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Just_Sara A Bouquet for Pearls - share your appreciation for other members
  • replies: 703

Every now and then, members share a beautiful Pearl of Wisdom. How often do you think to yourself; "OMG that's great! I wish everyone could see this." Presenting someone with a bunch of flowers is a generous way of acknowledging their insightful word... View more

Every now and then, members share a beautiful Pearl of Wisdom. How often do you think to yourself; "OMG that's great! I wish everyone could see this." Presenting someone with a bunch of flowers is a generous way of acknowledging their insightful words. I hope this thread stays active through members giving out praise regularly to people they feel deserving, and therefore keep generosity of spirit alive within the pages of BeyondBlue Forum. My bunch of Red Roses (my choice) goes to Wishful for the following sentence; 'Personally, I see no reason to be praised in me, but I'm learning that seeing through the eyes of others can be more accurate!!' I so hear you Wishful. Just beautiful... Try to keep your leading comments short to focus on 'their' words. Choose specific flowers (or a gift if you like) to present to them. Sign off respectfully and sincerely. I hope this takes off... Spreading the love...Sara

Kazzl Helpful books and resources
  • replies: 103

Hi everyone Members often refer in their posts to books and other resources that have helped them. This thread is a place to list those books so all members can find them easily. The titles might include scholarly, mass market and self-help books, sp... View more

Hi everyone Members often refer in their posts to books and other resources that have helped them. This thread is a place to list those books so all members can find them easily. The titles might include scholarly, mass market and self-help books, specialist websites or blogs, podcasts, vodcasts or print or online journals or magazines. Please note BB has a list of websites and resources under Get Help, so maybe check there first for online resources. (Also note that we cannot include live links to online resources.) To make things easy to find, please put the category of the content first in bold, then the title of the book and then, if you want, a brief comment. Please note that anything listed here reflects the member's views only. Publications and other resources are not necessarily endorsed by beyondblue. Happy reading!

Chris_B Worried about other users - how are we all doing?
  • replies: 43

Hi everyone, I thought I'd check in to see how everyone is doing; while the nature of these forums is as a place of support, and it feels good to help others, we need to make sure our own welfare is looked after too. Sometimes reading the experiences... View more

Hi everyone, I thought I'd check in to see how everyone is doing; while the nature of these forums is as a place of support, and it feels good to help others, we need to make sure our own welfare is looked after too. Sometimes reading the experiences of others can be validating, because we feel 'we've been there', but sometimes it can also be a trigger for bringing up unpleasant feelings. I've started this thread so we can have a constructive discussion about helping others and helping ourselves - how do you cope when you read about others in distress? Do you have a self-care plan in place, and if so, what is it? Really looking forward to hearing from you all.

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Petal22 What has helped me with anxiety?
  • replies: 2

Hi Everyone, When anxiety strikes things can feel out of control within ourselves I understand. I just wanted to list a few things that have helped me in the moment when anxiety strikes. Try not to put your attention on what has caused you the anxiet... View more

Hi Everyone, When anxiety strikes things can feel out of control within ourselves I understand. I just wanted to list a few things that have helped me in the moment when anxiety strikes. Try not to put your attention on what has caused you the anxiety instead redirect your attention to the present moment. Follow your breathe use it as your anchor when your attention wonders from your breathe redirect it back to your breath, this will ground you in the moment. Take long slow deep breathes. Thoughts (in my experience with anxiety my anxiety can start to escalate due to my thoughts)... try not to question your thoughts or add to the thought, I have found that this will only escalate the anxiety. We can experience the first thought but the trick is to notice this and then redirect your attention to something in the present moment and not on the thought, this way it stops the process of escalation. ( It takes practice). "What we give attention to we give power to". Try to just allow your thoughts to come and go, we can learn to be the watcher of our thoughts without getting caught up in them. With practice we can all learn to choose our reactions to certain situations (including thoughts), in turn if we can learn to choose our reactions then this can either escalate your anxiety or decrease it. All this takes practice Please add any more that has helped that you can think of.

