158- 2017 awareness & posts calendar

Last year, I knew very few awareness raising days or weeks ; then, I learned of entire months devoted to any number of given causes, social and otherwise. This year, I want to prepare early, for a change, and not stumble on something out of the blue a week after it ended, which is why I'm going to select a few of 2017's awareness calendars here & here   which has far too many subjects for me to chose from, so I'll have to select those that either concern me directly, such as mental health month, or those that I already started addressing (Feminism, Gender...)



As there are several calendars for each country or international communities, and that some months have several topics, whilst other months have nothing that I can discuss, I'll split my entries and address the subjects on different dates so I don't have to compose too many posts for the same short period, thus giving me time, hopefully, to cover more terrain that I'd be able otherwise.

From the various lists, I shall normally treat:

• February I plan discussing allergies, before the spring, because the calendar announced this topic for May, already quite busy... we need to deal with seasonal allergies beforehand
• March - gender equality (which I'l tie-in with LGBT) 
• April - Sexual assault (which I started in 2016, I hope to continue raising awareness about it in 2017) 
• May - Mental health Month (also did in 2016 and plan to add in 2017) ; i'll try an emphasis during second week dedicated to anxiety and depression
• June - PTSD month, also to build upon my 2016 posts, and add to it, if I can, men's health posts if I can ; continuation of LGBT posts as it's Pride month 

I don't want to commit to more than those, which will already take me quite some time. 

I prefer to add topics if I can, and let you know as soon as I'm able to - taking a break in summer, in view of announced topics. 

Throughout the year, I'll post my 52 week gratitude challenge, normally on Saturday or Sunday, as well as my CBT sessions and various posts about my social anxiety, cPTSD, art therapy and social issues I'm passionate about (gender equality, feminism), and anything else that inspires me along the way and which I cannot plan on - one of my tasks is to learn to accept the unexpected.

PS  I still believe that raising awareness should be done all year around, about any topic, and you'll indeed see posts dealing with topics far outside their ''official calendar portions''. What I mean to do is participate a bit in a norm because a lot of bloggers and vloggers will discuss topics in specific times, but I urge everyone to also continue voicing opinions and sharing, especially in mental health related subjects, since those are the ones that remain stigmatized.