Helping Depression with Meditation and other Coping Skills

      Depression affects 121 million people all over the world. 80% of those are undiagnosed and going without treatment or medications. There are factors that increase your chances to have depression at some point in your life. Being obese, having heart disease, a stroke, sleep disorders, lack of education and less access to medical help may all cause depression. Those who are unemployed or recently divorced tend to go through a period of depression as they go through their struggles. Women are 50% more likely to be diagnosed with depression than men,mostly through the ages of 45-64.

      Sometimes medication is the only answer to help with your depression especially if it is clinical like bi-polar or manic disorders. There are many alternatives to medications or things that you can add to your medications to help make your life fuller and more meaningful. Having depression can lead to thoughts of worthlessness and that life is just not worth living. Through these methods, you can make your life more worthwhile and fun again. 

Some of these methods are:

1- Resist the urge to self medicate

2-Watch your diet. Cutting back on caffeine, adding fruits, veggies, whole grains and fish can provide your body with the vitamin and nutrients to boost your mental state.

3-Get out and enjoy the sunshine! soak up the vitamin D and raise your serotonin level.

4- Get creative. Spend at least half an hour doing something to wake up your creative side. Color in a coloring book, paint a picture, make a collage of where you want yourself to be in the future. Anything as long as it makes you smile and feel like a kid again.

5-Listen to music. Blast the radio, sing like you're putting on an Oscar performance. Let the music flow through your heart and soul.

6-Dance. Wiggle along to the radio as you are sweeping or doing the dishes. The freeing feeling will lighten your mood and get your endorphins running.

7-Attend a group. There are plenty of self help groups available in your area that offer help and coping skills. Sometimes it is enough just to have someone to listen to or to hear someone else's story to realize you're not alone.

8-Keep a journal.

9-Spoil yourself. Give yourself a facial or a manicure. Pampering yourself will make you feel special.

10-Change your point of view. Turn the negatives into positives whenever you can, You can even make a list of things you are grateful for and put them in your journal.

      Many therapist suggest other things like art therapy and meditation to help with the depressive states people go through. In art therapy, you are given a prompt, like your childhood or your self worth and asked to make a picture of what that means to you. You can be asked to keep an art journal which you fill with many different forms of art such as collages, pencil drawings, paintings mixed with words, quotes and feelings. 

      Meditation and breathing are very helpful forms of therapy. Paying attention to your breath and making a conscious effort to slow your breathing and heart rate can lower your anxiety and depression almost immediately and have long lasting affects. Because it is so easy to do and you need nothing but yourself to accomplish this therapy it is ideal to do many times a day whenever you feel the need to let off some steam. Below is a simple meditation you can use at anytime.

A Typical Meditation

1. Sit upright in a straight-backed chair, with your spine about an inch from the back of the chair, and your feet flat on the floor.

2. Close your eyes. Use your mind to watch your breath as it flows in and out. Observe your sensations without judgment. Do not try to alter your breathing.

3. After a while your mind will wander. Gently bring your attention back to your breath. The act of realizing that your mind has wandered - and bringing your attention back - is the key thing.

4. Your mind will eventually become calm.

5. Repeat every day for 20-30 minutes.

I hope this information is helpful to you and that you are able to utilize thesse coping skills to improve your life. Remember this is not meant to be used as medical advise. Please consult your doctor if you believe you may have anxiety or depression. If you are feeling suicidal, please call the suicide hotline at 1-800-273-TALK (8255). I hope you all have a magical day. Blessed be.

Be Grateful: day 14

1) that I have kept this up for two weeks
2) mod podge
3) my pretty new skirt
4) oatmeal
5) wonderful people in my life

The Eternal Quiet

Pent up irony residing
in my tormented soul.
Tiptoeing across lacquered planks
Suspended above the endless twilight nights.

I hear nothing but soft, panicked
breathing and frantic
tripping heartbeats
seeming too loud to deaf ears.
Tragedy above as below, surrounds.

