Self-Love and other Adventures

Anna Bithell

[selfloveandotheradventures]

Lockdown Tips for the Touch-starved

For the people who are missing their friends hugs - Lockdown tips for the touch-starved.

Lockdown is hard for lots of reasons (as has been well established) and if you are like me and my friends the touch-starvation is real. We are a friend group of cuddles and kisses and the inventors of the 5-way-spoon which adds an extra layer of saddness to our hangouts now being seperated by a screen.

So, my friends and I have come up with this list full of things to comfort and help ease…

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[selfloveandotheradventures]

Difficult Self-Care

On self-motivated recovery and how self-care is not always cosy

CW: Skin-picking (dermatillomania) and body image.

The other day, my mum and I took down the mirror in our bathroom.

We covered another with a board lined with hessian and stuck it down with double-sided tape; something difficult to remove and hard to cover up if I did try and take it off.

I was grateful, that day, for my mother’s decisiveness. The skin-picking was something I rarely…

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Salted (escapril #8)

It was never how I left it.

Summers that oozed, Sticky sweet, Through the squeak of bike breaks, On avenues lined with trees, Friends and thin paper, Pulling grass from the ground.

An evening well spent and ill advised.

//

I’d let myself forget.

Walking past coffee shops, Now boarded up, Where I had broken, While I tripped on cobble stones, Fatigue and punched stomachs, A fear of silence in…

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[selfloveandotheradventures]

An affectionate science (escapril #7)

You held my hand and, A chemical reaction, Took place in my brain.

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[selfloveandotheradventures]

Earthly Pleasures (escapril #4)

Wake up, Roll your neck, Stretch out the creeks.

Barefoot in the garden Scruch your toes, Let the dew soak your feet, Leave prints behind you.

Fall in.

Down, Down, Deep down, Earth below the ground, Feel the soil between your fingers, Reroot.

Decompose.

Become worm and grass and tree, Before becoming me, Take your time.

Feel these earthly pleasures.

Go breathe different air.

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[selfloveandotheradventures]

Tangerines (escapril #2)

Sat peeling tangerines At kitchen table she Could press her thumb too hard To rind and pierce the flesh. A squeeze, a gentle drip, The juice would dry to stick, On clammy hands and sleeves Of gingham, worse to paint The cloth.

Mumma did say to use A plate maybe she should Have listened to avoid An orange picture stain.

Prompt: is anyone listening?

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[selfloveandotheradventures]

Dawn (Escapril #1)

#escapril day 1. Dawn.

I lay and waited For Dawn.

Thumbs in mouths, Comfort covers, Rest in pleasant wriggles, Until she Bends her back over the horizon.

Stay here a moment before the day sets in And I get weary.

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Please don't offer me a seat: internalised ableism

Thoughts on invisible illness, self-care and internalised ableism... #ableism #pwme #newpost

The other day, I took the lift up the two flights of my university library for the first time. A little thing, but I felt proud of it. Normally, I would force myself to scale the steps; hiding my dizziness and sickness, stumbling through the ache in my legs as best as I could. It would be a waste of a spoon, but I would do it anyway.

I wanted so desperately to be normal.

People don’t seem…

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[selfloveandotheradventures]

I haven't thought of a name for this poem yet

I haven’t thought of a name for this poem yet

I am working on:

Rediscovering life’s beauty,

And my calmness.

It keeps running away from me,

Around corners,

But I must keep up the determination to look,

Under leaves and

In the crevices between buildings.

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The Internet Makes Me Sad Sometimes

I am back with some thoughts on being politically engaged and/or an activist online and the toll this can take on your mental health. You'll also get a formal introduction to someone you will already know well: the Guilt Beast.

Introduction The World is Wack.

Back in the day (I assume) it was easier to chose when and where you got your news from; you decided whether to read a newspaper or whether to ask your misinformed friend Beryl what’s up. This changed with social media; a strange amalgamation of keeping up with friends, memes, politics and news (fake or real). If you want one of those things then buckle up…

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'I Decided to Love Myself Instead. Sorry.'

This piece is really special to me. It's about my journey to self-love and how it started and what I gave up for it and where I am now. But mostly it is about choice. Choice and bravery. Please give it a read x

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I decided to love myself instead. Sorry.

A post shared by Anna (@a.e.bithell) on Jan 13, 2018 at 4:24am PST

I decided to love myself instead. Sorry.

That Instagram post, a selfie and a cryptic caption, marked it. The beginning of something. The beginning of me learning my worth.

Anyone who knows me well will tell you that spite is my…

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[selfloveandotheradventures]

Travel Journal Flip Through: Discover EU

Quick look at some of my favourite pages in my travel journal from my recent trip to Scandinavia with DiscoverEU! Hope it gives you some inspiration x #DiscoverEU #interrail

Guys, My travel journal is getting thicc.

It’s almost inconvenient at this point. I haven’t even filled the whole thing and it’s already so awkward to stuff into my backpack.

However, I feel like I have really improved my journalling aesthetic since my last flip through. So here we are.

This is a look at some of my favourite pages from my recent Interrailing trip around Scandinavia with

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M.E. Awareness week 2018

It's the day before M.E. awareness week and for those of you who didn't catch it before here's what I did last year! #meawareness2019 #millionsmissing #spoonie

Tomorrow marks the beginning of M.E. Awareness Week 2019

Last year I uploaded a series of posts to my Instagram to raise awareness as part of Spoonie Survival Kits’ photo challenge. All but one of these posts is still on my account (the third one didn’t go with my aesthetic okayyy) but I wanted to log them all here where they can have a permanent home. They are also a nice introduction to my…

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What I've Learnt from Daily Blogging (BEDA #30)

In which I talk about creativity and the fear of running out of ideas #BEDA #BlogEverydayinApril

April 30th has arrived.

The end is in sight.

Blogging every day (or 21 days out of 30 as the case my be…) in April is over.

Here is what I have learnt

Daily blogging is hard.

BUT not as hard as I thought it would be.

Also, scheduling is your friend.

At the start, daily blogging for a month felt overwhelming. After all, I can barely hold down a once a week upload…

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Relatable Content from my 14-year-old Diary (BEDA #21)

Lord, teens are dramatic. Have fun reading this mild cringe fest x #BEDA #BlogEverydayinApril

Reading old diaries is a surreal experience.

I toe the line between complete, wild disconnect from the person I was and a nostalgia for the times I am writing about. Man, 14-year-old Anna was ~dramatic~ (as all tweens must be, I suppose). Although I may not always connect with my past self, some of the stuff in there was just so 2019 relatable.

Have fun getting to know my young self, sorry…

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Tips on Learning Self-Love #3: Cultivating Interaction (BEDA #19)

It's the final instalment! In this post I talk about how to cultivate an environment the nurtures self-love xx #BEDA #BlogEverydayinApril #Loveyourself

Welcome, to the final instalment of my series on learning how to love yourself! How are you feeling? A little more content I hope. As per-usual, if you are still finding it really hard to love yourself that is so valid. You are doing great I promise.

If you are new here you can read the first two pieces in this series here…

Tips on Learning Self-Love #1: Self-talk

Tips on Learning Self-Love…

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Why you should set Short-Term Goals (BEDA #18)

Why you should set Short-Term Goals #BEDA #BloggingEverydayinApril

Hey, how are those new years resolutions going? Still on top of them? Completely forgot they were a thing?

It is the end of Lent! Whether you are religious or not I bet it is way more likely that you managed to give up chocolate for 40 days that it is that you have gone to the gym three times a week like you promised yourself in a drunken haze 5 minutes to midnight on the 31st of December 2018.

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