TREADING WATER

Something that's been a long life lesson of mine is Mindfulness. You know, that thing where you're supposed to colour in books or something? It's the idea of being present, in the moment and one with yourself in your surroundings. A peaceful moment to moment 'nothing is hurting you right now, there's nothing to worry about' mentality. For an anxious person or someone who has trouble sitting still, this is a challenge. I've had times where mindfulness is easy, something I can slip on like a pair of comfortable shoes. Sometimes it gets away from me, like  trying to catch water with my hands. It's a task that you give yourself daily, and allow yourself the courtesy of failure sometimes. Here's some tips and tricks that help me stay out of my own head; Breathing Exercises Meditation Music Distraction Hobbies Journaling Grounding in Nature Mirror Talk Now at a glance, this is a lot of (as my older sister likes to say) Hippie-Dippy Bullshi

When you were a kid and your parents told you that you couldn't have that toy/ treat/ puppy/ daddy's book/ mummy's happy juice is what I imagine what isolation feels like to some people. I want the outside. I want the beach. I want to see my friends. I want to have a sit down meal at my favourite restaurant. I want away from my children/spouse/animals/cage/life. I'm going crazy! I'm going to go do the thing, authority figures be damned! And then you see people out and about and wonder why the hell they are out.  The old adage of you don't know what you have until it's gone is becoming annoyingly apparent. Everything you were wanting; more time to do your projects, more time to spend with your family, more opportunity to save money, is now a double edged sword, because this is not how you imagined it to be. Because now you feel a little like this. So how do you keep on keeping on when you are desperately trying to escape your life circumstances?

Shout out to all my extrovert friends and everyone unused to spending long periods of time in the house! How you all doing? If you’re heating up with cabin fever, I’m here with some metaphorical pumpkin soup.  A fair few of my friends on my social media are struggling with how to occupy their time during a lockdown, and at the same time, beating themselves up because they’re not being productive enough. There’s this weird line we all have to walk between of trying not to panic, and trying to motivate ourselves during this unknown stretch of time we are gifted with.  I hear you saying ‘I can finally do that thing I always wanted to do! I’M GOING TO COMPLETE EVERY SINGLE ONE OF MY LIFE GOALS!!’ then feel completely overwhelmed with the rolling expanse of time and curl up into a ball instead.   And I’m here to say, that’s okay. You don’t have to be at your productive fighting best during a pandemic. That’s a bloody stretch goal if I ever heard one.    “But Taysa, I don’t

What a weird bloody time we are living in. In just a few short months both Covid-19 and 2020 in general has completely unmade and exposed us at the heart of who we are. Stories of great loss and great compassion are swirling together in this great whopping melting pot that society used to function in. Covid-19 is single-handedly exposing the societal dynamic which we assimilated under, and the great imbalance of power and fear to which we subscribe to. It’s as if a great big cosmic highlighter has inked over the inequity of support we have been needing for hospitals, elderly, low income and anyone who is at risk and the Universe is all; ‘I dunno guys, maybe we should change this?’   I won’t be the first to compare it to a train wreck that you just can’t look away from. It can be completely overwhelming for so many unused to this ideology of surviving moment to moment, so I wanted to reach out and say; Welcome! It is the time of us already anxious depressed isolated weirdos to

Hi, hello, welcome! My name is Taysa and I was officially diagnosed with Clinical Depression and Anxiety in 2014 when I was 26. My life is lived periodically In The Black or Waiting For The Black .  It's a shit show let me tell you. But the good news here is I am like 300 million people on this planet so at least I have a commonality with some of you. I am writing this blog because I have a little experience on getting through some really bloody hard times, and thought to share with people who are facing some real mental health shit now because of Coronavirus. There's going to be a lot of voices chiming in on how to help your mental health during this time.  Due to my intimate understanding of the worry fear and general bleakness of my life, I may have some little nuggets of advice of how to get through to help you. I've been doing the self-help carousel for a while and I feel like I've tried it all. Some things I've tried but are not limited to; - Cha