Helpful Mindfulness excersise

Experience the “here and now” feeling that comes from practicing mindfulness.

Some core features of Mindfulness are; Observing, Describing, Participating fully, being

non-judgmental, Focus on One thing at a Time.

Observing involves experiencing life rather than just living it. You need to use your senses

rather then life inside your own mind. Don’t think, EXPERIENCE!

Going into detail about what you’re experiencing can help you get more out of an event. What

do you see? Look closer? Now what do you hear? what else?

Participation was always important in school, and now it’s important in life. Have you ever

given you’re all at something. If you can give 100% in a soccer game why not in life.

Remember, when practicing mindfulness don’t judge. Nothing is inherently good or evil.

A thought is just a thought, a feeling is just a feeling. Experience it and move on. In this world, overstimulation is a huge thing try focusing on one thing at a time. Don’t think about what

you’ll do tomorrow, that conversation you had 8 years ago. Stay present and in the now.

Try this easy “5-4-3-2-1” mindfulness exercise the next time you feel anxious, overwhelmed or depressed.

focus your mind and try to find...

5 things you can SEE

4 things you can TOUCH

3 things you can HEAR

2 things you can SMELL

1 thing you can TASTE

Seriously... Turn down for what?

I'm currently taking Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT) for psychosis and think a lot of people could benefit from this kind of therapy. So here are my notes on how Cognitive Behavioural Therapy works and how you can use it in practice to help with any symptoms you may have with schizophrenia, depression, anxiety or anything else in your life that troubles you that you'd like to change.

No drugs, just positive thinking, practice and hard work. Don't worry, it's worth it!

Cognitive Behavioural Therapy focuses on your Thoughts-Emotions-Behaviour and how they relate to each other. Your emotions are how you feel and your thought is your way of thinking. You can't always control your thoughts or feelings, but you can control your behaviours. So when you are feeling sad, all you have to do is change your behaviour to be more positive and it will help your feelings and your way of thinking.

Here is an example on how to use this simple method to help change your perspective and help you along the way to being a healthier you:

You're walking down the street and you see someone walking by. It is the winter and the person is bundled up to keep warm, but you can't help shake the feeling that they have been following you. They are definitely the person who was behind you on the bus, and they have been following you walk down the street for 2 blocks now, the conclusion your brain reaches is that this person wants to hurt you in some way.

Thought: This person in the large coat wants to hurt me
Feeling: Scared, Anxious
Behaviour: Avoid that person, or maybe avoid people entirely.

The thoughts lead us to the feeling, which in turn leads us to the behaviour. If you do nothing to change this way of thinking, eventually you're brain will associate going out with all these negative emotions. So put on your critical thinking caps. We're about to go for a ride.

Instead of thinking "This person wants to hurt me" try thinking critically.
Is it cold? Should this person be bundled up, if yes, then that doesn't seem as suspicious, does it? Or maybe this person isn't the same person. In fact, I'm sure if you thought back you're realize you don't actually remember who was on the bus with you, so it could have very well been someone else who had a simaler coat on the bus than the person following you now. And most likely they just happen to be walking in the same direction, not following you.

Assessing your feelings can be helpful. Knowing how you are feeling can be helpful to find out how to change your emotion. If you know what emotion you feel, you may know the oposit feeling to try and change it to. The oposite of "sad" is "happy" the oposit of "distresed" is "comfort". Knowing how you feel is important for knowing how to change that emotion to something positive.

Modifying behaviour is first step. Decart said "I think therefor I am" however, this is more like "I act, therefor I believe". Instead of doing something negative, do something posotive, even if you don't feel like it. If it's for your own benefit it must be good. Instead of hiding under your sheets in bed all day, try going for a walk. Or atleast cleaning up a little. When you are feeling good about yourself try making a list of all the things that cheer you up and on days were you don't feel motivated just do one of the things on that list to try and cheer yourself up.

So bringing this new critical thinking skill, Assessment of feelings and behaviour medification into the mix lets re-evaluate The Thought-Feeling-Behaviour example.

Thought: That person is just on there way to work, or just happen to be headed in the same direction as me.
Feeling: Calm
Behaviour: Continue on with your day.

Now I'm no professional, I just read a lot and do my own research, but if you use this basic exercise the next time you feel suspicious of someone, or you feel an unwanted thought or emotion your day will go a lot better. Keeping in mind that this will take practice, and you'll have to practice being mindful and aware of your emotions. I suggest keeping a journal to keep track of your thoughts, feelings and keep track of what is going on in life. Your life can have a huge impact on your feelings and you can't always control what is happening in life. People get sick or die, it's out of your hands and it's not your fault, there's nothing that can be done in that case. Be sure to talk to someone and establish a good support system either through friends, family or even an online based community of like-minded people. Sometimes all it takes is just knowing you're not alone.
If you reach out to those around you  I'm sure you'll find that a lot of people are looking for a good support system just like you are.

