Self Care and Mental Health

This has been one of the worst mental health weeks I've experienced in a long time. But I've survived it, and that means I can continue to survive. So I'm thinking a lot about self care because, honestly, I've forgotten how to take care of myself. "Self care" is a buzzword. What the fuck does it mean? It's thrown around so much without really talking about how we can care for ourselves. I want to talk about taking care of myself. With the help of some incredibly supportive friends, I'm re-learning how to do that. I am thinking and writing, making lists of things that make me happy, what I could do to make myself happier.

Survival is an interesting concept because it seems like such little but it can be so fucking hard. It can be unbearable at times. But it's the most important thing. And it's something I need to prioritize.

I am just rambling, though I plan to talk more about mental health and self care in the future.

But today is the first time in the last week I've felt content, and that's nice. So I thought I'd share a spoken word piece I came across this week and really, really love. I hope you do, too.

Cinnamon Hearts

You know when you intend to do something that would take no more than half an hour and then all of a sudden it's three weeks later and it still hasn't happened? Or is that just me? That's what happened with this post. And a lot of other things, lately. My mental health hasn't been the best the past few months, but today is already shaping up to be a good day. And so, a blog post!



Anyways, the weekend after Valentine's day I had a potluck while my roommates where away for reading week. I named it Valen-friend's day and, along with telling my friends how much I like them via sparkly heart-shaped cutouts, I made cinnamon heart cupcakes for the evening. My roommate's sister had made these cupcakes sometime in January, and when she offered me one I almost weeped with joy. I'm certainly biased - cinnamon hearts are my #1 favourite candy, Valentine's day or not - but it was the best cupcake I'd ever eaten. When I asked for the recipe my roommate said "Oh, it's online. When you find it, you'll know." Which is true, I guess, seeing as most cinnamon heart cupcakes are either chocolate or red velvet, the first white cupcake recipe I found was indeed the one. And so worth the search.



These delicious cupcakes were invented by Erica of Erica's Sweet Tooth, and I cannot recommend them enough. If you want to read the recipe or see some fancy cupcake photographs, hop on over there. My cupcakes aren't very fancy by blogging standards, but they are so super fancy by real life standards. My friends even called them pretty. If that's not fancy, then I don't know what is.

The cupcakes were gone by the end of the evening, but I'm still snacking on cinnamon hearts non-stop.