30 Days to Calm
Jenna is one of my favorites. Her blog is always a joy to read, but it’s her vulnerability and creativity that I find most captivating.
A couple years ago during my one of my struggles with PPD, she and I connected in a more meaningful way when she shared about her own experiences with anxiety and motherhood and medication. It was so comforting to have a peer-to-peer encounter with someone else who was “like me:” newly married, fresh at mothering, and clawing at the surface of normal life under the crushing weight of mental illness.
I don’t really even like to use the term “mental illness” to describe depression and anxiety because there’s a definite physicality to them, for one, and because there is a sort of “less than” stigma attached to suffering an illness that is mental in origin. If you could only calm down. If you could only snap out of it. If you could only, you know, heal yourself.
If only.
Thankfully I’ve been spared the specter of PPD following my most recent pregnancy. I thank God for that. And I also thank Him for the resources and lifelines available for the future, and for other sufferers of these sometimes silent diseases.
One such resource is Jenna’s new book/journal combo, 30 Days to Calm. It’s an encouraging and practical and, perhaps most importantly, tangible resource designed specifically to combat recurrent anxiety issues. And it’s tremendously useful in meeting that deep need to do something when you feel the first pinpricks of a panic attack set in.
Because I’m feeling so good right now, I wasn’t sure how engaging I’d find the book. But tonight while loading the dishwasher, I mentally committed to doing nothing else beyond that task, to enter fully into that moment. I thought about how grateful I was for the convenience of a dishwasher, for the family whose dishes I was washing, for the clean, warm kitchen I worked in. I touched each glass and marveled at the wealth that allowed me to use clean water to rinse dozens of kitchen items twice a day, if need be.
And I knew that I had, indeed, found the book useful as I employed the “be right there” technique, with great success, to that load of plates and forks.
Whether you’re looking for a resource to share with a struggling friend or searching for tools to better manage your own anxiety, 30 Days to Calm is a great option, and it’s available on Jenna’s (adorable!) Etsy shop.
5 Comments
Lucy Robinson
Great to see the conversation about PPD (or PND here in Australia) being opened up. Mental health in general can be so easily classified as a weak character/faith/will etc. We often forget the brain is an organ like any other organ in the body and can need help. If my pancreas didn’t function I would need insulin. If my kidneys didn’t function I would need dialysis. As it turns out my brain is a super efficient absorber of serotonin which means there is less available serotonin in my cerebro-spinal fluid to manage anxiety and depression. I just thank God that I have medication available today to manage this sort of organ failure. 100 years ago this condition unmedicated would have left me unable to function or care for my family. It is also important to note that you can’t really use calming techniques when you don’t have your anxiety well managed (with medication if necessary). Once this is under control then the behavior management really can help big time. Thanks for the tip about the book. Will definitely check it out.
Jenny Uebbing
Yes, I agree wholeheartedly! If you’re new around here, welcome. I’ve written pretty extensively about my undying love for antidepressants and anti-anxiety meds, so I thought it would be a nice change of pace for my readers to see an alternative/add on option to good ‘ol drug therapy. CBT + SSRI’s 4ever. 🙂
[email protected]
Thank you, Jenny! It was seriously an honor to be able to pray for you while I was going through my darkest moments in this past pregnancy. I now know that God was able to use part of my suffering to help you in this postpartum period, and to that I say: isn’t God the best? He doesn’t ever let us suffer in vain. So please know that just knowing you and being able to share with you has been a sincere blessing in my life, and I know it will continue to be 🙂 xo
Pingback:
Pingback: