There is a remarkable Catholic project that I stumbled upon: Christian.art. It has been curated by a former auctioneer at Sotheby’s and features a Christian artwork every day with a corresponding Gospel and reflection on it. The meditations are short and simple and help one with more immersive prayer as well as being educational. The artworks are extremely varied regarding era and medium. Today’s reflection on loneliness features a sculpture by Alessandro Algardi:
Mental health gurus often emphasise the importance of self-care and talk about being “selfish” sometimes. Conservatives, and especially those of the old guard, understandably roll their eyes at the seeming self-centeredness of these well-meaning folks who have really failed to come up with a decent justification of self-care to Christians.
I’ve wondered about this quite a bit myself. With an extreme mental illness it is getting easier to take care of myself – because it is a necessity – but what about the steps along the way? Surely, we don’t think that people should only care for themselves at a crisis point. So, when is it ok to put ourselves first?
I don’t have any grand philosophical answers to this, but I would like to change the perspective on this issue in order to show how I’ve come to terms with it. At one point when I was trying to get through some pretty serious trauma I stumbled across a meme (yes, a meme! Intellectual, I know) that said that you are responsible for your own healing. It seems obvious, but I think a lot of human pain continues because the universe deals us a blow and we therefore expect the universe to fix it. Even though schizophrenia wasn’t my fault, I had to figure out a way to heal myself. I could accept help – but not expect it. This isn’t fair, but it is essential.
Taking care of yourself actually means not burdening another with your pain.
Maybe you say that you can take care of people while going through a lot and not needing to take care of yourself. Sometimes that is true. Prudence should decide if it is. However, ask yourself honestly, are you often taking out your frustration on others passive aggressively? Do you hold resentful feelings frequently? Do you people please and expect a return? All of these I do. I vent way too much and expect to get better.
This is why self-care isn’t selfish. Some pain in life is an obvious effect of sins we’ve committed and sometimes we endure difficulties with no answer. A lot of things are not directly our fault, but we still have to fix them. No one owes you healing. Self-care is unfair.
Following my great disappointment when Pope Benedict XVI resigned from the papacy, I was quite determined to be open-minded about Pope Francis. I knew he was not traditional, but I was certain that he would have some qualities to recommend him. My mindset has significantly changed since July 16, 2021. Pope Francis made it abundantly clear how much he dislikes Tradition and Traditional Catholics in his Motu Proprio Traditionis Costodes, which significantly limits the Latin Mass and I have rather decided to move on.
I haven’t exactly been rejoicing at the opportunity to pray for the Pope’s intentions since then in my morning offering which I pray along with from my Amen app. However, “even a stopped clock is right twice a day.” This month the official intentions of the Holy Father are for: “People Who Suffer from Depression – We pray that people who suffer from depression or burn-out will find support and a light that opens them up to life.” Surely, we can all get behind this!
Here is the Morning Offering which I grew up with at school:
O Jesus,
through the Immaculate Heart of Mary,
I offer You my prayers, works,
joys and sufferings
of this day for all the intentions
of Your Sacred Heart,
in union with the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass
throughout the world,
in reparation for my sins,
for the intentions of all my relatives and friends,
and in particular
for the intentions of the Holy Father.
Amen.
Recently, when trying to manage various conditions, my mental health nurse recommended the free app Smiling Mind. I was a bit skeptical about its efficaciousness, but have been learning to be more open minded so I gave it a chance.
Smiling Mind is called a mindfulness and meditation on app, but I am hesitant to focus on the word meditation as it can give Christians the idea that it is religious and anti-Christian. It is completely secular and uses pyschological techniques to induce calm. Hence why I chose to focus on the term mindfulness even though many people think it sounds silly.
This app has helped me tremendously. I often have insomnia and the breathing exercises have frequently helped me to sleep when I was sure sleep would be elusive. The meditations are usually short, between five and fifteen minutes, and are easy to fit in a busy day when you need some very quick stress reduction. It has definitely made a difference with general anxiety; my husband noticed my improvement on his own.
This is an aside from mental health, but the body scans have helped me to handle physical pain. Focusing on other areas of one’s body that are not in pain made it easier to deal with the pain that was there. I felt more gratitude when I was conscious of how many things don’t hurt all the time!
I really recommend the app Smiling Mind for anyone in any walk of life who struggle with anxiety.
This blog is definitely not meant to only be for women, but it is worth mentioning that different domestic arts can be very beneficial for one’s well-being. They are beautiful, which soothes the soul, and require mental exertion which exercises the mind. They are also lovely gifts for one’s family which give a sense of usefullness and purpose that people need to be happy.
