This post has been sat around my draft section for a while. Messed around with it but couldn’t get it right. So gone back to the first version (without fancy spreadsheet graphs and using the original rubbish hand drawn ones) and let’s get it out there.

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Reading between the lines from the occasional comment and the offline emails – my mood is sometimes misinterpreted. That’s not a criticism of anyone. It’s a reflection of my dodgy writing style or the mixed messages I can send out.

Then a thought crossed my mind. Maybe I should start each blog with a disclaimer clearly stating that my current mindset might be very dark even though I might include a little bit of silliness. No confusion there.

But why don’t we take it a stage further. An emotional dashboard. Each post with a current state of mind forecast. These might need to be worked on but how about the following

Or if that is too confusing why not just have a photo which sums of how I feel.

Tired

Very Tired

Zombie

Happy

Distinctly Average

Sad

Like Sh*t

Confused

Pissed Off

85 thoughts on “Dashboard”

  2. Pictures were one of the first things used to help Ben communicate. Pictures are still used for a lot of communication with people who have trouble with language for whatever reason.
    I say, go for it! If you want to, and if it really matters. A picture is worth a thousand words. Somebody famous said that, I think…
    Hugs! Just because…💌

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  8. A dashboard may help.

    When I had a tough time and found it hard to talk to my family, I had a few words that would indicate where on the scale I had established to communicate my lowless. I can’t remember all the markers on that scale, but I know I had the words “WILTING”, “FRAZZLED” and “BARBECUED”.
    But my family didn’t want me to be low. They bent over backwards to help me have lots of positive lovely things in my everyday.
    I remember a few weeks after I was attacked my sister took me to Tatton Farm and Park, which was beautiful. But it was sensory overload. Cute animals, beautiful gardens, trees, flowers – it was too much too soon.

    The thing is…if you tell us you are sad, we are all going to be trying to cheer you up etc. If you can cope with all the love and cyber hugs then you use the dashboard…xx

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      1. Well…nowadays I don’t have difficulty expressing myself succinctly and eloquently – because I feel I know where my mind is. But back then, not long after the attack, my mind was too raw to try to put things into words. Naturally my family were worrying, but I couldn’t bear the fuss. I had to find a way to indicate to them simply were I was out on my little scale.

        So I have moved on from single words – the only one that is a permanent feature is the word “TIRED”.

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  9. The pictures are great – but we can throw that ‘Happy’ one out for a start, won’t be needing that! 😉

    How about a pic of David Bowie and Mick Jagger for “Feeling Under Pressure”??

    Or a pic of Swiss peaks for ” I don’t feel like jumping off a cliff, but there are more than a few people i wouldn’t mind throwing off one!” ??

    Poppies make me happy! ( I have some white ones!) 😀

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  12. The pictures made me smile 🙂 I know what you mean. Sometimes I write something in one mood and comes off completely misinterpreted. Then I find myself writing something thinking only in terms of “what kind of comments am I going to get and do I want to deal with those?” I might need to use your picture system as well 🙂

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  15. I think a bar chart would be better suited than pies. Are you a reader? “The Invoice” by Jonas Karlsson is a fun little book that helps re-envision what it means to be happy. During this super-introspective period of your life, an outside perspective could be cool.

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      7. lol irony: I read this note from you just after putting my name in to work as a substitute in four other schools.

        I hope you get one soon, too, even if it’s a daytrip to a magical castle. 🙂

        Liked by 1 person

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