Mental & Emotional Health

I’ve been doing a little reading here and there lately and thought that I would share a few articles with you! Some are silly, some are useful, others are just ones that I enjoyed reading! I hope you can find something that brightens your day!

When To Break Up With Your Blog - are you sick and tired of writing for your blog? Are you wondering if it’s not time to cut the cord and let it move on? Read this great article and see if you’re feeling the way this blog described, and then write your Dear John letter.

10 Words to Avoid in Your Writing - would you guys stop reading me if my sustainable and tightly integrated cutting edge writing became full of features and benefits? LOL I don’t know that I’ve ever use words like these in this blog!

Thursday Thirteen: 13 Characters You Wouldn’t Want to Wake Up in Bed With - I agree on EVERY single one of these, and the idea just made me giggle!

Time Management: How many hours can you fit in one day? - Me? I have 24. How many do you have? How many can you fit into? How many hours do you stay awake? How many hours are you actually working? I am going to start tracking things now that I’ve started using Google’s calender. It’s one of the recommendations here at this entry that I already do!

50 Holiday Things You Can Make Yourself - I would love if someone would make me this Christmas afghan, or just an afghan for any season. I need a beautiful blanket.

Prolific Blogging - 5 Methods I Swear By - this guy writes a great post about HOW to be a prolific blogger. I’m hoping that over the break I am able to really bump myself into prolific blogger mode and keep it going through winter term.

When Bad Writing Becomes Funny - oh man did I laugh at some of these high school analogies that are at the top of the page!

Engrish - when translations just don’t quite work for you!

mental & emotional health, interesting articles, breaking up with your blog, words to avoid in your writing, Thursday thirteen, time management, homemade holiday gifts, silly writing, bad writing, Engrish

I haven’t done a reeal mid-week me in a while and so I figured that it was time. I’ve tried to be good about keeping you all updated on how my mental health is, but these are just as fun to share with my readers!

So, while future-posting and watching Dancing With the Stars (learning to ballroom dance has made me want to watch this show … I never watched it before this season!) I’ll tell my readers about

The idea here is to write about ten things you have done that you’re pretty sure are unique - that no one else has done - and then you share. Knowing my friends and my faithful readers, I’ll probably get at least one “Hey! I’ve done that, too!” comment! Please do speak up if you have! I’d love to hear that I’m not unique! If you want to do this for your own blog, leave me a comment and I’ll link it within this post, too!

(more…)

Ever walk past someone, smell them, and immediately want to turn around and follow them because they smell so good?

No?

Oh. Yeah, me neither.

The picture? Yeah, it’s of Koeln … Cologne for the English-speakers out there. ; ) I used my trusty stock photography site to find “cologne” today and laughed out loud when I got this. Koeln was one of my favorite German cities while I was there. I climbed to the top of that highest spire you see right there. Yeah, I know I’m a rockstar.

OVER. Whelmed.
This post probably shouldn’t even count for a real post. I am ALL over the place and can’t set my mind straight on anything right now.

I think it may be time for an adult ADHD post … if I can remember to do it.

Lawd-almighty I’m busy. I need to re-learn this get-into-the-groove thing. Helpful suggestions are welcome. Not-so-helpful-yet-hilarious suggestions are as well.

mental & emotional health, back to school, overwhelmed, good smells

Diana, of Somebody Heal Me tagged me in a weird things meme over a week ago! I’m slow getting to it, but here are

Six Weird Things About Me

1. Like Diana, I have a hatred towards hair. Mine is a little more specific though; I cannot stand WET hair on me. In the shower, it totally grosses me out. If I start washing my face and there is hair on my hands when I do it, I totally get grossed out and have to rinse my face & hands and start all over. I am really grossed out by wet hair.

2. I always have background noise going on. Whether it’s the TV (50% of the time), music or podcasts (equally split), there is always something on making noise. Right now it’s the Big Brother 8 finale. I have seen 90% of the season through OnDemand. I don’t always watch (I type blog entries while it’s on) but I like the background noise.