The Gift of Life

Sometimes it takes a tragedy to remind you how precious the gift of life really is. I am blessed to live one more day. To be able to wake up and breathe every morning. Remember to be thankful for every single day you have on this planet with the people you love.
No one knows when it may be the last breath you take or the last sun set you see. So cherish every waking moment. Even if life is stressful and kids are screaming or your husband and you are fighting be thankful that you are here to witness it.
To those who didn't make it till tomorrow, may you rest in peace and be with those you love. May your family be watched over and protected through this difficult time. Blessed Be.

Be Grateful : day 13

1) white paint
2) anti anxiety meetings
3) a glass of wine
4) magazines to rip up
5) life

CPS

I am quite excited! i just finished my application to be a Certified Peer Specialist for the state of Idaho.
It is a position that employs those with mental illness to mentor and teach others who are going through recovery. It would certify me to work within the state teaching others about recognizing their triggers and managing their illnesses with various coping mechanisms.
I just found out about this position recently and think it would be the perfect occupation for me. I absolutely love to teach and am already doing my art therapy classes. This would give me more tools and chances to expand my reach of people I can help. Please pray that I get accepted! Its a five day training in Boise and only two people from each district are chosen. So the competition is fierce.

Be Grateful: day 12

1) crystals
2) smelly dish soap
3) black pens
4) yogart
5) life changes

Be Grateful: day 11

Today has been a stressful day full of negative worry-some thoughts about the future. Unnecessary, since nothing I do today can help. I shouldn't obsess over things I cannot readily fix and waste a day on worry, but somedays it cannot be stopped no matter how many times I tell myself to. So today, I am going to come up with what I am grateful for and strive to focus on that tomorrow.

1)the rain
2) tulips
3) my home
4) my health and that of my family
and 5) my husband for cuddling with me.
I love you babe. You make life bearable.

Be Grateful: day 10

"Acknowledge the good that you already have in your life, it is the foundation for all abundance" -Eckhart Tolle

1) my doctor
2) false positives
3) beads
4) dicks pharmacy
5) Dead Like Me show

Be Gratefu: day 9

1) my family
2) my second family
3) homemade dinner
4) Easter eggs
5) pineapple upside down cake

Be Grateful: day 8

1) kids
2) egg dye
3) green tea
4) Maggie
5) time

Be Grateful: day 7

Do not spoil what you have by desiring what you have not; remember that what you have now was once among the things you only hoped for. -Epicurus

1) Lisa and Tara and Cathy
2) my jewelry business
3) Frisbee golf
4) Odin
5) warm weather

"Poetry is the devils wine"- St. Augustine

Poetry surrounds us everyday even if you don't realize it. Set to music, the poets of the day fill our ears with their messages of love, pain, death, dispare, joyfullness and magic.
A poem can change ones mood just by hearing it. They can open your mind and expand your thoughts taking you to new and foreign places. We have been blessed by the English language and the ability to have so much information at our fingertips.
Surfing through the masses of junk on the internet can clog your brain at times. Try searching out a poem and see if it brings peace and clarity. If it alters your perception of the world.
Some of the great poets wrote prose that is equally captivating. Their power over words transferable to any medium. Like magic on a page. A work of art made only with the use of 26 letters.
I have compiled some of my favorites for you to read and a list of some for you to Google to see if you can find your own poem. The one that speaks directly to you soul as these do mine. Enjoy your poetry lesson and expand your horizons.

Body of a Woman
Body of a woman, white hills, white thighs,
you look like a world lying in surrender.
My rough peasants body digs in you
and makes the son leap from the depth
of the earth.

I was only a tunnel. The birds fled from me,
and nigh swamped me with its crushing invasion.
To survive myself I forge you like a weapon,
like an arrow in my bow, a stone in my sling.

But the hour of vengence falls, and I love you.
Body of skin, of moss, of eager and firm milk.
Oh the goblets of the breast! Oh the eyes of absence!
Oh the roses of the pubis! Oh your voice, slow and sad.
Body of a woman, I will persist in your grace.
My thirst, my boundless desire, my shifting road.
Dark river beds where eternal thirst flows.
And weariness follows, and the intimate ache.
-Pablo Neruda

"Witch Wife"
She is neither pink nor pale,
and she never will be all mine;
she learned her hands in a fairy tale
and her mouth on a valentine.

