Author: UpNorthMinimalist

This book is about many things but firmly related to how a bad relationship can lead to a lifetime of anxiety and feelings of worthlessness that can affect a person for the totality of their lives. Here are the chapters and what’s covered:

Introduction Chapter One: What is Post Traumatic Stress Disorder Chapter Two: Domestic Violence Chapter Three: Gaslighting Chapter Four: Sexual Control and Abuse in Relationships Chapter Five: “Minor” negative relationship factors Chapter Six: Creating a Life Map Chapter Seven: Talk Therapy Chapter Eight: How to be Single Chapter Nine: How to know when you’re ready to try again Chapter Ten: Look for the Green Flags Chapter 11: Testimonials Conclusion About the Author

This book is available for you on two sites so far with more to come:

https://www.everand.com/book/703691484/Relationship-PTSD-How-to-Avoid-Causing-it-and-How-to-Recover-from-it

Or search on Lulu.com for Relationship PTSD. Thank you.

For the last ten or so years I’ve been caught up in watching Tiny House living shows and documentaries on minimalism. Never in my wildest dreams, (or nightmares depending on your perspective), did I ever think I’d try either. Fast forward to the fall of 2022 when life took a financial turn, I wasn’t expecting it, but it is one that may be the best thing to happen to me.

I had a “cardiac event” that was treated as such but with no resolve or certainty of what it was or if it even was a cardiac event. I went back to work after a day in the hospital and a day at home and continued on my stressful day-to-day job. After a month I snapped and left the stress behind. Within two to three months my savings were gone and I had settled into the fact that I was now going to have a lower income. I lived in a rented house with a great yard that had me excited for spring and a garden. I started a new job that along with my teaching positions, would be enough to live on but not truly enough to buy a new place to live.

As fate would have it my boss had a place for sale, 18 acres and a two-bedroom trailer, that I’ll affectionately call my “tiny house”, all 1000 square feet of it. In July of 2023, I moved in. With now having two grandchildren, (I’m sure I’ll include their adventures here), I have now started my hobby farm, Gramps Farm, with 19 chickens and three ducks. I hope to add animals for eating and greeting as I hope to develop the rest of the property as well. Thank you for reading, until next time!

In today’s social marketing social media world to be successful means to create something. But, what if that something is already created; what if that something is you? I wrote a family column for 15 years in a smaller community. What that meant is that often readers would come up to me in public, either when I was alone, or with my daughters. The column often focused on my daughters and events or milestones they had achieved from birthdays to graduations. I liked that people liked what I was writing about. It had been, and still is, a dream of mine to be a published writer. I never considered the column being a published writer because I also associated being paid as part of that recognition, which as a writer I dare say I’ve earned less than $500 in my many years of writing with the bulk of my writing being unpaid to “build clips”.

Now as I diversify myself into websites, social media live events, and my latest being a podcast creator, I realize I’m the brand or product that will be needed to generate income for myself as I head into the last big chapter of my life. Here’s the plan for creating the brand of UpNorthMinimalist.

First off I rebooted a column where I will focus on minimalism, homesteading, writing, and teaching as the focus of becoming known as the UpNorthMinimalist. As you can see, or rather read, the first key is to identify what you want to be known as. The second key is to spread the word. This means having a tag in an email or an email that is the tag. I have an email that is upnorthminimalist@briankeithforeman.com. This email is attached to this website, feel free to message me. I have TikTok, Twitter or X, Facebook, Instagram, and LinkedIn, and my newest of them all is my podcast on Swell. When reading all of this it becomes overwhelming for sure.

Why do I want to live my life as a brand; here’s why. I’ve worked since I was 16, (earlier if you just count working for farmers etc.). In 2022 I thought I had bought the big one, cashed in my chips, etc. when I had what I thought was a heart attack. I was treated as if that’s what happened and let me tell you, that’s a wakeup call. I ended up leaving a high-stress position, ran through all my savings, and hit financial rock bottom. You can’t start the climb until you hit the bottom. Now I’m relying on me, and only me, (with the exception of my oldest child who’s now an editor of this site), to be successful. I teach at a few places, work as a supervisor where most of my time is remote, and I’m developing my hobby farm income as well, more to come on that as time goes on.

Promoting yourself may seem vain, but have you ever worn a band t-shirt, or advertised where you work? Did that earn you anything? Focus on yourself, your skillset, and your dreams. Put the same energy into that as you did your promotion of your workplace and let’s see where that goes.

