Feeling like you’re going insane?

It’s easy to feel like you’re going insane these days isn’t it? You feel like you’re in the midst of chaos trying to run a household, perhaps raising children, working a part time or full time job, take care of the car[s], go grocery shopping, make and get to doctor and dentist appointments, attend or host a birthday party, get on Pinterest for a new recipe for dinner tonight, read at least one chapter in the book that you’ve been meaning to read… does this sound like you? The list seems to go on forever and ever. It would make The Neverending Story jealous. So how does one stop the madness, the endless spinning (you spin me right ‘round)? As part of this 10 part series, having mental goals helps maintain the chaos. Some of the chaos is of our own doing, some being unintentional consequences but with discipline of the mind, we can grab back the reins of our life.

Keeping the brain active is the key part in planning out mental goals. We simply have to stimulate the brain. You may feel that your brain is already stimulated, or even over-stimulated. I feel your pain. I know that even without being ADHD, my brain (and yours) probably feels like this:

 

My ADHD has changed over the years, now it’s become that my brain works too fast for my own good. While writing, I might skip letters in a word or forget a word in a sentence entirely. I must say, my typing skills are usually on point though haha. I’ve had to learn how to refocus some of the rattling in there. I’ve a big fan of coloring, especially mandalas and geometric designs. It allows me to limit the distractions, focus on one thing at one time while also stimulating my creative juices. This is my current project:

 

 

Another favorite thing to do of mine is word search puzzles. Even as a kid, I always enjoyed them. I was never a fan of crossword puzzles, but every once in awhile I have a hankering to do one. These types of puzzles are very easy to find. Your gas station, bookstore and grocery stores typically carry them. You can even download apps if you’re crunched on time or money, but between the light from the screen and the size of the screen, I feel it takes away from the experience. Plus, I simply like having the feel of paper/book and a pen in my hand. I recently got a very good haul while shopping at my nearest Dollar Tree locations. They have SEVERAL different types of puzzle books, including crossword and sudoku, with each book being only $1.00! I picked up 3 books, one being jumbo sized print for the days I’ve feeling super tired haha, for $3.00 when all 3 would have cost me $10.80!  I now have 199 puzzles to have fun with. That’s almost one for each day for an entire year! Talk about pennies on the dollar!

 

 

So what else could you do to keep your mind stimulated and/or keep the creative juices flowing? Think about what you like to do whenever you have the time? Do you like to:

• Play board games
• Play games on your phone
• Play brain training/stimulating apps and games such as Lumosity
• Crossword, word search or jigsaw puzzles
• Play with your kids (that’ll keep you sharp as whip right there!)
• Play with your animals
• Work out in the garden
• Read books
• Watching new movies, especially those with a bit more complicated plot
• Work on crafts such as sewing, jewelry or scrapbooking
• Notice new things, plants or wildlife while out on a walk

 

As you can see, it’s pretty easy to stimulate the mind without feeling like it will add to the chaos. It’s all about making up our minds (no pun intended) and disciplining ourselves to carve out the time to shake up our routine a bit and stimulate the mind away from all of the stressful stuff. I challenge you to pick 2 things to try out the rest of this month and see how you feel on the 1^st day of the next month. They say it takes 21 days to develop a habit, so hopefully you’ll have a relaxing routine to help put your mind as ease.

I’ve accepted the challenge to stimulate my mind to calm the chaos of my life. Share on X

 

 

Another mental goal to focus on is to make sure that your mind is working as it should. This goes hand in hand with keeping up with your help and noticing if something is off. If you’re noticing you’re having incredibly painful migraines, you may want to make a doctor’s appointment to check it out. It could just be stress-induced, but if they’re not getting any better and only progressively worse, you will want to get it checked out. If you’re older and you know that Alzheimer’s and Dementia runs in the family, you might want to get tested for precursors. These types of mind-degenerative diseases are something very serious and there is NOTHING to be ashamed of. If you’re younger, keeping your mind sharp will help prevent or delay the onset of this diseases.  My grandfather had developed Alzheimer’s and it was very hard at the end. There were days he remembered everything and then there were days it was simply blank stares. He has since passed on and I know that he is no longer suffering from Alzheimer’s and other things. As someone once put it, your mind is shrinking into it’s own mental prison and there is no cure [yet].

 

 

 

A common and perhaps maybe over-diagnosed because not completely understood condition is depression. Depression has several forms and ranges in multiple intensities. Some of these are ranging from general anxiety, to seasonal anxiety disorder (SAD), to what is considered full blown depression where the person is sometimes physically unable to do every day routines all the way to the most serious of a person seeing no end in sight and becoming suicidal. There are anxiety disorders that differ from depression. If you feel that after some positive life changes (say exercise, better eating/avoidance of food items/allergens, stress reduction techniques) that things aren’t getting better, talk to your doctor about getting tested. WebMD offers good articles about anxiety and depression as well as a quiz to help you determine if you are possibly dealing with an anxiety disorder or something else. Check it out here.

 

If you are or someone else you know is feeling suicidal – seek help immediately! There are multiple ways to get help: a friend or family member, a doctor or hospital, suicide phone hotlines or even now there’s beginning to develop text hotlines.  

 

There is absolutely no need to feel embarrassed or ashamed!!!

If you’re in the US, call  1-800-273-TALK (8255). If you’re outside the US, visit IASP or Suicide.org.

 

You are not alone,
You are important,
I am not going to leave you
You are worthy of living
You are not a burden to anyone,
You do matter,
You are not crazy,
I may not understand how you’re feeling, but I am here to help you,
It will be okay, we’re gonna get through this together

 

 

I hope that you have taken the challenge of picking at least 2 things to help you develop healthy mental goals. 

Comment below to tell me what things you like to do if you had the time to do them. Send me some new mandala or geometric design pins to color. Tweet me what you’re doing to stimulate those creative juices.

Shine bright

<3 Jenn