Happy Birthday to Me...

The past eight months have been a roller coaster.  Matt came back into my life and left again.  I thought he had changed, but I was wrong.  Work is getting worse.  There's absolutely no communication among the management team.  And to top it all off, my therapist is no longer in-network, so I'm looking at 317% increase in the price of  my mental health.  Any wonder why I chose to spend my birthday getting hammered? 

Extreme Self Care

Because of the stress of I've been under and the difficulty I've had coping, my therapist suggested a course of extreme self care, doing much more than I usually I do to take care of myself.

I've been going to the gym regularly for the past two weeks. I got a massage and scheduled another one for next month. I got my haircut and scheduled the next one as well. I took advantage of the complementary training session that came with my new gym membership, and I'm going to sign up for the "Exceeds Expectations" session. I also got the tattoos I've been wanting. The design on my shoulder has been waiting to be inked for about 4 years. The Libra symbol on my wrist was something I found late last year.

This week I'll be trying out the Stretch class and the Yoga class. I made an appointment to get my carpets cleaned next week. I took care of my taxes this morning, and was relieved to learn that I'm getting a small refund. I still need to have the oil changed and tires rotated on my car.

I've also got a new mantra: "Be nice to yourself; it's hard to be happy when someone's mean to you all the time."

Where's a knife?

So far, this year has not been kind to me, and as a result, I'm back on weekly visits to my therapist. Christmas blew big hairy chunks. The dynamics of my work environment is beginning to mirror my dysfunctional family, which has completely sent me off the deep end. My therapist has referred me to a therapy group on coping skills that starts in March. Until then, I've actually been green-lighted to revert to one of my dysfunctional coping skills- avoidance. So glad because I can't handle any more crazy!!