sbella02 Are you a morning person?
  • replies: 12

Hey all! Wanted to start another thread to encourage people to share great tips and experiences with each other, specifically about waking up in the morning. I've never considered myself a morning person (quite the opposite), so I'd like to pose a qu... View more

Hey all! Wanted to start another thread to encourage people to share great tips and experiences with each other, specifically about waking up in the morning. I've never considered myself a morning person (quite the opposite), so I'd like to pose a question to anyone who loves mornings or thrives in the mornings, what's your go-to routine? Is there anything that you can't go without doing when you start the day, or anything that you absolutely swear by? For some people, I know that spending time and effort on skincare is of the utmost importance, or making a hearty breakfast, or going for a walk/exercising, etc. I'd love to hear people's experiences. What are your morning secrets that set the tone for a fantastic day? SB

ecomama Bucket list, please share!
  • replies: 4

Do you have a bucket list? Would you like one? What would you put in your bucket list? Hoping for LOTS of positive chats about people's dreams and steps to making them happen.

Do you have a bucket list? Would you like one? What would you put in your bucket list? Hoping for LOTS of positive chats about people's dreams and steps to making them happen.

Doolhof Three things to be thankful for today
  • replies: 4624

Some days it is really hard to find anything to be thankful for when we feel overcome by the darkness and fog of depression. If I look hard enough, I can find something to be thankful for. I would like to encourage others to write down three things t... View more

Some days it is really hard to find anything to be thankful for when we feel overcome by the darkness and fog of depression. If I look hard enough, I can find something to be thankful for. I would like to encourage others to write down three things they are thankful for, and to realise there is a sense of hope available to us all. Sometimes it is just a little hard to find! So my three things for today are: 1: The lovely singing of birds in the morning as they welcome in the new day 2: The ability to read and write 3: A lovely hot shower. Wishing all the "family" in BB Land a day full of noticing the nice things in life. Kind regards to you all, from Dools.

white knight Loneliness- a remedy of mind, ideas 
  • replies: 4

This time of year seems to raise the topic of loneliness more often than other times. For whatever the reason for feeling lonely, it is a state of being that leaves us with the problem all by ourselves. It's a bit like patience, we cant buy it nor bo... View more

This time of year seems to raise the topic of loneliness more often than other times. For whatever the reason for feeling lonely, it is a state of being that leaves us with the problem all by ourselves. It's a bit like patience, we cant buy it nor borrow it from others so loneliness, the remedy, can elude us. I did mention a number of key issues on this topic here- https://www.beyondblue.org.au/get-support/online-forums/staying-well/loneliness--a-remedy-of-mind The main thrust of that post was to focus on what you have not what you dont have. In other words, you might well be lonely and that can be a sad place to exist, but you are breathing and hopefully warm, sheltered and have food. Ok, so that's one way to cope and improve your mental state about your lonely existence. What we cant ignore though is the adage of conventional remedies most people seek out with this problem- lets look at those and analyse. Clubs. Men's shed have been around for a long time. I wont attend any, why not? My individual needs includes not being obliged to finish off a project if I'm unwell. I'm also reactive to those with a bossy demeanour. Finally, my charity work is covered in this forum. For many men though the Mens Shed is a fabulous place to be with comradery and sense of purpose. Females have their specific clubs also. My wife in our old town attended a sewing group. Our most recent hobby is slot cars. We have the option of racing them of watching others do so. Clubs are "hit and miss" affairs. Dont give up, try another. Computer groups. I'm in several Facebook groups. Some people shy away from Facebook but I learned a long time ago that FB is great unless you fail to control your own site, the people you allow to use it and other features you might ignore. So the ideal limitations are- limit the number of friends (40-100), allow your posts only to extend to "friends" not public and immediately block incompatible/toxic people. The latter become quite automatic after a while. The benefits of FB is uploading photos to family and friends and ease of keeping abreast of developments as well as news and special interests Get a dog and make sure its a cute one (or two, they play well together). You'll be amazed at how many people talk to you and friendships flourish over a common interest. Join a dog club. We have a mini foxy, adorable. If I was single I'd buy another one. Does anyone else have ideas to remedy loneliness? TonyWK

ecomama Who else likes gardening?
  • replies: 975

Hi everyone I hope you're staying well today. Who else likes gardening? I would love to connect with people here who are happy to share their gardening adventures. For me I know that gardening helped heal my soul during tough times. I hope it will ag... View more

Hi everyone I hope you're staying well today. Who else likes gardening? I would love to connect with people here who are happy to share their gardening adventures. For me I know that gardening helped heal my soul during tough times. I hope it will again. Then with other things going on, it became a jungle. I'm part way into rediscovering it again and doing A LOT of hard yakka atm, when I am motivated. I have new dreams and ideas to put into the many bare places, as I remove thickets of lantana etc. This will all be on a tight budget and I'm ok with that. I want to create a peaceful place where I can be. I would like to grow food again (tell 'er she's dreamin' atm lol). I would like to re-establish my worm farms and compost heaps. Autumn is such a beautiful time of the year in the garden. I'm 'alone' in my gardening journey and would love to share and hear about other's gardening antics. Hopefully we can troubleshoot any issues in our gardens and talk about any healing we're feeling too. There's a lot of knowledge we can share. I hope this thread can brighten your day! Love Ecomama Please

That Other Guy Autism diagnosis
  • replies: 4

Hi everyone. I've posted a bit here in the past but drifted away I am in a struggling marriage, I constantly think about leaving. that's always the subtext for me, and the thing on my mind I found a service that I thought might give me an autism diag... View more

Hi everyone. I've posted a bit here in the past but drifted away I am in a struggling marriage, I constantly think about leaving. that's always the subtext for me, and the thing on my mind I found a service that I thought might give me an autism diagnosis and did a first interview. I talked about an incorrect schizophrenia diagnosis from my teens, and my abusive childhood. The woman told me they think I have a type b personality disorder. That's things like narcissism or borderline. My son has diagnoses of borderline and autism, making them not mutually exclusive. I'm just left feeling that something that has helped me understand myself has been taken away, and I've been told I am something that seems quite toxic to me. I'm not sure what to do or where to go?

Just_Sara A Bouquet for Pearls - share your appreciation for other members
  • replies: 703

Every now and then, members share a beautiful Pearl of Wisdom. How often do you think to yourself; "OMG that's great! I wish everyone could see this." Presenting someone with a bunch of flowers is a generous way of acknowledging their insightful word... View more

Every now and then, members share a beautiful Pearl of Wisdom. How often do you think to yourself; "OMG that's great! I wish everyone could see this." Presenting someone with a bunch of flowers is a generous way of acknowledging their insightful words. I hope this thread stays active through members giving out praise regularly to people they feel deserving, and therefore keep generosity of spirit alive within the pages of BeyondBlue Forum. My bunch of Red Roses (my choice) goes to Wishful for the following sentence; 'Personally, I see no reason to be praised in me, but I'm learning that seeing through the eyes of others can be more accurate!!' I so hear you Wishful. Just beautiful... Try to keep your leading comments short to focus on 'their' words. Choose specific flowers (or a gift if you like) to present to them. Sign off respectfully and sincerely. I hope this takes off... Spreading the love...Sara

ecomama BB Arts & Crafts Circle
  • replies: 93

Hey wonderful people! I take delight when I read about what other people have made themselves; from art works to sewing to knitting to ANYTHING! The CREATIVITY in these forums is astounding. The skill set is pretty mind blowing too. It warms my heart... View more

Hey wonderful people! I take delight when I read about what other people have made themselves; from art works to sewing to knitting to ANYTHING! The CREATIVITY in these forums is astounding. The skill set is pretty mind blowing too. It warms my heart to know that Arts and Crafts are being enjoyed by so many of our members. Please feel welcome to SHARE your past, present or future projects with us all. Or even what you'd like to learn how to do. Any gift ideas are most welcome too! Love EM

TillyM14 Mental health Apps?
  • replies: 6

Hi All, looking for recommendations on any good mental health apps. Im struggling with motivation because of my depression so any suggestions are welcome

Hi All, looking for recommendations on any good mental health apps. Im struggling with motivation because of my depression so any suggestions are welcome