So after spending 16 years in my life at school, I am no longer forced into learning. All the opportunities I get for continued education come from my own initiative. I think it would be easy to just stop learning, but I love to get more knowledge. Since I’ve graduated from school, I’ve actual found that my learning had been more valuable and useful to me than many of the things I learned and since forgotten when I was in school. Here’s some of the ways I like to learn.

Books
I like to read, although for a long time I wasn’t necessarily into non fiction. But if I do pick a book that I am very interested in and is well written, I’ll make it through. Sometimes if it is a longer or less compelling book, I’ll make sure I actually own a copy and just keep returning to it. Eventually it gets read.

Audio/Video
Sometimes reading take too much effort. Listening to podcasts, audio books, watching documentaries, or online video often makes learning about things more simpler. I started to want to learn about Permaculture, but found I just couldn’t get through books at first. Instead I started to watch an online videos series while I exercised in the morning and soon found I was much more engaged.

Online Classes
There are plenty of free or paid online courses. Classes are often more structured and interactive. Paid classes have the added benefit of monetary motivation. In the few I’ve done I got much more out of it, because I paid for it. There is a lot out there though, so research a class and look for reviews before you actually pay for a class.

Online Feeds
Blogs, Facebook pages or groups, magazines, forums,  email lists, youtube channel, all provide an opportunity for casual learning without taking to much time. I will subscribe to things I’m interested in and its easy to just take the time I have to read or watch a bit.

Community Classes or Clubs
I like to keep my eye open at the library and other places for community education classes. Often they are free and are a great place to not only learn, but to meet people in the community with shared interest.

Finding Time
I find that as long as I am choosing things that are actually interesting and useful, motivation isn’t a problem. Sometimes finding time is. I do a lot of multitasking: reading during a meal, listening to something while I’m doing chores. It isn’t too hard to give away some leisure time, or participate in studying something with a group, friend or spouse. I like to set aside a bit of time either daily or weekly to just focus on studying and learning something new. A half hour at a time can quickly add up to finished books and classes.

When life hands you lemons, make lemonade.

Sometimes I fell tired and discouraged. I have a lot to do caring for two boys, including home school; growing a new baby, and caring for the house and yard. Plus there are many projects that I want to get done. I’m just glad I still get a nap everyday.

I started on an impromptu Family Home Evening lesson. I read a story about having a good attitude during hard times. Then we went and did an object lesson. I gave the kids some lemon water and asked if they liked it. They didn’t. Then we added some sugar until they did. One glass missed the lemon and just had sugar. Plain lemon water and sugar water isn’t that great. The best drink was when they were combined.

In my object lesson, lemon was life experiences. Sugar was Christ or the gospel. I started thinking about how overwhelmed I’d been feeling. I had a lot of lemon. My life experiences aren’t necessarily good or bad, they just happen. Lemon can be good when you expect and want it, or if it is unexpected it is extremely sour and not desirable.

Having too much lemon isn’t a bad thing: as long as I have enough sugar to go with it. My sugar is enough time to reflect, relax, study the gospel, grounding in priorities, good attitudes, love for who I interact with and what I do, and a strong foundation in Christ.

When I have lots of lemons and lots of sugar, life is good and happy. I need both.

I think the majority of people deal with some type of mental health issue. I still hate that I do, but I have found I am simply not as good a person as I want to be. Most of my problems came or at least intensified with having children. I’ve struggled mostly with depression and anger.

It’s hard for me to get the right help when I am going through a hard time. Part of it is I don’t want to admit that I do have a problem, and also I’m not usually thinking straight. But over the years I’ve dealt with a less than perfect brain, I’ve tried a lot of different options. Here’s what I’ve thought of them.

Medication: Helped a little, but I felt it wasn’t resolving what was really bothering me. I didn’t use it very long.

Self-help: I simply did not have the tools to helps myself, hence why I was having problems in the first place.

Support: It was definitely easier when I was connecting with people around me on a regular basis. And if my husband weren’t wonderful, I would have been so much worse off.

Therapy: Therapy is great, it is wonderful to be able to talk to someone who is also trained to help. But I didn’t love it. I never felt very comfortable completely opening up, and I’m not big on talking to someone I don’t really know.

Staying busy: When I am engaged in meaningful activities that I like to do, I’m far less likely to fall into bad habits. Tends to be more preventative than curative.

Books/reading: I like reading and some of what I read helped, but many books I looked at failed to get at the heart of what I was experiencing or offer suggestions that worked.

Religion: Relying on Christ is the only way I made it through everything. I loved the addiction recovery program offered by my church, and I think many mental health issues function as addictions.

Hypnosis: This has been my latest find, and one that I enjoy a lot. Hypnosis always sounds a little hokey, but it doesn’t have to be. I use the downloads offered here, and it has been the first option that I felt was not only addressing my issues, but giving me the proper tools to get over them.

Ultimately overcoming poor mental health is learning how to retrain my brain. And I’ve discovered that it is very possible, and I am not stuck always being a depressed or angry person, but I can change and be better. Just sometimes it takes more than just my will power to get over things.