Happy 🍓#NationalStrawberryDay!🍓 Here’s Rader with the speech therapist who helped him pronounce his R's, and the flowerpot he made for her featuring his R-sounds story character, Robert the #Strawberry🍓. #speechtherapy #speechtherapists #speechtherapistsrock #marioshirt pic.twitter.com/bQbZ30Yuwk
— Rader Ward Foundation (@RaderWardFound) February 27, 2019
examining the complexities behind suicide
bowser takes over
Try grief support emails
Back in October, I posted a link for free daily grief support emails. I have just found another such service I want to share with you as well. The difference is, each of these comes with a little 'homework' to help if you're feeling stuck. Here's the day 1 example:
Grief is a journey; a most-difficult, heart-wrenching, gut-churning journey. It's not a place you would ask to go, but everyone who has ever loved someone will make this journey at some point in their life.
There is no preparation for this journey. We all enter into it the first time completely unprepared emotionally, spiritually and mentally. Even when we've spent months or years watching a loved one's health deteriorate and tell ourselves to believe we are ready for the finality of their death ... we're not.
Activity: Find a pad of paper, a blank journal, or simply a notebook and a pen you love to use – something that writes smoothly and effortlessly. Take time and write a letter to the loved one who has died, tell them all that you love and appreciate about your experience of them sharing all the positive memories you can remember.
What you’ll learn from this exercise is the recognition of your resiliency and the gift the person was in your life – you are strong and you will survive this latest loss. Embrace the process, don’t resist it. You will discover that sorrow moves into joy and love will keep your memories alive forever.
MHA: 110 years of lifesaving advocacy
the uselessness of "call me if you need anything"
some impressive multitasking
1-800-273-8255
on our instagram: pirate portrait
25 Likes, 0 Comments - @raderwardfoundation on Instagram: "Seven years ago, we all dressed up and my sister and brother-in-law had a fantastic costume wedding..."
Mario Monday: dominoes!
wondering what remains
Here's another piece of my writing from January a year ago when I first participated in the writing course from Refuge In Grief. The prompt for this one was about wondering what remains when the death of a loved one takes so much away.
"I don't want to write about whether not counting days means I should worry that I'm forgetting him. I don't want to let the thoughts in of whether I'm grieving 'right' or falling apart enough or whatever the fact that I'm going on living might mean about my love or my fitness for parenting or the coldness of my heart. Unbreakable? I don't want to write about those things or think about those things. They're always dancing around the shadowy edges, just out of sight. Terrifying things that want to devour me. ..."
Read the rest, and other essays and poems, on the "writing my grief” page.
vote for seize the awkward to win shorty award
Seize the Awkward is a campaign that helps you figure out how to push through to have that awkward conversation with someone when you're concerned about their mental health. It's a partnership among the Ad Council, American Foundation for Suicide Prevention, and The Jed Foundation - JED.
Do you know what you would say in such a situation? If not, check out seizetheawkward.org, and then vote below. They deserve this Shorty Award!
try this easy online mental health screening
read all about it: mental health america
I was excited this morning to meet with Mental Health America of Greenville County! They're doing important work in our community and I look forward to figuring out how the foundation and I can help. I'll share more about them soon, but in the meantime, here's where you can learn more.
MHAGC's website: http://www.mhagc.org/
Twitter: @MHAGreenville
Instagram: @mentalhealthamerica_greenville
Facebook: MHAGreenvilleCounty
The national organization's website:
http://www.mentalhealthamerica.net/
Twitter: @MentalHealthAm
Instagram: @mentalhealthamerica
Facebook: Mental Health America
love and loss: say his name
check out this valentine's grief comic
stop-motion paper magic Mario Monday!
you are worthy
Prince Ea puts traditional education on trial
This six-minute video was shared by my favorite Montessori teacher, Samantha Vejay, with the following comment:
"'Students may be 20% of the population, but they are 100% of the future.' Thank you for the appropriate shout out to Montessori!"
heads together aims to end mental health stigma
From Lost Got Found on Facebook:
Prince Harry, a mental health advocate, stated in an article, “Losing my mum at the age of 12, and therefore shutting down all of my emotions for the last 20 years, had a quite serious effect on not only my personal life, but my work as well... The experience I have had is that once you start talking about it, you realize that actually you’re part of quite a big club. The goal is to normalize the conversation to the point where anyone can sit down and have a coffee and just go ‘you know what, I’ve had a really bad day, can I just tell about it?’ People are scared to talk about it, but they should be scared about not talking about it."
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A campaign, Heads Together, was jointly created by The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge and Prince Harry, with an aim to end the mental health stigma in the UK. Check it out.