I hope this helps at least a few. I'll keep you posted on other methods we learn and how to incorporate them into use for Anxiety, depression and delusions.

All the best,

Nameless Hipster Girl

Back to reality.... as far as you know

Hello everybody!

I am back after a long hiatus, I am back and ready to share any and all wisdom that I have.
Maybe not wisdom, but at least perspective.

My Dungeons and Dragons chart probably looks something like this:

Inteligence: 14

Charisma: 10

Dexterity: 8

Strength: 11

Wisdom: 16

I hope you are all doing well.

When I left this blog in 2014, I was having trouble with my mind. I was hallucinating, and I had a lot of delusions that I was convinced were real.

I fell into an alternate dimension, and died, came back in a new dimension. fell into a pit of despair and pulled my self out of it (with the help of my family). I was formally diagnosed with schizoaffective disorder. I was given medication for my hallucinations and delusions, but they didn't work, so they put me on something else for my emotions, but that made me more depressed, so here I am, drug-free, and doing pretty well. I still have disorganized thinking and illusions and delusions to deal with on a day to day bases, but all in all My life is as normal as it was before.

I manage my stress through breathing, meditation and I have learned to tell the difference between what is real, and what is not. I can also (if I'm not too stressed) turn down the radio in my head. Occasionally it's a radio, sometimes it sounds like a police scanner or some kind of communication between 2 or more people, but it's mostly in some other language so I don't know what they are saying. 

People say "when life gets hard, you have to get harder." but that's not really true. When life gets hard you should become jello. moldable, fit to form in any situation and just go with it. Try not to hold on to anger or stress. Sure you can feel angry or sad or anything you want for a little while, but you need to be able to let it go.

My hope for this new reboot of this blog is that people will see that people with schizophrenia and schizoaffective disorder are just like ordinary people. I want people to know that not all schizophrenics are bad, in fact, most of them are fine people. I'll be sharing my tips and tricks that I'm learning in Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT) and hopefully, it will help give other people with mental illness the resources they need.

Schizophrenia is a mental illness just like any other mental illness. It's all chemicals in the brain. You won't look down on someone with the flu, so don't look down on those with any kind of mental illness.

All the best,

Nameless Hipster

Pinterest... Ugh...

I do a lot of "pinteresting things all day. I've got boreds marked:

Ideas

Things to make into posters

Wish list

Exechetera...

Did you just miss pronounce "et cetera"?

I even have a bored of dolls so that once I have the time I can take up a hobbie of photographing dolls. But finally! I've got money again! So I can actually do some of the shit that I've been pinning all the time. So I bought some blank T-shirts and I'm going to design my own logo's on them. I'll come up with pictures or sayings and quotes that I want on them. It'll be great!

Why? Because I am a hipster! I wanna have shirts that no one else has. And if that means designing my own shirts then that's fine by me! I want sayings no one understands! Mad references few will get! 

Or if I see a shirt I like, I can design it myself. Instead of paying 30 to 60 dollars for a shirt, I can pay $5 plus the cost of the stuff I use to iron the disigns on! And that stuff is like $10 for 20 sheets so that's not bad.

I'd have to change it a bit to make it my own, but I'd have no problem with that. I've already done a few things! I've pinned them to my "done" bored on Pinterest.

So long, and have a pinteresting day!

Nameless hipster girl 

Don't push your books on me!

It may sound weird, but I don't think they should force kids to read in school. At least they shouldn't tell them what they can and can't read.

When I was a youngin (just to make me sound older) the teacher would tell us to read a book. We all took our turns reading out loud, which everyone hated, and everntually we would finnish the book and everyone would talk about it or do a report about it. 

Boring!

Eventually, in high school, we got to pick our own books to do reports on. Well, from the selection that the teacher brought. So instead of broadening our minds by letting us fall in love with reading by picking our own books, we were forced to read one of the books from the teachers moldy old box (Don't think about it that way).

I fell in love with reading after high school. Mostly because I discovered books that I actually found interesting. And not books we had to read for school. That one about the time traveling cat, or the one about the fairies and those BASTERD Pixies. The grave! Lots of good books and plenty of authors to choose from. I wish I would have fell in love with reading a long time ago.

