Mental illnesses are devastating. Even when the dust settles after your initial diagnosis, it's hard to see how there can be anything positive about mental illness. However, recovery is full of surprises.

Emotional resilience is very important to a person's wellbeing. It is a way to describe how well you mentally bounce back from upsetting situations and events. Resilience can be crucial in mental illness recovery where stress can aggravate symptoms. Being able to better handle stress improves stability.

Nothing is better than a snow day - nowhere to go, nothing in particular to do. Do I catch up on tasks around the house or go back to bed? My Keurig is calling. I dump a bunch of sugar in my tea and take a seat by the window. Our street is lost in the snow. The outside world can wait. My day is free and full of possibilities. Time for a little extra self-care. Spending a day at home can be a great way to recharge. Here are four activities I did during the snow storm today.

When I was a teenager, mental illness recovery wasn't a thought in my mind. I already had my life planned out. I would attend music school and after graduation, I would audition for a military band. Things didn't go as planned when I was diagnosed with schizoaffective disorder.

I love being a mental health worker in Toledo, but I see our city named on all sorts of lists: "most stressed-out cities," "high violent crime rates," and even "least-livable cities."

Creative outlets enhance your recovery from mental illness and can have a remarkable effect on our emotional wellbeing, whether one has a mental illness or not. Art played an integral part early in my recovery from bulimia and schizoaffective disorder, and it remains a very important part of my life today. Art is my medicine, but any creative pursuit can enhance your recovery from mental illness.

Recently I got mental health advice from a tarot reading. I'll be the first to admit I'm skeptical about tarot (Alternative Mental Health Information). But recently I got a reading that was empowering. The reading had three pieces of mental health advice I will share since they're good for everyone to know.

Journaling for self-care eases the distress inherent in mental illness along with the stress of mental health stigma and maintaining the delicate balance of medication, therapy and building a positive support system. Blessings come from learning passionate self-care and finding expressive outlets for the sometimes overwhelming emotions and triggers. Journaling as a kind of self-care is easy, fun, unique and, above all, journaling is beneficial to your mental health.

I could present you with thousands  of research papers on this topic. All of them usually mention artists such as Van Gogh and writers like Sylvia Plath.

This blog, Recovering from Mental Illness, allows me to explore many different topics. This post, "Visualizing Mental Illness" might be a bit tough to delve into, but I believe it's an important, albeit confusing, issue. Let's give it a fair shot.