Hello Dear Readers! Well, it has truly been an eventful last few days. I put a lot of effort into advertising and setting up a book signing and it went okay but I had expected much better. I had the book signing at a wonderful and very supportive bookstore, in fact it is the last independent bookstore in Edmonton and it is called “Audrey’s Books”. I put up a lot of posters around downtown and even got a couple of newspaper reporters, my good friend Scott Hayes in the St.Albert Gazette and a very cool guy named Cam Tait in his twitter feed. It is hard to understand when is the best time or season to sell books. One year I went to a craft sale at the hospital I was once a patient in and sold around 20 books and ended up with something like $400 in my pocket. The next year I went back and sold next to nothing. The cool thing is that I am building up a resume and will soon be moving from being a stage hand to teaching writing, selling books and giving talks about mental health and so on. I have been giving talks about mental health now at schools for a few weeks and I really enjoy it. I am starting to get more comfortable with speaking and I am getting a great response from the people I talk to. It is all through “The Schizophrenia Society of Alberta”. I don’t know if anyone out there has a branch of the Schizophrenia society, but they do a world of good. Presentations at schools, classes in managing your illness and your rights and support groups and many other things.
Aside from all that, I am feeling good but I think it will take some time for me to adapt from a more labor intensive job to working in classrooms and such. I have a few other frying pans in the fire which I hope will help me transition away from my stage hand job. The first one is a class I would recommend for anyone, it is called WRAP or wellness recovery action plan. I suggest anyone out there google it and look into it. It is a fantastic program to get a person aware of their strengths and weaknesses and times when they may need help and how to set up plans for such times and many more things. One of the neat things about it is it is peer led by people with mental health issues, which means the facilitators have gone through what you have and have come to a point of recovery. The other neat thing is that once you take the WRAP course, you can ask to be put on a list and then take a more advanced course over I believe a 5-day period, 8 hours a day and then you can become a facilitator yourself and you get paid for it. As for the other classroom things I was mentioning, I have been approached by a friend who leads a writing group to run his classes at some point soon for pay. Part of the job will entail me going out and getting more people involved in the class, but I already have some good ideas for doing that.
I think though, even though it seems all this is a great thing, that I have to be very careful. Having a full schedule can be rewarding in one way, but it cal also be extremely stressful and stress is definitely a trigger for me, as it is for many of us with Bipolar Disorder or other mental health issues, so I am going to be very careful not to overtax myself, make sure I get enough rest each day, make sure I set aside time for myself to just decompress and read graphic novels or listen to my favorite music. Once again, I would love to hear from any of the people who follow this blog and encourage you to write to me at my main email, viking3082000@yahoo.com
Take care and scroll down past today’s photo for a poem I wrote today!
Changes
It has been so long since the golden, breezy fall
It seemed at times that Spring wouldn’t come at all
We shoveled walks and waterproofed our shoes
Waited for signs of winter ending soon
Now finally we start to hear the songbirds’ call
Deep in the winter it is too easy to forget
Soon there will be sunny days without regret
We burrow in our homes and watch TV
Images of perfect skies and turquoise sea
Though few would leave this place on a bet
Myself I spend a lot of time reading at night
Peaceful and quiet imagining is my greatest delight
Worlds through mind’s eyes I never knew
Stories new or old, fiction or true
And to often take a pause and see the Northern Lights
In this green and growing city Edmonton
Where my life upon this Earth was first begun
I grew up with so many joys
So many friends, so many toys
I want to stay here until my life is done
Yes, we have a massive world class mall
And our boys have fought for Queen and Country like them all
But I feel our potential is so much more
That our many cultures can truly open up a door
I feel Edmonton has a higher call
First to address the brotherhood of mankind
Then equality for the disabled, sick and blind
Then equal rights of women and men
Take up your sword, your voice, your pen
We are leaders here, we must leave no one behind
It seems such a tall and impossible thing to do
But I want to put a challenge to all of you
India was freed by Ghandi, just one man
What he did any wise and pure soul can
We can do it, I believe in myself and I believe in you
Leif Gregersen
May 9, 2015
Mental Health coping skills blog by leif gregersen 