On August 3, 2014 – after over a decade of cutting (self-harm) – I made one very final cut… God, the EMTs, the ER docs, and a few others said, “Not yet.” August 4, 2014 was the start of what became the life I have now. A life free from self-injury.
I’m one decade clean from self-harm as of yesterday (August 4, 2024)!
To celebrate, I drew self-portraits of myself at each age from nine until now.
Lauren Spear shares which horror movie scenes she looks away from and how gore FX can be healing… or harmful.
This post wasn’t sponsored, but I am an affiliate. Any links to ARK Therapeutic in this post will be my affiliate link. If you purchase anything using my affiliate link, I’ll get a small monetary kickback for referring you at no additional cost to you. It’s a great way to support me/my content while buying something awesome for yourself or a loved one! ♥
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This hasn’t been a great year… I know you likely feel the same way (and probably have for the entirety of the 2020s thus far!). We’ve all been dealing with immeasurable stress, crushing losses, lingering grief…
It’s been an especially difficult time for creators — writers, artists, and other creative minds.
In a dose of cold, harsh reality: Freelancers and independent creators don’t get paid if they don’t create! (And nothing adds extreme stress to an already crisis-level emotional situation like wondering “How am I going to buy food/pay bills this month??”). For many of us, we create because we have to in order to survive — it’s the only thing we’re good at.
In a more romantic sense: We create because we NEED to. It doesn’t just help us survive financially, it just plain helps us survive.
Creativity is at the heart of everything that matters. In many ways, it’s the only thing that matters. Especially now.
But sometimes creating things is SO DIFFICULT!! Even when we want to — even when we need to!
When you’re in the midst of a personal crisis (illness, bereavement, sleep deprivation, etc.), it can feel almost impossible to find the will and the inspiration to create anything. I know it has been for me… But, in spite of the difficulty, I’ve been creating a whole heck of a lot of stuff on a fairly consistent basis.
The following are the techniques I use to keep creating, always. I hope that my tips help you to continue creating during a crisis as well.
Continue reading “How to Continue Creating During a Personal Crisis”
You deserve happiness. And I hope you feel it soon. If not… Tomorrow. Tomorrow for sure. ❤, L
You’re still breathing!
You are loved.
You’re human.
You are SO much more than your worst memories…
You’re still YOU!
YOU MATTER!!
Music = “Long Road Ahead B” by Kevin MacLeod
Link: https://incompetech.filmmusic.io/song/3995-long-road-ahead-b
License: https://filmmusic.io/standard-license
I’ve had chronic nightmares spanning my entire life. For as long as I’ve been dreaming, I’ve been having nightmares. And November, especially over the past fourteen years or so, has been a particularly nightmare-ridden month. I spend much of my Novembers sleep-deprived and glum.
November 2021 has been no different in that regard. Halloween was a-okay and then November hit and blammo — no sleep. Or bad sleep when I do sleep.
It’s a minor complaint in the grand scheme of things, I suppose. And, much like watching horror movies, I’m well aware from a logical standpoint that what’s “on screen” in my brain during my nightmares isn’t real and can’t actually hurt me… But it’s still a gosh-darned drag and trying to get anything done when you’re unrested is extremely difficult.
However, while I would much rather not have chronic nightmares and all my other PTSD-related symptoms stemming from various traumatic experiences, I do believe they’ve served a purpose in my life. And, dare I say, contributed to one of my life’s best miracles.
Continue reading “Nightmares, Baku, Tapirs, and Believing in Miracles During Hard Times”
I’ve been back at my desk for one month and one week since having my uterus removed (full recovery ends in January, but I was given the a-okay to return to my desk in September). I came back strong! Maybe a little too strong… I had all sorts of things planned for October’s Emotional Wellness month, including a special post for World Mental Health Day on October 10th, but I was a bit too “on” — autistic masking in full force! — a bit too soon and I wore myself out.
I slept a bunch, tried to come back on my other site (HorrorFam.com), accidentally tuckered myself out even more because although I “learned” the lesson my mind/body was trying to teach I assumed I could boss it into behaving on my timetable (big ol’ nope on that one — though I did end up with real stress-induced tears in my eyes for a horror-themed video I made so that was…good…I guess?), and then I got increasingly more agitated until I finally stopped ALL activity and REALLY rested for a while.
Now I’m back again! And I made a new art piece!
However, I also want to fulfill my promise to my readers (and myself) that I would tackle some deeper topics related to mental health and emotional wellbeing. So, rather than the usual Art post format, I’m going to make this post very long and tackle both the artwork itself AND the topic that inspired it: autistic masking and burnout.
I’m going to put a Table of Contents here so you can jump to the sections that interest you (or you can read the whole thing if you skim the ToC and decide it all interests you!):
Continue reading “Autistic Masking and the Fine Art of Emotional Wellness”
With October’s emphasis on emotional and mental health, I wanted to write this month’s LittleZotz.com posts with topics focused on different aspects of having a happy, healthy mind. Chewelry for adults is one of THE main ways I safely self-regulate my emotional wellbeing.
When the very noisy, very stressful, very strange world gets to be a little too much — or if my mouth is just bored and needs something to do so the rest of me can focus on other things — chomping down and gnawing on a piece of heavy-duty chewelry is usually exactly what I need to get my mind back on track.
So, in this post, I’m going to share my personal experience with chewelry (what is it and why I use it) as well as my Top 5 Favorite ARK Therapeutic Chewelry Necklaces! And then, at the veeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeery end, you’ll have a chance to enter to WIN a Jack-o-lantern themed chewelry necklace!! (October 1, 2021 – October 15, 2021).
NOTE: All of the ARK Therapeutic product links throughout this post are affiliate links – meaning, if you make a purchase using one of my links, I will receive a small monetary kickback for referring you at no additional cost to you as a customer. Also, although ARK Therapeutic is aware (and happy/flattered) that I’m writing this post and hosting a raffle, they have not sponsored this post and/or paid me to write anything about/for them. I’m doing this completely on my own.
Continue reading “Chewelry for Adults? ABSOLUTELY! My Chewing Story + My Top 5 Chewelry Necklaces”
Thinking positively helps a lot, but there’s nothing quite like actively doing something to combat a bad day to really make you feel better.
These “fixes” won’t really help you much if you’re SEVERELY depressed. However, if you’re having a Blah day or a Meh day or even a Bad day (not catastrophic/life-altering Bad, but unpleasant enough to be classified as Bad) then the following may lift your spirits enough to bring you back into the Good mood zone!
So, if you’re having one of those days when your brain feels full of static and you’re teetering on the edge between “I got this!” and “I think I’m just gonna sit in the corner and cry for ‘no reason’ until tomorrow…” then try one, some, or all of the following suggestions:
Continue reading “8 Fast Fixes for Meh-to-Bad Days”