November is Mental Health Month at Puttylike!

I have 6 daily practices that keep me grounded and on track and in my body. I use the Streaks app to help me get to them every day. 1) Walking (10,000 steps is the goal), 2)Yoga (with Adriene- daily home practice is a miracle, often only 10 or 20 minutes), 3) Morning pages 4) 1/2 hour or so of drawing, painting or sewing 5) 10 minutes or so on the guitar 6) 5 or so cups of vegetables.

Seems like a lot, but it’s been years of adding a habit, building it into normal life, then adding another. I set a timer before I fall in to social media, which is a great reality check about how much time I really have, to spend on social media? or my own priorities? Some days are too busy, but most I can fit these in. I’m so much calmer and happier and more effective and productive now.

Dancing singing and imitating sick rules from pilots called humans are best natural therapies as well……

.In my book there is a new Therapy created by me and based on my work as Psychotherapist…..

Will be back soon….

Best, Anna

I’ve been on sort of a self-growth journey for a couple of months now. I’ve always had severe anxiety and I decided to get help this last August when I started to experience serious depression for the first time in my life. After discussing with my counselor and learning more about myself, I’ve learned some methods that have at least been working for me so far. I hope they can help someone else too.

First off, I found going on hikes to be very therapeutic for my anxiety. I saw some others mention using the outdoors as a release, and I think that’s a great idea. Listening to the birds while feeling the sun (or even the rain) will get you out of your own head and give you a moment to escape. Another recent one I got into, is to simply watch motivational videos every morning before your day starts. It’s a great way to hear the things you need to hear and maybe kickstart some confidence. Lastly, I’d recommend a positive daily routine. Make your bed, keep up with your hygiene, and get some exercise. Sometimes it can take a while to change your habits. I’m still working on it myself. But the more I try the more traction I’ve been getting. I hope this helps. Good luck out there.

I feel like Social Media has a big impact on my mental health. I quit a couple of years ago when I really wasn’t feeling good. I started Instagram a couple of months ago, but I am not sure if I keep on using it.

Everytime I am on those platforms I am measuring myself to others and feel like I can’t keep up. I feel like others are more successful or have more focus. And the worst part is that I contribute to it. I also post photo’s of me on holiday and good times with friends. I won’t share that I cried on the airplane or left early because I was feeling anxious…

As I am typing this I am deciding I am going to deactivate my account again. Too much time is spend on scrolling down feeds that just leave me empty and unsatisfied. I don’t want to contribute to another girls doubts, because I know on the outside my life looks successful, but behind closed doors I am a mess.

I want to start working on a life that feels good on the inside and not just looks pretty from the outside. Social Media definitly doesn’t help with that.

My mental health has two outlets: One is music, I play when guitar and sing when I feel down. Music has always been a creative and soul restorative outlet for me ever since I was a teenager. The other is exercise and physical health. I used to be very lazy and aboslutely hated competitive sports, I thought working out was just for shallow jocks. But I have learned to like other activities such as weightlifiting that I can do on my own and combat stress. I think the key is to find some sort of physical activity that YOU LIKE (salsa dancing, hiking, karate whatever…) and stick with it 3x per week. As well as exercise, I try to eat as healthy as I can (lots of fresh fruits and veggies) and get enough sleep- although this is sometimes hard with a newborn baby! Take of your body it is indeed a temple, it will take of you and any medical study can tell you the benefits you’ll reap in terms of of elevated mood, outlook and better energy.

Mental health and multipotentiality ..

For me, my mental health and the extent to which I am really seen and valued by others (my environment) are very closely linked to each other and I think that actually applies to everyone to a greater or lesser extent. Being seen, being proper valued … In an environment where specialists are generally higher in esteem and properties such as perseverance reinforce that prestige, multipotentialites often do not receive the recognition or appreciation they deserve. Over the years I have learned that by choosing the right (sometimes slightly different) words you can manipulate that environment to move in your own direction, that you can influence the extent to which your environment values ??your diversity and multi-talents. And that by doing that you will actually be appreciated more and that that also leads to a happier feeling and better self-image. I will give a few examples:

1. about the unfinished projects
If I describe myself, I never tell that I have started 30 projects in the past year, of which only 2 have been completed, although I can sometimes feel a bit bad about that. Instead I say that I am a busy bee and that I always have one or more projects in progress at the same time. In fact, I say the same thing, but the accent is slightly different. In the eyes of my environment the lesser makes me, instead of someone with a sheer perseverance, a multitasker with boundless energy.

2. talking to a specialty
If you are good at many things, people (in the Netherlands at least) will soon talk about a Jack-of-all-trades or spider-in-the-web. A Jack in this expression is a kind of youngest servant and a spider a creepy arthropod. Both terms are therefore not very flattering to say the least. And the more neutral term generalist is often associated with a certain degree of superficiality, this as a counterpart to the term specialist wich implies a certain depth. The term multipotentialite/multitalent sure is a lot better chosen and evokes many fine associations, multi is always more than single. Just call a specialist a single potential and a generalist a multipotential .. Do you feel the difference? And if people in my area still want to persist in talking about generalists and specialists, I call myself a specialist in versatility.

3. about being different
To be different, words like weird, strange, separate, deviant or different are often used. These terms often give a somewhat negative picture. This is because you are different from others. The emphasis is on comparing to others, who always are in the majority and represent the generally accepted and you deviate from that. Nonsense of course because what is weird, strange, unusual or different is situational and depends on your reference and the majority. In fact, in certain situations everyone is weird, strange, separate or different. The trick, therefore, is to relate being different only to yourself by consistently refuse to use terms such as different, weird or separate but to replace them by words such as unique, authentic, myself, special, etc. Words that in the context of being different mean somewhat the same but represent a completely different view.

So what helps me to stay mentally healthy is that when I’m not feeling well about myself as a multipotentialite, I try to look at myself or at the situation with different eyes, from a different perpective. And if someone can look at things with different eyes then it is a multipotential. So use that talent to look at yourself with those other eyes and to share and propagate those images. Make them your mantra and you will exhaust strength from it.

Hi from Montreal!
First of all, I want to say that finding this community has been eye-opening for me. I would have loved to have that 10 years ago!
Not only I really feel that I can identify as a multipotentialite, but I am also queer and living in Canada, so I feel even closer to Emily’s community.

Finding my “true calling” as always been a source of stress my entire life, and I remember about 8 years ago when I looked for some career counselor in France that I thought could help me…and got an answer that at 27 years old, I was too old anyway to change careers. I said, “thanks for your help”, and never called back.
I’m 34 now, but not living in France anymore and not thinking of it the same way at all!

The past 3 years have been really difficult for me in terms of mental health for different personal reasons.
As some people said, things that help me whenever I am very depressed are some things that I always enjoy doing :
– Badminton with a community of people;
– Yoga, which is really just a time to take care of yourself, and be aware of your body;
– Music, which is such a good therapy!

But I think honestly that the number one therapy is just being around people who care about you and don’t judge you, real riends and /or family. I’ve learned that pretty fast!

Good luck to all of us Multipotentialites! I think we are the best people anyways! 😉