It’s been an interesting few years. In 2018 my youngest child graduated high school and my significant other and myself at the time decided to move. While packing up the moving truck, and repacking, and repacking again; that was the beginning of my internal thoughts of becoming a minimalist. We moved to Harbor Springs Michigan but that wasn’t the plan. The plan was to live in a pretty nice apartment building in Petoskey, a distance from her job in Harbor Springs, but only about 8 miles one way. The day we checked out the apartment I panicked. It was beautiful, it overlooked the harbor, but it was on the third floor. Granted, a lot of our stuff was in a storage unit but without an elevator, I backed out of the apartment and searched for a house.

The house I found was in Harbor Springs, a beautiful town filled with people with money and attitude, but mostly money. The house was small and we moved in with our stuff, upsetting my significant other because this was not her plan. The landlord, Buck, (who I grew to love later), informed us he would be moving in with us for a few months. The rent was already $1000 a month. After a month we moved next door to a three-bedroom duplex for $900 a month, with plenty of room for our stuff, and proceeded to clear out our storage unit. There we, (for a few months it was a we, but that’s a tale for another day), lived for about a year with myself moving out in July of 2019; our divorce was final in January of the same year.

I chose to move home due to my mother’s broken hip and replacement. By moving home she could leave the nursing home and go back to her apartment. That move had me in a small duplex, a storage unit was needed. I then moved a year later, and again a year later, (twice), then to Wisconsin, then back to Michigan; finally resting in the north woods of Wisconsin. I’m done with moving. The first big move in 2018 had me moving about 30 boxes of just books. This last move was 14 boxes. It was then that I decided that it was time for minimalism.

For those not familiar with minimalism I highly suggest watching the documentary called The Minimalists. The journey from “stuff” to what’s necessary to live is a great journey. My journey began by moving into a 1,000-square-foot trailer. Up next is the removal of things I don’t need and to begin my hobby farm adventure with the least amount of stuff possible. Continue to follow for more on my minimalist adventure.

I’ve missed you. In November of 2021, I turned in my Family Matters column, and in all honesty, I didn’t know that it would be my last one. My plan had always been to keep writing it with my final one being a tribute to my mother when she passed. The great news is she’s alive and well with no signs of slowing down, but I did scare a few of you. Some reached out wondering if she had died or if I was sick, or simply to ask why I stopped. I wish I had a good reason why I stopped writing it. After I turned it in the person/editor who had been handling my monthly contributions informed me that he was leaving and that he, if he could, would tell me who the next person up would be. To this person’s credit he consistently responded that he received the column, and always promptly returned emails, but that’s not the reason I stopped. The year prior I had three childhood mentors pass away and a former student die as well; but that’s not why I stopped. I had moved yet again after selling my home to my now son-in-law; but again, that’s not why I stopped writing Family Matters. I stopped writing Family Matters because I was at a loss of what to write about. My children were grown, pretty much all done or nearly done with college, and I just didn’t see the path forward. I just faded away into the last year and three-quarters of chaos.

Fast forward to July of 2023 and the universe started “speaking” to me. Not in a literal way but people started commenting on my columns, sharing them again online, and stating that they missed them. That’s when I realized that I missed them as well; but more so I missed you, the readers. Since November of 2021, a lot has changed in my life and I know that my tank is full of new stories to share, new adventures to embark on, and get your feedback on. I moved, once, twice, three times the charm, (hopefully), and now work 98% of the time remotely. During those missed months I “went big” with my career aspirations, I ended up being an administrator for an assisted living company in Wisconsin; that literally nearly killed me. I left that job and lived on my savings and part-time jobs to try to reboot my life, and I feel I have. I have two grandchildren now, one by my youngest and her husband, and one by my namesake middle child and her husband. My eldest is in grad school, and the list goes on. The question to you may be, why the change from Family Matters to something else? It’s because I’ve changed, yes of course my family still matters, in fact, they are my inspiration to keep going, and to keep trying to do different things.

As you can see, I have new content; consider this reboot submission a tease, the stories of the grandbabies, the daughters, my life, my career, (what’s left of it), and trials and tribulations along the way will all be shared over time. I’ll also share my other works, my podcast on Swell, my website, and any other writing adventures I’ll be taking on. You’ll hear about it all monthly to start, and we’ll see where it goes from there. Again, the title change of this column is a reflection of my change; I’m now living frugally, (code for I’m broke), and have started a hobby farm “somewhere outside of the western UP”, (just keeping it private), called Gramps Farm. We’ll see you again soon, contact me via email at upnorthminimalist@briankeithforeman.com with any questions.