The Finishing Touches

Time to put the finishing touches on our wellness toolbox. We have put in all our basic tools now, let's put in the rest of the little stuff that makes a difference.

First, if you have a written safety plan with your therapist or psychiatrist, keep a copy in here to remind you of it. This way you always know where it is. 

On to the fun stuff. These are the things I like to keep nearby or actually in the toolbox tub. 

Feel free to pick and choose. 

playdough         mood jar (directions here)          journal

coloring book(s)       markers/pens                      colored pencils

Sudoku                     Fave book(s)                       Fave movie(s)

Magazine(s)             Fave Game                          Daily routine

Fave music              Soothing Music                   Recorded Guided Meditations

Soothing Scents/ lotions                                     Pictures that make you happy

Stones/Crystals        A Comfy soft blankets       A Teddy bear 

Stress/Squeeze ball      Bubbles                          Crossword or other word puzzles

Tea/Hot Cocoa            Craft supplies                  watercolor paints and paper 

This is not a complete list. If you have something special that you would like to include, then include it. And, of course, you do not have to include everything on this list. These are just recommendations and you can pick what you would like. There you have it. Fill your tub with all your tools and you are ready to go. Now you have something that you can pull out anytime you fill you need to give yourself a boost. Congratulations on making your toolbox. 

                                          

Adding More Tools for Your Mental Health

As you continue to expand your wellness toolbox, I feel it important to include these few items as well. We are going to continue filling your toolbox so that you are prepared the next time you find yourself in a near crisis state of mind or are having a down or off day. The toolbox is a key component in helping to maintain your mental health. Let's get the really key tools to put into your box.
1) Your Call List.
This is vital to have. Who are you going to call in an emergency? Who are you going to check in with if you are having depressing thoughts or suicidal ideations? Who do you call when you feel unsafe or even just very lonely? Do you know that you can always call 9-1-1 if you feel suicidal? But who will you call after that to have someone by your side. Your therapists' number, your primary care doctor, and your psychiatrist should all be numbers you also have. If you feel unable to take care of yourself, who is going to help you go through your daily routine to make sure you eat, etc?
By creating this list,  you are also deciding who is best at helping you with what needs. Make sure to ask first as some people may feel uncomfortable just being thrown into a situation of tending to you in crisis. Some people cannot handle that and it is your responsibility to check in with people on your list to make sure they are available to you.

2) Notebook or Journal
This is a good item to have for many reasons. Use it to track your mood. Use it to see what triggered the depressed state or even suicidal thoughts. It could be nothing did but write it down. It also comes in handy as a distraction. You can write a gratitude list. Doodle. Write an "I Love" list (listing the items/people that you love). You can just write the same thing over and over again until it is out of your brain if that makes you feel better. Write affirmations until you fill a whole page. Whatever you use it for...or you can you use it for all the above. It is for you to decide but it is a useful tool to have in your box.

3) Joy Vision Board
This isn't like other vision board or collages designed to help you reach for your dreams. This is a board of all the things you like...the things that bring you Joy or delight. Below you will see mine. I love sunrises, sunsets, and clouds. I love the ocean more than I can even say. You can also see I like forests, camping, hanging out with friends, etc. This board is to serve as a reminder of the things you like doing and seeing. When the world feels dark and helpless, it is easy to feel as though there is nothing that can ever bring you joy again. Your board is there to remind you that there are things that bring you joy and happiness. You can write a list as well. I like the board because it is visual and visual cues stimulate different parts of your brain than just the written word, especially when we are in a dark place.

There you have it. A few more tools for your growing toolbox that will help you with your mental health. I will keep posting more tools for you to incorporate so that you will have a well-stocked wellness box. 

Expanding the Wellness Toolbox: Affirmations

We began building our wellness toolbox in the last post. I want to continue building on it until you have a nice set of healthy and useful tools that you can use when mental illness starts to take its hold on you. One of the things that I do is build a list of affirmations that I find useful during the time when depression strikes. I am not talking about the kind that are all about abundance and finding perfect bliss. I am talking about the kind that say things like, "I am healing body, mind, and soul and that is okay." Or "I like the person looking back at me in the mirror."
Here are a few of the ones that I have written and turned into cards that I look at daily.

I find them very useful and inspiring and attainable. Affirmations only work if you believe in them. If it says "I am overflowing with abundance and peace" but you feel like the world is caving in, the affirmation can have the opposite effect. Instead of being useful, it can feel debilitating. I encourage you to either write a list or create some cards. You can use index cards and create mini collages out of them. Then keep them in your tool box with your self-care activities list.

