Jaz Johnstone
Bio
Been writing since I could hold a pen.. poetry, blogs and currently working on my novel.
Stories (14/0)
- Top Story - November 2018
Useful Baby Items vs Waste of Time!Top Story - November 2018
I'll start by saying these are just my opinions, based on my experiences in preparing for the birth of three babies so far. I remember trawling the internet for hours, searching for every little thing to make sure I was prepared. Here is a list I wish I had seen.
By Jaz Johnstone5 years ago in Families
5 Things I Want My Baby to Know
1. You Will Find What You Look for The World can be a scary place. It can be an awe inspiring, overwhelming place too. There is such a huge scale variety of sickening, tragic things happening on a daily basis; so much loss, pain, destruction and cruelty dished out that it is enough to knock the breath from you and make you feel like never stepping outside again. The world also has within it natural phenomenon and natural beauty, acts of kindness and life changing moments so big they make you pull back from the moment and look at it with a mixture of wonder and amazement. Too often, feeling unable to cope with things or overwhelmed by things comes from too much of one perspective. We live in a time where information is available at the touch of a button, where we are more aware of things on a global scale, where a person living across the world is not a thing you ponder mysteriously, but someone you can search up and send a message to within minutes. This opens us up to possibilities, but also to a total onslaught of over-stimulating information. Your mind will grow on what you feed it. Take time to pull away when there is too much sorrow to wade through, and wrap yourself in comforting things when something seems too big to process. It's OK to unplug for a while, in fact it is necessary.
By Jaz Johnstone5 years ago in Families
It's Okay to Just Let Them Play
When you think back to being a child, most of the happy memories that pop into your head are of things like your favourite toy, game or activity. For me it's making mud pies on the hill outside the house, riding my bike, sleepovers with friends, going to the woods, playing in the water and sandpit and playing make believe games. I recall a distinctly unique element to these things: being utterly carefree. There was no pressure to track my progress in any of these endeavors, no purpose needed to be explained. They existed simply for fun and I was allowed to immerse myself in them with no other desired outcome needed.
By Jaz Johnstone5 years ago in Families
Being OK with Others' Disapproval
When you really care about someone, you care about what they think of you. It's a perfectly normal part of forming connections. When I buy a new item of clothing, I wonder if my husband will like it. I constantly wonder what my kids will think of me when they grow up. When I meet up with friends, I wonder what they think about me. Almost always, if there was something I could do to positively impact the way someone viewed me, be it about a deeply important part of who I am or something as simple and, frankly, vain as a new dress, I would do it.
By Jaz Johnstone5 years ago in Motivation
Turkey Twizzlers or Chia Seeds, You're Probably Doing a Good Job
Today, I had a moment of wonder whilst watching my children play. I was in the (lovely) house of my good friend, our other good friend was there, along with three two year olds, one one year old, a nine week old and a baby belly (mine). I looked at them as they scattered stickers all over the place, making a trail of mess, and felt so full of happiness.
By Jaz Johnstone5 years ago in Families
Living Well with Mental Illness
I have Depression, Anxiety and OCD. I also have a life that makes me happy. Sometimes the former affects the latter, yet through practice and Cognitive Behavioral Therapy, I have found some things that help me to live my life in a way that makes my mental illness stay in its place, as something I live with, but does not control me.
By Jaz Johnstone5 years ago in Psyche
Ten Lessons from Ten Years After My Suicide Attempt
Some time this month, ten years ago, my mum burst into my bedroom and found me on my bed surrounded by pill packets. I had been hoarding them to take them all at once and some sort of motherly instinct must have made alarm bells ring because she intervened just in time. I hadn't taken them all yet and she swiped them away from me. I had taken enough to be sick but not enough to do serious harm. This came after months of me self harming, burning myself, giving myself bruises, making myself sick and writing horrible things about myself all the time.
By Jaz Johnstone6 years ago in Psyche
- Top Story - September 2018
I Think I'm the Hot Mess FriendTop Story - September 2018
I became a mum two years and two months ago. Like many stay at home parents, I wombled along to a baby group in the hopes that putting my baby around other babies would somehow make said baby happy and in turn I would be around other mums. Despite the fact that singing cheesy songs in a circle of other mums is my literal nightmare situation (hate singing in front of people and large collections of mothers somewhat scare me) I went along with the best intentions. I arrived excessively early as usual and walked around outside of the circle of chairs, cradling my baby (who was five weeks old) staring at his face and nowhere else. I used him as a way to calm myself down and distract myself from the nerves of the situation. This was actually when he did his first set of grins which I still remember fondly. When the time came to sit down, I looked around the room, suddenly feeling like a schoolgirl all over again. It was obvious that a lot of the mums already knew each other as they sat in their little groups, oblivious to other mums around them. Every so often, you could see the bewildered mum, looking down at the floor and you could ascertain that she too was new. I sat down next to one such mum in the hopes that at some point over the half an hour I would pluck up the courage to speak to her. I smiled at her and she looked away shyly. The seat on the other side of me remained empty for the whole session and we never said a word to each other. I choked back panic as the leader of the session started singing (seriously can't stress how much people hearing me sing freaks me out) and tried to mumble follow along to unfamiliar and oh so cheesy songs. My baby slept for the whole session. It was generally a bit of a disaster. As I was getting ready to leave, a woman walked up to me. I just remember noticing her long dark hair and her warm smile. She said hi and asked me how old my son was (always a good ice breaker). I stuttered over small talk for a minute and we started walking out together. We realised that we were headed in the same direction to walk home and so we walked together and chatted away. As it came time to part ways, she asked to swap numbers. When I walked through the front door, instead of feeling like a total flop, I felt like I was walking on cloud nine.
By Jaz Johnstone6 years ago in Humans
My Children Were Not Accidents
As of right now, I am sitting on the sofa watching my two sons play together. The eldest is two years and two months, the youngest is one year and one month and I am thirty weeks pregnant today. I am twenty four years old, my husband is twenty three, we planned all our children and yes, we want more.
By Jaz Johnstone6 years ago in Families