We are thrilled with the superb content which has been published this week in response to our challenge 'Thoughts for Steem' - and that's an understatement! We can't tell you how grateful we are for your writing.
The challenge, which you can read here, asks:
How do you creatively support your mental health?
What practices help you thrive?
We'd love for you to enter and share your experiences to increase understanding of mental health here on the Steem blockchain.
- The due date for your entries is 25th September
- You can make more than 1 entry
- Share this in relation to Natural Medicine (ex. exercise, diet, herbalism, alternative modalities, yoga, etc.); Sky is the limit, but make it Natural Medicine related
- High quality posts (more than 5 paragraphs and 5+ related photos, preferably your own) esteemed
- Bonus points for details and telling your story!
- We will resteem your post and give it a full upvote
- Please use the #naturalmedicine tag and resteeming this update is appreciated.
Entries Week 1
This post by 
I looked deeper into the Buddhist philosophy and found a Vipassana Meditation course which gave me a daily practice that helps keep me centered. I start my day with an hour meditation which puts me in a peaceful frame of mind, full of positive energy and very much focused and in the present. That is very important to me to start my day of right. In the evening I like to do more of the meditation, which helps me sleep better. These practices have served me well and allow me to live a peaceful existence in my home in the forest. Also the forest itself brings me to a peaceful state. I can feel it as soon as I enter the forested area after returning from the city. My mind just becomes peaceful.
This post by 
I've come to the conclusion that sharing, writing and being part of a supportive community has become the key way in which I support my mental well being. I am no literary magician but I've become free flowing with the pen these days and my heart and mind is lighter for having done so.
My new-found confidence to reveal uncomfortable truths paired with reading and appreciating other peoples honest stories has change me. For the first time there is a community of people that understand and care about the same things that I do. There is kindness and compassion flowing back and forth and I live for that. I have been gifted with a sense of belonging. There isn't this need to be "just fine and dandy with a tight smile". I can actually be honest with how I feel without expecting to experience judgement, avoidance or shame. I don't have an in-person community or sisterhood anymore. We moved to a rural setting in a place where we don't know anyone. Old friends with their busy town lives have no time to talk. It made me quite sad for a while to feel forgotten. You don't realize how important community is until you become completely isolated from it.
This post by 
It isn't just about moving the body and opening the joints; it isn't just about developing strength and flexibility; it isn't just about learning to master one's own energies and direct them at will, in whichever direction, and for any desired purpose. Qigong is about living your life and going about your normal daily routine, without the false and acquired conditioning. It's about balancing activity with rest. It's about being aware of what your whole Being needs in any given moment. It's about being aware of the difference between your conditioning and your true nature. So for the last few months, I've been cooking, cleaning, writing, walking, sitting, eating, shitting, showering, listening to music, driving, and talking the same as I ever would - but with one fundamental difference: I've been doing it with humility, presence, and with self-love.
This post by 
Sometimes I can't get my hands on the 'ideal herbs' I need for my mental heath, which would be Devil's Club, Tulsi, Lemon Balm, Rose. So honestly, any tea I make for myself, that has been steeped at least 15 minutes, feels nourishing. The little things feel so much bigger when things feel hard. My camper has become a lifesaver, lately. It is my safe space. Keeping it clean, tidy, Fung Sui, organized, simple, helps me mentally. It helps me feel in control of something. Being an Aquarius, actually with two signs in Aquarius, my whole being seems oriented towards the 'bigger picture' sometimes at the detriment of my individual 'self.' Here I am, doing a podcast on the road, going hundreds of miles out of my way to interview people, and spending my money on gas and food, and my body getting achey- for 'the cause.' I'm not making money on all of this, I feel like the situation of our world is dire, and this is what I can do to leverage my privilege. The act of making medicine. Even small amounts. Today, I harvested Oregon Grape root, and Elderberry, when I was feeling anxious. It helped me to ground into the earth I am actually on, and where the land is reflecting the season. I still felt anxious afterwards, but it is something that felt beautiful, meaningful, and grounding to me, even if just incremental.
This post by 
Yet when we look at many types of natural healing, when we explore the idea of meditation, of vision quests, of psychedelics it is our imagination that we are tapping into again. Our imagination can take us places that allow us to have more control over our feelings, our emotions. Just like I mentioned earlier, how I imagine myself as water, when I need to embrace and accept my emotions. Just like I imagine myself a tree, if I need to draw on my core strength, if I need to be more grounded. If I am feeling overwhelmed by all that is happening I imagine myself releasing all those things, that have dragged me down, those worries, I release them out into the earth, to the soil, where they can be held and nurtured, where they can be held dormant until I am ready to deal with them. I close my eyes and I visualize what it is that I need in that moment to help and guide me, for me it is all about the elements , my natural world. For it is there I gather my strength, it is there that I feel held, but it is with my beautiful mind that I can connect to all of that. It is myself that will ultimately heal me and myself that has always healed me. When we are younger it is our imagination that we use to help us problem solve, to help us find our way in the world. It widens our perspective of the world and it is limitless. Using our imagination allows us to create more space for ourselves, to not just limit ourselves to our physical form. It allows us to look at things from a different perspective, allowing us to create and explore within those spaces that we have given ourselves.
This post by 
So I do hope sharing the story of my journey back to full health will help someone! And always remember that help is at hand and you can climb out of that deep dark pit of depression and anxiety and live life to the fullest again, no matter how impossible it may feel now!
With still one more week to go, we are pretty excited about what you guys will come up with next. 
Winner: 3 Steem
Second and Third Winners: 2 Steem Each
The Guest House
This being human is a guest house.
Every morning a new arrival.
A joy, a depression, a meanness,
some momentary awareness comes
as an unexpected visitor.
Welcome and entertain them all!
Even if they are a crowd of sorrows,
who violently sweep your house
empty of its furniture,
still, treat each guest honorably.
He may be clearing you out
for some new delight.
The dark thought, the shame, the malice.
meet them at the door laughing and invite them in.
Be grateful for whatever comes.
because each has been sent
as a guide from beyond.
— Jellaludin Rumi