2023

https://www.pinterest.nz/pin/69172544268942782/

Well 2023,

I enter my 6th consecutive year of study this year (from originally starting with a Certificate🠞Bachelors) and as you can imagine it has been a lot and with now struggling with burnout it all just very much feels like an exhausting uphill battle at this point in which my life has been consumed by it for years and I'm now looking forward to the day it does not and that I can have much more life balance and can properly heal from the burnout. I have given my absolute heart and soul to my degree and working at the same time within the field but it has also come at a deep cost. I love learning and I'm fiercely passionate and I'm very grateful to do the job that I do however I also need a lot of rest, rejuvenation, play, fun, adventure, connection and soul exploration outside of study which does not come from having just a couple of months off. I am glad to have my lil' pumpkin as mentioned below by my side for the forthcoming year🐾🐾 and well her 3am and post poo zoomies game is strong 😂😒. 

So I guess here we go yet again...🎢. May we all have some self compassion going forth and may this year hold some magic somewhere within it.

With hope, love and floof

Rainbow and Ethereal 🌈🌠🐱

Introducing Ethereal Lily Blossom

I'm beyond grateful and over the moon to announce the arrival of my first child Ethereal Lily Blossom. We are both settling in reasonably well and Ethereal was a brave girl and gave me cuddles on her very first night!. She LOVES her mouse wand toy and some butt wiggles and has spent some precious time with her grandparents-letting Grandma pat her and play chase the ball and sniffing Granddad's feet and playing chase the mouse. She has also spent precious time having some play with her Uncle and Aunty and they have given me some parenting advice. Her Granddad put together her celestial cat tree however we have some training to undertake for her to get use to it and enjoy it and for her to get scratching on a scratch post or wave down. I'm very much looking forward to many more precious moments with this lil' pumpkin.

With hope, love and floof

Rainbow 🌈🌠🐾🐾

2022 Second Half Favourites

 https://www.facebook.com/vaughanhouse/photos/a.453264745032308/1811696445855791/  

It's a small favourites list this time around but here we go...

• What is trauma?. The author of "The Body Keeps the Score" explains-Bessel van der Kolk "So, unlike what we first thought, trauma is actually extremely common". "One of the largest mitigating factors against getting traumatized is who is there for you at that particular time". "The problem with trauma is that it starts off with something that happens to us, but that's not where it stops, because it changes your brain. Much of the imprint of trauma is in the very primitive survival part of your brain". This is an absolute must watch for everyone and Bessel's book "The Body Keeps the Score" is also a must read!. It's imperative if we are to talk about and improve mental health and society in general that we all understand trauma and how it can operate and impact people as well as how to prevent trauma from occurring and how to ensure protective and buffering factors are high if it occurs. We NEED to be trauma informed as a society.
  
• Bessel van der Kolk: How to detoxify the body from trauma
  
• Stephen Porges: Polyvagal Theory: how your body makes the decision
  
• All Time Low: Sleepwalking
  
• Dead By April: Me
  
• Point North: STITCH ME UP, Apologue, Never Coming Home, RECOVER, Erase You, Be The Same, Lethal
  
• Story Untold: All Time Low, This Song Goes Out To You, from the outside i seem just fine
  
• Rain City Drive: Blood Runs Cold, Talk to a Friend
  
• YUNGBLUD: Don't Feel Like Feeling Sad Today
  
• YUNGBLUD: Memories ft. WILLOW
  
• Imminence: Alleviate
  
• Dayseeker: Without Me, Dayseeker: Crying While You're Dancing
  
• Avril Lavigne: I'm A Mess (YUNGBLUD)
• Avril Lavigne: Love It When You Hate Me (feat. Blackbear) (Acoustic)
• Avril Lavigne: Bright
  
• Avril Lavigne feat. Chad Kroeger: If I Said I Love You
  
• Paramore: This Is Why
  
• Taylor Swift: Maroon

With hope and love

Rainbow 🌈🌠🌸

2022 Reflection

 https://www.pinterest.nz/pin/569212840413914490/ 

It's that time of year again and well I don't really know how to summarise this year...some wonderful, healing, joyous, grateful, emotional, exciting, sad and complex things have happened this year for me which have all kind of wrapped into a rollercoaster ride of one. I've also been struggling with burnout and have hit the wall several times this year. I'm just exhausted physically, mentally and spiritually and haven't been feeling like myself for awhile, and with coming off another study year it can be a weird and difficult time for me as I've previously mentioned on here. The best visual representation of this is like the bus scene in Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban where you're going so fast, hard and non stop through out the year and then face plant with the sudden halt into feelings of lostness, sadness and pure exhaustion. 

