What if people actually knew what to say and do to help you through your depression spiral, panic attack, or other mental health crisis? Do you have mind obstacles and yet feel conflicted as to what to do for someone else struggling?
TSIB Authors
Sadcore Sundays: Nightjar Talks Anxiety and it’s Role in “thanks for coming”
“thanks for coming” is a haunting track from Nightjar’s Canter EP and is a great choice for a day when you’re feeling alone and melancholy. The entire EP was an awesome listen for me, but this song is my favorite because it puts me in a feeling of nostalgia for a past I’ve never had, but also feels very familiar. Also, I enjoy that the song is capable of holding on to simplicity in its individual parts, but together form a more complicated bunch of emotions.
How to Make Your Own Mental Health Zine
Zines (pronounced “zeens”) are self-published booklets that anyone can make. You can make them different sizes, and put anything you’d like inside them. Below is a prompt to make your own mental health zine, instructions on how to create it, and four examples of mental health zines created by The Strange is Beautiful’s staff.
Sadcore Sundays: “Borders” by St. Beauty
What I love most about “Borders” by St. Beauty are the outstanding vocal performances from both members of the duo. While the lyrics and production help in giving the song a definite emotional impact, the vocals are what really stand out in this track.
Zine Review: “Processes: A Meditation” by Terra Olvr
There are many different ways to meditate that have been proven to calm your anxiety, depression or other mind obstacles, and to ground you. Some people like guided ones, where a person is speaking for the entire time and tells them what to do or visualize. Others enjoy practicing in silence, and simply letting the mind journey and wander to wherever it needs to explore. “Processes: A Meditation,” a zine by Terra Olvr (she/they) that I bought at their San Francisco Zine Fest table in 2018, is an inbetween option.
For each set of pages, there’s one philosophical sentence on the right-hand page that seems to both acknowledge daily mistakes and struggles, and to encourage taking healthier choices of self-love. And on the left-hand page, there’s a drawing representing what it would look like in a meditative physical form or “how the verses live in the body,” said Olvr.