This Is Tess Bridges

I'm excited to share, what I hope, is the first of many stories on this blog. I've wanted to help share people's stories for a long time.  I believe everyone has a story to share, but not everyone is given the opportunity to do so. I would like to introduce Becca from @hellobipolarpositivity. She will be my first interviewee and will be sharing her Bipolar story with us. Opening up about Bipolar isn't easy. There are a lot of ups and downs to achieve a state of equilibrium. I would like to thank Becca for being willing to share her story. I hope that through sharing our stories, we can break some of the stigma surrounding Bipolar and other Mental Health issues. I met Becca through the Bipolar Now Podcast Facebook group and then connected some more with her on her Instagram.  I considered making this story a two-part blog post, but after some consideration, I decided to make it all as one to keep the story coherent. I have also kept Becca's words as her own to make

Have you ever felt like your mind is going a mile a minute? Or do you get those scattered-brained moments?  Being a mom of two, working part-time, and actively training for a half marathon I often find my mind is cluttered and constantly distracted. Did I pack my daughter's lunch for school? What time is that meeting at work? How long is that long run on Saturday?  All of these kinds of questions are constantly running through my mind. But what should I do to settle my mind?  I've realized since my Bipolar diagnosis three years ago that I have a few tools which play a big part in calming my mind. Some of these tools might be beneficial for you too. Brain Dump Page The first tool I use is a brain dump page. This comes in a few forms for me.  Sometimes I use an app called  Daylio . At the end of the day, I write out all the thoughts that are going through my head. That could be stuff I want to do, things coming up in the week, etc. This gives me some peace of mind and helps me or

On Saturday, I did my longest post-half marathon run. I broke up my run a bit. I ran from my house to ParkRun, and then from ParkRun back home. That was a total of 15km.   It was threatening to rain but just ended up being humid. I really struggled in the heat a few times during my run. I think my body is still not used to the summer temperatures, as I did most of my training in the winter. After I ran the 15km I decided it was time to start training again for another half marathon. I'd told myself that I would start training again in mid-June but now felt like a better time to start. In September, I will be running the half marathon distance at the Lethbridge Police Run. Last year I did the 10km race at this event, and I wanted to bump it up to the half marathon this time.   I was hesitant to sign up for another half marathon this year. My original plan was to take it easy during the summer and train for 10km. I had already run two half marathons since I had run the eq