How A Daily Photo Keeps Me Sane

By /
Despite a wobbly brain I'm doing just fine. Circumstances ebb and flow, work fluctuates, the weight goes up but mostly down, and the black dog seems to have taken itself off for a long overdue deep sleep.

How can this be, surely once depressed / suicidal then forever that. I'll be honest, I thought that when it first dawned on me that maybe this is something that is with me forever, requires constant managing, but could also go away, and certainly not define me.

(wanna know a secret, it also felt like a special power, a thing that made me different and shiny. But also that if it did ever go away then there would either be nothing left of me or that I would be a sliver of who I wanted to be ... these thoughts are all bollocks, that's the secret)

So how did I get here? No surprises that it's through the same old 4 pillars I've leant on since it all went BOOM!
  1. Drugs
  2. Counselling
  3. Exercise
  4. Support
I'd like to add in another small but extremely powerful for me, action that probably comes under '4. Support'. Every morning I give myself anywhere between 10 to 30 minutes of me doing something that takes me far far away from it all.

Let me go back a bit.
During the dark days of May 2016 I reached out to some close friends an in essence I said, "Help me I'm drowning". Amongst all the love and advice was something KK passed on this, "Try and do something creative", she said, "A little something that you can regularly lose yourself inside that will make you smile." At the time KK suggested writing but, whilst I do love writing, I was a wee bit over words. 

A few hour later I happened to be staring at some photos 'on' my phone - I have everything I've ever taken stored in Google Photos and so going back to the earliest ones is a doddle. I was perusing them before one struck my eye and I thought, "Hmmm, that's not bad". I downloaded, popped it into Instagram (I think), edited it, farted around with some filters and shared.

The next morning, I did it again.

And that was it - find one daily photo from the archive, download, edit (for no longer than 30 mins or so), and share it out. One rule, I could not backtrack having to always scroll forward in time, once I got to the newest photo I could then start again back in 1999.

And so I have done that every day for the past 3 years.
I now share via Twitter (the latest is always pinned to my profile), and add to a Google Photo album called "Mike's art farty photos" that anyone can go look at.

So what does it do for me?
It's all about self care. I care about myself to give me the time to do something that makes me smile. It also minutely adds to my self esteem, "Yes, I can take some pretty snazzy photos".

Choosing the daily photo lets me play, lets me choose, lets me be totally and utterly me, I am lost in the memories but I am finding something that connects with me. I liken this to the times at kindy and playing in the sandpit, when the whole universe was everything you needed right there. It's called by growed-ups as "being in the zone".

Additionally, editing the photo gives me time to learn, to try things, to see what else I can do which also says, "You're ok kid, I reckon you can make that a little better with a wee bit more of a push, see what more you can do ..."

It is such a part of my routine that my kids will now say / shout, "DAAAAD! Dad, I can't find my ... oh you doing your photo, that's ok, I'll look myself" ... or more normally "... that's ok, I'll wait" (so you can then go look for me ;)

So it's about me being me and the world can just wait for a bit because, despite earlier false evidence to the contrary, I am worth it.

So, thank you KK, I'm not sure I've ever told you how much a difference that your suggestion has made for me ❤


Interestingly over on Access Granted NZ podcast late last year we chatted with Adrian Owen, a man all about self care, and he mentioned something similar - give yourself some "you time" in the morning, to reset, get the day going tje way you want. Raj even titled the episode, "Make time for YOU"
Listen to "Adrian Owen - Make time for YOU" on Spreaker.

Some of my favourite photos ... as I write this, it changes each time I look :)
Sorry there's a lot, I couldn't decide what not to share .. and I am proud of them all.






















































Wellington, New Zealand

Comments

  1. KKFebruary 14, 2019 6:25 pm

    You are amazing Mike! Good on you for trying it out, and making it work for you. Big hugs. KK

    ReplyDelete

Post a CommentFRED

Popular articles

The Difference Between One Million And One Billion

Image
It's feels like a billion is just a bit bigger than a million. Obviously it's bigger but it fits on the same scale as a million, surely. It doesn't. A billion is so so so much bigger than a million. I've trawled the internet finding graphics and videos that show the VAST difference between one million and one billion. Oh, and just to finish with a different misconception about space starting with the classic opening line from the great Douglas Adams and The Hitchhiker's Guide To The Galaxy : “Space is big. You just won't believe how vastly, hugely, mind-bogglingly big it is. I mean, you may think it's a long way down the road to the chemist's, but that's just peanuts to space.”

W. C. Fields quotes

Image
The office has all been moved around - new desks (with starter handles to raise and lower them), new high(er) speed network and ... the same old work. At least I have a differing view of the world, my team (well, the team I'm a part of not "my" team) is a lot closer - finally - and it's like an office from the 80's ... or even a classroom. But I still have time to move the crap off the PC : ------ Any man who hates dogs and loves whiskey can't be all bad. Anyone who hates Dogs and Kids Can't be All Bad. Hey! Who took the cork off my lunch??! Who stole the cork from my breakfast? Now don't say you can't swear off drinking, it's easy. I've done it a thousand times. Horse sense is the thing a horse has which keeps it from betting on people. If at first you don't succeed, try, try, again. Then quit, no use being a damn fool about things. Madam, there's no such thing as a tough child - if you parboil them first for seven hours, they alwa

