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Tag Archives: mental health
I learn more about life when I'm in it...
“People these days don’t know how to just sit in a room or any environment and merely absorb it and take it in. Instead, they have mind-numbing games on their phone to devote their attention to, facebook updates to know about, text messages and tweets to send, beautiful robotically edited pictures to post in an attempt to make their life seem somewhat interesting and from this desire to let people know what they are doing.
This is so true. Learning to live in the now might be the most important thng we ever learn, or master.
Posted in Health, interesting links, women's health
Tagged health, Holism, mental health, responibility
Summer solstice dance
Let me tell you about last night
I got to enjoy the summer solstice with a good friend, we met up with a group of women (one man) to celebrate the longest day of the year. We did not take any pictures, therefore I will find a video from a similar dance and try my best to describe the scenario.
We met about six in the evening and danced 5 rhythm dance till about nine. We did the wave of dance Gabrielle Roth style. Then there was time for food and togetherness. It was just wonderful.
Here is a video explaining and showing the 5 rhythms of dance;
This is what I did last night, loosen up, totally. Barefoot outside on the ground with a BIG group of people that are just like me, looking inwards in the midst of the material world. We were surrounded by the Icelandic nature and the midnight sun. The rain made the senses dance too. The scent from the birch is unforgettable!
It was lovely and I am THANKFUL for the beautiful moment.
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- Thousands mark summer solstice (independent.co.uk)
- Summer solstice: Facts about the longest day of the year (columbiamissourian.com)
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- Picturing Summer, a Solstice Celebration (tor.com)
- Summer Solstice 2012 and Trump XIII (jameswells.wordpress.com)
- Happy First Day of Summer! Here’s How to Celebrate the Solstice in Burien (b-townblog.com)
- The Summer Solstice arrives tomorrow! But what is it? (fox41blogs.typepad.com)
- Summer Solstice Draws Crowd At Riverside Park (kake.com)
- Summer Solstice: 8 Sunny Ways to Celebrate (livescience.com)
- Summer Solstice (yardcrap.typepad.com)
Posted in Health, interesting links, women's health
Tagged Gabrielle Roth, health, Holism, mental health, Northern Hemisphere, responibility, Sun, Women, Yoga
The Art of Doing Nothing
I don't get people who always complain about being too busy. They are always running from here to there and back again.
Why?
It seems that in the end it only seems to cause some kind of resentment. These people are over tired and over worked.
I say do less, not more.
You really need to take time for yourself first.
Practice makes perfect
Posted in Health
Tagged health, Holism, mental health, Religion and Spirituality, responibility, Women
Life is simple
Is life simpler than we think?
Would we, that belong to the generation of pill for every ill, believe a doctor that would give this reply. Actually I don´t think so.
But this little cartoon is head on we have little or no idea how much stress is depriving our body´s of the rest and ease of mind it needs.
But the good news is it has not to be like this, we have a choice. I just realized recently that I have limited time. So I better use it for good including taking good care of the body that I got . I have the responsibility to treat it with respect.
Happy Saturday!
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Posted in Health, women's health
Tagged Alternative, health, Management, Massage, mental health, Stress, Stress management, Support Groups
Taking Time Out for Yourself: The Only Way to Conquer Stress and Its Effects
In today's world, we all have countless demands on our time and energy. Obligations from work, education, family, church, and countless other outside factors all pile up and lead to never-ending stress.
This burden of stress creates imbalances in our bodies which manifest themselves in different ways. Acne breakouts, digestive irregularity, aches and pains, tension headaches, and insomnia are just a few signs that your body may be overwhelmed by the demands on your physical, …
I´m in the midst of final exams and stress is an issue, I try to avoid it but it creeps up on me. But I got messages from two different directions one on stress from Living the balanced life and the other one on what do about it , from Hands of faith holistic healing centers.
Bernice that writes about stress in the Living the balanced life stress article, she also writes about The stressed mom.
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Posted in Health, women's health
Tagged health, Holism, mental health, responibility, Stress, symptoms
What is beauty ?
Delicate flowers and fire hydrants!
In light of yesterday´s thoughts on pressure from the marketing industry. I wanted to capture beauty today. I set out to take pictures of beautiful things that I would find on my walk home. I was going to capture all the beauty. And I did. What I did not know, was that I was unconsciously working towards a metaphor for woman’s development as opposed to man´s. It was by accident! I first saw it when I uploaded the pictures. Then it jumped right at me. And yes I had a big laugh!
So who is the little delicate yellow flower? The girl, she is perfect radiant and confident. But the weeds are lurking all around her. But if she is nurtured she will blossom.
