Gum on My Shoe

Back in January I posted a list of seven things I’d quite like to do in 2018 . I shared a mid-year update , but how did I get on overall? 1. Read Two Books ACHIEVED The two books I originally selected to read (actually to reread) were Talk Like TED , by Carmine Gallo, and Peter Matthiessen’s The Snow Leopard . I didn’t finish the first and haven’t started the second but I did reread Alan Garner’s The Owl Service , and Fran and I recently finished A Fatal Obsession , the latest thriller by Maine author James Hayman. 2. Bring My Weight Back under 180 Pounds ACHIEVED As I reported back in June , I’d had very little success through the first half of the year, but I finally found the motivation to do something about it. I brought my weight down from 192 lbs to around 178 – 180 lbs, where it has remained for a month or so. My intention is to press on again to reattain the weight I was at a few years ago when I first brought myself down from 200 lbs. Watch this spa...

By Lea It is only when we lose what we had that we realise just what we had. This is true in different elements of life. Sadly, this year it was true for me when it came to my Mental Wealth. Between the ages of seven to twenty-two my Mental Wealth was lost, eaten alive and consumed by a range of people, from bullies at school, to the lack of trust shown by professionals who had the training to know better, and others. All this in addition to a rough deck of cards life had thrown my way. Over those years, though, I was fortunate to spend a twenty-four week admission to The Crisis Recovery Unit, a specialist unit which was part of The Maudsley Hospital, which specialised in attempting to reach those for whom self-injury had become a coping mechanism. I guess the best analogy I can make is that my body, my life, my experiences, my emotions were like an ostrich egg. The staff at the CRU chipped away slowly and methodically to break down the barriers I had put up as an act of self-...

Check out our top posts for the past month. Posts are listed by number of page views they attracted during the month, most popular first. Five Fun Adventures to Enjoy with a Friend Who Has Bipolar Disorder Helping Out at ReCoCo’s Hallow Wellbeing Event Seeing Red: A Look at Bipolar Anger Exploring Bipolar Disorder and the Sister Diagnosis of Schizoaffective Disorder. Is My Friend or Sibling Underdiagnosed? How to Write the Best Acknowledgement Page for Your Book Attending a Wellness Recovery Action Plan (WRAP) Workshop at ReCoCo Today, I simply give thanks. Season’s Greetings To Pieces What Newcastle Recovery College Means To Me Our most visited pages were: Resources Contact Us About Us Testimonials Our book: High Tide Low Tide News and Appearances  

“I wish people didn’t think silence was awkward, just enjoy it. Not every space has to be filled with words.” (Anon) That quotation was shared recently on Facebook by a good friend of mine. I posted a response (“True, silence can be awkward, of course, but it can be lovely.”) and went on with my day. But somehow, I kept coming back to the topic of silence, and to the idea of there being more than just these two kinds, comfortable and awkward. I hope we all know the first of these; the gentle sense of being with someone and having no need for words. I say gentle, but at times it can come upon us like a wave: the simple yet so rare awareness of sharing the moment without needing to explain or talk it away. There is a beautiful scene near the start of the submarine movie Crimson Tide . Captain Frank Ramsey (Gene Hackman) is talking to his executive officer, Lieutenant Commander Ron Hunter (Denzel Washington), as they head out of port watching the sunset. “Bravo, Hunter.” “Sir?” “...