The Hīkoi Has You Charged Up But The Work Starts Now

Image
The hīkoi mō te Tiriti  was the calling card, a start, a bringing people together from across the nation so that the work can now begin. Why? The Act party is already rallying it's members around the messages it wants to flood the select committee with. It is here they think they can insert their divisive messages. Act, David Seymour, and his backers (notably Atlas, but also other foreign neoliberal billionaires) are willing to play the long game, this is merely the start for them. Having said that, I suspect they've probably taken a small step back due to the sheer amount of people saying, "No, we do not accept this" culminating in today's 45,000+ show of will, but that won't mean anything in the coming weeks. Tomorrow the hard work starts. Let's not get too work-y though, first up something simple, add you voice to the  Stop the Treaty Principles Bill - TOITŪ TE TIRITI!! petition which is, as I write this, at 250,738 signatures, more than the total num

Hīkoi Hits the Streets: A March for the Future

Image
Well, folks, it's been a while since we've seen a hīkoi of this magnitude. Thousands are taking to the streets, their voices echoing down the Golden Mile, demanding change. This ain't no walk in the park – this is a protest, a call to action, a damn good old-fashioned hīkoi. People have been walking from the very top of the north island, the bottom of the south island, and even overseas , congregating in Wellington later today. Now, I'm not one to get all political, but when you see a sea of people, young and old, Māori and Pākehā, all united by a common cause, you can't help but get a bit stirred up. These folks aren't messing around. They're marching for their rights, for their future, for a fairer Aotearoa. So, what's got everyone so fired up? It's a complex issue, but at its heart, it's about Te Tiriti / the Treaty of Waitangi and how the right-wing Act party, enabled by National, are wanting to re-write the nation's founding document. T

"Right Wing" Comedians

Image
Too many people comfortably plump themselves into an army of one type or another . Surrounded by those that sound like you, listen to you intently whilst nodding, and echo your thoughts on why the fight is a good fight and that the other side are such bad terrible people. I used to be more like that than I am nowadays ... hmmmm, aren't we humans meant to become more conservative and reactionary as we age, strange Mike. These thoughts have me thinking of two UK comedians that have been tagged as "right wing", which is putting them into an army for the benefit of someone but, I suspect, not them. First up,  Simon Evans who makes me laugh when he's talking about his family, kids, and life in Brighton. He then hit my ears big time with: Simon Evans Goes to Market , has had six seasons, delighting audiences with his witty and insightful take on the comedically unpromising territory of economics, all of which prove among the most popular downloads on the Sounds App. On the

This Is My (Blog) Life

Image
I did it (below) I've shared some fascinating outputs , but what do I think about it, how do I feel? You know the audio podcast I create, using fancy AI , based upon blog posts ... you don't, oh, well now's a good time to pop over and do a little background listening. So, those episodes have all been fairly targeted, about specific things even if there was plenty of info for "them" to discuss. How would the fancy AI tackle a smattering of posts about me from across the years? Ones that represent Mike Riversdale, my views, what makes me laugh, and how I've lived my life through it's ups and downs? Can I get it to create a sort of, " This Is Your Life ", about me? Let's give it a go - I'm gonna add the following to NotebookLM alongside this post and let's see what it thinks about me and what I am about: My Mastodon introduction Photos page The life story, one more time: Chapter One: The First traveling Years Life story, Chapter Two: The

Life Is Too Short To Drink Bad Wine

Image
I can't recall the time I was able to add a signature to an email, don't think it was back in the very early Demon days in the mid-1990s, anyways, since for my Internet use was a baby, and still, my email signature has ended the phrase: Life is too short to drink bad wine. Is it really a Winston Churchill quote, I don't think so, hang on .. [Googles] .. definitely didn't originate with Churchill, but of course he may have said it just like I am, it has a life affirming positive message. Aha, potentially this 'misattribution' attribution would be more appropriate: Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (1749-1832) German poet, statesman, scientist (Misattributed) Often attributed to him, but not found in Goethe's works. The attribution, though, may come from translators' commentary on Goethe's West–Eastern Diwan, "The Book of the Cup-Bearer" (1819/1827), that refers to a poetic passage as deriving from Diez's 1811 translation of the Book of Kabus

Men, Sit Down For A Piss

Image
Men have two types of toilet they can use, inside and outside, no no I joke, it's stand-up and sit-down.  Stand-up toilets ("urinal", what a crap word) are most often prevalent in pubs and bars. Long, metallic, and somewhere to point ya cock and have a piss. Before using this type every man has to pass the Official Men's Room Etiquette Aptitude Exam . I have no problem with these sorts of toilets, apart from they are generally icky and you can end up with wet shoes. The second type of toilet is the sit-down toilet. This is the one you're most used to as you will, unless you're Adrian Chiles , have this at home. Most offices are these types, and more and more the sit-down can been seen in newer and better pubs. The sit-down has two massive advantages over the stand-up. You can have a poo using one (a "shit-down" if you will ;), and anyone can use them not just humans with wee tubes. Here's the rub, for some reason men don't seem to get that t

On a scale of 1 to 10, how is your day going?

Image
So many people have had me ask them this simple question, " On a scale of 1 to 10, how is your day going? (where 1 is as low as it can get)" Once the person responds, you then simply askm " Is there anything I could do to help move it from a 6 to a 7? " (or . . . "from a 3 to a 4" or "from a 10 to an 11"). Just reach out and ask ... I cannot recommend this highly enough as both for support people / friends / family that are keeping an active eye on someone in their life, but also just as a great way to connect not matter what the situation. So where did it come from - this is a technique that Jane McGonicall  ( @avantgame ) picked up from her friend Michael, a philanthropist and entrepreneur and uses in a Super Better "quest" called Plus-One Better - here are the complete instructions. QUEST: Plus-One Better Pick three people: 1. Someone who would like to hear from you 2. Someone you would like to hear from 3. Some