Another tool that I think is important to have in your toolbox is a list of your positive qualities. If you are having a hard time with this, you can always ask friends to help you write it. Another idea would be to have friends fill out index cards for you with your positive qualities that you can keep in your toolbox. However, I still feel that it is important that when you are in a good space to write your own list positive qualities because it can be easier for us to believe when it comes from ourselves. Depression, especially, I noticed, can take someone else's words and wonder, "What did they mean by that?"
Keep both lists from yourself and your loved ones/ friends and review them when you are feeling low and that you have nothing to offer the world. These lists are your proof that you do have something to offer. You might be surprised that the very things you think you have are the very things that your friends notice about you. That is the supporting evidence that what your brain is telling is not true. Near crisis or in crisis, your brain may be telling you that you are not worthy and not a good friend. However, one look at your list and the cards can prove that voice wrong.

How Creativity Helped Save Me

The body was born to be creative. Think about how it heals itself. Not a single injury or cold will be exactly the same and yet, when called, our body miraculously attempts to heal itself. This is creativity at its most biological form. However for the purpose of this piece I am talking about the varieties of art, music, dance, prayer and meditation that call on our creative soul. 

No one or circumstance has the power to remove creativity from us. I would suspect that if that happened, the results would be devastating. The point of this isn’t to talk about the devastation but rather to help us through when disaster or illness strikes in our lives and we feel helpless or even hopeless. Receiving news of a physical or mental illness can feel as if the world has come crashing down around you. If you are in the middle of depression or other mental health disorder it can feel like a mixed blessing, both an answer for all that is happening inside your head and crushing realization of something taking over your brain that you feel helpless against. I am sure some physical maladies feel the same way as both an answer and a curse. 

How does one stumble through it all when weighed down by the heaviness of depression or caught in the grips of anxiety caused by PTSD? These are the topics I know from personal experience. How does creativity help heal in the middle of these dark places? 

Let me start with some basics that I have gleaned from doing some reading around the internet. There are studies that show that act of creativity changes the brains wave patterns, positively affects the nervous system and affects the neurotransmitters. Creativity can reduce one from stress to relaxation and decrease fear into inspiration (which means working “In spirit”) as well as creating a deeper connection with oneself. 

In my personal experience, Creativity has saved my life. My own story has a past of mixed blessings and deep pain and trauma stemming from domestic violence. This is hard for me to come to grips with and will shock some people as they may not know. I have kept it to myself for a long time. I bring it up now only to demonstrate how crucial creativity was and IS to keeping me alive. I have lived through some serious bouts of depression, to the point of crushing and agonizing pain. PTSD plays its own tricks and when it decides to make its presence known, Creativity keeps me going. Creativity is healing for me. 

A simple and accessible form of healing creativity is Journaling. When I journal, it gets everything that is dark and horrible out of my own head onto the page where it can’t do as much harm. My head should not be entered unattended sometimes so by brain dumping onto the page, I can allow a safe place for all the dangerous and dark thoughts that come into my head. Brain dumping it a way of letting go. Releasing all the toxins AND it also allows one to relive all the good that may have forgotten about during the course of a day. Sometimes I write about something specific and sometimes it’s a random mish mash of thought “stuff”. There are many types of journal prompts as well if you don’t know where to start. Here are a few. 

Sometimes instead I go for Mandala drawing. This refocuses my brain in a completely different way. Allowing my mind to quiet as I focus on the swirls and lines of a specific type of drawing. Coloring is also a way to use creativity to quiet my brain. My mind settles as I follow the details of the picture in front of me. In fact, mandala drawing and adult coloring books are a current trend because of the benefits a person receives from participating in such creativity. This visual medium is also great for when words fail me. For a great tutorial on drawing mandala’s check out Kathryn Costa at 100mandalas.com.

Sometimes, a person takes to the paintbrush, collage work, art journaling, colored pencils and sketchpads because there are things that sometimes are too difficult to say with words. Using visual creative arts as a medium of release leaves the need for verbal explanation behind. Art isn’t right or wrong. It doesn’t need to be corrected. It simply is as it is. Other people find their safety and hope in dance. That is where their personal strength lies. Or perhaps it is in composing or playing music; possibly singing as loud as they can with all the passion they can call upon. 

We are all called to our own creative paths. The beauty of the vast amount of creative choices is the role they can play in healing our hearts and souls when we feel at our worst. I know visual arts are also used in art therapy techniques where the project is guided by a trained therapist to purposefully help a person work through their pain or trauma. Shelley Klammer, at Intuitive Creativity offers some wonderful art prompts for working through emotions. 

At my darkest hour, all I could do was summon the strength to draw mandalas over and over again. My mind was so dark that I couldn’t think to write so I drew instead. I still rely on this practice to keep me centered and focused. It also keeps my anxiety from gaining to much power. I journal most often at bedtime.In fact, I keep two journals: one for brain dumping and one for affirmations, gratitude and positive thinking. I am alive due to the help that creativity gave to me when I needed it most. Yes, there were people who cared but when I was in the space of no longer being able to hear them, then creativity was be able to help.