A New Honor

I was surprised with an email in my in-box today alerting me that my blog is the recipient of a new honor. Una Vita Bella has been selected as one of 16 Best Depression Blogs of 2013 by Healthline. The most wonderful thing about this honor is that people are still finding value in my posts even though I don’t post near as often as I used to (or yes, let’s go ahead and say it, rarely) and this gives me a big giant warm fuzzy feeling.

It really is a privilege to know that the pourings out of my heart in the past still resonate with someone, even if it only does with one. Funny how a little (or big) acknowledgement stirs in me the desire to write more and share more. I hope I can make time to share more of my experiences, struggles and triumphs here, because it’s good for me and perhaps it is good for someone else, too!

Una Vita Bella: a Top 10 Depression Blog of 2010

Una Vita Bella was named a Top 10 Depression Blog of 2010 by Psych Central!

I am still floating from the happy news.

Truly, an honor like this inspires me to keep sharing my journey and to keep working towards helping others more than ever. As a health activist, and someone living with depression, it is sometimes hard to keep up your momentum. Accolades and mentions, awards and badges, they just feel good, plain and simple.

I have worked to create a blog that is not driven by anything more than a desire to do good, to help others and to help myself along my own path of healing. I want this blog to continue to be a source of support and insight for anyone who might suffer from mental health issues and/or chronic pain. I want to continue to share my heart with my readers so that they may be helped in their dark times, or perhaps even through the darkest of times, like I myself have seen.

With support of communities like Psych Central I am encouraged to keep doing so, I feel even more empowered to keep sharing and pursuing health. The knowledge that someone, anyone, finds what I am revealing to be helpful or supportive, is such a source of joy! I am certain every blogger would agree. I know there are so many incredible blogs “out there”, so this is truly an honor of significant proportions for me.

Thank you so very much for joining me on this path of health, healing and the occasional bumps in the road (okay, sometimes they’re deep valleys)!

Related Articles

• Una Vita Bella – The Community (unavitabella.com)
• Top Ten Depression Blogs 2010 (psychcentral.com)
• An Outsider’s Perspective: What Those Who Have Never Experienced Mental Illness Can Do to Help Those with Depression (unavitabella.com)

The Rewards of Blogging for My Health

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My efforts to blog about mental health and chronic pain are often not rewarded, not tangibly at least. I have yet to make blogging a “business” for myself, but it is an essential part of  my life. It helps foster better mental health to share my trials and triumphs with you and I sincerely (with all of  my heart) hope it somehow helps others. I think that most of the time it is completely self-serving though, as my written expressions are often a way for me to share, to release what’s on my mind and to feel like I am making some kind of a difference in the world. No matter what the reward, big or little, I am looking forward to continued blogging efforts and adventures. I learn so much from other bloggers and from taking the time to write myself.

Since I started out this blog with no real intention of it becoming anything more than a space for me to share, I can’t tell you how delighted I am when someone notices it, comments, or shares a post of mine with others. It is such an honor! As I have grown through my blogging I do hope to take it to a new level, to provide more community for others like myself who are dealing with chronic pain or illness and the mental health issues that so often accompany it. I hope to be able to reach more people who are struggling and inspire hope in their hearts.

All that said, you can imagine I was quite happy to find out that my blog made it to the “Top 50 Health and Wellness Blogs Worth Reading” by Medicalchemy. In fact, I am really thrilled. This list is made of up all kinds of health and wellness blogs and only ten on the list focus on Mental Health, so my blog is one of those ten! Wow! I don’t know how it happened, but I am thankful for the opportunity to be in such fine company. I hope you will visit the list because there are a lot (49 to be exact) of great blogs mentioned along with a brief description of each.

So, I don’t mean to be tooting my own horn, but I wanted to share the list with you.  I also had to share how exciting it is to know that my blogging about mental health issues is recognized by someone as something special, because it certainly is special to me!

The Great Depression Bloggers

I decided to take a moment to share with you a world of understanding, a blogging world of understanding.

Recently I researched depression blogs for a discussion I posted titled “12 Top Depression Blogs to Follow” on WEGO Health. There you will find some wonderful blogs, from all levels of writing and experience that focus primarily on severe depression or major depressive disorder. It was a tough list to write because there are so many amazing blogs!  There are also so many blogs that may stray away from the severe or major depression topic a bit, but are incredibly helpful and provide great insight that did not fit the criteria for that post. I have this lingering feeling, as if I was not able to do enough service to the mental health blogging community because of the nature of it being a such a short list. (Although, I am certainly excited about sharing the 12 blogs that I highlighted!)

This morning I received an email that my blog was included in a list of 101 Blogs to Help You Deal With Depression. I am honored, to say the least, I even got a bit teary. And then I thought, “I wish I had seen this list last week!” Although there is some overlap on the lists, there are also a few blogs on my list that are not on this one. I am happy to be able to share both lists with you so that  you can get connected to these other blogs, these blogs that are offering support, encouragement, and shared experiences.

Undoubtedly, because the blogging world is so large, there are many blogs left off the lists that would be well worth mentioning, so please feel free to tell others about them in the comments here.

Related Articles

• WEGO Health to Sponsor Ning Health Networks (eon.businesswire.com)
• WEGO ChronicBabe Rebel-Rousing. (sixuntilme.com)
• July 30: Recommended Reading (somebodyhealme.dianalee.net)

I Choose to Live

Those are some pretty powerful words aren’t they?

“I choose to live.”

How many of us have to make that choice? How many of us have ever been faced with even contemplating that choice? I think so many go through life without ever feeling like it is even in question. But then again, many of us know… we know a kind of pain and agony that has at times made life, well, a choice that we have to make. Choosing to live in the face of terror, in the face of pain… that’s big stuff. I sound a bit dramatic now, but that really is it. When you suffer with unrelenting pain of any kind, you must choose. Sometimes you choose daily. Sometimes you choose each moment. But you keep choosing until you don’t have to think about choosing any longer.

I am blessed to be the recipient of a most meaningful award, the I Choose to Live Award!

As I have said before when I have received an award, I am honored. This one feels especially powerful to me though. Just the simple recognition that I choose to live, and that I continue to do so, despite the challenges of mental health issues, despite chronic pain (fibromyalgia), receiving this feels very rewarding. Sometimes being acknowledged is the most powerful thing we can do for another.

Earlier today I posted on facebook that I have been receiving so much goodness from the world today, it feels unbalanced, I feel like I am a bit too often on the receiving end. I hope to sprinkle some more goodness around to the lives of others. Like Jennifer, the creator of this award, says on her blog, Suicidal No More,” there is hope“. It is always my goal to share that hope and remind others of the hope that exists.

If you are reading this, then please share the message of hope with others who may be struggling. Together we can get through so much better than we can alone.