Happy Fri-Yay: Mental Health, Flowers, & Hitting Triple Digits
Happy Fri-Yay, Friends! As I try to grow my blog, I’ve spent a lot of time focusing on Instagram, which I’m hoping will be a major source of traffic for me, but it often comes at the expense of actually writing posts, which is definitely where I have the most fun. With that in mind, I’m resolved to get my posts back on track, especially these Fri-Yay posts.
So let’s get to it!
MENTAL HEALTH: Between Naomi Osaka and Simone Biles, there’s been a lot of talk about mental health lately. It’s honestly so refreshing because I spend so much energy trying to act neurotypical or live in a neurotypical world and it’s exhausting. Among other things, I have severe anxiety (Generalized Anxiety Disorder, which means nothing has to be wrong and no social situations needed, my brain and I are magnificent at creating stress and anxiety all on our own), which is part of the reason that it took me seven years of thinking about starting a blog before I actually did it.
One of the things I discovered this year, and that’s been a huge comfort and help to me, is this Apollo Neuro.
The Apollo is not pretty (did I mention it’s designed by two neuroscientists?), but you can see by how beat up mine is just how often I use it.
It uses “certain combinations of low frequency inaudible sound waves (vibration that you can feel, but can’t hear) to safely and reliably change how we feel through our sense of touch.”
If you want more science than that, I’ll share some links and you can do your own research, but to me the most important thing is that when I use it (in addition to my anti-anxiety medication), I feel SO much better. And when I use it consistently, I don’t even have to be wearing it to feel better, I can access that calmer or more focused headspace on my own. It’s a little bit like the results you get from consistent meditation, except you can run it in the background during normal life.
Another point in it’s favor, I’ve put it on both my husband and another friend who thought it sounded like nonsense and within ten minutes on the “Relax and Unwind” setting, they both felt better. Again, that’s the instant reaction, the important part is that the more you wear it and use it, the better it works.
Here are the links that convinced me to give this thing a try:
YouTube Review (Including an interview with one of the co-founders/inventors of the Apollo Neuro.)
BTW, this is an expensive wearable (it costs $349) and I’m in no way affiliated with the company.
FLOWERS: Actually this kind of builds on the previous topic. I absolutely adore those big bouquets of flowers at grocery stores and farmers markets with lots of different types of wild-looking flowers in them. Unfortunately, I get so anxious trying to arrange them perfectly that I’ve just stopped buying them. Instead, I tend to stick to one kind of flower at a time so I don’t have to worry about varying stem heights and placement of different flowers within an arrangement. Cut ‘em all at the same length and throw them in a vase (and then wonder if maybe the length isn’t right? Is the vase right?). Anyhoo, this week I went crazy and bought three (3!) different kinds of flowers (for three different arrangements).
Turns out Benji is a huge fan of one of them and every time he gets home and sees it, he points and says “Mama do dat!,” which has felt pretty good.
Above: Curly Willow Branches (Benji’s favorite) | Vase | Limestone Knot
My intention was to show you the other three arrangements, but my computer, iPhoto, or Squarespace is not cooperating, so I’ll have to update this later.
HITTING TRIPLE DIGITS: I finally hit triple digits on my Instagram following, which is so exciting! Thanks to all of you who are following me on there. Tonight I’m popping open some champagne!