The title Mind Blossoming came to me right now as a way to describe what happens when we get rid of the old, the outdated thoughts gathering dust in our heads.

It starts when we assess what’s holding us back and have the courage to confront what we need to do to move ahead.

Winter is a time to hibernate so it’s perfect to stay inside and get clear with yourself about the goals you have that you can start in the spring.

Spring, to me, is the ideal time to start something new. Winter is the ideal time to discard what a person no longer needs in their life.

As soon as you clear out your head you’ll be tempted to fill it up again with thoughts. How can each of us be able to live without obsessing over things?

It comes down to self-acceptance. For a lot of us, we’re used to beating ourselves up over our imagined faults and shortcomings. Winter is three months and three months is too long to continue in this dark vein of negativity.

I recommend in my book Flourish keeping a Feelings/Facts log. Write down each feeling you have about something going on in your life. On the next line, write down a fact to counter what you feel.

Feelings are real and true yet sometimes they cloud over a different truth. Title the first line feeling: and title the next line Fact: and go down the page line-by-line.

At the end, it should be easier to think more clearly about the possibilities of your life not the perils of what you feel is going on.

I’d like to hear from readers if you try this exercise and whether it works out.

Next week I will return with a guest blogger. A best friend of mine, Myung, has graciously allowed me to publish here a couple of essays he wrote for talks he gave to peers.

The first column I had published in a newspaper was an article on doing spring cleaning in January to beat the winter blues and blahs. It was published in 1990: the start of the new decade.

I suggested that a person clear the cobwebs from her mind as well as from her closet. That the junk piles of our minds get cluttered over the years. And it can be scary to let go of a thought or a pattern of thinking that has become ingrained.

It’s true I recommend starting the process of change in January first by clearing out the past. Rather than start in winter, I recommend making the actual changes in early Spring after a person has readied herself to do so.

By the way, there’s nine weeks to spring so it will be here sooner than we think.

I do recommend carting your cast-offs to the Salvation Army or Goodwill or other local thrift shop in January to clear the way for new things coming in in the spring.

My ethic that I’ve adhered to for the last 10 years is simple: when one new thing comes in my apartment I get rid of or donate one old thing.

This “in/out” devotion keeps your closets and drawers from becoming graveyards of unused stuff. You shouldn’t have to move around endless objects you don’t use just to get to the things you do need.

I also recommend the “ease of use” mantra: a storage item shouldn’t be more trouble than it’s worth for a person to use it. I nixed buying a storage ottoman because it would have been a hassle to open it up a certain way all the time just to reach into its cavernous inside to get everything stored there.

The Container Store sells Oskar 2-piece boxes in gray, turquoise, green and pink. They’re only $19.99 for the set and can be recycled when they get old and beat up.

Spring cleaning is also a mindset and I will talk more on Thursday about clearing the junk out of our heads.

I wanted to write about how changing your perception can change your life. Thinking positively is possible if you decide to shift your focus to what’s going right in your life and in the world.

If you focus on the negative, you won’t have the ability to change your life because you’ll be stuck in an endless tape loop of negativity.

I’m going to give an analogy that is corny yet it is quite effective. My friend thought this up so I can’t take the credit. He told me: “There’s ten weeks until spring.” So I decided to keep a Spring-O-Meter to count down each week until spring arrives.

In reality, the winter is the exact length of time that other seasons are. It can seem longer because it’s colder and it snows often. So as far as seasons go, it’s not my favorite. My favorite time is the late summer into early fall.

Thus I realized if I focused on the weeks until spring arrived I would be able to be proactive in the winter.

Another truth comes courtesy of a Beyonce quote:

“If you live your life with kindness and give other people a great energy, that beauty and great energy come back to you.”

You’ve most likely met a person whose rudeness or other negative behavior is like a dead weight when you meet them: it sinks you down right away and you feel oppressed just being around them.

I don’t want to be that dead weight. As winter continues, I seek in my blogs to uplift and inspire readers throughout these cold, cruel months.

Take heart. Spring is soon to be only 9 weeks away. Hibernate in the winter and be OK with this fallow period. Spring will come again and with it the chance to bumble about outside.

