Gentle Garden

Let's take care of our mental health and physical well-being and grow together 🌱💕

[selfcare-garden]

Hi 👋🏻

I'm S. and I created this blog to document my self-care journey and hopefully encourage others to take good care of their mental and physical well-being as well 💕

∘•········ʚ ♡ ɞ ········•∘

A little info about me:

Ukrainian 🇺🇦

22 years old

Christian ✝️

Introvert

I have physical and mental health struggles, but I'm not ready to elaborate on that right now.

Things and activities I like:

🪴 gardening and houseplants

🚶‍♀ taking long walks

🌲 nature

🏙 cities (they can be overwhelming though)

🎨 doing creative stuff

🥘 cooking

☕️ coffee

🎀 all things pretty and cool-looking

✝ theology

🫶 volunteering

While I don't have enough mental and physical energy to do or experience all of these things as often and as well as I'd like to, I try to be grateful for what I do have and can do.

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What to expect from this blog:

🌱 Posts of gentle encouragement and motivation

🌱 Reminders to take care of yourself

🌱 Tips for mental and physical self-care

🌱 My personal life experiences that I think can be interesting and/or useful to other people

🌱 Bible verses

🌱 Quotes i find encouraging, positive or insightful

🌱 Lots of flower pics and nature pics, as well as other pics i find nice. I'm not aiming for a perfect polished aesthetic though.

🌱 Possibly some memes

🌱 Just stuff I feel like sharing

‼️ Disclaimer: I am not a physical or mental health professional. To be honest, I've had enough negative experiences with doctors to undermine my trust in them to a significant degree. However, it is also a bad idea to blindly trust random people online. This is why I encourage you to do your own thorough research and get opinions of multiple healthcare professionals, not just one, if you have any serious health concerns. And if you are struggling mentally, then please, seek support of a trusted friend, a family member, a good therapist, a crisis hotline etc. You are absolutely worthy of help.

‼️ DNI if you support russian invasion into Ukraine

∘•········ʚ ♡ ɞ ········•∘

Let's learn to be kinder towards ourselves and others and grow together 🩷🌱

[selfcare-garden]

I definitely needed this reminder. Perhaps you do, too 🩷

[selfcare-garden]

I love covering my belongings in stickers 😄

This is my reusable water bottle. It has already saved me so many single-use plastic ones! It's made of stainless steel, so it's almost unbreakable, and I hope to keep using it for many more years.

Btw, remember to stay hydrated. But don't just drink caffeinated beverages like tea or coffee or cola, you need actual water!💧

[selfcare-garden]

I've been having fun with my chia seed puddings recently, adding fruit, sprinkles and vanilla sugar. Excited to experiment with more berries in summer! 🫐🍓🍒

I make my pudding with fortified soy milk. I'm trying to eat more plant-based, mainly for environmental reasons 🌍😌

[selfcare-garden]

This is something I've been thinking about a lot lately. I'm 22 years old and I don't know what I want to do with my life. However, if there is one thing that I'm certain about wanting to be, it is kind. I want to be kind. I want to be someone who genuinely cares for others despite having struggles of their own. Someone who does things for other people to brighten their day, ease their hardships and make their lives better. Someone who speaks with gentleness and doesn't snap at people even if exhausted, frustrated or upset. I'm trying, but it can be hard to have patience towards others when you don't feel well. It's hard to be kind not just in intention, but also in action, especially when you're quite awkward and not very good at interacting with people, and also don't have the knowledge and resources necessary to help them in a significant way. I'll keep trying though. I hope one day I'll be much closer to who i want to be.

image credit: ???

[selfcare-garden]

I got myself a new friend. Named her Florence 😊

I don't know who needs to hear this, but stuffies are for everyone, regardless of age and gender. There's nothing embarrassing about finding joy or comfort in plushies <3

[selfcare-garden]

I just signed a petition, demanding world leaders respect the Amazon.

Did you know the ancient rainforest is one of our greatest hopes for a livable future? All life on the planet depends on the rainforest’s powerful ability to regulate climate and weather patterns.

And it is under threat. Illegal mining and industrial-scale agriculture are cutting and burning down vast areas of forest, all for a quick profit. Scientists warn at this pace, the Amazon may soon be reaching a tipping point.

Will you add your name to protect the Amazon’s forests, wildlife and its people?

Respect the Amazon - Greenpeace International

Add your name today to demand global leaders #RespectTheAmazon and protect its forests, wildlife and its people.

[selfcare-garden]

Hey everyone! I'm alive and doing ok, in case you were wondering. I will be trying to post more. Happy first day of spring! 🌱☀️

[selfcare-garden]

"Doing your best" is overrated.

Sure, there are situations when doing one's best is necessary (for example, when surgeons are fighting to save their patient's life), but very often it is just not worth it.

Doing your best all the time is not sustainable. Sooner or later it will lead to burnout and damage your mental and physical health, which is especially true for people with existing issues like myself. I may "do my best" for a day or two, push myself to be really productive, but after that will come the overwhelm, terrible exhaustion and dark thoughts. Is it worth it? No, it's not.

Are good grades, a promotion, other people's validation etc. worth your physical and mental health? Some level of sacrifice is pretty much inevitable and tradeoffs (mental and physical health vs other goals) will happen, but if the negative impact is really big, it is probably not worth it. So, instead of "doing your best", i suggest doing what you reasonably can in your situation. Work towards your goals without pushing yourself too hard and prioritize wellbeing over productivity. It doesn't make you lazy, I promise.

[civic-notebook]

I believe this a core misunderstanding of "do your best."

It doesn't mean "do this perfectly." It literally says your best. And that can change day to to day.

