Look Here Vade Mecum

Section Four: Remember

Sometimes when I’m struggling with less than stellar mental health, I hear a gentle voice talking me through it. Usually, a simple sentence or two nudges me enough to break out of the mental loop. Over the years, I’ve tried to capture those words.    The final section of the Look Here document, titled Remember, is a collection of those messages. When I’m struggling, I’ll read them as part of the Look Here exercise. Occasionally,…

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Look Here Vade Mecum

Section Three: How are You, Really?

The Look Here file was initially created because my perceptions can be unreliable when I’m struggling with mental health issues. I need an outside influence to tether me to reality when I can’t trust my own brain to do so. And it needs to be something specific to what happens in my world when things are starting to untether. The tool needs to be available 24/7, so it can not strictly rely on talking to…

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Look Here Vade Mecum

Section Two: Unstacking Horses

Suzuki Roshi once said about questioning our life, our purpose, “It’s like putting a horse on top of a horse and then climbing on and trying to ride. Riding a horse by itself is hard enough. Why add another horse? Then it’s impossible.” Long Quiet Highway by Natalie Goldberg While this quote is usually placed within the context of questioning oneself, I’ve found it useful when expanded out to anything that is already “hard enough”…

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Look Here Vade Mecum

Section One: Look Here.

Have you ever been injured and gone through physical therapy? Maybe it took several months, or longer, of doing routines that evolved based on your situation before you started to feel well enough to forget to do your routines. After a while, the ache might come back and you realize it’s been far-too(only a week, I swear)long since you did your “daily” exercises. No? Yeah, who does that? Anywhoozle.  Lately, I’ve been focused on understanding…

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