My World

Hiya my lovelies,

this topic may be sensitive or triggering to some people. If your self harm sensitive or easily triggered please reconsider reading this weeks' ramble. In our current society most people in their late teens have either heard about self harm, had a friend who self harms, or have self harmed themselves. Now I have nothing against this, I am currently a self harmer trying to fight the addiction. On social media there are posts and comments which can trigger some people, like others making inappropriate jokes or commenting hateful stuff.. and who needs that, we already give ourselves enough of it. But while there are those people who definitely don't help our journey, there are plenty of people who do.

I've come across a few dozen different accounts now, all of which accidentally, and all of them have something helpful or something which gives plenty of food for thought. A few weeks ago, I saw this one post by selfcare_trust which is about the butterfly project. The butterfly project is an undertaking caused for self harmers who to feel like they are prepared to stop and need the inspiration or backing to make it. There are a couple of rules: 1. At the point when you have a feeling that you have to cut, take a marker, pen or sharpie and draw a butterfly on your arm, hand, leg, any place you need to. 2. Name the butterfly after a friend or family member, or somebody that truly wants you to show signs of improvement, or somebody who you wish to stop self harming for. 3. You should let the butterfly fade normally. NO cleaning it off. 4. In the event that you cut before the butterfly is gone, you killed it. If you don't cut it lives. 5. If you have more than one butterfly at a time, cutting kills all of them. 6. Someone else may draw them on you. These butterflies are additionally special, take extra special care of them The butterfly project has helped me so far, though I alter it a bit. Instead of drawing butterflies because mine turn out to be wiggles and lines, I draw planets and stars. I call them my world. Each planet is named after someone, just like the butterflies and each one is super special. There are other projects which are all easy to find, on _self__harm__help_ there's the Lines Project, which takes place in December from the 15th to the 20th.

The lines project is where we all draw lines on our wrist in colored sharpie. If you personally self harm, are depressed, feeling down or any of the other colors/topics listed then you will draw the lines on your left wrist. If you are supporting someone else then draw them on your right. Each line represents the millions of lives lost to suicide.

The colors are: Red - for self harm Orange - For anxiety Yellow - for an eating disorder Green - for bullying (Previously or currently) Blue - for depression Purple - for the LGBTQ+ community Teal - for panic or anxiety attacks Grey - lost someone to suicide Black - considered or attempted suicide Pink - for supporting the project. There are plenty of other projects and posts which are there to support and encourage people who have either self harmed, been close to someone who has self harmed or lost someone to the battle.

I know how hard it can be, with pressures of school, family, work, everything can feel so overwhelming, in those moments it's important to ground yourself, take a moment to stop and realize how big the world is, that may feel overwhelming too, but just take a moment to think, there's a whole world out there which is just waiting for you.

I know everyone says this, and I personally used to roll my eyes whenever someone brought it up. I know everyone says "it gets better", and I won't lie to you, sometimes it may feel like it won't or that all it ever gets is worse. But there are moments when it's easy to forget, or moments when you can put that bag of misery away and just enjoy time. It may be with friends, with food, a hobby, a good Netflix show, there's a good couple out there. It just matters of finding your way, about keeping your world afloat.

If you have any ideas or strategies which you found useful, send me a message. I'd love to hear from you. Stay foxy folks, and sorry for the hard topic.

The Shadow Girl, Fading Out xx