Thanks to a poll on my Twitter back in November, my wonderful
followers decided that I should publish a blog post and film a vlog every day
for the entirety of December!
So welcome to December 3rd…
Today is all about my
collaboration with one very special brand on Etsy, in this post I’ll be
reviewing the products they sent to me and on December 23rd you can enter a competition to win these products and the
remaining nine that I’ll be reviewing every other day this month!The first of the Etsy products is this little mindfulness journal by the wonderful Happi Empire who are based in Perranporth, England.
When I first began learning Dialectical Behaviour Therapy (DBT) as an inpatient in a psychiatric hospital specializing in Personality Disorders, I absolutely hated the coping skill of mindfulness! I took it to mean that in DBT they recommend that you ‘stay in the moment’ and I wholeheartedly believed that I would be unsafe if I did so.
After the abuse in 2006 and 2007, I spent the following five years until I was admitted to the long-term hospital (for two and a half years) trying to pretend it hadn’t happened or do everything I could to block out the horrific memories. So, the last thing I wanted was to allow myself to ‘be in the moment’ where I worried that I’d end up so lost in the memories that I’d be unsafe. In all honesty, I thought that I’d end up wanting to be dead. So, I refused to engage in the Mindfulness exercises and hated completing the worksheets in group DBT sessions.
It wasn’t until I was out of hospital and in recovery that I started to really endorse mindfulness and understand the concept properly. I think it helped that I’m now safe and dealing with the memories of the abuse in a healthy manner that doesn’t include self-harming or attempting suicide. Being so stable, I actually want to be in the moment now because I want to properly experience – and enjoy – all of the opportunities I’m offered and all of the achievements I make with I’m NOT Disordered and in my mental health recovery.
Now that I use mindfulness, something around it that I did struggle with was finding the balance between being in the moment and not using that state to forget about the consequences of my actions and using it as an opportunity to be impulsive and even – on occasion – reckless with important decisions.
I’ve also learnt that mindfulness can compliment another DBT skill of distraction as it allows you the chance to fully engage in the activity/action you’re using to distract yourself from something you might be struggling with. This means that the distraction is more effective and has a greater impact on helping you to manage your mental health in a healthy and safe way.
The thing that caught my eye with this product, was the picture of the front cover because I love the tie-dye effect and the use of trendy but calming pastel colours. I also loved the description of the product, which reads:
‘This Mindfulness Reminder Pad is your little nudge to be more mindful throughout your day! Keep in it on your desk, or in your bag and use it each day to strengthen your connection to yourself and awareness in general.
The guided mindfulness process inside gets you to pause,
breathe and notice. These things help you realize if you’re holding on to any
stress and let it go.It’s got a little scale to rate how you feel at the beginning and the end of your mindful moment, to measure the effect it has on you.
Being mindful means taking time to check in with how you feel and become aware of your surroundings.
Practicing mindful techniques lowers stress and softens anxiety. Bringing your awareness into the present moment increases focus, promoting peace and happiness from the inside out!’
I’ve found mindfulness journals and notebooks very easy to come by at the moment but very rarely effective or enjoyable to complete/use. They usually involve a lot more text, therapeutic terms that your typical layman may not have heard before, and have a much more boring aesthetic!
The Happi Empire have succeeded where many companies and people have failed and have made an interactive mindfulness reminder pad attractive and enjoyable!
10%
Discount Code: NOTDISORDERED
You can buy this particular product for £9.00 (price is before
using the 10% discount code) here: https://www.etsy.com/uk/listing/659920201/mindfulness-reminder-pad-mindful-planner
Keep reading Blogmas to find out all of the products you could win by entering the competition launched on December 23rd!