The Happy Hooray Monster Cross Stitch Pattern for Mental Health Day.
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A week of cross stitch mental health monsters to celebrate World Mental Health Day on October 10th!
It's Mental Health Monsters Week! A whole week of free cross stitch designs to raise awareness of mental health around the world! I have never been shy about the fact that I have a chronic mental health problem with both depression and anxiety. Cross stitch was one of the things that really helped me during recovery from a really bad depressive episode. I have a complicated relationship with my brain. There are lots of monsters living up there that I have to wrangle and manage and have really awkward conversations with. Sometimes they even try to kill me.
Visualising some of my mental health issues as cute monsters that I can have a dialog with (and tell to shut up and fuck off) is a helpful tactic for me. These aren't aspects of my personality. They are separate from me and sometimes come to visit and make my life difficult. Learning to recognise them was hard and I have learned to deal with them when they pop up now and again.
Mental health awareness is an important cause and close to my heart. So many people suffer in silence because for some reason, what goes on in the brain that is attached to the rest of our body, is something to be more ashamed of than other diseases and disorders.
One in four people will have some sort of mental health issue at least once in their lives. Talk about your monsters. Get help. There are people out there who feel like you feel and can help you get better. You are not alone.
Today the free monster cross stitch pattern is the Happy Hooray Monster. Not all monsters are bad. The Happy Hooray Monster for instance is a great monster to have. We all have one but for some people, like me, their Happy Hooray Monster can be rather small and sickly and down right lazy. If this sounds like your Happy Hooray Monster there are things you can do to build it up, make it bigger and stronger, and encourage it to hang around longer.
This creature is the one that reminds me about the good things that happen and helps me find joy in small things. It makes me celebrate my accomplishments when I can't stop comparing myself to others. Admitting you are happy can be just as difficult as admitting you are depressed. Compared to my other monsters, who are very loud and big and strong, my Happy Hooray Monster is small and shy. It has trouble being heard over the others. Which is why it has a neon sign that it carries around with it.
It can be a lazy monster but it does love exercise once it gets going. It loves being outside as well. It likes helping other people. Mine particularly loves designing cross stitch patterns, making jam and wine, baking, and hiking. If I do these things it will stick around long enough that some of the other monsters just get tired and go home. That's when I can hear it telling me that I can do it. I can succeed and that my only competition is myself. It and the Cephalopod of Self Loathing do NOT get along at all. They have very amusing slap fights now and again.
I hope you enjoyed this week of mental health monsters. I get that you are not likely to actually stitch any of these creatures but I hope you use them to examine your own mental health and maybe use them as tools to talk to other people about mental health. Mental health is just as important as physical health and the two can be very much linked. Hopefully this week got you thinking about your own monsters both good and bad. Happiness isn't an accident. It is a decision. You have to work at it.
I will say it again: there are other people who are going through what you are going through. There is help and you can get better. You are not alone.
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October Patreon Exclusive!
To celebrate last week's spooky free cross stitch is this Patreon exclusive cross stitch design of an anatomical heart on a Ouija board planchette. This design is an exclusive download for Patreon subscribers and it only costs $2 per month for three awesome cross stitch designs per month. These are big multi-page cross stitch patterns that come as PDF downloads.
Anatomical Heart Cross Stitch Pattern
September Patreon Cross Stitch Designs to Download
If you are a Patreon subscriber (only $2 per month for three unique and exclusive cross stitch patterns per month) all the September designs are available to download at Patreon.
Vegetable Sampler Cross Stitch Pattern
To celebrate the fall and a bountiful harvest, Patreon Patrons can download this sampler chock full of veggies! If you would like to have this cross stitch pattern, it's only $2 per month for three exclusive designs per month plus other digital goodies. Scroll down to find the subscription link. |
| Available Now |
Coffee Cross Stitch Design
To celebrate coffee week, Happy Friend Patreons can download this pop art inspired coffee sampler right now! If you would like to have this cross stitch pattern, it's only $2 per month for three exclusive designs per month plus other digital goodies. Scroll down to find the subscription link. |
| Available Now |
Galaxy Globe Cross Stitch Design!
At the beginning of September we spent some time in outer-space! And Patreon subscribers were able to download this great exclusive cross stitch design.
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| available now |
August Patreon Bonus Cross Stitch Designs Still Available. Click here to see all of the August Cross Stitch Designs.
Missed the last free cross stitch design? It was the Imposter Snail.
Make sure you check back next week for the first free cross stitch pattern of Octoberfest Week!
Other ways to support this free cross stitch site
Donate direct via paypal. Maybe there is a pattern on here that you really liked and downloaded and you thought it would have been something you would have bought in a shop. This a completely safe and secure link that is handled through paypal.Or buy something at my Redbubble site. Cross stitch style without all of the stitching. Like this galaxy cat throw cushion. You can get this design on lots of other great items too.
