Yesterday was Mental Health Day

I missed it due to … well, my own mental health

I’m going to use this post for some housekeeping and to share my plans for my other newsletter, my YouTube videos and my podcast. But let’s start with last night.

I got hit by a huge wave of sadness on the way home. It had sort of been bubbling all day, just this weird feeling. I wasn’t sure what it was but decided to put one of my favorite songs on a loop (one of David’s) and see what happens. I managed to access the underlying feeling and release the sadness. There were some tears but not much drama otherwise. I’m getting good at this. I will write more about that underlying feeling some other time. I’m only sharing it here because it was Mental Health Day and because I feel that if we talked more about mental health there would be less of a stigma attached to it. My evening continued.

After a walk at sunset and some food, I didn’t feel like writing and snuggled up on the sofa with Folk med Ångest instead – a fun book even if the title suggests otherwise. And that was my night. I do feel like I need a cat or two though. That would have been nice. As some of my readers and I discussed on IG, there’s no need for a relationship. I mean, who needs the drama. Having said that, I’m still looking for a date to David’s concert in New York in December. Applications close on … well, actually they don’t close, but I have pretty high standards. I won’t date just anybody. You guys know that.

New readers might ask “who’s David?”. What an excellent question! I wrote about him and my friends from It’s Just Us here.

At 5 AM this morning I was reading comments on a friend’s Substack and was reminded of all the friends I made through social media. Never thought this possible when I reluctantly joined in 2019. And some of you have known me pre-breakup and were instrumental in me actually taking that step; others met me mid-breakup, have carried me through and continue to support me. Can’t wait to see a bunch of you again in December. The others will be there in spirit too.

Feeling sentimental today and I’m okay with that. Plus, I woke up an hour before my alarm completely refreshed and my hair is looking super cute today. Messy yes, but that’s curly hair for you most days. And no, I’m not even remotely tempted to put a selfie on here. I might have sent one to some of you, though.

Here’s a picture of Zurich at 7 AM instead.

I don’t know when I will finish this newsletter – the train ride from Aarau to Zurich is clearly too short.

And my lunchbreak is spoken for already. I can finally go pick up Adam Sharp’s latest book The wheel is spinning but the hamster is dead. So, what I’ll do is take the number 6 tram from right outside work to Rennweg, which in turn is right outside the bookshop; then walk to the lake (or take another tram *edit* I took the number 11) and sit there for about an hour - reading. I hope to make it back to work in the afternoon. I just know I’m gonna absolutely LOVE that book. *Back to add that if you are a language person at all you just have to get this book. It makes an awesome present too. It will make you LOL and people might stare. Especially if you start laughing in a first-class car on a Swiss commuter train. It’s just not what we do here.

Housekeeping, plans and such

First, just a reminder that you can manage notifications (in the Substack App) if you don’t want to read about certain topics. This is possible because I created different sections. Mental Health Matters and Rants don’t show up in the main feed. You get e-mail notifications and can read them there. If you switch those off, you can only access them through the different sections. This is easiest if you open the newsletter in your browser (top right of your email should say “open in browser”). Happy to help with any settings, just let me know.

Second, I’ll try and keep up the Sunday morning thoughts. Sometimes they might just be Sunday thoughts, if I walk in the morning. I’m considering creating a separate section for those as well. There are three Rhena on the move articles waiting to be written. You can check my YT channel for the videos. They are all on there already.

Listening to “I was you” now on a loop. Thanks for that one, David.

Third, I’m going to do a podcast once a month. I will check with my regular listeners on which Sunday it should be every month. Going back to plastic(s), but I don’t have a specific topic in mind yet. Stay tuned for that.

Fourth, I haven’t forgotten about my YT shorts. I shot a lot of video before I decided to really focus on my job hunt. I feel that the upcoming season will be great for doing more videos and possibly less walking. It’ll get dark really early. I mean I barely got a walk in before sunset last night. I will let you know when I start posting things.

I know some of you will get a kick out of these. All videos are unscripted (you know me) and there’s about 100 of them. It’s gonna be great.

Fifth, same goes for my other newsletter. I haven’t properly launched that one yet, but some friends are already following. I have some articles ready for it but need to shorten them a bit. I want to stick to a maximum of 500 word for that one. And even shorter for word/concept definitions. If you know me, you also know that when I start writing it’s not always easy to stop. Especially when a topic is close to my heart.

Thank you all for following along. Feel free to reach out any time. Remember to take good care of yourselves. Mental health matters. You matter!

I leave you with this video from yesterday’s short walk close to home.

Well, that was going to be the end, but then I remembered that today is coming out day. So let me just add this.

Okay, now I am definitely leaving to finish Adam’s book. The footnotes alone are worth it. Remember to have some fun too. Giggle.