I’ll write in here next week about doing spring cleaning in January to beat the winter blues and blahs.

You can’t write the ending of the story of the your life before you’ve started that story.

You can’t give up on yourself at any point in your life regardless of whether or not you’ve achieved the things you wanted to by that point.

It’s entirely possible to live to 75 or 80 years old if you exercise, eat right, limit alcohol intake and don’t smoke cigarettes and don’t use street drugs. The chance of a woman living to 85 years old shoots up 74 percent if she follows this advice.

Adopting a healthy lifestyle enables you to have “life in your years” no matter the number of “years in your life.”

I tell readers not to give up because we don’t have a crystal ball to predict the future. And where we are today in our lives doesn’t determine where we’ll be in the future. The road in recovery and the road to success isn’t straight and narrow and doesn’t run a predictable course. Our lives are often long and winding to get to where we want to be.

Have faith that things can change if only you change your perception of what you can do.

I continue here from the last blog entry because I know positive change is possible no matter how old you are, no matter what your “thing” in life is, and no matter what happened to you in the past.

The secret to my success is that I wouldn’t be defeated. Even when I failed, I wasn’t down for the count because I realized I could do something differently to achieve my goal or I could change the goal I had to one that was better and could be achieved.

Is it possible most people get defeated and give up when they fail? If that sounds like you, you can change your tactic. This involves not giving yourself a restrictive deadline by which to achieve a goal. It involves setting goals to achieve things in your life that are consistent with your priorities, your values, and who you are. Acting false to yourself to get ahead in life will cause ill health.

You might ask how do I know the tide can turn in a person’s life at any point in time?

Here’s the proof:

Ever since I was a teenager, I did some kind of exercise. Starting with simple exercises I did on the floor in my bedroom. Then at various gyms from the time I was 27 to the time I was 34. I turned 39 and joined the current gym yet only did the treadmill, Zumba or Pilates for about 4 years.

At 45 going into 46, I suddenly decided I had to do strength training. It wasn’t until I was 45 years old that I became a hardcore fitness buff.

This is proof that things can change for the better at any point in a person’s life. From 39 to 44, I did the treadmill, Zumba or Pilates sporadically. Then, for about a year, I didn’t exercise.

Then, bingo, at 45 I started to power lift. Within one year of training, I dropped one pant size. That’s not the point. The point is you might have been a couch potato. You might be at a point in your life where it’s inconceivable that you can get there from here. It might seem like it’s impossible to do what you want to do because you don’t __________________ (fill in the blank) or you haven’t ever _______________(fill in the blank) done this thing before.

Bollocks. You can do these things, no matter whether you’ve done them before or whether your fallow period has lasted years and years instead of just three weeks or three months.

Fallow periods are necessary. Woodshedding is necessary and I talked about this in the first couple of blog entries here.

I’ll end here by telling readers how to get the faith that you can turn things around at any point in your life.

You take action in your mind when you’re not able to take action in your life. You write down a 5-year plan and list in detail what you want to achieve. You refer to the plan as often as you need to. If you can’t tackle your ultimate goal right now, you tackle a goal you can absolutely positively achieve instead.

Starting with a simple goal and achieving it can give you the confidence to achieve a goal that’s slightly beyond your reach.

This involves taking action every day in the direction of your dream(s). This “action” can be as simple as reading books on the topic. It can be as simple as reading about how successful people got to where they are in life. It can involve doing nothing when you’ve reached a plateau and then one day getting so upset with doing nothing that you take action.

I went to library school with a woman who was in her early seventies. At a time in her life when most people are slowing down, she decided to obtain a Masters degree.

Take a tip from this woman: it’s not ever too late to change your life for the better.

That’s where the story begins: where you are today. And today isn’t the end of your life, even if you’re 35 or 50 or 65.

Trust me, everyone feels like they’ve failed at some point. Even a 22 year old woman can feel like she hasn’t achieved anything even though she has the rest of her life ahead of her

I’ll end here by telling you to think differently.

Envision having a better life. Know that you’re in the driver’s seat even when you have to make a pit stop or take a detour. As hard as life can get, always keep in your mind your vision of your life’s purpose.