Ultimately I have to try and aim to bring an equilibrium back into my life each time and I'm learning that living in such an extreme unbalanced state is not great for my mental health or my overall health in general but it has been largely unavoidable due to studying and the wider context and realities of being a student, in which I've spent the better half of the last 2 years sleep deprived to get through but I have also used many skills and resources to cope with the workload and stress and to reduce the risk of burnout. I'm really grateful to the people around me who have supported me and have made a difference where they can and I feel like the following quote really sums part of this aspect up "the cure for burnout isn't and can't be self care. It has to be all of us caring for each other" (Nagoski & Nagoski, 2020). 

I hope you all get some rest over the coming break period, I know that I need it.

With hope and love

Rainbow xoxo 🌈🌠🌹

NZ Mental Health Awareness Week 2022 Day 6

 https://www.haikudeck.com/daring-greatly-chapter-three-shame-inspiration-presentation-f14a62207c#slide9

https://www.haikudeck.com/daring-greatly-chapter-three-shame-inspiration-presentation-f14a62207c#slide8

#Let'sTalkShame #BreneBrown

Need to talk/Where to get help (Aotearoa):

• Free text or call anytime (for a trained counsellor): 1737
• Samaritans: 0800 726 666
• Depression Helpline: 0800 111 757. Free text: 4202
• Suicide Crisis Helpline: 0508 828 865
• Safe to talk (National sexual harm helpline): 0800 044 334 Free text: 4334
• Alcohol/Drug Helpline: 0800 787 797. Free text: 8681
• Gambling Helpline: 0800 654 655. Free text: 8006
• The Low Down (free text): 5646
• Lifeline: 0800 543 354
• RainbowYOUTH: https://ry.org.nz/
• OUTLine: 0800 688 5463
• Women's Refuge: 0800 733 843
• Male Survivors (Sexual abuse): https://malesurvivor.nz/
  
• 0800 HEYBRO (439 276) (offers support for men who feel like they are going to hurt a loved one or whānau member) https://www.hewakatapu.org.nz/services/0800-hey-bro
• Just A Thought (free e-therapy)-Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT): https://www.justathought.co.nz/

With hope and love

Rainbow 💖🌠🌈

NZ Mental Health Awareness Week 2022 Day 5

https://www.facebook.com/powercentercoaching/photos/a.3319837971464249/3826972167417491/?type=3

#Let'sTalkShame #BreneBrown

Need to talk/Where to get help (Aotearoa):

• Free text or call anytime (for a trained counsellor): 1737
• Samaritans: 0800 726 666
• Depression Helpline: 0800 111 757. Free text: 4202
• Suicide Crisis Helpline: 0508 828 865
• Safe to talk (National sexual harm helpline): 0800 044 334 Free text: 4334
• Alcohol/Drug Helpline: 0800 787 797. Free text: 8681
• Gambling Helpline: 0800 654 655. Free text: 8006
• The Low Down (free text): 5646
• Lifeline: 0800 543 354
• RainbowYOUTH: https://ry.org.nz/
• OUTLine: 0800 688 5463
• Women's Refuge: 0800 733 843
• Male Survivors (Sexual abuse): https://malesurvivor.nz/
  
• 0800 HEYBRO (439 276) (offers support for men who feel like they are going to hurt a loved one or whānau member) https://www.hewakatapu.org.nz/services/0800-hey-bro
• Just A Thought (free e-therapy)-Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT): https://www.justathought.co.nz/

With hope and love

Rainbow 💖🌠🌈

NZ Mental Health Awareness Week 2022 Day 4

 https://www.pinterest.nz/pin/shame-corrodes-the-very-part-of-us-that-believes-we-are-capable-of-change-brene-brown-quote--658158933044538978/

#Let'sTalkShame #BreneBrown

Need to talk/Where to get help (Aotearoa):

• Free text or call anytime (for a trained counsellor): 1737
• Samaritans: 0800 726 666
• Depression Helpline: 0800 111 757. Free text: 4202
• Suicide Crisis Helpline: 0508 828 865
• Safe to talk (National sexual harm helpline): 0800 044 334 Free text: 4334
• Alcohol/Drug Helpline: 0800 787 797. Free text: 8681
• Gambling Helpline: 0800 654 655. Free text: 8006
• The Low Down (free text): 5646
• Lifeline: 0800 543 354
• RainbowYOUTH: https://ry.org.nz/
• OUTLine: 0800 688 5463
• Women's Refuge: 0800 733 843
• Male Survivors (Sexual abuse): https://malesurvivor.nz/
  
• 0800 HEYBRO (439 276) (offers support for men who feel like they are going to hurt a loved one or whānau member) https://www.hewakatapu.org.nz/services/0800-hey-bro
• Just A Thought (free e-therapy)-Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT): https://www.justathought.co.nz/

With hope and love

Rainbow 💖🌠🌈