That's why, if my kids ever come home from school and says "teacher said we have to read this book for school." I'm going to give them a book from my own collection to take the teacher with a note attached saying "I'd like an 8 page essay about this book by the end of the month. Thank you!" 

But I'd homeschool my kids so I wouldn't have that problem. I'll try and make them fall in love with reading earlier than I did. But then they wouldn't have the same mind as me. Less imaginative maybe. Would that be such a good thing? In some aspect yes. I would actually hope that my kids end up nothing like me. Which is why adoption is so great. All the care with none of the genes!

To quite Pippy Longstocking

"children need a little order in their lives, especially if they can order it themselves!"

Nameless hipster girl

Blurb for the Book Tour

J.Kahele was quoted in an interview with "elitebookpromotions.com" that new writers should "Write with honesty. Don't write to please others."

I might be paraphrasing a bit, but I believe these words are true. In fact, most authors will give similar advice, and it's very wise. Because if I aimed to please everyone, I would end up pleasing no one in the long run. If you write with passion, and you write what you like, others will like it too. Not everyone mind you, but hey! That's life.

That's why I love writing Fan Fiction. It's taking some else's world and adding your own flavour to it. Making it a new world in itself. It's not the best if you're trying to write a novel, but it's a start.

I mostly use writing Fan Fiction as a way to get the creative juices flowing. I'll write a few pages of Fan Fiction, and realize that the characteristics of one character that I'm writing would work great in a new story. A story I can make up all myself. No one else's ideas. After spending a few hours each night typing out a story about classic characters from books I've read a million times over, I start to piece together new ideas for new stories.

One day I'll be writing "Harry Potter Fan Fiction" and the next day I'll have half of an original story made up. A short story, but everybody's got to start somewhere.

I'm not saying writing Fan Fiction will one day make me into a great author, I'm also not saying it won't. I've been writing Fan Fiction sense I could write. I loved writing myself into my favourite TV show when I was a kid, or coming up with alternate endings to movies I would watch. Creativity is in everything.

"[the most rewarding thing about writing is] Being able to share your words and thoughts and [have] other's appreciate them." - J. Kahele

Personally, I don't care if others appreciate my work. As long as I'm proud of it, I don't care what others think. That's probably why I write Fan Fiction more than anything else.

Reference :
http://www.elitebookpromotions.com/interview-with-author-j-kahele/

Check out J. Kahele's books on Amazon!

http://www.amazon.com/Blink-Breaking-Branches-J-Kahele-ebook/dp/B00H7HVC9W

Nameless hipster girl

My apologies to Yvette Nicole Brown

This afternoon on the bus while heading to my bartending class, I read some tweets by Yvette Nicole Brown. I agreed with them. I ecpecially enjoyed the one's where she likened tweeting to following someone down the street and to someone coming to your door. "If you don't like where they're going don't follow them." "If you don't like what they're saying close the door." (I'm paraphrasing ofcaurse, I can't find the actual tweets) Essentially what she was getting at is that if you don't like what I'm saying then don't listen. But she mentioned something that I commented on. She tweeted:

"And the blockers continue to tweet on. shocked & dismayed that they can't say whatever they want w/o consequences. Where CAN you do that?!"

 I agree. Haters gotta hate, but I don't think twitter should be filled with posts about how you feel, you should save it for stuff that matters. Things that you need to say, or atleast you feel needs to be said. And I agree, from personal expirience it is easier to tweet something than to say it outloud.
I'm no hater. I love Yvette Nicole Brown in everything I've seen her in, though I can't always see everything she's in because I don't get those channels (I can't wait till the new episodes of Psych come on Netflix!) when I see her in stuff she's always a delight. I'm not flattering, I'm just telling the truth. I wanted to explain myself in more than 140 charecters.

 I'm perfectly fine with people expressing their opinions. But some people need to realize that what they say on twitter can be just like saying it in person. If you don't have an anonomous acount, then what you say is what you say. 

Everyone I follow on Twitter I give them 3 chances, if they say something stupid, or promote racism or homophobia, or refer to psychological disorders in a bad way, I stop following them. 
I'm happy to see people on Twitter promoting themselves, or connecting with like minded people. It's what it was made for right? But don't air your dirty laundry for all to see.  Save that stuff for facebook!
Once again, my sincere apologies to Yvette Nicole Brown if she thought I was referring to her tweets. I only meant people as a whole should remember to watch what they say before they say it, or rather tweet it.

Nameless Hipster girl

 

My number 4 favourite character on community. In my top ten countdown on Instagram.

@Namelesshipster