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Thinking a lot about mental health tonight. Mine, my partners, my buddies. I'll start with my partner. She's stressed. Like so many she's got a lot on her plate. One thing is our little's up coming birthday. There's no party so we're trying to find other ways of making it special
That's adding up mentally. I asked what I could do to help to take some of the load off. Right after I asked I saw the expression on her face and I realized I just put another decision in front of her, the last thing she needed. So I said I'll take care of the cake.
The little one wants one with a tiger on the icing. Now I can't make that, but I'm lucky enough that I can get a bakery to do it. One less thing on her plate to worry about. That got me thinking about work. Work sends out a lot of emails for us to take care of our mental health.
These emails are filled with advice and URL links to further explore if something interests us. But here is thing. I'm so exhausted I don't have the mental energy for that. I don't want to have to make more decisions or investigate avenues to better my mental health.
My plate is already full. I've never been this exhausted teaching in October. With the numbers going up in the province stress in the work place is amplifying. And I don't see things getting easier teaching. More and more things keep getting added on.
Work will send out another reminder to take a moment and breath or do something for myself. What I've turned to is playing rpgs with buddies. But even that's hard sometimes. I tend to run the games. I put a lot of pressure on myself to make sure my players are having fun.
Don't get me wrong. I have a ton of fun playing. It's easier if I can pull out a pre made module. Less prep and they're easy to riff off based on player agency. It's tougher when I'm building my own stuff, like in our Mothership game.
We had to postpone tonight's session. One of the group is teaching online in T.O. He's struggling. He hasn't turned off the computer before midnight once this week due to planning. MIDNIGHT! Tonight he's not getting home until 6:30. Then he's a dad.
He'll have dinner with the family. Hang out and listen to their stories. Play with them. Put the kids to bed. Read them a book. Then back on the computer to plan cause he doesn't want to disappoint the 35 other students on the other end of his computer tomorrow.
Don't know how I want to end this thread. I guess, check in with people. Listen. Don't talk about mental health and then put more on someone's plate. If you have the energy and can, take something off their plate. Unless it's cake. Leave that alone!
