Sunday, December 21, 2008

Sensational Sandy Tagged Me

Sandy, who Shares her Balance, tagged me. The request is to list five things I do to stay mentally healthy.

1) Play - Hubby and I like to play video games together. Usually we choose games where we can be cooperative - not against each other...that usually leads to him getting hit in the arm. ;)

2) I don't allow my mind to think about negative situations - There are situations, mostly from the past, that I have a tendency to go over and over and over in my mind. Truly it's just another way to beat myself up. This past summer, I learned to control my mind better. When I catch myself thinking or reenacting an upsetting situation (you know, the shoulda, coulda, woulda's, defending my actions, beliefs, thoughts), I stop and say to myself, "I've already examined this situation many times. I know why I 'did, said, blah' what I 'did, said, blah'. What I 'did, said, blah' is what is best for me." Sometimes, even only a few minutes later I catch my brain going over it again....I just follow the same pattern. There are times when I do allow myself to get into it a little cause the anger of the situation has opened up again, so time to clean it out and put a band-aid on. ;)

3) I eat chocolate or take a nap when I feel blue for no 'real' reason and can't shake it with anything else (like dancing to a peppy song).

4) I talk to myself - not like crazy 'bag-lady' talk - positive, encouraging, bring me back to balance talk. For example:

The other day, I was looking at our house. The kittens are messy lil buggers....we need to vacuum every day. So, it's out of sorts with litter boxes every where (normally they are in the laundry room, but we're keeping them out of there - too many things for them to get into) and cat food in the living room. Even without them, this isn't the house I dreamed of living in. It's a small gray/green rectangle. Inside, it's much larger than you'd think, but again, not exactly a magazine picture.

Now, all that said - here is how I respond to myself:

Our house is surrounded by about 1 1/2 acres of woods and 1 1/2 acres of open land , which is exactly what we wanted. There's a huge, 3 car garage with lots and lots of storage room. There's a third bedroom which is my studio. Two bathrooms - the master has a shower and a corner tub (which I adore!), good sized closets, lots of windows with lovely views, a fireplace, a huge kitchen with loads of counter space and storage, a laundry room with a washer and a dryer. It's very quiet here. We're on top of a large hill (which does make driving up our gravel driveway interesting) so we have an awesome view for miles and miles ("I can see for miles and miles"). There's loads of wildlife (we heard two creeping around in the woods last night). Our neighbors, although are not friendly to the point where we're friends, they are super nice and have helped us many times! It's warm, dry, safe, and mine.

"No, it isn't all you wanted....but it's all YOU need to live a good and happy life - that's what's important. :)"

5) I make art. I can tell (other than just that I know) when I haven't been creative for a few days - I feel down, grumpy, just mentally yucky. A sense of accomplishment can go a long way, even if what I make goes no further than my own backyard, so to speak, feeling like I did something with the time I've been given is important to me feeling healthy.

So, there it is! Thank you Sandy, not only for thinking of me, but for giving me something to write about. :)

So, who to tag.......Kim, the absolute Queen of Arts, The Creatively Divine, Rose, and Serena, who Dreams with the Fishies.

~Snow Covered Birds~
Melissa