Refrain from writing the ending of your story before you’ve even started the narrative.

My life’s goal was always to publish my memoir.

Now Left of the Dial is available on Amazon and in two months will be available elsewhere.  A Kindle e-book version will be available shortly. You can install a Kindle app on your iPad to download Kindle books to your iPad.

My signature story that I dramatize in the memoir is that getting the right treatment right away results in a better outcome.

One person who read the book liked its “verve” and “graphic detail.” Unlike every other author of a schizophrenia memoir, I wrote a first-person account that uses a sense of humor throughout the narrative.

Life with schizophrenia is not ever easy yet there is hope because most people diagnosed with schizophrenia can and do recover.  You’re in for a treat when you read my book.

After the sale of Left of the Dial, I expect one or all two of my self-help books to go on sale in about a year.

Like I’m fond of saying in here, try not to believe the people who would hate or judge you for being different or for having a diagnosis.  Always: believe in yourself even if no one else does.  The only power the stigma has over you is the power you give it.

Again: Left of the Dial is on sale now on Amazon.

Thank you all my loyal and treasured readers of this blog and of my other blogs over the years.

I do what I do to give each and every one of you hope that you can do more than just recover: you can flourish just like people who do not have mental health challenges.

My motto is: “It’s not enough to be good when you can be great.”

Why be ordinary when you can excel?

Don’t give up the fight to have a life of your  own choosing.

Dream. Believe. Achieve.

A young girl at Christmas was playing a trivia game on her smartphone.

“Which person was the first female to win 3 gold medals at a summer Olympics?”

Everyone else guessed wrong.

“Wilma Rudolph!” I shouted out correctly.

I know this because I’ve read about Wilma Ruldoph’s life. She was born 4 pounds and sickly. They thought she would never live. Throughout her life, she had a crooked leg and wore a brace. Wilma was only 20 or 21 when she won the 3 gold medals for running track in the 1960 Olympics. Not only was she the first woman to do this, she was African American.

This story impresses me to no end. I tried to tell this story to the others on Christmas and no one responded. They were off trying to answer the next trivia question.

My all-time favorite quotation comes from Wilma Ruldoph:
“The triumph can’t be had without the struggle.”

I covet no easy win. It’s the hardest-won victory that I cherish. And it’s true the triumph can’t be had without the struggle.

I urge readers to be uplifted and inspired by Wilma’s story. Try to do the impossible. “Do the thing you think you cannot do” as Eleanor Roosevelt commands too.

Send the haters packing. It’s your life to live as you choose.

Do the impossible. Then pass the baton to the next person.

I tell readers to seek joy to be happy, because it doesn’t matter what you have or don’t have in relation to other people. Stop giving others the power to dictate how you feel about yourself.

Eleanor Roosevelt is quoted: “No one can make you feel inferior without your consent.” You have the control over what you think about yourself and others.

I interact with intelligent, socially savvy women. They seem to have charmed lives yet I don’t resent them. I’m only impressed that they seem to have a great time of it. I want only the best for others. I wouldn’t wish a mental illness to strike anyone. Instead, I’d rather cheer on people to do what they do.

Jealousy serves no purpose in a person’s recovery. I urge readers to elevate yourselves by making others look good and succeed. I have been writing about how jealousy serves no purpose for years and years in the various incarnations of my blog.

Attacking others who are happy, who seem to live charmed lives, is not the way to go.

I’m happy–yes I am– for people who don’t have mental illnesses. It’s better that they were spared this fate. You and I are not mind readers. More apt, we’re not supposed to be privy to other people’s struggles. So they don’t have to wear their own version of hell on their sleeves.

I also recommend that readers don’t shout our illnesses from the rooftops either.

Travel to Boston. Save up money to buy your own apartment. Browse a museum. Be a good friend to yourself, because you and your life matter.

The more a person with a diagnosis can have a normal life, the less it matters that we didn’t get what others have or that we got an illness.

Jealousy is a negative energy. You and I might not be able to do or to have certain things that other people have. We need to accept this, and move forward. We need to embrace the good things in our lives. We need to find the things we can have and do the things we can do.