3. I love underwear. I have probably six-weeks worth of underwear. I just talked to my mom earlier about laundry and she worried that if I didn’t come down tonight I’d not have clean underwear for school. I got to tell her that I probably have another month’s worth of underwear in my drawer right now. My favorite type of underwear is a Maidenform pair of Samba’s. I adore them!

4. I’m a stacker. I stack everything. Papers, books, boxes, notebooks; they’re all stacked. My desk is normally a stack of papers and note pads and looking over right now, I clearly see a stack of papers to be filed. In front of me, on my coffee table, there is another stack of papers (for school). I like stacks to be neat and put together though.

5. The smell of sage takes me back to grade school age, but I have no idea why. I don’t remember what happened, why I love the smell of it, or exactly where it takes me back to, but the smell of sage is a powerful reminder of something. I have blackberry sage candles burning right now in hopes of figuring out WHERE I’m going with the smell.

6. I love a dressed-up-guy. This may not be weird, but I think ANY guy looks hotter dressed up. Put a suit & tie on a guy and I’ll swoon. Put him in a tux, with a long (not a bow) tie and I’m smitten. There is something about a guy all put together and cleaned up that just does it for me. Maybe that’s not really weird though.

Now I’m supposed to tag 6 people. If you’d like to do it, please do!

1. MissMiss … she doesn’t have a blog online but she has a MySpace.
2. ChelleBell … same as MissMiss!
3. Master of Irony
4. Terra of Eating Disorder Talk
5. Amanda of Depression Talk and
6. April of Life As A Christian Woman

mental & emotional health, somebody heal me, Diana Lee, meme, 6 weird things, hair, TV, Big Brother 8, underwear, Samba, Maidenform, organization techniques, sage, candles, boys in suits

I read a lot of blogs. I read health blogs, mom-blogs, photography blogs, fact blogs and every kind of blog in-between! I had a relaxing weekend where I was finally able to catch up on ALL of my blogs and found some that I wanted to pass on to my readers! Enjoy, follow the links, leave them comments and let me know what you think!

This post at Eating Disorder Talk made me stop, pause, and then re-read. “Heidi is a 25-year old girl. She allowed me to interview her and this two-part series is the result of her honesty and candidness. Today, I’ll cover what led her to present day’s habits. “

Depression Talk Online has a good entry about giving up her security blanket. She has been very candid in her feelings on giving up alcohol and I commend her effort and have faith that she’ll be able to do exactly what she wants.

I have written about Master of Irony beforehand, but lately her entries have been really moving me. MOI has recently taken the steps to get on disability and writes about her medication switch. She also has been playing with her blog layout which is always fun to see!

I’m a new reader to Life Tips Daily but am enjoying (and sometimes laughing) at the entries posted there!

Get Incensed sometimes makes me laugh (especially on Fridays) and sometimes makes me think, and sometimes just really makes me get incensed!

Later on in the week Diana, of Somebody Heal Me will be more fully featured, so I’ll keep it simple here; Di inspires me to take care of myself. She struggles to put herself first even when she’s hurting badly. I do the same.

Amalah’s latest entry What We Do When We’re Not Making Fun of the Dog was just another on the long list of entries that she writes that make me laugh. I consider her part of the cool crowd of blogging women and so I probably don’t comment there as often as I should, but she rarely fails to make me laugh!

Another blog that always makes me laugh is I Can Has Cheezburger. Seriously. Funny.

What do you regularly read that you think I should check out?

I’ve been tagged by Neel so now I get to have a mid-week me on Monday! It’ll be a Monday-Meme day or something!
-Pass your friends a note by leaving a comment.
-Visit them by hitting their site.
-Show them love with a link to their entry.

So here goes: Seven Things You (Probably) Don’t Know About Me
1. Most of my in-person/in-real-life/see-everyday friends don’t know about this blog. Some of them don’t know that I deal with so many mental illness issues and because I work really hard to keep myself 100% put together in front of them 100% of the time, so I don’t want all of them seeing the real me. Yes, this means that you, my faithful blog readers, get to see the real me.

