Send #WarmWishes: The Mighty's Holiday Card Drive

If You don’t think you are special, then why would I make You this collage and on a holiday🤗

Extra appreciation for everyone that has been joining this group of mine, Yay🙌🙌🙌🙌 We’re growing!

“We may not have it all together, but together we have it all.”

“It’s the friends we meet along the way who help us appreciate the journey.”

Ok, so you all need some of my tools like right now 😊

These 3 powerful words Will
Always help you to come back to only the present moment:
“Be Here Now”

I can’t emphasize enough that The most powerful tool that you Always have for self-regulation of all of your emotions and for pulling some energy out of nowhere when you are fatigued and depleted is Conscious (Deliberate) Breathing.
And it is also about taking control of what's going on in our bodies. Being aware of our breath or our heart rate.

Let’s do some deliberate breathing together:

Think these simple & fun mindful words with me:
As you inhale “Breathe in the good”
As you exhale “Breathe out the bad”
Make it a deep and strong inhale and an even longer exhale

“Just Take Care Of Now.”
This is a short but very calming go-to sentence when you are overwhelmed and or running on empty, so out of gas.

This is my quick & empowering go-to statement as well to remind myself fast that I am not a mind reader and thoughts are not always facts…
“I choose to judge nothing that occurs.”
This in technical terms helps with -
—Nonjudgment of inner experience and
—-Nonreactivity to inner experience (Creating That Space/spaciousness of mind)

We will be talking about this and so much more in here in my group “Resilience and Mindfulness” so if you haven’t joined us yet - click that Join button and keep this group on your radar.

May this help your Thanksgiving day and everyday bring you Ease, Calm, Peace, and Balance.

#MentalHealth #WarmWishes #Mindfulness #MajorDepressiveDisorder #Depression #Anxiety #GeneralizedAnxietyDisorder #ChronicFatigue #ChronicPain #Selfcare #Selfharm #Grief #SuicidalIdeation #SuicidalThoughts #SuicideAttemptSurvivors #Suicide #BorderlinePersonalityDisorder #BipolarDepression #MoodDisorders #BipolarDisorder #ComplexPosttraumaticStressDisorder #PTSD #Trauma #Agoraphobia #Cancers #ObsessiveCompulsiveDisorder #ChronicFatigueSyndrome #MyalgicEncephalomyelitis #Headache #Migraine #ADHD #Addiction #AnorexiaNervosa #EatingDisorders #Autism #RheumatoidArthritis #Disability #ChronicIllness #RareDisease #IfYouFeelHopeless #Cancer #EhlersDanlosSyndrome #dissociativedisorders #MightyTogether #DistractMe #CheckInWithMe #SocialAnxiety #Relationships

Holidays, right?!

I would like to open this post up here in my group “Resilience and Mindfulness” to an ongoing conversation and place for you to share and be seen, heard, understood and helped if even in any small, but possibly big way.

A lot more heavy emotions and thoughts come to surface.

Even ones we have been healing from.

Then there is also the stressful energy that others around us bring to our space of balance and peace.

I want you to know that since I am really living up to my fun username my first group members gave me-
slay queen, I have been slaying these heavy old memories and complicated feelings that have been already arising for me - during this Thanksgiving time, and I have been slaying my husband’s gaslighting and negativity…, so I am in a great place to be here to give a shoulder to lean on, two ears to listen deeply if you can open up and share with me here in this group I created for all of you, or feel free to message me to my inbox and I will do all that I can to give (as soon as technical difficulties in this app or time allows) to reply back to you to give you more light, more strength, more confidence, more connection, more perspective, more resources and tools, more positivity, more tangible hope…..

I want you to know that opening up and talking through your dark is strength, and so is letting others you can trust in our safe space, others like me who are reaching out a hand to take a hand, to take many hands, and offering to care more.

Your friend in this very hard thing called life,
Dawn

#MentalHealth #MajorDepressiveDisorder #Relationships #ChronicIllness #ChronicFatigue #ChronicFatigueSyndrome #Anxiety #Depression #Grief #GeneralizedAnxietyDisorder #Loneliness #MoodDisorders #BipolarDepression #BipolarDisorder #Autism #Disability #Selfcare #Selfharm #EatingDisorders #RareDisease #Mindfulness #SuicidalIdeation #SuicidalThoughts #SuicideAttemptSurvivors #Suicide #BorderlinePersonalityDisorder #ComplexPosttraumaticStressDisorder #MyalgicEncephalomyelitis #Fibromyalgia #PostTraumaticStressDisorder #PTSD #Trauma #Addiction #Agoraphobia #SocialAnxiety #Cancers #ADHD #AnorexiaNervosa #Cancer #Caregiving #IfYouFeelHopeless #MightyTogether #CheckInWithMe #ChronicPain #ChronicDailyHeadache #Headache #Migraine #WarmWishes

Some good things to start your month. Take care of yourselves and one another 💜
#DistractMe
#PTSD
#MentalHealth
#AnkylosingSpondylitis
#Anxiety
#Arthritis
#WarmWishes
#Caregiving

#MentalHealth #Holidays #WarmWishes

Last night was a delightful change of pace, a bit of low key fun that I hadn't experienced in quite some time 🧡. This time last year, I was still fresh out of hospital around Halloween and not very able to participate, so this year felt especially liberating and enjoyable. There was a moment of slight panic when my husband mentioned AFTER I’d drawn it on that my cat nose wasn't quite working. But with a little effort, I think I managed to pull it off in the end!

