#AtoZChallenge 2021 Announcement!

Posted on by Astrid

Hi all! Ever since 2010, the challenge of blogging from A to Z in April has been a thing. I didn’t find out about it until 2015 and then participated on my old blog with the topic of autism. I participated again successfully in 2016, this time with mental health as my theme. In 2017, I barely even started. I blame my chosen topic, which was autism again in the midst of my undergoing reassessment for it. In 2018 and 2019, I had no topic and both times didn’t finish the challenge either.

Last year, I didn’t officially have a theme, but unofficially it was self-care. I finally finished the challenge again, having decided on an only tangentially related topic for my letter X post well in advance. As one of my commenters said, you have to know your letter X word first.

Usually, the official master list for participants goes live sometime in January and there’s a designated theme reveal at the end of March for those who’ve chosen a topic. Not so this year. The theme reveal list went live last week, while the participants’ master list won’t go live until March 29. I’m not sure why this is. This did leave me with a kind of dilemma though, because I hadn’t decided on a theme and usually only decide on one at the last moment, even though I have topics running through my mind practically the entire year. Since the theme reveal sign-up will close on March 20, let’s consider this my theme reveal post.

Like I said, last year I had self-care as my unofficial topic. This year, I’m going to do a sort of similar theme. My theme is health and wellness. I intend on giving a lot of focus to aromatherapy and related topics, but to cover those letters that would otherwise be too hard, I’ll broaden my theme.

Let me say up front that I’m not an aromatherapist or alternative medicine practitioner. I am not even sure I believe in aromatherapy beyond its obvious effects of creating a nice smell. I am not a researcher or scientist and I don’t have the skills to review scientific literature, nor do I have the means to access it or the will to read it. I do find alternative medicine interesting though to learn about. That’s why I chose this as my topic. As such, please do take the health claims that aromatherapy or natural medicine make and which I may share about here, with a grain or several of salt.

Are you participating in the #AtoZChallenge this year? If you don’t know about it and are interested in signing up, check out its homepage.

31 Days of Prompted Ponderings Landing Page

Posted on by Astrid

Okay, so I’ve not written nearly as much over the past few weeks as I’d wanted to. For this reason, I’m not sure whether the challenge I’m embarking on will be a success. Last year, I joined #Write31Days but didn’t finish. The challenge was discontinued this year, but Kate Motaung has done achallenge-within-the-challenge for years of doing 31 days od five-minute freewrites. I won’t do those, as sticking to five minutes once I’ve started writing is too hard. However, I will use the daily prompt words to hopefully inspire me to write everyday in October.

This is the landing page or table of contents for the challenge. In previous years, keeping my landing page updated was as much of a challenge as writing everyday, so we’ll see how this goes.

Anyway, I won’t have a theme for my challenge. I’m not even sure I’ll be able to use the prompts as main focus of my posts, but we’ll see. Enjoy!

#AtoZChallenge 2019 Theme Reveal

Posted on by Astrid

Yay, it’s that time of year again! Ever since 2010, bloggers have gathered every April to share posts each day of the week except Sundays and with the blog post titles reflecting the letters of the alphabet.

I discovered the #AtoZChallenge in 2015 and participated in it that year and in 2016 with the themes of autism and mental health respectively. In both 2017 and 2018, I started on the challenge with the aim of finishing it, but I didn’t. In 2017, the reason was the theme I’d chosen – autism again, while I was undergoing re-assessment for it and not sure I’d be diagnosed again. In 2018, I stopped posting as I reached the letter Q post, because the topic I’d chosen for it suddenly felt unsafe.

In 2018, I chose “random reflections” as my theme. I am going to choose that theme again this year, but call it differently. In keeping with my blog title, my theme for 2019 will be: A to Z of Miscellaneous Musings.

I hope to share a glimpse into my life and mind with these musings. I hope I won’t be held back by my own inner critic again this time.

As a side note, I apologize if I wasn’t supposed to select 2015 as my first year of having participated in the challenge, since that wasn’t on this blog.

I hope to see a ton of old and new blogging friends participating in the challenge this year. Enjoy!

31 Days of Writing for Growth Landing Page #Write31Days

Posted on by Astrid

I started this blog last July with the aim of writing more frequently, as well as more freely. I wanted this blog to be a diary-style blog while I maintained my other blog for more “blog-worthy”, less personal content. That last part didn’t happen – I practically abandoned my other blog. The first part though was a relative success. I didn’t write as often over the past two weeks as I’d done the first week of my blogging adventure. However, I did write nearly everyday.

I tried to participate in #Write31Days several times before. In 2015, I did it on my other blog on mental health. In 2017, I tried doing it on autism, but landed in hospital after an overdose on October 4 before I’d published my post. The fact that I would no longer be able to fulfill the challenge requirements discouraged me and caused me to let go of writing almost entirely for the rest of the month.

This year, I’m starting the challenge back up. My theme for this year will be 31 Days of Writing for Growth. I will write about my own personal journey of healing and self-improvement. I will not limit myself to a specific aspect of personal growth. I will most likely use some prompts from the various journal writing prompt collections I have in book or other forms. I didn’t prewrite my posts, so I’ll have to go with what inspires me each day.

This is the landing page for my #Write31Days posts. Here, I’ll be linking my posts each day so they’re within easy reach for those wanting to refer back to them.

To my fellow #Write31Days participants as well as to my readers, enjoy!