Unforgettable

Truthfully I had almost forgotten I have this blog. But I know nobody really reads it because I have it set up so you can't find it in search engines. Basically the only way anyone can access this is through my Facebook page.

This blog is mostly for my own benefit anyway so I can keep track of what I'm doing to help my depresssion and anxiety and how I'm doing in general.

Sort of a personal journal, I suppose. One I let friends open up when they feel like it.

So, it's January.

Kate is doing well in school. Livia and I are doing the Foundations preschool together and she has been making big progress. We are now able to have some conversations with her, which is huge. Getting used to the school schedule was more exhausting than I anticipated.

I successfully lowered my cholesterol and triglycerides, so I'm no longer facing the possibility of prediabetes. I've mostly been focusing on portion control, drinking more water, and more physical activity. I go to a free Yoga class once a week that's taught by a woman from church and I think that's helped me a lot. I started taking Vitamin D as soon as the weather started getting cooler to hopefully offset seasonal depression, and I don't think it's been hurting me.

If I lost any weight from that, I don't know. I rarely weigh myself, and it's probably better that way.

I am also doing a lot more meditation and mindfulness exercises. I have a few apps for this on my phone. A few are from Excel At Life, and they have relaxation audios, mindfulness exercises, and emotion training exercises. There is also a checklist for how many good mental health things you've done that day, so on the days I feel like total crap, I can say, "Hey, I'm not doing as bad as I thought. Go me."

I have another app called "Calm". It has a timer you can set for how long you want to meditate, which basically means I close my eyes, focus on my breathing, and the sounds of whatever I have set up in the background. The background could be rain, thunderstorm, mountain lake, a fire in the fireplace, etc.

Doing these things, in addition to some others, has been helping me to be more present and to think more clearly to prevent myself from having a total freakout.