One of my favorite Halloween traditions is creating little bags filled with a blend of treats and toys. I have a soft spot for the timid little kiddos who are reluctant to let go of their parents' hands and walk up to the door to claim their treat for their effort of dressing up. Kneeling to their height, I try to offer words of encouragement, in an attempt to ease their unease.

Then there's another group that tugs at my heartstrings: the children without costumes. Whether their parents handed them a mere grocery bag or it was their own last minute invention, I empathise deeply with these kids because I see myself in them—as I too was once one of them, the neglected child. So, when they return, hoping for more treats, I understand their actions are not driven by greed but that for many of them, Halloween may as well be Christmas. So I give them the second bag, hoping to add a little more joy to their night.

On reflection; I think the thing that makes Halloween great, is that it transcends the simple joys of dressing up and indulging in treats.

It's a chance for community interaction and connection. While some might criticise the commercial nature of these holidays, for my part, I hope I never view the world with such cynicism. Especially at Halloween, when we have the opportunity to spread kindness not just within our own families, but throughout our community.

After all—as us Mighties know far too well—the world can always do with more kindness 🫶

#WarmWishes #DistractMe #CheerMeOn #ChronicFatigue #ChronicFatigueSyndrome #MyalgicEncephalomyelitis #Fibromyalgia #Endometriosis #MyCondition #PTSD #Loneliness
#Grief #Trauma #Anxiety #MightyMoment #MightyTogether

Inspired by the haunting cadence of Edgar Allan Poe's "The Raven," this reinterpretation attempts to echo the very real struggles faced by our chronic illness community. In the bleak months to come, I wish for you, my fellow Mighties, that the coming year gifts you with many spoons, and that your inner light continues to prevail wherever darkness may lurk 🖤

Once upon a midnight dreary, while I pondered, weak and weary,
Over many a faint and symptom of forgotten health lore,
While I nodded, nearly napping, suddenly there came a tapping,
As of someone gently rapping, rapping at my chamber door.
"'Tis some visitor," I muttered, "tapping at my chamber door;
Only this, and nothing more."

Ah, distinctly I remember, it was in the weak December,
And each separate dying ember writhed ghost like upon the floor.
From my books surcease of sorrow — sorrow for my lost health's morrow,
For the rare and radiant treasure of the health I had before —
Nameless here forevermore.

And the silken, sad, uncertain rustling of each purple curtain
Thrilled me — filled me with harrowing terrors never felt before;
So that now, to still the beating of my heart, I stood repeating,
"'Tis some visitor entreating entrance at my chamber door;
Some spectral figure entreating entrance at my chamber door;
This it is, and nothing more."

Open here I flung the shutter, when, with many a flirt and flutter,
In there stepped a stately Raven, sent from Odin's vast halls of yore.
Not the least greeting made he; not an instant stopped or stayed he;
But, with the air of a lord or lady, perched above my chamber door —
Perched upon a bust of Hippocrates just above my chamber door —
Perched, and sat, and nothing more.

"Art thou Huginn or Muninn?" I inquired with voice thinning,
Seeking wisdom from the raven, as in ancient Norse lore.
“Though thy crest be shorn and shaven, thou,” I said, “art Odin's haven,
Ghostly grim and ancient Raven wandering from the Hellish shore —
Is there hope or respite on the cold and distant Hellish shore?”
Quoth the Raven “Nevermore.”

Then this ebony bird beguiling my sad fancy into smiling,
By the grave and stern decorum of the countenance it wore,
“Though thy crest be shorn and shaven, thou,” I said, “art no cowardly craven,
Ghastly grim and ancient Raven wandering from the health-filled shore —
Tell me what thy lordly name is on this Night’s Hellish shore!”
Quoth the Raven “Nevermore.”

Much I marvelled this ungainly fowl to hear discourse so plainly,
Though its answer little meaning — little relevancy bore;
For we cannot help agreeing that no living human being
Ever yet was blessed with seeing bird above his chamber door —
Bird or beast upon the sculptured bust above his chamber door,
With such a name as “Nevermore.”

But the Raven, sitting lonely on the pallid bust, spoke only
That one word, as if his soul in that one word he did outpour.
Nothing farther then he uttered — not a feather then he fluttered —
Till I scarcely more than muttered “Other friends have flown before —
On the morrow he will leave me, as my health has flown before.”
The bird responded, “Nevermore.”

#MightyPoets #DistractMe #ChronicFatigue #Spoonie #Fibromyalgia #MyalgicEncephalomyelitis #Endometriosis #HypothyroidismUnderactiveThyroidDisease #WarmWishes #Insomnia #Migraine #Grief #Lupus #LymeDisease #IrritableBowelSyndromeIBS #MightyTogether #MyCondition

Just wanted to share a picture of the two pumpkins, my husband and I, carved for this Halloween/Autumn season. Having fibromyalgia, costochondritis, chronic pain and fatigue, and seasonal depression makes the colder months of the year really challenging for me. So I/we try to find some happiness through small joys of life. Pumpkin carving is one creative endeavor that we both enjoy!

My pain and fatigue makes the actual carving process challenging for me. So my contribution to our team effort is drawing the actual picture on the pumpkin, while my hubby does the tedious job of carving the pumpkins.

Being cat lovers and having two kitties as our furry companions, we decided to make ‘celebrating cats everywhere’ as our theme for this project. Anyways, I hope to bring some joy or smiles to my fellow-Mighties this Halloween :-) #Fibromyalgia #ChronicIllness #ChronicPain #ChronicFatigue #CheckInWithMe #Depression #Anxiety #WarmWishes