2. I detest being called by diminutive names by people who I’m not close to. I’m okay with nicknames from my friends, from my family, and even if I’m close to a guy I’m dating, but I hate being called “sweetheart” by the grocery store clerk. I’m not her sweetheart and I never will be; I don’t call you honey-buns, you don’t need to demean me and call me sweetheart! (I’ve been told I’d never cut it in the South because of this!)

3. The sound of ocean waves puts me in a melancholy & contemplative mood. I love the ocean, I love the water, I love the salt, I love the sand, I love the fact that I’m standing on the edge of a continent when I’m at the ocean, and it always makes me think. I didn’t see the ocean for the first time until I was 12 (I played on glaciers in AK when I lived there, but didn’t count that as the ocean) and ever since then I’ve been entranced by the feelings the ocean gives me. The ocean makes me want to write. Even just writing about the ocean makes me want to write.

4. A year ago I lived with such strong social anxiety I couldn’t make friends. I couldn’t keep friends because I wouldn’t leave the house to hang out with them, I wouldn’t call them back, I wouldn’t even write them back with emails because I was that anxious about making the “right” impression on people. I have grown so much in the past year that I have no problem making new friends, calling people back, attending concerts (I saw Willie Nelson on Saturday night and that was AMAZING!) and thoroughly enjoying myself while I do so.

5. I love to cook, but hate cooking for only myself. I make mean chicken or ground turkey enchiladas and I’ve never had anyone complain about them. I love to bake (especially sourdough and banana bread) and take pride in people complimenting my culinary abilities. Because I don’t like to cook for myself, I don’t cook hardly enough anymore though. Eating the same thing day after day can drive me crazy so leftovers (which I do love) aren’t always fun for myself. I need to learn to FREEZE stuff and then just reheat it a week later when I’m ready for it again.

6. Vacuuming is my absolute favorite chore. There is something relaxing about the back and forth motion of the electric sucking machine. Everyone I tell this to stares at me funny and I always laugh. I hate to clean the bathroom* (don’t really know why) but I do love to suck dirt from the carpets with my trusty Shark!

7. I think I have a mineral deficiency. I have recently realized that I am starting to bruise really easily, and have been doing research as to why. One of the things that came up may be that I am eating too many almonds. Almonds apparently have some of the same properties as aspirin and I’ve been eating a lot of them, so that may be part of it. I could also be lacking in Vitamin C (which might very well be the case, too). I’m going to continue doing my research and see what happens.

Now I’m supposed to tag some other people so I’m picking four people I know regularly read me!
1. Amanda at Depression Talk
2. Mad at Mad Haiku (do it in Haiku form and you’ll be even more of my hero!)
3. Mallory at Mallory In The Middle
4. Just Me at Master of Irony (when you have time, sweetheart! *giggles*)

mental and emotional health, meme, 7 things about me, personal, nicknames, pet peeves, grocery shopping, ocean, sounds, waves, writing, melancholy, contemplative, social anxiety, making friends, keeping friends, growing, learning, healing, cooking, recipes, leftovers, mineral deficiency, vitamin C, vitamin K iron, anemia

*that bathroom is NOT mine!

I’ve had 10 people find this blog from a search on UNICORNS!!!
Oh how that makes me laugh.

I don’t believe in unicorns.
This means I don’t believe in baby unicorns, either.
I’ve never seen a unicorn.
I’ve never seen The Last Unicorn and I’ve never heard the soundtrack either.
I don’t ever remember writing about unicorns … so how are people finding the site through that? LOL

Some other weird search terms people are using to find this blog: “cliparteyebrows,” “victory,” “baby unicorns,” “cool looking,” “divorce comic,” “how to make doughnuts,” “mount st.helen paperweight,” and my favorite … “mental diagnosis paris hilton”! LOL

This deserved a double post (the news post will show up later, I have to be at a job 45 minutes away at 7:30am and so things are a bit off right now) for the day … I just had to share that.

I forgot to post on Friday! I don’t know what came over me (well, I do, honestly … I had to feed a boy dinner and I was actually nervous about it!) and I just spaced writing! Today I will try for TWO whole posts since I do heart my readers!

