Wow @Chris 
It sounds like you achieved an awful lot, with the physical tasks being the smaller part of it. It sounds like you took a big step forward in handling those intensely painful thoughts differently (mindfully). You didn't let them stop you from doing what you wanted to do. Nor did you let them stop you from being gentle enough with yourself to allow some rest in the day.
Please take note, and remind yourself. It is so easy to miss this, when we can do something then it becomes relatively easy (like breaking the sound barrier, we know we can do it again). So a very human tendency is to overlook how hard that was before, and look at the next hurdle instead. Giving ourselves a "well done" pat on the back helps make each new step that bit easier.
BTW I'm not suggesting that you won't ever struggle with this stuff again (although I do hope that may be so), but that having managed it better once will help improve how you can deal with it in future. So hats off to you.
Here's something I wrote last year when grappling with mindfulness and beginning to use it. I hope you like it
Willingly (Skeletons II)
I peer in upon them
Hideous and apparently leering
Back at me
They hiss and rattle
Frighteningly
I fight the overpowering urge
To slam the closet door
I will myself to look again
They are cowering
Terrified of me
Bearing a lifetime of scars:
From harsh judgements,
Overlaid upon abuse –
Others’, and mine
I recognise them now,
Malformed from all
They’ve had to endure,
And perceive in their fragility
A strange and moving beauty
Silenced for so long, yet
They inspire my creativity
I grasp my courage;
I reach out and embrace them willingly
Their confronting ugliness
And painful brokenness
Are all mine.
They hold essential parts of me
And I choose to grow more whole.
Kristin © May 2013
Kindest regards 
