Resting Times

I haven’t written anything but lists and two brief personal reflections since November 30th due to burnout from completing NaNoWriMo, and taking the month to exist and absorb has caused me to realize the overexertion I’ve been putting my mind and body through. Farm work and art work reconcile almost too easily, they’re collaborative, both …

Time and I

This week is a difficult time for me but I’m appreciative of how much I’ve grown in a year. I’ve graduated from the person I used to be. Though I remain an anxious person, I’m more emotionally stable even when I’m not— I can move on, cope, gain control over myself from the hands of …

10 Affirmations for Productivity

I deserve to feel pride for achieving any task regardless if it feels like an insignificant one, and I am proud of myself. If I cannot accomplish a task or use my time in a way I deem productive, I will not shame myself and I will be proud that I do not need to …

Being Recognized as You Are

As autistic and neurodivergent people, the ways we interact with the world are informed by how we’re perceived and how people react to us. This can be said of all human beings but being born into pre-established expectations we’ll never meet, social, emotional, educational, etc, involves a convoluted sense of self being projected onto us. …

I Value My Time (and Other Affirmations)

I often need to remind myself of neglected truths. My skills are valuable, my time is precious, and I deserve respect. My free time is spent freeing myself, learning and creating. All time is free, we are forced into it. I’m not worth less because I’m disabled, or because I can’t work a 9-5 retail …

Temperance and Time

Each present moment is in the past-- the next one to pass is the future, a chance to decide it. The flow of time means 'now' is a temperance. It's a balance of accepting that what has just happened and occurred long in the past both cannot be changed, but the future is simultaneous and …

My Experience with Cleanliness

I’m a disorganized person, a partially recovered hoarder, and I’m disabled. This adds up to some very unsavoury environments I’ve created around myself but in recent years I’ve made progress in leaps and bounds. Still, my apartment is rarely clean and when it is, it’s often short lived. But no longer am I sleeping on …

Ups and Downs

Mountains and valleys, sometimes the fall is further than your most recent climb but we can’t go down into a valley without an up to complete the curve. No matter how slow you go and no matter how steep the journey, life doesn’t stand still. My bipolar disorder has been properly medicated and I’ve spent …

5 Ways to Recuperate and Still Be Productive

I have ADHD along with several other neurological and psychiatric disorders which has meant I require more rest breaks during tasks, need to identify obstacles, and learn to prioritize. Understanding our own personal needs is a crucial step in increasing our productivity as we can’t accommodate problems we haven’t familiarized ourselves with.  For myself, I …

You and Your Mental Illness Don’t Exist Alone in an Empty Room

Often it feels as though we are alone in our mind, facing off against our disorders. We feel isolated. Maybe we feel doomed to follow the missteps of our parents, or that we’re missing out on life, or held back in a race everyone else is close to winning, I have moments like these every …