Gems In My Mental Health First Aid Kit

I keep thinking about own my Mental Health First Aid Kit and it’s contents. Checking that it is up to date and effective is so important.

• Contact details of people will be there for you in a crisis
• The power of music on your emotions
• Inspirational sayings that can encourage you
• Scriptures that can gently comfort or impart power

The next suggestion on the list of items you may want to include in your MENTAL FIRST AID KIT is mementos to remind you of people who love you. Physical mementos can be important because they can seem so real, something physical that you can touch and hold. I like to think of these as gems that I can pick up and admire, allowing the light to shine on them and dazzle me.

I don’t possess many mementos that have sentimental value. I am not one for clutter. My favourite possessions are generally dresses. I have never really been the type to get attached to “things”. There is one thing that has become important to me though – my engagement ring. In this case, it literally involves a gem!

Photo by The Glorious Studio on Pexels.com

It was too hard to write about it at first, but I lost the first engagement ring that Jack gave me. I know – terrible! I have never been good with jewellery. Rings are especially problematic. My fingers start itching…so I take a ring off…and I put it in my pocket, or in my purse..or somewhere I think it is safe. When I lost my first engagement ring, I was actually mortified. I was much too upset to be able to write about it. Jack and I had lots of words about it. Since then, I have been wearing a less expensive engagement ring…and Jack has been asking me to get used to keeping it on…getting past that itch that prompts the urge to get rid of it. I still take it off some days, and I always feel a bit of a failure when I do that. He calls this “training” for the beautiful wedding ring he is going to be slipping onto my finger. He does not want me to lose that!

Monetary value means nothing to me. But sadly, some women do place a high value on the financial cost of a ring. Even though the engagement ring I am wearing right now is a much lower cost than my first ring, to me it is precious. It is precious because it is a reminder every day that I am going to marry the man who seems to be my match, my ideal counterpart, the man I am happy to view as my head. That ring does have a powerful impact on me when I think about everything it symbolizes.

There are a couple of possessions that make me smile because of the memories that they stir. One is my glass frog:

Aaaah….my glass frog has been with me for over twenty years now. Considering it is so small and delicate, it is remarkable that it has survived. It brings back memories of my trip to France with Mumma and our trip to the mountain village of Èze while we were touring the French Riviera.

The mountain village of Èze on the French Riviera

My glass frog is one of the very few possessions I have taken with me whenever I have moved. It brings back wonderfully happy memories, and it is also just incredible cute!

I am not, absolutely not, one for cuddly toys. However….I guess I make an exception for the teddy that Goldfinch hid inside my suitcase. Isn’t he a sweetie! I love all of my memories with Goldfinch.

He came into my life at a time I was still reeling from the challenges I had face. I was trying to start over in London, trying to just be me, to focus on the work I was doing. I was still finding it distressing that people who knew me saw me just could not making a remark to me about Jack. (They could have no idea how much that hurt.) Back at the end of 2017 (when I met Goldfinch) it was almost two and a half years since I had spoken to Jack, and of course it was also almost two and a half years since I was attacked. Meeting Goldfinch was a wonder for me…and he came along at a time I needed something wonderful in my life. Goldfinch proved to be that something, someone wonderful.

10100 miles distance is a very grievous challenge at times. Although normally, I do not want cuddly toys in my life, in my home…I absolutely make the exception for a ted that Goldfinch sent me home with.

So these are my sentimental possessions that can lift my spirits because they remind me of people so dear to my heart. They are a sweet part of my MENTAL HEALTH FIRST AID KIT, and they do make me smile even on a cloudy day.