The universe gives you what you need, some of the time. I was having a very anxious day yesterday and decided to log onto WordPress to catch up on people’s posts. Waiting for me was a message, and what a lovely one it was.

I would like to thank Jill for the nomination for the Sunshine Blogging Award. It’s such a pleasure, knowing that people read the things I write, and enjoy them, and maybe get something from them.  I love the feeling of connection blogging gives me, the feeling that I’m a member of a community.

The Sunshine Blogging Award works like this:
First, answer 11 questions. Then, ask 11 of your own questions to 11 bloggers who you choose to nominate.

Here are my answers to the questions Jill at Food, Feelings, and Freedom proposed:

1.What do you do when you’re having a bad day?

That depends on if it’s a regular bad day or a mental health bad day. On a regular bad day, when I just have a mad on or a case of the grumps, I withdraw to my office and try to read it off. If my depression is rearing, I take a day or two to wallow, just sit around and do nothing before I begin the process of checking off all the things on the list of things one should do when one is depressed. Sometimes, they even help.

2. What is one thing you are most proud of?

My son.

3. Do you have any pets? Want any?

I have a cat and before that, and before that I had two cats, and before that I had a cat. I think we can safely say that I’m a cat person.

4. What are three values you consider most important?

Kindness, integrity, and honesty.

5. What are some of your hobbies?

I don’t know that I have hobbies, per se. I putter. I like to read. I like to draw, even though I’m really not very good at it. I like to play piano. Most of these I don’t commit enough time to for them to be considered a hobby, bar reading.

6. What is one thing you would tell your childhood self?

If I could go back, I would tell myself to say no. Have boundaries and hold them. Be loud. Take up space. Seize this life, because you’re okay just the way you are. You don’t have to wait to be perfect.

7. What is your favourite quotation?

“I have come to believe that caring for myself is not self-indulgent. Caring for myself is an act of survival.” ~ Andre Lorde

8. Where do you see yourself (what do you hope for your future) in 5 years?

In five years, I hope that I’ll look back to now and see progress. I hope I will have made strides in educating myself, in learning to be a better person, and in learning to be brave. I also hope that I will have become more consistent in my writing and that I will have published at least a couple of books.

9. What is your biggest fear?

I’m afraid of deep water. This fear interferes with my love of water and love of swimming. I’m reasonably certain that it comes from seeing “Jaws” at age seven. I’ve seen the movie at least a hundred times since then, my own version of systematic desensitization, and it still gets me.

I’m also afraid of men. That one has been with me for as long as I can remember and it can make functioning in the world difficult.

10. What aspect of your life are you currently working on? (Work? Personal? Health?)

I am working on independence. I want to be free from the negative thinking patterns I’m so conditioned to follow. I want to think better thoughts, or at least address my thoughts more immediately, so they don’t drag me down and don’t negatively impact my behaviours.

11. What is a risk you took that paid off?

The greatest risk I ever took was having a child. Not just the whole “having a child, raising a child” thing, and not just because the relationship with his father was dysfunctional and abusive, but because pregnancy and eating disorders are a very challenging combination. I was afraid I wouldn’t be able to stop restricting. I was afraid I wouldn’t stop bingeing and purging. I was afraid that the damage I’d done to my body would harm my son. But he was perfect. He was and remains the light of my life.

My nominees for the Sunshine Blogging Award are:

1. Sadie at Keep it Alive
2. mommystrongtx
3. Love Your Madness
4. Reinvention is a Mutha!
5. 4 M’s Bipolar Mom
6. Bertha Mason’s Attic
7. Scratch That!
8. Brandon at Chaotic Shapes
9. Girly Gabble
10. Kayla at The Beauty of Recovery
11. Revolutionary Musings

My eleven questions for the nominees, which were very challenging to come up with, are as follows:

1. What has been your favourite age, and why?
2. What things do you collect?
3. Do you work better with actual lists or with mental lists?
4. Do you meditate? Why or why not?
5. What’s your favourite non-mental health book/author?
6. How old do you want to get?
7. Do you think the human species is getting better, getting worse, or do you think we just do the same things over and over again?
8. Do you believe in things metaphysical? Do you believe in horoscopes, prognosticating cards, and so on?
9. Team Marvel or Team DC?
10. Do you like brunch and if you do, what’s your favourite brunch food?
11. Eat in or eat out?