I personally love knitting. However, I find concentration amidst chaos to be very difficult so have done less of it than I would like. No matter what your life calling it can be hard to practice these pursuits. My daughter introduced me to the free app Row Counter so that I cold manage interruptions better and follow the pattern more easily with household distractions.
I’ve found knitting to be very soothing. I love to feel the yarn between my fingers, my mind enjoys the comfort of patterns, and I love the sense of accomplishment when I am finished. Here is a baby blanket that I have been working on for the new baby:
Unfortunately, as I’m sure most of you know, homemade items can be very expensive. I try to manage this by buying my yarn on Ebay. I prefer yarns with natural fibers – this one is a cotton blend. It was a bundle of 10 skeins, but the blanket should only require three. This works out to £5 for the blanket. Not too bad!
What domestic arts bring you satisfaction and peace? Feel free to post pictures in the comments below!
The free Catholic meditation app Amen, which is produced by the Augustine Institute, has been helpful to restore my Faith after my last spiritually damaging psychosis. I downloaded the app first to see if it would aid sleep and anxiety reduction, and found that it has been a beneficial spiritual tool.
One thing that is very difficult with trauma is how harsh the Christian Faith can seem to be. Believing in God’s love and presence is a challenge after you have endured a terrible ordeal. What I have found special about the Amen app is that it is a gentle, but doctrinally sound approach to Catholicism, prayer, and Christian meditation. It has prayers to follow along with, Bible stories, Christian thoughts, and Bible in a Year. The meditations focus on God’s love and forgiveness and a relationship with Christ.
The voices are pretty good. Sometimes the diction of some of the meditations isn’t quite to my taste, to be honest, but most of the time the voices seem normal and soothing. I don’t think the app would be jarring for most people.
At first it didn’t seem to help directly with sleep or anxiety. I have since several times calmed down and fallen asleep while I was listening to the prayers. However, I will refer to another app I have found to be better suited to addressing those issues in another post. If you would like a way to study your Faith and pray to God with a merciful and sympathic approach, I would highly recommend Amen.
Continue reading Review of Catholic App: AmenIt is a good idea to use natural remedies to treat anxiety if possible. Policy has changed regarding the use of benzodiazepines as they are being found to be highly addictive and dangerous. They still need to be used sometimes for extreme cases of anxiety/ panic attacks, but it is best to keep their use as minimal as possible.
One natural treatment that I have found to be very helpful is this £8 “Remedies to Roll” by Neal’s Yard Remedies:
Remedies To Roll – Womens Balance 9ml
It has a very nice fresh and gentle smell which definitely helps me when I am managing anxiety. Also, Made in England!
I’m sure there are a lot of studies on the benefits of firelight. A cursory look on google seemed to show some articles which say there are evolutionary reasons we love fire. Regardless, we know without a study that for many of us fire makes us feel happier.
We recently had some lovely friends over and got to talking about how wonderful home altars are. I’ve thought often how much I would love a home altar (I’ve had one before), but this put it in mind again and the following morning I finally cleared off a shelf in our dining room and made one.
Since I am temporarily staying home from Mass because of panic attacks and pregnancy pelvic girdle pain I am especially glad to have a home altar. Most of the items on the altar are gifts from my grandparents and husband that I have had for many years, so I can’t help you with cost there, but the candles from it are from Ikea and work out to being about 20p each. It is so lovely having candles burning on an altar or your dining room table for a nice dinner and needn’t be too expensive though it seems like such a luxury! If you can manage it though they can really bring some warmth and spirit to your home.
I am very lucky to have a stable home environment and many benefits. I know lots of people with mental illness and mental difficulties do not have this. Throughout my blog, when dealing with coping mechanisms and self-care, I will be attempting to keep my recommendations either free or affordable. I will try to mention the cost of things that helps me so you know what to expect.
It is so helpful to see and hear lovely things when one is trying to heal – this can be expensive, but it is also possible to find beauty in small ways that can still bring great joy without spending a tremendous amount.
Here is a lovely teapot my husband just picked up for me at an antique fair for £5. I’ve given up coffee for a bit to help with insomnia and panic attacks. I now drink tea and the traditional teapot makes my morning more special.
Cheers!
October, as you may know, is the month of the Holy Rosary. As a family we say the rosary every day in October which is lovely (and sometimes trying!) A beautiful devotion is to listen to Heinrich Ignaz Franz von Biber’s rosary sonatas. A study in Mexico demonstrated that classical music and baroque music were beneficial to those with depression.
Here are the sonatas:
Conservatives for Mental Care - A Cultural Catharsis 