Some days your best might be 100%, but sometimes your best might only be 60%, and that's fine too. If it's the best you could reasonably do at that time, then you did your best.

[selfcare-garden]

This is a misunderstanding of my point. I never said "do your best" means "do it perfectly". What i did say is that the wording "do your best" implies "do everything you possibly can" or "give it the maximum amount of effort" (that's why it's called doing your best). Yes, everything you possibly can on a given day may be only doing 60%, or 20%. Yes, the results of doing your best will not necessarily be perfect (because it's your best, and you may not have the ability to complete a certain task perfectly no matter how hard you try). However, doing 60% and achieving imperfect results may STILL take a toll on you. This is why I'm advocating for doing what you reasonably can instead of doing everything you can.

If your default understanding of "do your best" is "do what you reasonably can", that's actually better for you, but imo it contradicts the literal meaning of the words "do your best".

[selfcare-garden]

"Doing your best" is overrated.

Sure, there are situations when doing one's best is necessary (for example, when surgeons are fighting to save their patient's life), but very often it is just not worth it.

Doing your best all the time is not sustainable. Sooner or later it will lead to burnout and damage your mental and physical health, which is especially true for people with existing issues like myself. I may "do my best" for a day or two, push myself to be really productive, but after that will come the overwhelm, terrible exhaustion and dark thoughts. Is it worth it? No, it's not.

Are good grades, a promotion, other people's validation etc. worth your physical and mental health? Some level of sacrifice is pretty much inevitable and tradeoffs (mental and physical health vs other goals) will happen, but if the negative impact is really big, it is probably not worth it. So, instead of "doing your best", i suggest doing what you reasonably can in your situation. Work towards your goals without pushing yourself too hard and prioritize wellbeing over productivity. It doesn't make you lazy, I promise.

[selfcare-garden]

I'm alive, in case anyone's wondering. Struggling with my physical and mental health, but alive.

My psychiatrist suggested decreasing my daily dose of sertraline (an SSRI antidepressant) because i was getting weird twitches in my legs that could be a side effect of it. He wanted to see if the twitches lessen with the dose and prescribe me a different antidepressant if they did. The twitches have indeed lessened, but i think it mainly has to do with me no longer trying to force my body and brain to function using excessive amounts of coffee and not pushing myself too hard (which i did partly because i myself wanted to do things, and partly because of my parents' pressure to be more productive than reasonably possible with my health). Since i transitioned to a lower dose of sertraline, my mood's been all weird and unstable which is annoying, but also kind of interesting (the parts where my brain goes "everything sucks and I'm very sad, so let us cry" suck though).

I still don't have a diagnosis for my physical health condition. It has been going on for years and it's gradually getting worse. I guess it could be called idiopathic chronic fatigue, but this term doesn't really explain anything. At this point I'm factually disabled, i cannot even work a part-time job if it has a fixed schedule, as there's no way to predict when I'll feel like shit. I'm trying to find a way to make at least some income that will be manageable for me. I keep trying to learn programming (full stack development, to be more precise), but it's hard cause my body and brain aren't very cooperative.

I got into crochet and have been enjoying it quite a lot. It doesn't require much physical energy or thinking, or any socializing at all, so it works well for me. I recently made these guys. The blue one is Sheldon and the pink one is Charlotte, they are husband and wife.

I used mostly leftover yarn and old halloween fake web as stuffing because I believe in reducing, reusing, recycling and repurposing. I did buy some new yarn for other projects (and used some of that yarn for the dinos' scarves), but I'm planning to try thrifting sweaters and using them for yarn (most clothes from thrift shops doesn't get sold and ends up in landfills anyway). I don't know when i will have the time and energy to go to the thrift shop and I don't know if I'll be able to get decent-quality yarn there, but I'll try ☺️

Btw, here's the dino pattern (i made their tails slightly longer though):

https://youtu.be/-Bv62qavlug?si=GE-bmdUq7xOM9gEC

Yesterday I spent a lovely evening with my boyfriend. We went for a walk (thankfully my body allowed me to do it), then watched a movie while cuddling and eating snacks at his place. We watched Zootopia part 1 (i've seen it multiple times before and he hasn't) and spent a long time discussing how Zootopia's economy is supposed to work when some of the animals that live there are dozens or even hundreds of times bigger than other animals (elephants vs foxes vs mice, for example) and require dozens or hundreds time more resources. It was a really fun and cozy evening, and I'm super grateful for my boyfriend and the connection we have. I feel truly loved, cherished and respected in this relationship and i try my best to make him feel loved and valued, too.

Ok, I'm gonna stop talking now. I wish everyone who's reading this a good day 💕

[selfcare-garden]

Walk gently in the lives of others. You don't know the full extent of what they are going through.

❤️‍🩹

[selfcare-garden]

A little affirmation for you:

I choose to focus on what I can control ❤️‍🩹

[selfcare-garden]

Go for a walk in nature and take your time to notice and appreciate the little things. Freshness of the air. Bright green color and softness of the moss. Sunshine up in the tree crowns. Chirping of the birds. All the small flowers and leaves, and critters living among them. All the colors, textures and sounds, all the little miracles around you. It can be really soothing and bring a lot of joy <3

🌱🍄🐞

[selfcare-garden]

I really need to work on the "go to sleep early" one 😅

credit: see the picture

[selfcare-garden]

Me with my physical and mental health issues every day

credit: see the picture

[selfcare-garden]

Take a few slow deep breaths. Drink some water. Hug someone you love or pet an animal if there is one around. You don't have to figure everything out right now 🩷

credit: ??? :(