On this page I shall be listed the different challenges that I have either thought-up or have come across and which can be both fun and/or helpful to do in my opinion.
Each title contains a link to where that one appears on this blog so you can get a better idea of it.
I hope you enjoy them and will think about participating.
No idea who invented this one – not one of mine I have to admit but I really enjoyed doing it.
All you have to do is answer the questions that are set alphabetically.
Dear Me, Letter To A Younger Self.
This one was in response to something I had read and which was written by Stephen Fry. The thought process, as daft and unorthodox as it may at first seem, was that writing a letter to our former self could indeed provide us with some great insights, and I asked “whether it could provide us with some form of release, some form of benefit, some element of healing or forgiveness, some kind of catharsis”
So that is all you have to do. Write a letter to your former self. Choose a pivotal or important age in your childhood or early life and having lived the life you have lived, write to your younger self. What would you want yourself to have known then that you know now?
My Life In A Movie (aka Tag I’m It Three – The Movie Edition..
This one I came up with as part of Tag I’m It Too a tagging game which did the rounds.
It is a game where you represent your life in a movie – nothing more, nothing less.
Ok, this one I came up with because I feel that poor mental health can often rob us of our passions and interests ad as a way of re-connecting to them.
List 12 passions that you have and commit to exploring them and sharing your explorations.
The ‘I’m Worth Loving Too’ Challenge
As folk who suffer from poor mental health one of the side effects of this can be that we often have a very poor self-image or very low self-worth. The idea of this challenge is to remind ourselves that we too can be and are worth loving.
The idea of this challenge is to look at thirty different questions/subjects (one per day) and t reflect upon them and then to answer them as honestly and candidly as possible.
My answers can be found at the following places…
The “Try Looking At It Through My Eyes” Challenge
The challenge is specific to those who suffer with mental illness or poor mental health and lasts 12 days in total. You can do these either consecutively or as and when the inspiration takes you… (Thanks to my daughter Nicky for her help)
Simply follow the daily instructions….
Day One - “She” (Or if you are male “He”) - Write a short story about someone who has just been diagnosed with your mental illness/condition and who is the age you were when you were diagnosed. What happened, what were they expecting, what are their feelings etc?
Day Two - “My Eyes” – Take and publish a photo of your eyes (or if you prefer simply look in the mirror). Using no less that 50 words imagine those eyes belonged to a stranger and you are looking into them for the first time. What do those eyes alone say to you about the person whose eyes they are?
Day Three - “The miracle Button” – If I offered you a miracle button which when pressed would instantly take away your mental health issues – would you press it or not? And why?
Day Four - “The Trade Off” – You walk into a fun fair or state fair and see a small tent entitled “The Trade Off”. Curious you go and look at the writing under the sign only to learn that for 1 dollar, euro or pound, you get to take a pill which will allow you to trade your mental health condition for another mental condition of your choosing for a whole week. The only rules are that you have to trade one for one and there are no returns until the end of that week. Would you do it, what would you choose and why?
Day Five - “Younger Self” Write a letter to your younger self telling them the things you think they will need to know about when they are diagnosed with your condition.
Day Six - “The Support Group” If you could start a support group specific to your mental illness what would it do, what activities, what purpose etc and what would you call it?
Day Seven - “The Day Out” – If you could be taken any place fairly local for a day, where would choose, who would choose to go with, what would you like to do and why those choices?
Day Eight - “The CLOSE Friend” – If you had a friend who spoke to you or treated you the way you speak to and treat yourself, how long would you allow that person to be your friend and why?
Day Nine – “Questions for Heaven” What questions relating to your mental health would you ask God and why?
Day Ten – “The Time Machine” If you could go back and watch one day of your life, what day would it be, why and what do you expect to see?
Day Eleven – “The Forgiving” – Choose one thing in your life that you have done and feel guilty for and write yourself a letter forgiving yourself for that thing. Ps. You don’t need to name the thing you did unless you feel comfortable doing so.
Day Twelve – “The Roundup” – Spend a little time looking back over all of your responses in this challenge and write a short roundup of how you tackled them, how they made you feel, and whether or not you think/feel you enjoyed or benefited from them.
The idea is that these can all be done in your personal blogs and are completely voluntary in whether or not you do them or how much or little information you share.
Additionally if you really want to do one but only want certain people to read it don’t forget you can always use your password protected post option.
