Tillogram

Thank you for checking in @Till23! The fingertips are definitely flowing tonight, but nothing we can't handle. 💪🤭

Oh, this is very understandably triggering... I can imagine it would be even more vulnerable at the moment after last Friday. That must have been a really tough session to sit with.

What does this sense of loneliness really need right now? 💛

I'm not sure @AuntGlow I went over to the place of one of the people from my sport to work on something for the club after the session with the counsellor, which was good as a distraction. I was there for hours and as I was driving home I realised I'd be coming home to a dark, cold empty house. I thought about my dogs as I drove. We got a lot of stuff done, so I was happy about that. It eased the Not Good Enough a bit

I'm in Melbourne @Till23 . Four seasons in a day sometimes but wintry chill at present.

It would be possible to upgrade to fibre to the premises but it would involve installing a completely new line from the street to my back unit then paying an exorbitant amount for bandwidth I'd never use. I'm already financially stretched by a horribly complicated family situation and I'm choosing what allied health and other things I can afford.

Hey @Dimity @Till23 @Appleblossom @Shaz51 ! Soooooo good to see you all 🙂 (You should see my smile)

Ahoy there @tyme glad you've weighed anchor.

Hope you're keeping warm.

I hope I didn't interrupt your convo here. I was just excited to see you all 🙂 @Dimity @Till23

Please go ahead with your convo.

But yes.. I've just come from the tropics with 38 degrees to 2 degrees in Melb....

Oh yes @Dimity I have lived in Melbourne for a few years, so well aware of weather situation.

So sorry to hear of this complicated situation for internet connectivity (not to mention family situation).

Yes, I am trying to decide if I can afford to go to a cancer specific gym or not.

Not al all @tyme you are always welcome on my thread. I missed you for one, but I'm sure other people did too.

I'd love to know more about your conference and things that you may have learnt there. I am so interested in this area. We just need to do better as a society to increase acceptance and learn that mental illness is just as important as physical illness. It's interesting that my current experience of mental health support came about through the illness of cancer and so I saw psycho-oncology initially and then continued with psychological support (well at least while I can afford it). I would love to find a way to be an advocate for people with pre-existing mental health accessing physical health resources/treatment.

@Till23 That must have been so nice to spend time with someone from the club - what did you notice about your thoughts and feelings as you were with them? It must have gone very well since you were there for so long. 🥰

Though, I do understand how deflating and anxiety-inducing it can be to come home to an empty house. It's prime real-estate for over-thinking, and those thoughts can be so hard to ignore... this has actually got me thinking about something related to those louder voices that tell you, you aren't good enough.

Something my psychologist often reminds me is, 'the part of you that is most regulated, curious, playful is your most authentic self. Whereas the parts of you that are more activated, angry, fearful, etc. are your protective parts that have learned how to keep you safe. They aren't necessarily wrong, in fact, they have kept us alive and have been a very important part of our journey. But they do tend to feed one narrative, and it's important that we spend time getting to know the former, so that we can strengthen that voice which holds compassion and inner trust.'

Now, I still struggle with this immensely! But I was wondering if you might like to notice when your more trusting/grounded voice is present, and conversely, when your more fearful voice is too. For example, being alone makes this voice sound a little louder, right? So, what could you do to reconnect to the more curious, regulated, playful part of yourself when this happens? And once you do, even if it's a tiny bit, what do they have to say about being enough?

I hope this makes sense, but please let me know if you're sitting there thinking, "what the bloody hell is AuntGlow on about?" haha

Also, I know it may feel like you are alone right now, and you are allowed to surrender to all of the grief and pain that comes with this. But I want you to know that we are all here for you. (And I always look forward to when we can chat. 💛)

It's really important to have a voice @Till23 and psycho-oncology sounds so so so important. As a peer worker, I wonder if this is an area you can look into as a way to share your story?

Part of this conference included main plenaries that I attended each day. Then we moved into workshops. One of the workshops I attended was looking at the Transformative Power of Sharing. This workshop was about ways to share your story so that it elicits change in lives. To be able to capture an audience to help them find the internal determination to change.

Another workshop I attended was looking at data and how we can gather and analyse data to support the work in mental health recovery. This is also very important in advocacy because data doesn't lie. These are the hard facts that people need to see and hear about. That is, how many people's mental health are affected by cancer, what support looks like, what is currently out there etc.

I have learnt that change has to start somewhere. And in my opinion, it starts from me. I do what I can do in my power to enact change and delve into advocacy work. Making the start means risk taking and we won't get it all right the first time. But if you take those risks in starting, you have made a start to change.