My Mosaic

I’ve just spent a couple of hours cleaning my D’s bedroom @Snowie another bag of rubbish and a bag to drop off at a charity bin. Just need to do the window tracks and blinds and give her room a good vacuum. I didn’t really wanna do anything, too tired. But mum was on the cleaning war path.

it’s very windy here today and lots of sirens. Sirens are really unsettling for me.

good job on sorting through some of your clothes, that’s always a huge job.

Well done on getting D's room done @Bow

I find it so hard to motivate myself to clean, but once I'm started I seem to go ok.

I need to do S's room but will have to wait until he is home one day.

Hopefully you can have a rest this afternoon.

@Bow and @Snowie

So proud of you both for your cleaning efforts!

I’ve come across the idea of multiple types of rest before and found it interesting/helpful. Were there any that especially stood out to you Bow?

Also, were these the seven types he spoke about:

I also found it interesting when someone mentioned we can have either too much or not enough of each thing. For example, sometimes we need a break from social stimulation and sometimes we need more. Or more of one thing and less of another (e.g. less mental stimulation but more physical stimulation). Or more but different (e.g. more social connection but one on one with a safe person not a big group.) I sometimes find it hard to know what I need but it helps to have the categories.

These are the ones we discussed @Wintersweet but he gave me a wordy printout.

told my psych that perhaps trying to work on some ways to mentally rest could be helpful. It’s something that I find really challenging, I can try and do things that maybe helpful for others but I just get frustrated cause of the noise in my head. We talked about trying the alphabet game.

I had never heard of it before, so found it rather interesting.

im like you @Snowie gotta really dig to find the motivation to clean but once I’ve started I can smash a fair bit out. I sat and dusted off some of my LEGO flowers this afternoon. They are so hard to dust! I tried to have a nap, but nope. Didn’t happen.

@Bow

I can relate to the experience of trying something that others find mentally restful but finding the transition from being super mentally overstimulated to very low stimulation too hard to do in one step. Kind of like being on a run and trying to stop and go straight to sleep.

I’m intrigued by the alphabet game. I’ve not heard of that before. What does it involve?

Have you ever tried the kind of mindfulness where you just keep refocussing on the space around you or your breathing? It really helped me when someone explained that it’s ok for my thoughts to wander, the goal is just to practice noticing when that happens and bringing my attention back to the thing I was trying to focus on. Sometimes I find that I can do this and sometimes I need something to soften the transition (which can be a challenge).

Would your craft/Lego maybe be an example of mental rest for you? Obviously it would still involve concentration and focus but maybe still helpful as it’s a different type of thinking? I found it helpful when someone said to me that in order to rest in one way (e.g. mentally) sometimes we need input in a different way (e.g. movement or pleasant sensory input).

I like both your pics about rest @Bow @Wintersweet

I guess we all think of rest is to sleep. Maybe we need to find time in the day to experience different types of rest.

I hope both of your nights go well

Good afternoon @Bow

Hoping today is going ok for you 💕💕

@Bow

Sending you 💛

I feel like you’ve done a lot of cleaning this week in the midst of a lot of changes. How are you feeling today?

(I might not get to reply until later but I did want you to know I’m thinking of you and care about how you’re going.)

@Snowie @Wintersweet

rough day today. Sat on the couch after D left for school and really had to work at holding back the tears. Tired. Had a really bad dream, not usually trauma nightmare, just weird and yuck horrible dream. Hard to shake it. Cleaned a bit but felt disconnected. Things in my head aren’t nice.

hope your both ok

@Bow

I hate emotional hangover from yucky dreams, sorry that you’ve had to deal with that today. Totally makes sense that you’d feel a bit disconnected.

I’m curious about why you don’t want to let yourself cry. No judgement, I know there are many reasons why people don’t let themselves cry and I want to better understand what it is for you. (Also, no pressure to answer that if you don’t want to) 💛