Thank you Ang, I’m really happy that you nominated me for this award. It’s come at a great time as I am supposed to be on holiday (in sunny Spain) but I’m too sick to enjoy it properly 🙁 Hopefully, now that I’m up, I can read through everyone’s blogs.

Blogger Recognition Award

The Blogger Recognition Award is an online award given by bloggers to other bloggers as a way of recognizing the efforts they put into their site. I was nominated by Ang @ Mama Coffee Chat in Canada. Ang has a great fun-filled blog about her life, family and tales of her little baby girl together with posting yummy recipes and her poetry. Be sure to check it out! In the meantime.

Rules for the Blogger Recognition Award:

• Thank the blogger who nominated you and add a link to their blog
• Write a blog post on your site displaying the award
• Describe why you started your blog
• Write two pieces of advice for the new bloggers
• Nominate and notify 11-15 other bloggers

Why I Started This Blog:

My passion is for all things mental health, both personally and professionally. Following my own breakdown and recovery from a lengthy period of anxiety, panic attacks, anorexia and a psychotic depression, I decided to train as a mental health nurse. I worked successfully within many mental health settings and continued to study various nursing interventions over the next ten years, before becoming a Mental Health Ward Manager.

I’d loved to have continued to be involved in training and educating mental health nurses and students within the National Health Service (NHS) Mental Health Trust I trained with and worked for.

However, as I was about to begin this new adventure within that same Trust, I became physically disabled at the age of fifty and was medically retired. It took me years to come to terms with not being able to do the job I loved. It’s also taken me years to decide I need to do something meaningful with my time and decided to blog about my passion.

Life is difficult enough for most of us, what with the trials and tribulations of daily living, but it never ceases to amaze me how people cope with mental illness. They’ve often felt discouraged, stigmatised and have isolated themselves from family or friends. They’ve struggled to fit in or to find meaningful work and have often been admitted to our awful mental health hospital under duress.

I hope my blog brings comfort to someone who needs it and perhaps students and/or mental health nurses might pick up some useful tips to add to their own nursing toolbox to use in their own practice.

Two Pieces Of Advice For New Bloggers:

1. Read, read and read some more. Read the news, magazine articles, blogging tips and other blogs. Keep yourself up to date with current affairs, find interesting stories and blogs that inspire and motivate you. Try new things whether it’s a new activity, going to a new place, eating different foods or even blogging. Comment on other people’s blogs and read others’ comments. All these things will give you ideas for your blog, after which you’ll decide (if you haven’t already) on your niche. Get creative.
2. Write! Nothing else matters if you don’t write or, moving into this century, type. Hit the damn keys and keep hitting them. Don’t keep stopping (as I do) to edit — just type. You can do your editing at the very end, checking grammar, spelling and punctuation. Yes, there will be mistakes but don’t waste time keep going over the same paragraphs, changing them then re-typing. You can make your blog look pretty with fonts, colour schemes and quirky memes but if there’s nothing to read, people aren’t coming back. So just type.

I Nominate The Following Blogs For The Blogger Recognition Award:

I have chosen the following for various reasons. Some I’ve been following for a while now and others are new but I hope you take a couple of minutes to see what they’re all about!

1. https://borderlinenpersonality.wordpress.com/
2. https://esthernewtonblog.wordpress.com/
3. https://new-lune.com/
4. https://hopsskipsandjumps.com/
5. https://stormynook.home.blog/
6. https://cornernina.com/
7. https://wediditptsd.wordpress.com/
8. https://doctorgettingsober.blog/
9. https://heartshare.blog/
10. https://undercoversuperhero.com/
11. https://smplymichelle1.wordpress.com/

I appreciate that some of you don’t participate in awards, so please don’t feel pressured or obligated in any way to respond. I love that you are all a part of the blogging community and I truly appreciate every one of you!

-Caz

PS: What are your thoughts on blogger awards? Love ’em or leave ’em? I’m keen to know what you think.