#PPDChat 11.16.15: Holiday Survival

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PPDChat Holiday SurvivalThe holidays. A time of year when we all celebrate our various faiths. They seem to blend together faster and faster these days, don’t they? Stores putting out Christmas decorations before we have even reached the end of October, seemingly skipping both Halloween and Thanksgiving. What ever happened to one holiday at a time?

Everyone counting down the weekends, the ensuing panic about gift shopping (thank goodness for Amazon, am I right?), and then the logistics of who is doing what where.

It’s enough to exhaust anyone.

The holidays are when our boundaries are truly tested. When our mental health is stretched to the limit for the sake of spending time with family and loved ones because it is expected. But what if you need time to recharge? What if being alone with your couch and Netflix is what heals you? How do you fit in time for yourself if you are dashing to and fro?

Tonight, we will explore how to fit in self-care during the holidays. We’ll discuss strategies to make that get together with your annoying relatives a little bit more manageable. And we’ll also chat about how to keep them from playing hot potato with a newborn little one (because yeah, everyone wants to hold the baby!).

Join us at 9pm ET for a chat that will help you survive the holidays without losing your sanity.

See you then!

{background photo sourced here}

An Attitude of Gratitude

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It’s a tough time of year for me come fall. The sun doesn’t shine as long, the leaves fall from the trees after a magnificent burst of color as they dance toward death before winter, and the skies are nowhere near as bright in the middle of October as they are at the height of July. Toss anything else in that mix and I start digging a rabbit hole to crawl into until Spring.

Gratitude JarThis year, I decided to do my very best to keep out of that rabbit hole. In addition to my SAD Lamp, I created a Gratitude Jar. I don’t remember where I first saw the idea (probably Pinterest), but it struck me as something easy I could do that would help all of us focus on the positive instead of wallowing in the depths of The Nothing that surrounds us like a parasite through the fall and winter months.

I posted a picture of my Gratitude Jar on Facebook and a friend immediately asked me how I did it. I promised her a blog post about it, complete with printables. So here we are!

Step 1: Buy a jar. Or use one you have at home. I found a really fantastic one at the local Goodwill for less than $2.00. You’ll want a smaller jar or vase to hold the strips you’ll print out for writing just what it is you’re grateful for every day.

Step 2: Create a label. I used Microsoft Word. Chose a Gift Certificate Template and adjusted it to my needs. I replaced the wording with a description of what to do as well as a couple of inspirational quotes related to gratitude. I used this list at Inc for quotes. (40 really great ones!) Based on your jar size, you may need a different label. Feel free to play around in Word and create your own. The one I made fit my jar perfectly.

Step 3: Cut out the label. Using a simple glue stick (borrowed from a school age child), glue said label onto jar. Place face down on a hard surface (I had to put it in the middle of our dining room table so the cat wouldn’t bat it off onto the ground).

Step 4: Again, using Word, I created a simple one column table the length of the page, and simple copied and pasted the words “I’m grateful for” in each row, leaving plenty of space to write a few things. Print, and cut out. I used a paper cutter but you could use scissors. The nice thing about doing it this way is that instead of buying a pad of paper, you can just print and refill as needed.

Gratitude Jar LocationStep 5: Set up the Gratitude Jar in a place that makes it easy to use. A common area but not in the way of anything. As you see, I have the Gratitude Jar on one side, and the little vase with the strips on the other side of a gorgeous vase that sits on our game cabinet in our dining room. So far, it works well. (We’re on day 4, I think.)

And that’s it. Easy peasy. While I am having to stretch to think of something for which I am grateful every day, it’s a good habit to have. Positive thinking matters.

And now, for the printables:

Gratitude Jar Labels

Gratitude Strips

Go forth and be filled with gratitude! Oh, and you’ll notice that there are TWO Gratitude Jar Labels on the printable. Make one for a friend and share the gratitude!

#PPDChat: #EndPPDMyths with @HerStoriesTales

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It’s almost here, y’all. Almost!

It has been killing me to keep this under wraps. Hold on to your hats because there’s a lot of info coming your way:

  • #PPDChat Announcement
  • Book Review
  • #EndPPDMyth Campaign
  • CONTEST (Yes, a CONTEST!)

Are you ready? Here we goooooo…..

 

PPDChat Mothering Darkness#PPDChat:

On Monday night, #PPDChat will be chatting with the fabulous Dr. Jessica Smock from @HerStoriesTales about the upcoming anthology, Mothering Through the Dark. Oh, and some of the contributors might just pop in. So you know you want to be there. Because this chat? This chat is going to be AHMAZING.

I use Twubs to keep up with chat. It makes things SO easy because it automatically adds the hashtag for you. Join our community! All you need is a Twitter account (and Internet)!

I’M SO EXCITEDfor Monday and hope to see you on Twitter at 9pm ET!!!!

