wrote on my other blog The Seasonal Life, winter seemed long this year but now summer is finally starting. During 2018 I'm reading Debrorah Blake's A Year and a Day of Everyday Witchcraft and Kate's West's The Real Witches' Year, both of which have meditations, spells or just something to think about for every day of the year.