She will become this beautiful rich pink bundle of joy! But the road might be bumpy. And she might get disappointed, let down, abandoned, hurt.
If she does not get the nourishment she needs, she will die. Not literally, she might be dead inside. It does not have to mean that it is the end. She might surprise herself and rise. When you least expect it!
She blooms! But be aware she has experience if you are not careful she comes to her defence with her thorns! You are better having her as a friend and a companion.
This one is old age, she is vice, strong and has seen it all. She has earned the right to have an attitude. She is beautiful. Wrinkles, stretch marks and gray hair. She has got it all. And bears it proud. But you don´t want to mess with her!
This is the flower within all women. It should be let alone till she is ready to reveal it. It should never be forced. When she is ready she will welcome you. It is the most delicate of all flowers. Be gentle. Treat it with respect and admiration!
Part two, the fire hydrant, not very poetic
It might be because men are simple creatures.
The freshly painted overly eager. Has lack of control and does not know what he is doing.
This one has learned his lessons, the danger is that he gets in the shadow of his family and children. Please bring him into the sunlight and keep him there he´s not fond of the shadow.
In balance with his surroundings. Experienced. Has enough energy where energy is needed. Loyal, standing strong, your best friend.
Did I go overboard?
I had a good laugh and I remembered something. I sat in a lecture on leadership once. The lecturer was telling us about our subconsciousness. She described our subconscious like an elephant. The elephant knows where we are headed. But the trouble is we are always trying to control the elephant. But the elephant is beyond control.
This photo session of mine was a reminder to me.
The elephant knows!
Let go and go with the flow, the elephant will lead the way!
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Posted in Health, self esteem, women's health
Tagged Beauty, Blog, Education, Family, Fire hydrant, Flower, health, Holism, mental health
Why holistic?
What exactly is a holistic approach?
For me it means balance. Keeping balance in my life. I have had periods that I have eaten poorly, deprived the body of nourishment and fed it with sugar and coffee.
There are times that I have been emotionally absent from my family and put all my energy into my work. Borderline workaholic, if you like. I have had moments when neither home nor work was a good place to be. In other words I was depressed.
In this post I am trying to explain what the holistic approach means to me. I dug up some links that I have found helpful and pictures that I have taken from other web sources but I have linked back to the source. The five elements of holistic approach are explained in the picture below.We need all of the elements to harmonize ,in order to feel whole. Ergo feel well, in the state of Well-being.
picture taken from wendytran.com holistic website
We know that exercise and nutrition contribute to our well-being but did you know that meditation and relaxation play as important role?
We need rest, exercise and nourishment to keep the body “machine” working but the mind also needs rest, meditation unwinds us from stress. Stress in a contributing factor to many dis-eases of the body.Stress is a modern society health threat.Stress increases the PH value in the body. If the PH value is high we are more likely to get sick, than if the PH value is balanced.
The five pieces of our cake
Relationships Our relationships matter, it means that the people in your life can not be draining you of energy. In order to have balanced relationship, you will have to find a way to stop letting people robbing you of your energy. The weird thing is that we often have draining relationships in our immediate family. It is worth working on because these are the people you can usually not just stop seeing.
Career We tend to get absorbed in our work. But we can not let it overrides everything else in our life. I have tendencies to get too wrapped up in the things I am doing. Sometimes it would drain me of all my energy and when I came back home there was just the shell left. I was deflated for energy from my work.
Spirituality We need to have some refuge, it does not matter what name we put on it. If it is a higher power or if we practice meditation. We need a break every now and then. To tune down and reconnect with ourselves. I find it helpful to study the balance of my chakras.
physical activity The best we can do for our body is just do 30 minutes a day of exercise. We need to run the machinery so it won´t get rusty and stiff. Walk, ride a bicycle. Find a steep hill and walk up it. Go to the gym. Whatever suits your rhythm and preference.
Nourishment We need good balanced diet and plenty of water. Water is the base. Food is a big part og our lives. It´s the hardest part to keep balanced. Our cravings can tell us la little about our imbalances, on mind-body green there is a summary of food cravings and the source for the craving.
There are holistic resources like the holistic health library that have information regarding all parts of our holistic living.
The thing is there must be balance between the ares of our lives. Look at it as a cake , is just one cake. You are it. If work is too big of a slice the others are smaller. The cake is not getting bigger. There are 24 hours in a day. You need to divide them wisely. for you.
I find the chakra Wisdom helpful in understanding the balance. Here is a chakra wisdom from sspirituality and self-help . The seven chakras are explained. This blog for example is my way of regaining strength in my throat chakra. The chakra that deals with self-expression and communication.
