#worldmentalhealthday Mental illness is not a personal failure.. disease and the personality Jesus gave you are two different things. Know the difference and know mental illness is not what the world portrays.. evil in peoples heart is what does horrible things.. actually get to know someone who has a mental illness for yourself and you’ll see it does not match the worlds stigma on mental illness! I encourage you to explore the invaluable insights and solace offered by God in the Bible, you can read some of the many Bible Verses for Mental Health, and also embrace activities that bring you joy to safeguard your mental well-being. Do things you love to protect your mind where you do have control… like one of mine is palm trees in California… compares to nothing for ME.

Things… The little things that bring you joy are very important to protect your mental health. Putting good back into your head when your head may already have so many struggles throughout the day to keep up with. Whatever illness or problem you may have that you face. It takes up a lot of our brain space, as we can only focus on so many things at once. I find when I’m kept busy and doing even the little things that make me happy keep me from going to the place of major worry that I often go to. Sometimes I’m not able to completely escape whatever is bothering me and pushing me down as the what if’s are very time consuming when you deal with panic disorder. Some times it gets to that, but I don’t have major panic attacks often. Once in a while I can feel like I’m dying and everything is caving in on me and it’s a crushing experience in my chest, making it hard to breath, as it truly feels like, you’re facing death head on all of a sudden. Something I don’t want to go through and I don’t often. It does not mean that there’s not struggles in between those and anxiety is high but I know how to keep myself calm so I’m not experiencing anxiety all the time. My husband works from home and is home all the time and I’m home all the time working on songs and running a household and making sure everyone’s taking care of, and everything’s taken care of, for our family. I have a daily schedule I stay pretty close to and I enjoy my husband’s presence but I also enjoy him being in the office away from me so I can just think in quiet and do my own stuff and then we meet up and the end of the day and go over the day and kids stuff and whatever is going in in our life and we like to work on music together on the weekends, meaning I communicate where I am at in all my songs that I’m working on,  telling him the latest on every song and he helps with the production part of things but he has only limited time so I kind of work around that and have become used to that. It makes things take a whole lot longer but it is what it is with me not working with a team yet and just with my husband who is musically smart as well, meaning he knows what sounds good too and how music works. He’s my music best friend that I desperately need in my life as it’s one of my favorite things to do and talk about. We talk about music a lot and always have. That is something that is so good for my mind just having that and then always having my music to go to, to get what I need out of my head into lyrics or a melody. It’s a joy I cannot explain but through sharing my music. That’s my number one thing besides spending time with God and that can be reflecting on Truths in the Bible and what that does to my life and how I live and think and praying over my family and people and my daily stuff I do around the house. I love love Starbucks and that’s a daily thing I love about my days and it’s a little joy I do love. After breakfast and emails and stuff I need to attend to, I love when I get a recipe in for the day. I feel happy when I make things for my family that are good for them. It’s a big way I show love, by how I feed people especially my family and what I pick for them. I take great joy in that and making sure they are healthy ingredients and not toxic things in the ingredients. My family is known for having the organic snacks in their lunches at school or having them at home and making sure they are making good food choices in life. Even our college student away from home has carried that with her and calls me and texts me about all her healthy choices she’s making on her own, knowing how proud that makes me. I know how much food is medicine after being sick with food with an eating disorder in my past. To have gone through that I understand how important it is what we put in our body. These things make me happy .. these daily parts of my life that seem simple but are huge to me and my life. These things keep me as healthy as I can be no matter what disorder I have had or what I struggle with and that’s major anxiety with OCD struggles that have changed so many times through my life. I’m still a normal person with a normal life just like many people with a heart that is a very sensitive heart, but the ones that have been through a lot tend to have the biggest hearts I’ve noticed in life.

You’re not whatever problem you may have like a mental illness.. which, the DSM lists over 450 different definitions of mental disorders… you are still whatever your name is and what makes you special and remember that and take that far.