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Year Four, Day 334, Pandemic Times Day 83: Re-Inflating: My Daily Mental Health Workout

Hello Friends:

I will begin today with a confession: I broke my social media curfew again last night.  By 1 1/2 hours.

I have found a writer/blogger/journalist that has been doing live feeds of the Portland protests every night. I followed along with him last night from downtown at Pioneer Courthouse Square, until the crowd made it's way back over the Burnside Bridge. His name is Robert Evans @IwriteOK
(https://twitter.com/IwriteOK?s=20). I read on his Twitter feed that the protests will continue tonight downtown beginning at 6 p.m. There will be speakers. 

Overall, a very peaceful protest! Especially compared to protests over the weekend.  Even Mayor Ted Wheeler said so! In fact, he lifted curfew for tonight:


I so enjoyed going along with the crowd from the safety of my own little basement room.  The protest was so peaceful, and well.."Portland"...friendly, quirky people. I was enjoying chatting it up with my new friends who were following. We even came up with pet names for some of the unusual characters we saw; some repeat performances from previous protests! 

There was:
  1. Beer Guy
  2. Taco Guy
  3. Flag Guy
  4. Sword Guy
  5. Husky Dog  (an actual dog. We spent quite  a long time oohing and ahhing over him!)
  6. Drunk Dude.  There were others, but the feed kept freezing, so I missed quite a bit. I may have to break curfew one last time tonight!
And then back to my social media curfew.  I probably should take a social media break, but it is my only social life right now.  Starting tomorrow, I will start working on my mental health more seriously.  It has been badly neglected. A quarantine can take it's toll on one mentally and emotionally. I am prone to depression and anxiety. I survived so far, but I need to strengthen my emotional core!

What started me thinking about my mental health was, first of all, a nice phone chat with my counselor. I went to the park, and we chatted while I sat under a tree and listened to the birds singing and the happy voices of children playing.  We stumbled upon some interesting triggers of mine, but then our time ended and I had to run home and teach a student.

I didn't have much time to process. Unfortunately, I have not been taking notes.  Fortunately, our last few sessions have been via text message, so I can go back and revisit my state of mind.  I told him a few weeks ago I did not have the emotional strength to talk, but texting was just fine. He agreed.  I prefer texting to talking, but since he was back in his office today, we went back to talking. I am looking forward to actually having a real, in person counseling session again!

But back to the present. Today I had a mental health epiphany!

I had just finished teaching a student, after which I sent her an assignment and a video of
the piece she is working on. She is a high school student. She just graduated
and was supposed to go to college in the fall, but she is taking a year off
because of fears surrounding the pandemic. She didn't practice at all this week - 
she was a little depressed, missing her friends and then became quite upset by the news 
about George Floyd and protests. She is Asian-American and has had her share of discrimination. 

So we put piano on hold and just had a nice chat.

We shared some insights. I told her about the journalist whose live feed I followed on the Portland protests. She told me about a few groups she followed. And she told me "Anonymous" was back on
the scene. I did not know that.  I always learn something from my students!

We finally got back to the subject of piano. I told her that with all that is going on, her piano practice can be therapeutic. And she doesn't have to practice for a long time, but just REGULAR, DAILY
PRACTICE, even for 10-15 minutes will help her see progress every week. 

The reason I am sharing this with you, is that I have found this to be true
in my life. Daily practice in any subject (piano, loom knitting, Qi Gong, weighted hooping, prayer, bible study, blogging...) is the best way to form a habit and progress.

I do not know why it never occurred to me that I could apply this philosophy to
my mental health!

So I emailed my counselor and shared my epiphany and asked him if the next time we talk he could help me establish a daily mental health workout!

Then I got out my Kindle and downloaded two books: Practicing Mindfulness by Matthew Sockolov and 31 Days of Mental Health Moments by Lori R. Miller. 

I have no idea about the quality of these books. They are free through Kindle Unlimited.  So if anyone has any suggestions, I am all ears! I am also waiting to hear from my counselor. He is quite the intellectual. He was the one that recommended I read The Plague by Albert Camus. Ironic, isn't it?  That was several months before the pandemic hit.  By the way, I highly recommended this book!

I really want to get better.  After my counseling session, I realized that I have the same old triggers
and keep repeating the same old patterns that I have for years!  Most of my issues are tied to my deflated self esteem. I want to break free! I want to re-inflate! (Um, my self esteem that is. I am still trying to LOSE weight, thank you very much!)

And on that note, I must break free of this blog and go babysit my granddaughter!

Talk to you tomorrow!

Be Safe! Be Healthy! Be Happy! Break Free!

Love,

Zita







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