And feel free to use the logo/graphic if you so wish
Day Three – The Miracle Button
I think I would like to try some of the challenges you listed. I am presently working on my own second challenge. The first of a 30 day challenge where I wrote a poem a day. That I did in November. This month, December, I am doing 31 day challenge of writing a Haiku each day. These challenges for me includes creating a piece of art and including a music video that goes with the art & the poem. So far it has been successful. I find doing the chanllenges makes you have to really work on thinking and creating and digging deep. That is why I would like to try another challenge. It is addicting. Thanks for posting this page with the links. I believe you know someone that I also follow. That would be Bipolar Muse. She is a real inspiration to me. Thanks again. As I move through which ever challenge I chose first. I will look to your writing for inspiration, if that’s okay. j.k. the secret keeper
Hi JK,
(I hope it is Ok to address you that way – I love “Secret Keeper” but Jk is much shorter
)
Yes please do feel free to take up any of the challenges that I have listed. Poetry is a favorite of mine and so I will be keen to pop over and check out your blog when I have a little more time. (I am currently editing my books and it is becoming a time consuming task). The challenge that you are currently doing seems very interesting and who knows, perhaps when I have more time I will try it. Although I will probably do it on my poetry blog instead.
Yes I do, through the bogs, know Muse. She is such a wonderful person and I often pop over and check out her work. I am glad that she is an inspiration to you. We all need inspiring people in our lives I feel.
And yes please feel free to check out any of my ramblings
Oh and whilst I remember, I did pop over to your blog briefly. I have problems with memory and so wanted to pop over and hit the “follow” button before I forgot and noticed that you do write about your bipolar as well. Have you ever considered joining the Mental Health Writers Guild? I am certain you would be welcome 
You can find us here –> http://mentalhealthwritersguild.wordpress.com/
Good chatting with you.
Kind Regards and God bless you.
Kevin.
Thank you Kevin, I am looking forward to taking on some of those challenges. I also am going to do Postaday. Which I actually have been doing since I started up my blog full time at the end of April 2012.
Thank you also for the invitation to apply to be accepted in the Mental Health Writers Guild. I did just that. I notice you are the administrator. It seems (and I left you a message) that wordpress is seeing any comments I make with a link in them as spam. I recently did nominations for “Blog of the Year 2012″ and “The Very Inspiring Blog” Awards. They all went to spam. Bipolar Muse discovered that they were going to spam. With her noms I had written a personal note and it still went to spam. Anyway my request to join was senf to spam I believe. If you would check that out. I would appreciate it. Also, thank you for the suggestion to apply in the first place. It is the kind of Battle I would want to give my time. I have always supported anti-stigma. I don’t feel stigmatized. I have never felt I needed to hide that I have been in therapy since I was 19. I am not afraid that anyone knows that Bipolar and other diagnoses have been with me for most of my life. Read what I wrote in my application. I hope you are able to find it. I look forward to hearing from you and the Mental Health Writers Guild. jk. (feel free to call me jk or jen or jennifer (last name Kiley) Thanks Kevin
Hi JK,
Yes I did notice your application in the spam folder over on the Guild’s blog but rescued and approved it and you are now a fully fledged member
And yes in terms of my facilitating the guild I stand guilty as charged
It, and our all having a safe place we can call home, offer and receive relevant information and support is something which I am very passionate about.
Now that I am on my Christmas break so to speak I intend to do lot of blog reading so hope to spend more time over at your blog checking out your work. So you may well see some comments from me appearing over there.
Hope you are well?
Kind Regards and God bless you.
Kevin
Look forward to your visitations. I will do the same. Familiarizing myself with the MHWGuild. There is a lot to investigate. I did post the great Badge/Ribbon. I am proud to be a member. For the rest of the month, I would like to work on studying and rewriting a script I was working on that I lost when my HDrive crashed and burned twice two weeks apart. Lost script and some poetry. After I realized the usb flash drive it was on was dumped I did a lot of deep breathing. Now I feel I needed to start from scratch b/c I needed to dig in deeper to the subject. Do you ever feel there is never enough time to do all you want to do. I’d like at least 5 more hrs added to every day. Have a great break Kevin. peace
jk
Hey JK.
Really pleased that you are getting to know the guild a little better. They are an awesome bunch of folk over there
Yes hard Drive crashes can be the most frustrating can’t they! I had a similar problem some time ago and lost so very much. Thankfully with the the help of some technology I managed to recover it all but it really was a very tricky time for a while.
As for the hours in a day, oh yes more hours would certainly be nice but I am sure if I went to the Father and asked for them he would just smile at me ruffle my hair and say, “Learn to use the hours you do have properly before asking for more my child”
Hoping your work on the script is very successful for you.
Hope you are well.
Kind regards and God bless you.
Kevin