Super Secret Naruto Side Blog ;)

Use timed reminders to hold yourself accountable to consistently practicing self care before, during, and after eating. Especially when you're going places like - out to a restaurant with friends and family, event where surprise food might be offered, holiday party, etc. Self-care can be whatever works for you - writing down positive affirmations, meditating, taking a long hot bath, taking a little walk and moving your body, gently reminding the bully in your head that what they're saying to you is not helpful to you in the long run, doing some stretches, creating some art...literally whatever self-care looks like for you, but create a self-care regimen around eating properly.

Create a self-care regimen for lapses, too. Hopefully you won't need it, but understand that self-care means investing in resources and safety nets for yourself in the event that you might have a hard time, rather than punishing yourself by letting yourself fail. Think about it in advance so that you are not struggling to come up with a self-care plan when you're already in crisis: what are you going to need in order to help gently pull yourself out of a lapse? Failing is human and struggling is common in eating disorders. Learning to be kind to yourself when you fail and growing from your mistakes is a huge part of ED recovery, since we tend to be big self-punishers. Examine your lapse without self-hatred. What led to it? What can you practice learning from it? It's okay if it takes practice to learn, some of us weren't raised with the self-care knowledge that we needed.

Create a support system! Reaching out can be hard and scary, but surrounding yourself with the right influences can really give us a boost when we need it the most. If you trust your friends with this, let them know what they can do to support you, whether it's reminders of how much they love you and want health for you, or ways they can help you stay calm and well. If there's anyone you can reach out to when you're struggling, practicing asking for help can be a really good skill.

And because of these struggles, I want to share this with my followers. Self-care is something I didn't really know existed until 3 years ago, and it's been a game changer. I haven't employed it in this regard (but I now plan to!), but it's made my myriad of other mental health issues so much more bearable.

Self-care is so important for mental health. I've taken numerous medications in those 7 year (for various things), but it wasn't until I learned the concept of self-care (and got out of the bad situation I was living in), that things started to improve.

the mental image of that is hilarious

✧ Keeping a running list in their head of things to tell someone, even though there's no one to tell.

✧ Talking to the cat. Not in a playful way. In a confessional way.

✧ Lingering at the checkout counter a beat too long because the cashier made eye contact.

✧ Watching the clock on Friday evenings and feeling something they can't quite name drop in their chest.

✧ Answering "what did you do this weekend?" with something tidied up and social-sounding, leaving out the two days they saw no one.

✧ Muting their TV just to hear how loud the silence actually is.

✧ Ordering too much food and eating alone with the plates set out, taking up the whole table.

✧ Spending longer than necessary in public places (bookshops, grocery stores) because being around strangers is close enough.

✧ Re-reading old messages from people who don't talk to them anymore, not out of longing but out of proof they existed to someone.

✧ Getting very invested in strangers' lives online: their updates, their kids, their ordinary days.

✧ Starting conversations with service workers and then feeling ashamed of how much they wanted it to continue.

✧ Making plans they know won't happen just for the brief warmth of having something to look forward to.

✧ Dreaming about people they barely know.

✧ Waking grateful, then embarrassed.

Naruto: It was Old Man Kakashi.

Sakura: It was Kakashi Sensei.

Sasuke: ...Kakashi.

Kakashi :

Hikaku weekend: Family

Just a nice evening with grampa Hikaku.

Happy made up birthday to him, he deserved the best, but i hope he at least got to live ling and see his kids and grandkids survive and thrive, hopefully without either Izuna or Madara haunting him.

“I GOT THE JOB!”

“I worked really hard!”

After that, this kid was cleaning out the fridge at least once a week, and I was like, “why are you always cleaning the fridge?” Like, I didn’t mind, but it seemed odd. And he said, “one time I cleaned the fridge and you said I did a good job. I wanted to make you proud of me again.”

Literally, I changed the entire way I interacted with teenagers after that. I actually got a package of glitter stars and I would stick them on their nametags when they did a good job, and they loved it.

My manager had commented on how hard these kids work and I said, “they’re starved for positive feedback. They go to school all day then come to work all evening and no one appreciates it because it’s expected of them, but they’re still kids. They need positive feedback from adults in their lives.”

Teens don’t talk to adults bc adults only ask „so, how‘s school“ to then interrupt them two sentences in. And because they can’t engage in a conversation about buying houses and working in a bank. I would’ve loved to talk about philosophy and politics and history with family the way I did with friends and in class but because I was young no one took what I had to say seriously.

And no, teens aren’t always on their phone. They’re on their phone when they’re bored. You think I‘m on social media when I‘m with my friends? When I‘m talking about something I‘m interested in?

Very frequently, when I first speak to a child while I’m at work, they’ll kind of withdraw and act uncomfortable and shy. Their parents will then rather frequently tell them to not be shy and try to coax them to talk to me – whenever that happens, I always, without fail, politely dissuade the parents from pressuring them.

“I’m a stranger,” I’ll tell the kid’s parents. “I don’t blame them for not talking to me – if they were anywhere else, they’d have the right idea, to not immediately trust me.”

I cannot tell you how many times I’ve seen that same kid – simply after hearing their initial reaction being validated, instead of reproached – immediately open up to me after that. I also cannot tell you how many times that child and I would go on to start a friggin’ marathon conversation, and I got to hear all about how great their day was or what their favorite Disney movies were or what rides they liked and didn’t like or how much they like a certain Disney character or song…all from me validating that initial feeling and showing genuine interest in what they had to say.

This isn’t just young children, either. I will always remember being positioned outside the Animation Academy one day and starting up a conversation with a young lady, perhaps 12 or 13, who joined the line with her father a full 25 minutes before the class was supposed to start. Now keep in mind, we do a drawing class every 30 minutes: there was no one else in line at that point, and no one else joined the girl and her father in line for a full fifteen minutes. So I could tell pretty quickly that this girl was very emotionally invested in getting a good spot for the drawing class: a conclusion all the more bolstered by the fact that she had a notebook under her arm. I asked her if she was an artist – she said yes, but seemed uncomfortable at the question, so I skipped even asking her if I could see her work, instead admitting that I myself wasn’t very good at art, but that I’m trying to get better and that I love the history of Disney animation. On the screens around us was video footage of different Disney concept art and animation reels, so I pointed one of them out (for Snow White) and asked if she knew the story behind the making of the movie. Upon confirming that she didn’t, I proceeded to get down on the floor so I could sit next to her and her father and dramatically tell the whole story of how “Uncle Walt” created the first full-length animated motion picture, even though everyone and their mother thought he was an idiot for even trying, and how the film ended up becoming the first Hollywood blockbuster. After the story was over, the girl’s father said that his daughter really wanted to be an animator when she grew up, and she finally felt comfortable enough to open her notebook and show me some of her artwork. It was wonderful! Every sketch had such character and you could tell how much work she put into it! And I could tell how much telling her that – and sharing that moment with her, where we got to connect over something we both really enjoyed – had meant. And after the class was over, she sought me out to show me what she and her father had drawn – and sure enough, hers was great! (Her father’s was too, really. XD)

-~-

I feel like I am obliged to add one more thing: don’t ever think that the kids won’t feel your unspoken judgements cause they do!

I felt always like a ‘problem’ in my family, until I was about sixteen, I got this teacher who was litterally the first to tell I was worthy. He changed my life up till this day.