Coping Box

Hi and welcome @Abiel

I've found the Zentangle site you recommended, looks interesting. I may try to do some of that. I sometimes draw basic shapes in a sketch book and then colour them in. It seems to distract my mind from difficulties and calm my energy. It's something I was introduced to by @Former-Member on this forum and I've been enjoying it from time to time ever since.

Hi @Mazarita and thanks for the welcome. I know what you mean, I don't think I would have gotten through some days without craft/art of some kind. For me it's sometimes jewellery making, or stamping, or card making, or soap making, or art.

They all help to focus my thoughts on what i'm doing instead of ..........well, you know..........all the other junk that runs around my head lol.

Give zentangle a go, it sounds like you would like it and the good thing about it is.....there are no mistakes you can make cause anything goes 🙂

@Abiel yeah, it was sorta a joke, sorta me pushing boundaries. I moved into a rental unit that I was told was strictly no pets. Not even allowed fish. I was on the net looking at strange pets for some reason, and found a heap of articles about keeping a variety of invertebrates as pets. There's actually a business based in N.Qld that sends live inverts throughout Australia, so I bought a praying mantis. Honestly, I wanted to know how they ship inverts through Australia post.
And so started my hobby...
I currently have 3 species of stick insect, 3 australian tarantulas and a scorpion. Hi, my name is CBL, and I have a problem with bugs.

This is the kumihimo thing I've been working on throughout the day. I love watching the pattern appear.

Love it @Crazy_Bug_Lady. The colours look amazing together. Wow, a whole business shipping them.......must b more popular than you'd think!

How long does it take to make one?

Thanks @Abiel This is my first attempt at this, and keep losing my place. I don't really notice how long it takes sorry, I start to distract myself, but then I lose track of time

The colours are some of my favourite colours, but they also have some meaning to me. Blue is for my depression, yellow for my struggles with suicidal thoughts, orange for self harm. White is for my hope of recovery.

There are lots of people that sell and ship insects, myself beiing one of them. Stick insects don't require a male to lay fertile eggs, so one or two can quickly become many...

Thanks for the chat everyone. I have to go and make something! Have a good night 🙂

I have one of these too! they're really helpfull for reducing Sh or ED urges, as well as cheering you up if you're not feeling so great

@kristin - I love your poetry (below) kristin, thank you for sharing it. I am pursuing dissolving duality, being stuck in the "Them and Us" or the "This and That". Dissolving the labels and boxes, the gift you speak of, to undo the prison walls, just for my own sake - and so I may be and bring peace to places where ther eis not, inside and with others.
________________________________

@kristin wrote:

Here's a poem I wrote during the T-ACT course I did with ECASA a couple of years ago. I wrote it about the group, but it's about us here too - in fact every person.

Gifts

Are we:
black or white
male or female
left or right
straight or gay
up or down
broken or whole
slave or free
human or alien
theophile or atheist
agnostic, Christian,
Jew, Muslim, Hindu,
etcetera to eternity?

Or are these
Merely labels –
Boxes we strive to inhabit
At our own, or others’,
Volition
Whilst we foster
The courage
To open-heartedly
Become
Ourselves?

Surely this
Is the gift
We have to offer
To ourselves
Others
The world
God?
(However we name,
decry, or deny)

Kristin © June 2013

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My coping box has the entire set of the Harry Potter movies.

I shared on a new thread - that I called The Toolkit about the psychological tools I use to help myself, and manage my various conditons arising. @Former-Member suggested I replicate that post here in this fantastic thread "Coping Box" post started by @Crazy_Bug_Lady.

I have not brought across the whole post which had some autobiographical content about my Bi Polar (have a read if you like at The Toolkit )

So here's the tool...

THE SILVER DIAL

One thing I use is if I feel I am ramping up into hypomania or sliding terribly into melancholia is THE SILVER DIAL.
I imagine a big silver dial with High, Medium, Low and Off on it and I imagine in my mind's eye turning it (and thus my mood/emotion/energy level) down (or up) to midway 'Medium". I also use it too when in the PTSD moments of flashbacks, or intruding suicidal thoughts - I grab that dial (in my mind's eye) and turn it to OFF.

I am always looking out for new helpful methods, so would appreciate any sharing of things others do to help themselves that I could pack into my toolkit for future use.