Perseverance

You probably read an earlier post I wrote called MY RECOVERY. Well I will go from where I am today and some of how I ended up here. My present jobs for MHCD are research assistant and I scan medical records into electronic form. I never dreamed I would be here. I am extremely happy today working for MHCD. Although I did believe I would work full time someday. It all started step by step. My first dream was to go to college and learn computer. All I learned was software. I could not go further, because I lacked math skills. I would learn it than forget it an hour after I learned it. I have not explored it further whether it was the medication at the time. Since then I have been on a new medication which I do know helps me think clearer. I also work on my memory. Well I then switched to Human Services and took up alcohol and drug counseling. I did not take mental health, because I wanted to separate the two from my own distress. For my internships I went to private practice again to separate from the two. The last place I interned for before I graduated really turned me off. I did not even want to counsel after that. I then applied and was accepted into Graduate school of Public Affaires and studied Public Administration. I had new hope that things would still work out. All I knew was I wanted a better life than the first I had before my mental distress. I graduated in 2005, and was ready to work. Read my earlier post for more on that. What I did learn is to achieve your goal or dream. You have to have perseverance, hope, and self determination. Those are also the steps to recovery. Today I have more confidence and with exercise, meditation, and self reflection. I am learning about me and how to use the skills I have. To work on the one’s I do not have. For me this second life is much better than the first. I know with the tools I have learned that what I have material and spiritual will not be taken from me this time.

Excerpts on Spirituality

Spirituality means different things to different people and all express their spirituality in different ways. Spirituality can help keep mental life in a working perspective which can be good and help people beyond the bad scenarios of their life.
Spirituality can mean faith or a way of understanding. A person’s belief in a higher power such as God or Christ, or nature or any power greater than one’s self is Spirituality, a hidden part of our life.
As people who require Mental Health treatment, we need a service of the Mental Health system which responds to our spiritual needs. We require a system in Recovery which lets us openly express our lives in a spiritual context. Consumers of Mental Health need help in understanding and exploring the importance of Spirituality and their associations with others with whom they share their lives.
There is a twist in such soul searching and belief in Spirituality in Mental Health and that some people may not feel well about their spiritual experiences and any beliefs these people may have might not be positive in their Recovery. Believing you can Recover is spiritual and we can all learn from one another, coupled with faith we have the beginning of a foundation which will give us understanding into Mental illness and greater support, as well as an ability to lead a healthier life.
Spirituality is knowledge, which leads our lives through expression.
By Donald Sammons

Meditation Technique

This technique is also out of the book Beyond Fear by Miguel Ruiz. This meditation is to take inventory of your feelings. “The inventory is a meditation exercise. An inventory is not an examination of conscience. There is no judge or victim. It is a review of feelings. Ways to initiate this exercise might be: to put a candle in your room and look at it while focusing on your breath; to look deeply into a mirror; to sit in a darkened room with your feet on the floor and your hand in your lap; to lie down with a blanket over you with your hands crossed over your chest; or to sit on the floor with your arms wrapped around your bent knees while leaning back against a support. These are all techniques for going into a light trance state.” Also the book says you can mediate with your eyes open or closed. “Meditation becomes a way of life. It is a prayer. It is one of the greatest methods for cleaning the mind, not the only method, but it is one of the most powerful and easiest.” This is a way to meditate and help your mental health. Miguel talks a lot in the book about breathing techniques, because that is our source of life. Do you mediate if so what techniques do you use?
By Charles

Changing

This is a blog from a Coworker of mine. My name is Donald. I am in recovery. I have been in recovery since the 1990’s, when I took my first step in denying myself the so-called pleasures that are inherent in this society. I was nothing more than a lowly drug addict, who was afraid to face reality and lived in one I didn’t want to face. I was lost.
Changing your life isn’t converting. It’s accepting the truth of reality. It’s finding peace in the wake of adversity, not throwing your life away, not hiding in never-never-land. Acceptance is part of the changing. Spring turns to summer, to fall then winter, our lives grow in this manner, we understand waking and becoming with the world and verily we accept this.
Going beyond Recovery is believing that we finally have rid ourselves of the webbings of the spider and have caused the clouds to part to accept the warming light our most real and truthful dreams, not the saddening of a winter’s day where one might be entrapped in a hall of mirrors without escape.
Mental health is not only about definition, yet what one believes.
By Donald Sammons

Exercise and Meditation

For exercise, I ride a stationary bike that has the distance I go and how many calories I burn. I am also lucky in the fact this bike is in my building which I live. It also will check your heart rate as you are exercising. The reason I am writing about this is that I finally reached a goal in my exercising. That is to burn 100 Calories in a half hour, which is how long the bike is timed for. Also in the timing is how much distance a person goes, my distance always says 5.3. Before I would get about 5 minutes away from it being over and say I will not make it and I would not. This time I said I’m going to keep going at this speed and I made it. Now I have to set a new goal of at least 105 calories burned. I like to work out best in the mornings, after breakfast. If you do not eat before you work out, then you will be hungry after and eat more than you want. I do exercise in the evening though sometimes. Now I will switch to meditation. I recently after reading a paragraph in the book I am reading called Beyond Fear by Miguel Ruiz. I mentioned it in an earlier posting. It talked about meditation by saying it does not matter if you’re a meat eater of a vegetarian you can still meditate. I use to mediate years ago for hours till I read in another book which I forgot the name. You do not have to meditate for hours to get the same benefit in less time. It is not the quantity but the quality. I am meditating again and hopefully get the quality of it to better myself. I will let you know how it goes.