Without comparing ourselves to others. Without judging others or being resentful of them.

That’s the ticket to health: self-acceptance.

I have ideas to other writers, to anyone who lives in the world:

You should sing your life, be proud of who you are, regardless of the critics, regardless of the fan club either way.

A trap exists to fall into when you sell your soul because in doing so you think you’ll be accepted:

Seeking approval is a no-win game, because the other person can set the hoop higher and higher that you have to jump through, or they can change the terms of what they’ll accept from you.

I understand this truth to be self-evident: mental illness is a shabby disease.  If I could be cured, I would.

Instead, I decided to flout the convention that says: you’re only good or worthy if everyone likes you.  That’s a game that can’t be won either.

All human beings need light and love and laughter.

It’s not easy to be rejected because you have a mental illness.  It’s not easy to go down this lonely road.

Yet deciding to sing your life changes everything.  Deciding to love yourself and others is the way to go. Hate can’t be fought with hate.  Love is the antidote.

This is how to flourish: do your own thing.

Decide that you’re going to be happy no matter what happens in your life and no matter what other people think of you.

A Happy Thanksgiving to all my readers of the blogs.

I’m confident when I tell you that a person diagnosed with schizophrenia or bipolar or another mental illness can have things to be thankful for.

I recognize and understand that sometimes getting up and getting through the day is hard. That every time we do this we get no assist from others. We get labeled as crazy because we have a no-fault brain disorder.

The brain is a part of the body and these things are also physical illnesses that impact our lives. Why single these illnesses out as mental illnesses and not physical medical conditions like any other. The part of the body they happen to strike is the brain.

A guy I know told me once, “The brain is the most complex organ and it gives up its secrets reluctantly.”

Whether you eat turkey or not, however much you stuff yourself today or don’t, be grateful. Find things to be thankful for.

I’ll end here with my foolproof eating plan for Thanksgiving: skimp on the real food to save room for the dessert. I follow this rule at Christmas too when the platter du jour is prime rib. I don’t eat prime rib nor any other meat except chicken and turkey. So I load up on vegetables and always have the sweet potato.

Kindness helps at holiday time. We need to be kind to ourselves and others in this season when not everyone is jolly and the holiday blues could come on.

Think of one good thing you like about yourself to be grateful for.

Write a letter to or telephone the people who you’re thankful for.

I thank each and every reader for tuning in to this blog and posting comments when you’re able.

I discovered a Venus Williams quotation the other day:

“You have to believe in yourself when no one else does. That makes you a winner right there.”

What was I saying? A famous tennis star said the same thing I’ve been saying in here all along. I respect Venus Williams. She’s absolutely right.

The way to win is to not remain idle.

Sheryll Cashin in her book Place not Race also tells us the secret to winning. Buy her book because you won’t be disappointed. At the end, in a letter to her sons, she writes:

“You have to exert yourself. Everything worth doing is hard, difficult, complicated. You should welcome failure. Sometimes it is the only route to success…No one ever achieved great things in front of a TV. My goal, the goal I was taught to reach for, was an A in every class. It is the reaching, not the grade, that matters.”

That quote alone is worth the price of the book.

Reaching is what each of us can do. The striving is what counts not the result. We can be proud of our efforts even when we fail. Failure is the opportunity cost of success.

Winning involves trying. It involves making the effort that you’re able to make. It requires that we shut our ears to the hate, to the critics telling us that what we want to do can’t be done, or that we shouldn’t try to do what we want to do.

I’ll end here with another quotation from Steve Tatham:

“Confidence comes from making mistakes–the more mistakes you make, the more you know what not to do.”

The beauty of life is that a person can know victory and defeat and that’s OK. Sitting on the sidelines isn’t the way to live.

You’re not always going to win in the traditional sense of what constitutes winning.

That’s OK. Getting in the game is what matters.

That’s what my Left of the Dial ethic suggests: if other people won’t allow you on their playing field, you create a playing field of your own. Or if you want to, you try to compete in mainstream society.

Either way, victory is possible. You can do it if you try.