Good afternoon @Former-Member @TAB @tyme @maddison @Oaktree @Shaz51 @Former-Member @hanami @FloatingFeather @Former-Member @Daisydreamer @Appleblossom @Faith-and-Hope @Eve7 @Snowie @MDT @Former-Member @OscarJones and everyone joining here today. Thanks for popping by!
I think I may have found 1 more thing or reason to help keep my mental health safe and happy which is in the form of working on a granny square crochet blanket for myself using a 4.25mm crochet hook. I came home from food shopping around 3pm and then picked up a crochet blanket that I’d been working on for charity whilst in hospital. Whilst that was a great thing to do and I felt good working on it, I found that I wasn’t 100% happy and therefore, it impacted on how I was feeling towards the blanket - a bit negative to be honest like it was all for the charity and nothing for me. That’s when I realised that I had started a crochet blanket for myself back at my last PARCS admission in June and decided to pick that up and work
on it instead. Instantly I noticed a big change in my mood and mental state as I went from feeling negative and awful for the charity blanket to feeling happy, worthy and in a great mood mentally for the blanket I had chosen to work on just for me. This showed to me that sometimes, you have to put yourself first and do something special for yourself and not feel bad about doing so. I’d spent plenty of time over the past week working on knitted blankets for charity that I’d forgotten about myself and doing something just for me which was in turn, making me feel negative towards the charity I was knitting and crocheting for and that wasn’t a nice set of feelings that I enjoyed. I love creating blankets for the charity as I get to be creative and I know that each blanket I create is unique and different and therefore special for the recipient which is great and all but this afternoon, I found that I was missing a valuable part of the mental health wellness and recovery jigsaw puzzle and that piece happened to be taking care of who is important and that person happened to be me and my needs. In doing things for others, I’d forgotten about me and that wasn’t fair or acceptable in my eyes as it was in turn, making me miserable. See below for the photo of my crochet blanket.
I am pleased to say that I’m in a much better headspace mentally now and feel a lot happier within myself. I’m glad I found the blanket to work on and am really enjoying working on it. I’ve got some extra wool for the blanket that I found in my collection to add to the blanket so I’ve got a lot more wool to make the blanket a reasonable size just for me. I know I had a rough time at PARCS recently but I’m also glad that something good has come from the experience in the form of this blanket and has been able to help me out this afternoon.
I’ve been listening to some Lee Kernaghan country music whilst working on this blanket and there is a song that stands out which is called ‘Like Angels’. It’s basically about going through rough and tough times knowing that in the end, the times will pass and you will fly like angels as you work your way through it as the bad times don’t last. It’s sort of like the Angel vs Devil thing with the devil being the bad times and trying to drag you down and keep you down whilst the angel is there in the background cheering you on and telling you that deep down, you are tough and strong and you can win and defeat the devil - it’s just a matter of hanging in there and sticking it out knowing that you will win in the end. I have personally fallen in love with the song and have added it to my positive music playlist on my Apple Music playlist on my iPhone as a reminder to play it when I feel like things are getting hard to handle and I feel like giving up. I know that deep down, I am strong and tough because I keep on waking up each day and somehow get through it, even if there are times that the day seems never ending but yet, I somehow live through the day to make it to the end and that’s a massive achievement in itself.
Over the past few weeks, I’ve been admitted to hospital and put up with life as a psych patient with knitting restrictions put on her yet I’ve come through that experience feeling a lot better within myself even if it was boring at times and that shows me that in my jungle, I let the angel win over the devil that was my sick mental state and I got through it. I’m still here and things have improved for me mentally. The sleep is still an issue but I’m dealing with it to the point of possibly accepting that I may continue to have sleep issues for sometime yet until something gets sorted out. That’s a small price to pay for being happy once again after the year I’ve had so far with my mental health.
It’s time for me to go and order in some dinner. I’m thinking of chicken and mushroom risotto from the local pasta restaurant as it always makes me feel good once I’ve eaten it. I’ve got plans with my housemate to make chicken risotto this coming weekend as it’s meant to be cold and windy down here in Melbourne. Definitely a weekend to curl up with some craft like my knitting or crochet and keep warm in bed! I’m also thinking of making tacos for dinner tomorrow night as well so plenty of good things planned in my life and that should keep my jungle happy, settled and satisfied. That’s the plans at least! Thanks once again for reading this entry.
Take care!
Judi9877☺️💐🧶🌻
