191 - What, why and where I write

So, day 1 in #30dayblogchallenge launched by B & which I had found on the mad to made girl blog. (separate hotlinks). (My intro entry)

The topic is a simple one : what, why and where I write.

Let me break break down my various blogs and their topics as follows :

The present one is my Mental Health (or: MH) and lifestyle blog. Here, I post about MH, usually mine but I sometimes would publish  more general entries, from definitions to details about a specific mental illness that I either suffer from ; or, If I don't, I usually post about a topic I feel passionate about and want to raise awareness, both in and out of day/week/month dedicated to it by a local or larger community. 


In the lifestyle  bracket, I include anything about social subjects as feminism, or veganism (that is both a societal issue and a philosophical-ethical one (I'm particularly passionate about those two). I also post my gender fluid self, as well as more general LGBTQ+ topics.

I have also entries about physical ailments, and plan to expand this blog to include basic tools both for MH and physical health - focusing on herbal medicines, mostly, and repeating my disclaimer that I do so only in the extent of a passionate interest and not as an official doctor - that I don't intend to replace in spite of the many flaws I see in current medical practices. 

Lastly, a portion of my blog has book reviews, in great details for some, requiring several entries. On this particular blog, I limit to psychology, self-help and possibly to those holistic health topics mentioned above. 

This cover  the what and where for this blog. Why ? 
My first goal was to share my story and battles with my MH (or rather mental illnesses=MI's) and to have a traceable place for me to re-read later in time, so I can follow my progress as a personal boost. 

I also want to raise awareness and help building bridges between people ; to connect with other MH bloggers & bloggers who offered me advice and support, since December 2015. Thanks to them, and to my wife's encouragements, I made my blogs so I could express myself and have grown and progressed a lot. 

I want also people who doesn't suffer to better understand mental health ; to break down societal taboos (such as a man talking about his feelings, in a public venue), and stigmas about any of the topics that I address on this blog. 

Building bridges and communities are important values in my life, just like education and communication. All these can thus be fulfilled. 

My other blogs are reviews : 

Music garden is my smallest blog, with only 40 entries thus far, that I plan to expand greatly in the next few months.

Media garden is my biggest, and oldest one. I started it in mid June 2015, 8 months prior to the MH blog. There, I post usually reviews for books, tv shows, movies - and their medias. That is to say, the dvd or bluray editions that I own or wish to own, with their differences in content. 
For books, I have to limit to my own editions, as most get dozens, if not hundreds. I will only mention if I ever get audio-books because those are limited.  

Why ? mainly because Facebook old and clunky rating system wasn't easy to access, and my friends couldn't really read my reviews. My blog allows a much larger review, with bonuses of photos to illustrate my content and much easier access, to a broader audience.

My media garden and MH blog both have their French versions*, that I translate, usually 1 to 4 weeks after the original English post - I use blogger's schedule option to back-date so they appear on the same order. 
The reason is simple : some of my friends are only francophone, others understand basic English but not enough to read my long blog posts.

I haven't made a French version of my music blog, and not sure that I ever will. I've included the google translate tool, in any case. 

Blogging has helped me to have access to my own entries and act both as diary and memory tools. My memory has been failing over time, and I occasionally need to find what I had said about something. My blogs help with that, as much as avoiding repetition of story or critic - I just have to send the person asking for my opinion about something to read the relevant link and we can build a dialogue around it after they read. 

The last reason why I blog is also that I have always had difficulties keeping diaries, and my handwriting skills has worsened in the past few years of stagnation. I found that typing on a computer, looking at a big widescreen to be much easier on my poor eyes and hands. 

That's all I have to say about this topic of blogging, thus ending day 1 of  #30dayblogchallenge.
Day 2 will be to describe the good, bad & ugly about myself. I'll have to ponder how to compose that one. 

* PS links to my french blogs, MH is called tête libérée & reviews is Lulumédias