30 Days of Free Everything!!

Happy New Year! Anyone else notice that the new year and all the resolution making that has become standard in our culture has lead to every single health app, program, food delivery, etc offer a discount or free trial during January?  If you have noticed, ME TOO! and I love it!  I don't like to set "new years resolutions" per say.  I am always setting new goals and intentions for myself. like, ALL OF THE TIME.  but January can offer some good opportunities for trying new things if you look around. I'll share with you what I have found and what I am doing this month for my "new year - new me" lol.

1. Combining body and mind exercises using 30 free days of True Yoga with Adriene I am normally really figgity with yoga and have severe ADHD and no, I am not one of those people who just say that meaning they are "distracted".  The monkey mind is REAL! and because of this, I practice mindfulness.  Mindfulness meditation has many benefits but helping me to focus is a personal benefit for me.  Well, I haven't been as good with practicing mindfulness everyday day like I used to be.  I remember in January 2 years ago, I set a timer on my phone for EVERY HOUR and when the alarm went off, I did a 3-5 minute session. No joke. EVERY HOUR.  Obviously not everyone can do that because; life, but I was really suffering with sever cycles of psychosis/depression that were debilitating me and I couldn't work, at a job or really not even at home.  So every hour was something that was still hard for me to commit to but it helped so much.  I know yoga is not the same as mindfulness- and I still in a very huge way support and use the Calm app- but many properties in yoga such as deep breathing, focus, and reflection are similar to the mindfulness.  So I found this 30 day free yoga with Adriene, and so far, I love it!  I view it as more of a mental workout instead of physical so I am still sure to incorporate working out on top of it.  I am hoping this will help me re-learn body kinetically how to sit still and meditate.  
2. Reset your mental gut!  It's true! I'll vouch for it as an **educated person in both nutrition and psychology, that much of your mind is in your "gut". (BTW, "gut" is a technical term in medical field which I was surprised by when I found out).  I am also a big, HUGE, GIANT fan of Pressed Juicery!! No, I am not one of those people who are always on a "cleanse" etc. Insert cliche California/LA personality here.  I do the cleanses in my own way by limiting what I eat during a 1-3 day "cleanse" and this helps to reset my gut bacteria.  As I have discussed before, sugar is my biggest enemy.  Once I start consuming larger quantities, I literally cannot stop craving it.  When I'm on a sugar kick, it's the first thing I think of when I wake up and if I give in, well then my day is officially ruined and it's back to bed for me.  And that's not an understatement.  So I use the juice cleanses to flush out a lot of toxins, sugar, etc and then on the 3 day I start adding pro-biotics to reset the natural flora of my gut to a healthier one.  Which in turn, helps with my mental health immensely. I normally like to keep a few juices in the fridge on hand for added nutrients and if I do slip up and have too many glasses of champagne or dive into a sugar craving, I like to have a bottle of the *activated charcoal lemonade for a quick flush out. The other cool thing about pressed juicery is that they ship all over the country! and you don't have to worry about the juices going bad on their journey to your home because the shipping is fast and the juices are always packed in insulated bags with a ton of reusable freezer packs.  That way, you can use the freezer packs to bring the juices with you to work etc.  And of course, in New Year/January style, right now they are advertising free shipping! *use sparingly **I am NOT a doctor and these results are just from my own experience.
3. NAMI's Peer to Peer program. For me personally I am adding an additional phase of my therapy and have signed up for NAMI's Peer to Peer 10 week course.  It meets once a week in my area and it's like group therapy but more one on one time with another individual who has similar mental illness experiences and is on a similar path to adaptation and recovery.  If you don't know about NAMI, you really should check them out.  They are a national community reaching out to every area of every state to offer FREE services such as counseling, help with applying for disability, group therapy meetings, and services for loved ones and care givers of those with mental illness.  They completely rely on gifts and contributions to stay available in every community and offer free support.  If you are in need of any assistance you can always call them or go to their website and highly advice checking out what is available in your area and finding a way to be involved or to give support.  I signed up for this peer to peer course last summer, and I have been anxiously awaiting the call to tell me when the next course is scheduled. (it's based on number of people interested and can commit to the 10 week time period, and obviously based of type and severity of mental health symptoms).  Please wish me luck! I am SO nervous! and excited! but mostly nervous and every time I start anything new like this, the unfamiliarity of it makes panic and very anxious.  I know now that in the end it will be OK and that in any new situation, I have the power to chose what is right and wrong for me but that doesn't mean that I won't be lamenting the few days before the first meeting and thinking of ways to get out and then talking myself back into it.  Often times these type of situations make me physically sick.  but just as I have committed to going to individual therapy, doctors appts, etc, I will commit to this and stick with it no matter what.  I think starting and finishing a 10 week program like this will help boost my confidence and help me realize I am ready to get back out into the world a little more and start involving myself in more activities outside the home and oh yeah...start working and making money again and feeling good about contributing financially to my marriage on top of emotional and physical support. 
4. Work! Another personal one for me, I want to open my own etsy store this month which is something I have been planning for a couple years now.  I won't talk too much about it today as I don't have everything set up and set in stone but it will be selling things that I make such as cards, paper crafts, vintage ephemera packs and my own vintage items.  I will let everyone know more info as get I things running online.  I am also including updating my neglected website into this topic because connecting each part of my presence online is beneficial to reaching more people who are like you, and me, and want to help end the stigma of mental illness and like to do so by using creativity!  Of course, I am already planning to have a percentage of each of my etsy store purchases go to NAMI because giving back to those who have helped me makes my world go round!

This was how I had a shelf above my desk decorated for Christmas this year. Notice the multicolored disco balls in the glass jars?! OMG I love them. I love everything disco ball lately.  But anyway, I wanted to point out my new planner for the new year by bando and how the pink and blue match perfectly with a sparkly wallet I painted a few years ago with a cute cat  face outline! (it's kind of hard to see but it's on the same shelf as the "no bad days" planner, to the left of the reindeer.