YOU ARE NOT ALONE - A companion online community discussion board for The Mental Illness Happy Hour podcast with Paul Gilmartin
Postings on this site are NOT by mental health professionals, rather the opinions & experiences of a community of regular people. If you feel like you are going to hurt yourself or others PLEASE call Suicide Prevention at 1-800-273-8255
snoringdog wrote: ↑August 10th, 2023, 3:16 am
Ducks are so endearing, aren't they?
(I've wondered if duck-billed dinosaurs were similar in any way... )
I do understand that birds are descendants of dinosaurs.
Mental Fairy, good luck with your final preparations!
Keep us posted
Work is love made visible. -Kahlil Gibran
A person with a "why" can endure any "how". -Viktor Frankl
Which is better: to be born good or to overcome your evil nature through great effort? -Skyrim
The day is here, I dreamt of silent retreats for some reason. All packed, and it shows I have anxiety as I have packed enough to go away for a week if not a month. I have set a plan for every possible scenario. One would say i have overpacked. It’s embarrassing really how I do this.
Have to pick up Les at 8. When we will geocache our way to the smelly town of Rotorua.
Trying not to think about the run part. It’s worrying the heck out of me. And that’s playing it down.
View from the hotel, we made it. Very tired however we are going for a night walk in treetops! Will show you before and after photos from daylight to nighttime.
Anxious beyond belief, don’t feel like I belong here. Called home a couple of times. Not good with being away. We have to get up super early for breakfast before the shuttle collects us. Feel really not in good headspace. The situation with work is not helping.
Also, remember that there are three kinds of fun, and running on a volcano can sometimes be Type II
https://www.rei.com/blog/climb/fun-scale
Work is love made visible. -Kahlil Gibran
A person with a "why" can endure any "how". -Viktor Frankl
Which is better: to be born good or to overcome your evil nature through great effort? -Skyrim
Mental Fairy wrote: ↑August 11th, 2023, 10:35 am
It’s the morning of and currently sitting here in my running gear wondering what the heck I’m doing! One hour to go and we are off.
Good luck, Mental Fairy. I hope you have a great time.
Keep us posted.
Work is love made visible. -Kahlil Gibran
A person with a "why" can endure any "how". -Viktor Frankl
Which is better: to be born good or to overcome your evil nature through great effort? -Skyrim
My day is done, it was by far the hardest event I have ever attended. It was -4 this morning. I got emotional at the start and had to hold back the tears.
The event tested me in ways I can not explain, people and lots of them,3428 to be exact.
I rolled my ankle 3km in but managed to carry on. I focused not on my breath but the person behind me. He was a huff and puff kind of man. I focused on his breathing and not my own. There was drummers along the way. There was a live band in the forest. Each one almost made me cry.
The person I ran with fell over, as many many people did. Tree roots and hot earth. It was like running on the moon once we came out of the forest.
I sat next to a lady on the shuttle to the bush line who was working on herself. She has lost 48kg over a year, she has walked most of it off as she has had both ankle rebuilds due to bone condition. I was proud of her and felt yet again tears come up. I was proud for other people, and myself.
When the race was coming to an end my name was called out over the speakers as I ran through the finish. I burst into tears. I was alone, on my own and crying. I felt embarrassed but so out of my body. I distracted myself with buying some really cute socks!
Last night I walked into the town, went into a pub called piglet and something! There was not tables for me but a couple saw me and asked me to join them. I WOULD NEVER do this as a rule by myself, I’m shy introvert person, in a pub, in a town five hours away from home. There were from Tucson Arizona. She is a vet and he is a mountain bike guide. We talked for an hour and i for a moment of two thought of all of you. I felt so privileged to meet this people. I went back to my hotel and cried, I felt privileged to have you also here also.
I could not of done this without you all and your kindness and encouragement. I have learnt something else over the last 30+ hours. I would not do this again without my boys. I miss both of them and it’s actually made me think about my relationship with my son and Joe so much differently.
I can hand on hard say it’s also made me think of all of you different also. How powerful are our words on here? They are like mental nuclear bombs. We can write self distorting words, self critical sentences and self judgments that seem so hard on ourselves. However we support each other by turning those word bombs into something less deadly, critical and painful. I adore you all. You are all worth it.
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