She has more hair than she needs,
in the sun tie a woe to me!
And her voice is a string of colored beads,
or steps leading into the saw.

She loves me all that she can,
and her ways to my ways resign;
but she was not made for any man
and she will never be all mine.
-Edna St. Vincent Millay

"For it is not inertia alone that is responsible for relationships repeating themselves from case to case, indescribably monotonous and unrenewed. It is shyness before any new unforeseeable experience with which one does not think ones able to cope. But only someone who is ready for everything, who excludes nothing, not even the most enigmatical, will live the relation to another as something alive."
-Rilke

"Stretching out on the rock, body taunt, then relaxed, on the alter, I felt I was being raped deliciously by the sun, filled full of heatfrom the impersonal and colossal god of nature."
- Sylvia Plath

list of poets
T.S. Eliot
Dylan Thomas
Theodore Roethke
William Blake
Oscar Wilde

Be Grateful: day 6

"Let gratitude be the pillow upon which you kneel to say your nightly prayer. And let faith be the bridge to overcome evil and welcome good." - Maya Angelou

1) the Lord and Lady
2) poetry
3) inspiration \ my muse
4) Pandora
5) my grandmother

Be Grateful: day 5

1) my therapist Traci
2) my medications the keep me from crossing the line to insanity. Crazy is good enough for the moment.
3) the ability to breathe
4) my long hair
5) cream filled donuts brought to me by my loving husband. And the fact he doesn't mind the will go straight to my ass.

You cannot legislate morality

The 1920s was a time of extreme extravagance and "loose" morals. Though the government fought a hard battle to tighten the strings of control of the seemingly delinquent young adults of the time, they failed miserably.
Making alcohol illegal only spurned a frenzy of drunken nights and memorable parties due to the price of alcohol being driven down.
This wild display of a free life became evident in everything from dances like the Charleston and the Breakaway, to the mass produaction of vinyl and radio so everyone could tango to the sensuous beats anywhere.
Some of the most prolific writers and critics burst out onto the seen to capture all of the glittering sights and made their mark with the stunningly translucent pieces of the social stigmas of the time. T.S. Eliot, Hemingway and Gertrude Stein filled their words with astounding pictures and social commentary.
F. Scott Fitzgerald penned the book that captured the romance and suffrage of the decade with The Great Gatsby. A whole hearted lyrical tale embodying what the 20s were truly like. Fitzgerald later died believing he was a failure. He will never know just how wrong he truly was. Gatsby captivated a nation. Then and still to this day the book is reguarded as an incomparable masterpiece.
NOT ALL WHO WANDER ARE LOST.

New York, Chicago, Paris, London, New Orleans and Los Angeles blew up. Streets being filled with the lost generation looking for their next extravagance. The loose morals of the infamous flappers took the world by storm in a glittering whirlwind of high kicks and high fashion. Their short styled hair and flowncy indiscreet short dresses, overflowing with sparkling elegant jewels stole the show and turned heads everywhere they went. Makeup became a staple. Avon would have had a hayday if it had existed back in the glory days of self improvement.

Every new building erected bore the marks of the time of change as well. You can see the stamp of a decade even now in the art deco style that turned boring buildings into interesting masterpieces.
Other masterpieces included the talents of the new artists. Expressionism and surrealism became rampant making the world look at the ordinary with new eyes. Dali, Matisse, and Picasso shocked us all by the views that resonated in their minds that they put down on canvas. The world through warped glasses.

All in all it was a decade to be somebody...
to let all inhibitions fly in restless wonder and be who you truly felt you were. The roaring 20s still seems to be roaring today, almost 100 years later.

Be Grateful: day 4

Gratitude is infectious...
1) wise women
2) long meaningful conversations
3) cupcakes
4) breakfast in bed
5) music

Be Grateful: day 3

1) feathers
2) bouncy balls
3) swings
4) beer
5) my vices

A Bad Day???

