My thanks to Anime Spellbook for nominating me for “My Reasons Why”, which I’m pleased to say was begun by our own Kimchisama!

RULES:

1. Mention the person who nominated you.
2. List 13 reasons why you keep going/living.
3. Nominate 10 or more people to give their reasons why.
4. Use the picture that Kimchi created in your post.

Reasons To Keep Going and Living

1. Anime: As you may remember, when I started this blog nearly *checks calendar* six months ago???!!! Galoshes of Gilgamesh, has it been that long?! Ahem… As I was saying, one of my earliest posts was How Anime Saved My Life. (More recently, Karandi posted something similar on her own experience.) In brief, during the darkest time of my life, anime gave me something to look forward to and an escape so that I wasn’t pressed under a monstrous weight every waking minute. Anime also gave me inspiration to keep going—so there’s a point to all those shonen cliches about persevering in the face of apparently impossible odds.
2. Family: When I walk in the door at the end of the day, and get mobbed by my kids, that’s the high point of my day. 🙂 (Speaking of my kids, thank you to all of you who like and comment on MiniPrimes’ posts! She’s only in middle school, and this is something she really, really enjoys.) Talking with my brothers and sisters, too, especially about video games and, yes, anime, lifts my spirits. And when I’m really feeling down, Mom and Dad are there for a phone call or email.
3. Professional medication: Mental health, including depression, is complicated and can’t be solved by just changing your way of thinking. Currently, I’m on anti-depressants. They aren’t “happy pills”—they don’t make me feel happy or shut off negative emotions—they just keep me from thinking that I’d be better off dead and that there’s no point to getting up in the morning.
4. Professional therapy: A good counselor (emphasis on “good”!) can do wonders, as can a wellness coach or similar professional. In fact, it was talking to my wellness coach that convinced me to make the jump to anime blogging. 🙂
5. Spirituality:  In Rising Strong, Brené Brown shows her research indicating that in order to be resilient in the face of tragedy, you need to have a spirituality. You don’t even have to believe in God or spirits; however it fits for you, you need to have some outlook that believes in the interconnectedness of people and the world, and a sense of meaning and purpose in your life. Or, if you’re like me, you can practice a form of meditation developed by space aliens in a fictitious world I created. Wait, that’s just me?
6. Video Games: I mean, do I really need to elaborate here? 🙂 I guess I’ll add that streaming on Twitch has been delightful in that it connects me in real-time to others with similar hobbies.
7. Uplifting others: I get a warm feeling of achievement whenever someone shows that I’ve encouraged them or helped them in some way.
8. Being uplifted by others: It’s been a bit more challenging for me to learn how to do this graciously, but accepting my limits and the support of others goes a long way towards feeling better about myself and life. Heck, on my birthday this year I almost cried just because my brother and his wife came over and just hung out. I wouldn’t have had the time or energy to arrange anything else, and I don’t particularly care for cake or ice cream. Just having them there made all the difference.
9. Manga and Webtoons: Again, for largely the same reasons as anime and video games.
10. Doing things with my hands: So I’m not like a super-crafts person. And I don’t like doing a lot of hands-on things. But I do feel a ton better after playing music (I have a guitar) or crocheting.
11. Vitamins: I would be remiss if I didn’t mention the amazing help received by reading The Mood Cure and following its advice on selecting vitamins. On days when I forget to take them (like today!) I definitely notice the difference!

    

12. Homemade adrenal fatigue drink: If I just can’t go on, this drink recipe is a life-saver. Though instead of peeling lemons, I just toss in six tablespoons of lemon juice; and to make it sweeter, I add two teaspoons of Stevia.
13. The Blogging Community: Yeah, you guys make my day! I’ve noted before that it’s not about the stats, and yet it brightens me up every time you leave a comment or a like, or retweet something of mine, and so on. (Special shout-out to my colleagues at Beneath the Tangles!) This is a fantastic community and I’m very glad to be a part of it.

Is that everything? Oh right, gotta nominate some folks. Not going to shoot for ten, as a number of the people I would select have already been nominated.

MDMRN

Medieval Otaku

Wretched and Divine

Of Midnight Ravings

Jon Spencer Reviews

Welcome to Hell Zone!