You are NOT your mental illness.
Meet Your True Being
You are NOT your mental illness.
10 Simple Ways to Beat the Winter Blues
If you are like me then winter is not your friend. The cold, dreary days tend to drag on, as cabin fever sets in and depression, boredom, lack of motivation and lethargy begin to choke the life out of me.
I came across this entertaining, well-written article on Psych Central by author, Therese J. Borchard. Borchard lists these suggestions to help you battle the winter blues.
1. Be of service to others
I started cooking new-to-us, healthy recipes as my husband and I committed to losing weight before bathing suit season arrives. I feel like I am doing something extra special for my family as I spend an hour or more each night chopping, dicing, and slicing fresh fruits and vegetables, and preparing scrumptious home-cooked meals. The weekly planning and execution of such dishes (compared to a box meal or popping a pizza in the oven) alone helps to battle my boredom as well.
2. Join a gym
I did this – Yeah!!! The problem? I never went! A gym is a great idea for some, but not for me. Because of my anxiety, I have a hard enough time getting out of the house for essentials like doctor’s appointments. I am more successful with a mile walk around the neighborhood where I can take my time and hide behind my sunglasses rather than going to the gym and risk having to interact with anyone.
3. Use a light lamp
I do this, and it helps a lot. After 45 minutes in front of my light, I feel energized and ready to get off the couch and do something productive (like make those dinners.) I use my light twice a day, once in the morning and once in the late afternoon. It really does work.
4. Wear bright colors
I am an earthy kind of girl, wearing lots of browns, blacks, and greens. Neutral colors fill my closets, so I have not tried this suggestion out, but it makes sense that bright colors could lift your mood.
This morning, I walked into a new doctor’s office and the walls were painted a dreamcicle, creamy orange, and adorned with bright impressionist paintings. It was a breath of fresh air. I literally felt calmer and happier as I sat there, surrounded by these bright, yet soft, colors.
5. Force yourself outside
I step outside when I let the dogs out, mainly to have a cigarette, but hey at least I am getting out! I also go for walks outdoors.
6. Hang out with friends
This is a tricky area for me. I meet with a small group of women once a week and overall, it helps my mood. Having face-time with close friends definitely enhances my emotional well-being, but too much of it drains me physically and mentally. Migraines often follow visits that last too long. My limit for any type of social situation is about two hours.
7. Head south
We have always taken our family vacations during the summer months when the kids are out of school. Last year, however, I convinced my husband to head south during the month of December specifically for this reason – to battle my seasonal depression. It worked…for that month anyway.
We will probably do it again next year, but will shoot for January or February instead. The December trip was great, don’t get me wrong, but I think my depression really takes a nose dive after the holidays, so a trip in January would be more ideal.
8. Learn something new or start a home project
This winter I have been editing our home videos. I even splurged and bought a software program to add fun effects to them. It takes me several hours to do a ten minute video, but the results are very cool and satisfying.
Creative projects like video editing, painting, and photography keep my mind off the bleak weather conditions. When my hands are idle, my mind wanders and that is never a good thing for me.
9. Limit sugar intake
Sugar-crashes and weight gain….’nuf said.
10. Take Omega-3’s
My suggestion on this is to talk to your doctor. I take them, but I don’t feel they make a huge difference (if any at all) on my emotional health.
What do you do to battle the winter blues? Share your tips in the comments. Also, while you’re here, I invite you to subscribe to this blog. Thanks and have a blue-free day.
Let’s Talk About Mental Illness
A single conversation with a wise man is worth a month’s study of books. ~ Chinese Proverb
Today, we may keep our thoughts and worries to ourselves. We may search for explanations within the craziness of our minds. We may consult books and the internet to find answers for why we feel anxious, depressed, and hopeless, and how to fix it. We may suffer alone in the madness, telling ourselves that no one understands how we feel, that we are unique in the torture we suffer.