Seven chakras meditation has an online support of the chakra well-being and some useful tips.
Illustration of the 7 Chakras © Wikipedia
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Posted in Health, interesting links, self esteem, women's health
Tagged Chakra, Eating, eating habits, Education, Energy, health, Holism, Meditation, mental health, nutrition, responibility, Vegetarianism, vitamins, whole foods
Facing the fear of not being worthy.
I am a sucker for good storytellers. It does not ruin the experience if they are smart and gifted too. Brené Brown is one of these gems that has shared her research on TED. She is spot on how the people who have;
1. Sence of courage to be imperfect
and
2.Embrace vulnerability
Are the ones that believe they are worthy. This is the opposite of a codependent like me. I believed that I was not worthy untill I learned that I was, by taking the steps of the CODA program. But I was damn good faking it. I had to take down the mask and face my fears. I entered a really hard masters program. Many of the people there were professionals. What I saw watching them is that they admitted their mistakes, they laughed at their failures. I had tried really hard to keep face. Not show my weaknesses. How on earth could I do all the things that I was doing if I was going to be emotional?
But there comes a time we have to give up. Embrace the little boy´s and girls inside us. Abandoned, neglected, hurt. And let them be what they are. With positive traits and the negative as well. I have learned that my character defects were my defense mechanisms. I was not ready to face them until my child was really ill. I was willing to let go of my codependence because if I was going to be of any use to my son, I could not be codependent. It was not an option. But that was how far I was willing to go. I could easily have died . Repressing my feelings and overwork until I fell down . I was beginning to feel the serious effect that stress has on the body. Emotional stress and work related stress. I was doing too many things. If my son had not got seriously ill. I would probably have worked myself to death. (In the end) My husband had tried to get me to do something about my codependence since we met. But no! I had to wait and watch myself get eaten up from inside until the call came from the hospital. Only then I could rise up as the lioness protecting her young. I was willing to be healthy for my son. That is why I thank for his substance abuse. It helped me get onto the path of recovery.
I am worthy, and I am blessed.
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Posted in Children, Health, interesting links, self esteem, women's health
Tagged Brené Brown, Codependency, Codependents Anonymous, health, mental health, responibility, Stress, symptoms
Can you describe your happiness?
Happiness is an ongoing and popular research topic. Every year there are published detailed rapports on the subject. The results are published in magazines, or newspapers. For you, if you are a total nerd, here is a PDF of the World Happiness Report, the whole 150 something pages if you will! According to this report there are various happiness factors we should take into consideration. But what exactly are the happiness factors?
External factors
External factors are , income, it effects your overall happiness whether you can pay all the bills and then have money to travel or do other things that you like. Like hanging out in a dusty antique shop or a good bookstore.Depending on your places of interest. Work is a attributing factor, if we love what we do there is not a problem. But if we are working to survive there is not so much fun in it, if all you do is wait for the weekend (that is if you are not working seven day´s a week). Work is not that pleasant experience. .The community and governance has great impact on our lives. In America the privatisation of the education system is probably the greatest worry. People face that they can not afford to pay for education for their children for instance.Then there is the factor of values and religion. I imagine that people who have found some sort of relationship with their higher power. Find meaning in life.Then we have the personal factors.
Personal factors
Personal factors that influence happiness. Mental and physical health, they go hand in hand don’t they? If you lose your health, the only wish you have is regaining it. The family of origin has a great impact on happiness. In my 12 step journey I have met people who have adopted a new family because the broken one they had did not measure up. Family is not a law of nature. It too can be reevaluated. Education has impact. And gender and age. Where there is gender suppression or age discrimination‘s the impact on individual happiness can be significant
But in the very end what are the things we regret?
1. I wish I’d had the courage to live a life true to myself, not the life others expected of me.
2. I wish I didn’t work so hard.
3. I wish I’d had the courage to express my feelings.
4. I wish I had stayed in touch with my friends.
5. I wish that I had let myself be happier.
These are the things that a nurse revealed as the top five regrets her patients had at the death-bed. You can read her blog here, it is called; inspiration and chai. It gives you something to think about doesn´t it?
I point out the fifth regret. I wish I had let myself be happier. Because happiness is a decision. When the pyramid of basic needs has been fulfilled. (I´m not saying that a starving person can choose to be happy, but I´m not assuming she can not.)
So once again be your true self, there is no better version of you.
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Posted in Health, interesting links, self esteem, women's health
Tagged Happiness, health, mental health, self esteem, Work, World Happiness Report
