Hey Storytellers! In partnership with @superpwrtoolkit let’s begin to Reframe and Re-enchant the way we think about mental health! Using geek culture we can all begin to incorporate the things we love into daily routines that can help promote our own mental health needs!

For instance! Pokemon! Both fun and therapeutic, these pocket monsters can remind us of our own needs. Parts of ourselves, our feelings, can help us be our very best but we need to first collect them all. Becoming a master of our feelings by training with them and learning how they help us and how can become attuned with them.

Have some fun with it too! Draw your feeling parts as Pokémon or assign your anxiety a Pokémon that represents that part of you. How are they helping you and how can you help them?

If you interested in learning more about mental health, counseling, and geek/pop culture go check out the podcast Stories with Shrinks. Host Tyler and Jen take a new topic twice a month and psychoanalyze characters from your favorite movies, tv, and media. Enjoy!

Storytelling is such an important part of many cultures… plus its awesome!

You can actually communicate without! It works and it helps!

How does it work? Well, I'm not really sure, I haven't been trained on sandtray lol.

Lucky for us @therathrive_counseling does have therapists who have been trained on this type of therapy!

Learn more about sandtray here!

Another example of how our hobbies can aid our mental health!

I really liked this blog from @therathrive_counseling so I decided to just use an excerpt to show you guys what today’s topic is all about!

“Anxiety is a powerful emotion. It can overwhelm, disrupt, and dysregulate—and can make the tasks of daily living really difficult. People with high anxiety often struggle to maintain social connections, navigate high-stress situations, and take risks in life. The fear of what could happen is overpowering, leaving people feeling stuck and afraid.

But stress isn’t always a negative force in life! Stress can motivate us to make important changes, put ourselves out there, or push ourselves to the next level. Most importantly, it can help us learn more about ourselves—what we want, what’s holding us back, and what we’re capable of when we really put our minds to it

The feeling of being under pressure is a huge trigger for many people living with anxiety—but games can teach us to be motivated by pressure, rather than overwhelmed by it.”

You can find the article here.

Don’t forget to follow #reframeandreenchant for more awesome posts on how you can geek out and take care of yourself!

Do you know about play therapy? Did you know play therapy is not only for children?

I borrowed some of my favorite parts of @therathrive_counseling’s new blog.

“Play can help put us in touch with our creative and most authentic selves.

Gifted children and adults may think differently, feel differently, and see the world differently from their neurotypical peers. Gifted kids and adults often feel othered and different from people their own age, due to their high sensitivity and often divergent interests. This can lead to a sense of isolation or loneliness, resulting in feelings of rejection and low self-esteem.

Play therapy can be a powerful way for gifted children and adults to experience a new way of being in the world.

Play therapy helps with empowerment, self-esteem building, and identity formation. Through play, they can learn to recognize and appreciate their strengths, and find ways to connect with others that don’t rely on neurotypical social norms.”

You can check out the full blog here.