Or we can be open-minded to the possibility that like us there are others who experience the pains of mental illness. We can seek out those who have been where we are; ask them about their experiences and how they cope. We can lean on others for strength.
Sometimes the problem is not that we don’t have the answers but that we aren’t willing to discuss the questions with another human being. We often and unknowingly perpetuate our symptoms by searching for peace on our own.
It is in reaching out, asking for assistance, and making ourselves vulnerable, if only by talking to an understanding and trustworthy person about our thoughts and feelings, that we find peace. If I surround myself with others who understand and support me, I will survive. Afterall, we certainly won’t be crazy at the same time! I will lean on others when I need to and they will lean on me in turn.
Today, I will talk to someone about what is going on inside of my head instead of isolating, and I will know peace.
Need someone to talk to? Need someone to listen who understands? I get it. Leave a comment and let’s share about it.
Hope: For You
Photo-quote source – unknown
The Princess, the Pea and the Holidays
Rockefeller Center Christmas tree
The holidays bring with them extra family, travel, food (usually the not-so-healthy kind), money-spending, crowds, and stress. I don’t know about you, but I have a hard enough time managing my stress on a “normal” day.
I require a low stimulating, non-demanding environment in order to remain relatively sane. I call it the “Princess and the Pea syndrome.” If you recall the children’s story written by Hans Christian Andersen, there was a princess sleeping on a dozen or so soft mattresses, and the only way to know if she was a true princess was to test her physical sensitivity by placing a pea under the bottom mattress to see if she felt it while trying to sleep.
If you are like me and the princess, then keep reading as I share the ways in which I limit stimuli to my hypersensitive system, thereby managing my holiday stress:
Family Events:
Show up late. Leave early. Tell them you have diarrhea. Who’s going to try guilting you into staying if you say you have diarrhea? Ha ha! Just kidding – don’t lie.
What I say is that I am not feeling well, which is true if my body and mind have reached their limits. Fatigue, tension in my neck and shoulders, headaches, and chills or sweating are all signs that I am beginning to experience anxiety and it is time for me to scadaddle.
Travel:
If in the car or airport for any length of time, make sure you have ways to block out extraneous sensory input, which to me is anything beyond someone honking their horn at you for weaving into their lane, or at the airport, the attendant calling for finally boarding on your flight.
Some ways I block out extra stimuli when traveling include listening to relaxing music through earphones. Sometimes I leave the ear buds in even when there is no music playing because strangers or even my kids are less likely to make small talk or bother me if they think I am listening to something.
Bring sunglasses! I don’t have a problem just shutting my eyes no matter where I am – in the airport, a restaurant, or on someone’s couch. Closing my eyes, even if just for a minute or two, really keeps me from becoming visually overstimulated.
Food:
Eat a carrot for every cookie you inhale. Do I do this? No. But it’s a good idea, right?
Shopping crowds:
Online, baby! Unless your lap is overpopulated.
I hope some of these suggestions help you manage your holiday stress this week. What do you do to decrease stress during the holidays? Please share in the comment section below.
Thanks,
Wil
P.S. December 31, 2012 is the deadline for submissions to Turtle Way‘s next issue. Turtle Way is Write into the Light’s online mental health journal. See submission guidelines here.
To Be Normal
Mental Health Goal #1
How to Stay Happy When Others are Fighting
When the conflict of others does not directly involve me, am I able to stay out of it? At times, it is difficult to let the adults in my life fight their own battles. Also, it is harder to distance myself emotionally than physically.
Physically, I can go for a walk or a ride, sit outside, visit a neighbor, put on head phones and listen to relaxing music, or take a break from my surroundings in some way.
Emotionally, however, my thoughts obsess over the conflict, causing anxiety, depression and fear to overwhelm me.
If I am able to expel these thoughts from my mind in a constructive way, like talking about them with a trusted person who is a neutral party, the negative feelings leave me. Then I am able to detach with love from those waging amongst themselves.
I have the choice to try a different action; to walk a different path. Today, I can choose to know peace.