MOTHERINGTHRUDARKAbout the Book

Mothering Through the Dark is a vivid and powerful anthology of essays from 35 amazing women writers who openly share their experiences as they navigated the world that is found in the dark valley of Perinatal Mood & Anxiety Disorders. In the book, not only will you find hope and truth, but you will find candid and bold honesty. Each essay portrays the reality that is motherhood for so many who fight against the vortex of Perinatal Mood & Anxiety Disorders. It is a book you need to have. It is a book that will make a difference in how women are heard and understood. I love that so many voices I know as well as new voices to me are in this book. I also love that so many more voices are bravely speaking up about these experiences. We will push stigma into a corner, together. I will caution, however, that if you are fragile or easily triggered, it may not be for you. Even though I am nearly a decade away from my last PMAD episode, I found myself immediately sucked back into several emotions because of the transparent and honest writing within the pages of this anthology.

In fact, there was one specific piece that hit me really hard, early in the book. It was during “A Different Shade of the Baby Blues” by Jill Robbins. On page 54, she writes about her reflection in the mirror:

“She had my hooked nose I’ve always hated and she was wearing my favorite purple sweater. But she didn’t look like me.

“She has no joy,” was the thought that rolled through my foggy mind as I studied my reflection.”

I’ve been there, after the birth of my second daughter. To look at yourself in the mirror and not recognize the reflection? Scary. Truly difficult to capture but Jill did it so well here that I immediately saw the reflection in the mirror from the first time I didn’t recognize myself (yes, it happened more than once). But in recalling this, I didn’t find a trigger, I found hope, grace, and a promise that even though I had been there, I knew my way out because here we are. And this is what is so powerful about this book. The moments it captures, albeit dark ones, reflect to us how far we have come since experiencing them. The power therein is priceless.

If you want to help promote the release of the book, you can also join the Thunderclap HerStories has set up. Go here!

Shatter the MythsAbout the #EndPPDMyths Campaign

We’ll be chatting with Jessica not only about pulling the anthology together, but also about the social media campaign they’re running next week to mark the release date of the book (which is Tuesday, November 3). According to their press release:

“The HerStories Project, a writing and publishing community for women, is organizing a week-long social media campaign during the first week of November called “Shatter The Myths.” The goal of the campaign is to end the widespread misconceptions about maternal mental health disorders that prevent mothers from speaking up about their struggles and getting help.”

How can you participate in their campaign?

Follow the hashtag. Share a photo of yourself with a quote that shatters a myth about Perinatal Mood & Anxiety Disorders or empowers fellow fighters, being sure to post it with #EndPPDMyths.

contestCONTEST

One last thing – even though the book releases next Tuesday, you will have a chance to win it during chat on Monday night! That’s right! One lucky participant will win a copy of Mothering Through the Dark. No pre-registration required. All you need to do is attend the chat (and of course, not be included in the anthology). Winner will be announced on Twitter shortly after chat and Random.org will be used to select the winner. If you don’t want to wait, you can pre-order the book here. Did I mention that ten percent of proceeds from this book go to support Postpartum Progress, a non-profit that is making a LOT of waves and progress right now? It’s a win win!

Tessera Chat Guest Announcement

#PPDChat 10.26.15: Talking with @addyeB

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Tessera Chat Guest Announcement

I’ve known A’Driane for quite some time and am proud to count her among my friends. We’ve managed to meet in person – once – in the midst of her recent moves away from the east coast.

A’Driane is unafraid to tell it like it is and I love her for that. She and I have similar experiences yet they are also separated by different challenges. A’Driane has created this wonderful space specifically for women of color to come together and honestly share their challenges with mental health issues within their lives.

Why is this so important? Because women of color are consistently at a higher risk to experience depression and various other mental health disorders according to the APA. And yet, research is difficult to find or it is often skewed toward Caucasian women and those who have the means to access care.

Another reason Tessera Chat is so important is because it is often frowned upon to admit to any sort of mental health issue lest you dare defy the “strong black woman” persona found within the African American community specifically. (For a REALLY great personal essay which expounds upon this, go read “What It’s Like Having PPD As A Black Woman” by Tyrese Coleman at Buzzfeed.)

This coming Monday, we’re going to chat with A’Driane about the Tessera Collective and chat. We’ll be discussing how it got started, what it means to her, how it’s grown, and where she sees it going.

I truly hope you will join us for what I am sure will be a very powerful and insightful chat.

#PPDChat 10.19.15: Word Play

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ppdchat-10-19-15

Words. They are powerful. They allow us to communicate everything from the mundane to the grandiose. Sometimes, though, words are seemingly too little for situations; not enough for experiences which defy description in any language.

But words have been a form of communication for eons.

Tonight, we’re going to play with words as if we’re toddlers playing with a brand new package of blocks.

Tonight’s chat will be all about what words and phrases inspire us; about the words which keep us going when everything else has us wanting to crawl back into the dark hole from whence we came.

I hope you’ll join us for this playful and spirited chat. See you on Twitter tonight at 9pm ET!