Sometimes you just have one of those days. Nothing seems to go accordingly and it seems the karma fairy has a stuck up her ass and you may have put it there. I have had one of those days. Normally, this is where I would wax lyrically about calming and centering or taking a hot herb infused bath. Something magical to soothe the day away right?
Tonight.... I say, "@#*$ it. I'm having a beer."
Stay tuned for what I could possibly be grateful for today coming next. And if you need to, I give you permission to just say screw it and relax like you choose.
Blessed Be my pretties.

Be Grateful: day 2

1) my husband
2) Game of Thrones
3) comfy pajamas
4) peppermint tea
5) chocolate

Be Grateful: day 1

I read somewhere that listing what you are grateful for everyday will improve your life. So lets give it a shot. I'll do 5 things everyday and you can list yours in the comments!

1) another day alive
2) my children
3) friends and coffee (together)
4) my plants
5) art and writing

what's yours???

Cleansing Your Sacred Space

Spring is a time of renewal, rebirth and growth. It is a sacred time full of possibility and wonder. As the days lengthen we need to make room for positive energies to flow our way.
Your thoughts and your environment create your life. So now is the time to let go of the dusty forgotten baggage that's cluttering your home and yourself.
Try this freeing exercise and see what manifests in your life. Once you make space in your world, positive energies will have a new place to call home.

Go through one room, one closet or one drawer (whatever you're comfortable starting with) and throw away or donate anything that doesn't hold a special place in your soul or serve a purpose in your life. Once you finish this task move one to the next place and so on and so on. As each item leaves your home, you will feel a "lightening" not only in your home, but in your spirit as well. Please let me know how this works for you and any positive changes that come about due to this spiritual cleansing.

HARMONY IN THE HOME FLOOR WASH
1 bucket or sink
4 drops lavender essential oil
4 drops patchouli essential oil
1 tbs. Sea salt
Mix the ingredients together stirring in a clockwise direction, thinking of all of the peace and harmony you wish to be brought into your home. As you wash your floors keep this image in your head as clearly as possible. Do the entire house this way and you will notice the benifits immediately.

Beauty: a thought paper

Beauty is the sky turning a shade of yellow in the evening as the sun defends into the night. Beauty is the way a child embraces its mother in a time of hardship. Beauty is a woman of difference. The little things in all of us are those that make us beautiful. No specific color of hair or shade of eyes, no figure, no tall, no short, no thin, no fat. Just Beauty. Peace, beauty. Hand in hand. The ugliest rock has a stripe of beauty running through its being. No way of dress or speech. Love shows the beauty each of us possesses. We unleash our feelings by the beauty that pulls it from us. The purest dream, the wildest fantasy. Beauty. The grass growing after the harshest winter. A river flowing after the longest drought. Beautiful. Unmasked, no specific meaning. Pure and from the heart. The way a man looks at a woman. Not as a piece of meat, but as a beautiful flower. Why is being beautiful so important? Why do we always yearn to be beautiful? Beauty, "a way of life". A way of life that has existed for eternity and will in our forever to come. No real form, just the restless heart needing pleasure. The eyes want to see beautiful not ugly. Bright and cheery not dark and gloomy. Beauty rests inside as well as out, but respect only lies within. It lies with its beauty waiting to be noticed. Needing to be noticed. A waterfall that drifts into the deepest spring. An array of wildlife all around. Beauty? A steep rock protruding out of water deprived land. Beauty?

written at 16 as a 5 min writing exercise.

the Plague

when life gives you lemons and all that, yep. When it gives you an awful cold, flu or other sickness what exactly do you do about that? I have been battling pneumonia for the last two weeks. And many others of you have been down for the count as well. What has gotten you through? Do you have any remedies or recipes that save the day? How do you keep yourself resting and not charging on with the chores and all that life has to offer?
My biggest problem is I refuse to admit I'm sick and therefore will not let it get me down, to rest, that is. I must keep plugging away even if its not in my best interest. If I stop, I'm done lol. So I'm asking for your input. Help a girl out guys. How do I get better without becoming depressed and totally behind? HELP! Sincerely, The Plague.

In Perfect Love and Perfect Trust

"In Perfect Love and Perfect Trust"

What does this saying mean to you?

How does this painting make you feel?