Keep Moving, Keep Changing – a poem
Who knew that clouds pass over
only to return so frequently –
a constant state of motion
only when the wind blows?
Who knew that scum gathers
in pond water; its slime slippery,
spotted with rot on both
dark and sunny days?
Who knew that inertia
holds the key to living,
and dying,
in the utmost subtle way?
I didn’t know, but
now I do. Do you?
How Positive Thinking Can Be a Crock
On a path to clearer views, I find myself looking up and realizing that life is nothing more than an illusion of what my mind (ego) tells me it is.
I am baffled by people who are always up-beat and positive; who love life even when things are tough; who see the good in even the most painful events.
I am writing this post and my husband, who is in the other room, just started taping up some boxes he needs to mail. Now, all I can pay attention to is the god-awful screeching sound of the tape being pulled from the tape-gun as he wraps it around the damn boxes! Like nails on a chalk board, I tell ya!
ok, I think he is finished. Like I was saying, my reality is nothing more than what my mind tells me it is. Let’s look at my outburst about the tape-gun just seconds ago. My thoughts went something like this: “Well, that made you lose your concentration which is extremely annoying! When is he going to stop doing that? I want to write and cannot with all of that racket going on!”
*uck – he’s at it again. I’ll be back…
ok, now I know he is finished because this time when the silence returned, instead of continuing to write this post I asked him nicely if he was done using the tape-gun and he said, yes. Now, I don’t have to worry about being interrupted and startled by that horribly loud sound.
One of the disadvantages of being a highly sensitive person is that what may be an average stimulus to most people is an overpowering stimulus to me. I am particular sensitive to noises. My sensory system gets overloaded if I am around too many people for too long, if the TV is too loud, if the kids have friends over playing, when car commercials come on the radio (I have to keep from going ballistic until I can turn it off), when people come in and out of the house repeatedly, when kids are outside playing loudly or a dog continuously barks… I just can’t seem to filter these things into the periphery of my awareness. Instead they dance obnoxiously in front of my face until I feel like I am going mad. Can anyone relate to that?
I am also extremely sensitive to temperature changes, bright lights, and odd smells, like when the dog needs a bath or the hamster cage needs to be cleaned. Maybe the smells are just a mom-thing, but while these noises, tactile sensations, sights, and smells are noxious to me, no one else seems to even notice them. And by noxious I mean that I get highly agitated and sometimes feel physically ill because of them.
Well, this post turned from how my mind decides what my reality is to how my sensory system is highly sensitive.
There is a fine line between what we can and cannot control. In my experience, mental illness is a biochemical phenomenon that cannot be entirely relieved by positive thinking because a large part of the illness involves the inability to control my thoughts.
Thus, “thinking positive,” “being grateful,” “pulling myself up by my bootstraps,” “getting over myself,” and other such platitudes are often ineffective. For me, until medication rearranges my brain chemicals, cognitive behavior techniques are useless. Honestly, for me, they don’t even work that well when I am properly medicated.
What works for me is getting out of my head completely. Excessive thinking is like poison for me which is why I have cut way back on my blog posts. I love reading other people’s writings, listening to positive speakers share their experiences, and creating fine art because the voices in my own head go away during these times – times in which I am completely in the present moment, not thinking about the past or wondering about the future, but experiencing exactly what is going on in the moment – as it is with no judgment of it being “good” or “bad” or otherwise, but just noticing and experiencing.
I did this with the tape-gun incident the second time around. I stopped writing, closed my eyes, stopped thinking and just listened to the sound. To my surprise, my agitation subsided.
Acceptance is the key to relieving most, if not all, of my suffering. Acceptance is the key that unlocks the door to inner peace within me no matter what is going on around me.
Now, if the TV was on, the kids were fighting, and the dirty dog was lying at my feet at the same time my husband started taping up those boxes, I am sure I would not have been able to do this. But, I believe with practice, someday I will be capable of it.
How’s that for positive thinking? 😉
Write into the Light 