A very good questions indeed. It’s a little cliche but how can you not love a big, bright, bold sunflower?
Actually it stems from (no pun intended ;-)) during the late long winter, I chose some sunflower seeds to sow called Earth Walkers. They are not your regular sunflower. They are red and yellow and instead of just growing 6ft tall and having one single head, they grow as tall as me (5ft 4) and have loads of big bold heads. At one stage whilst they were seedlings I thought I was going to lose them all, but now they are just beautiful, leggy, bold, pops of awesome colour that make me very happy.
I guess this is a metaphor for how things were for me...I felt like I was losing myself and now I feel I have blossomed.
Also what better symbol of hope! There is also a few sayings I love about sunflowers things like:
"Keep your face to the sunshine and you cannot see the shadows"
"I want to be like a sunflower so that even on the darkest days I will stand tall and find the sunlight"
The project I am exploring, I am certainly looking to intertwine sunflowers into it somehow. So this is exciting.
Also to remind myself how far I have come I am also thinking about my first tattoo....of a watercolour sunflower. I have mixed feelings about tattoos on myself. I absolutely love them on other people and more so when they mean something or there is irony involved. I seemed to have found this mother nature, earthiness about myself. Since coming off meds, and going gluten and dairy free, I have been careful with what I do to my body. I therefore feel is it in keeping with the new me? I was also needle phobic for a long time....not so much these days, so that's why I thought I’d never be able to have one. However having said all that it's a strong gesture and reminder of this time and actually how far I have come. You get the picture (jeesh another unintended pun sorry folks :-) )
So what is the Mental Health aspect here....? I think it's good when you are recovering from something, whether it be from a bad patch of mental health, illness, or just personal stuff that you have a reminder of the journey you have been on, so you can be proud of what you've achieved despite the dark times.
Anyway I have digressed....
So in essence it has become a nice meaningfull symbol for me. I have attached a few photos of the Earth Walkers, a wrist band my Brother bought me that I wear to remind me to be strong and on the flip side aptly says 'flower child' and the keyring my Mum made me last weekend (which is just genius).
In the next blog I am going to explore the power of music and talking books in relation to Mental Health and how these things have helped me. This is keeping in theme of the questions I was asked.
As ever big love N X
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