First of all, I got this great quiz in my inbox that I really felt the need to share. Interesting questions & even more interesting answers!

Here is a quiz for people who know everything! I found out in a hurry that I didn’t. These are not trick questions. They are straight questions with straight answers.

1. Name the one sport in which neither the spectators nor the participants know the score or the leader until the contest ends.

2. What famous North American landmark is constantly moving backward?

3. Of all vegetables, only two can live to produce on their own for several growing seasons. All other vegetables must be replanted every year. What are the only two perennial vegetables?

4. What fruit has its seeds on the outside?

5. In many liquor stores, you can buy pear brandy, with a real pear inside the bottle. The pear is whole and ripe, and the bottle is genuine; it hasn’t been cut in any way. How did the pear get inside the bottle?

6. Only three words in standard English begin with the letters ” dw” and they are all common words. Name two of them.

7. There are 14 punctuation marks in English grammar. Can you name at least half of them?

8. Name the only vegetable or fruit that is never sold frozen, canned, processed, cooked, or in any other form except fresh.

9. Name 6 or more things that you can wear on your feet beginning with the letter “S.”

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Answers To Quiz:
1. The one sport in which neither the spectators nor the participants know the score or the leader until the contest ends: Boxing

2. North American landmark constantly moving backward Niagara Falls (The rim is worn down about two and a half feet each year because of the millions of gallons of water that rush over it every minute.)

3. Only two vegetables that can live to produce on their own for several growing seasons . . Asparagus and rhubarb.

4. The fruit with its seeds on the outside . Strawberry.

5. How did the pear get inside the brandy bottle? It grew inside the bottle. (The bottles are placed over pear buds when they are small, and are wired in place on the tree. The bottle is left in place for the entire growing season. When the pears are ripe, they are snipped off at the stems.)

6. Three English words beginning with dw Dwarf, dwell and dwindle

7. Fourteen punctuation marks in English grammar. Period, comma, colon, semicolon, dash, hyphen, apostrophe, question mark, exclamation point, quotation marks, bracket s, parenthesis, braces, and ellipses.

8. The only vegetable or fruit never sold ! frozen, canned, processed, cooked, or in any other form but fresh Lettuce.

9. Six or more things you can wear on your feet beginning with “s” . Shoes, socks, sandals, sneakers, slippers, skis, skates, snowshoes, stockings, stilts.

quiz, entertainment, funnies, boxing, Niagra Falls, asparagus, rhubarb, strawberry, pears, Brandy, dwarf, dwell, dwindle, punctuation marks, lettuce, personal, mental and emotional health

Did you know that laughing has been proven to help your health?

“When we laugh, natural killer cells which destroy tumours and viruses increase, along with Gamma-interferon (a disease-fighting protein), T-cells (important for our immune system) and B-cells (which make disease-fighting antibodies). As well as lowering blood pressure, laughter increases oxygen in the blood, which also encourages healing.” “Science of Laughter” Discovery Health Website

“Without humor one’s thought processes are likely to become stuck and narrowly focused leading to increased distress.” Association for Applied and Therapeutic Humor

and my favorite quote by far: “By the time a child reaches nursery school, he or she will laugh about 300 times a day. Adults laugh an average of 17 times a day.” “Science of Laughter” Discovery Health

Laughter lowers blood pressure - if you laugh regularly, your standing blood pressure will be lower than the average person. Initially with a laugh, your BP may rise, but then it will decrease to lower than normal and your breathing will even become deeper sending extra oxygen and nutrients through our blood!

Humor changes our biochemical state - antibody levels are raised during laughter, attentiveness, heart rates & pulses are also quickened!

Laughter gives our bodies a good workout - ever laughed so hard that your stomach hurt? You’re massaging your abdominal muscles, toning your intestinal functioning and using your diaphragm, respiratory system, facial, leg & back muscles. It has been estimated that a good laugh can buy the equivalent amount of calories as several minutes on an exercise bike or rowing machine!

Humor improves brain function and relieves stress - this is my favorite benefit of laughter! Laughter eases muscle tension & psychological stress keeping your brain more alert & ready to retain more information!

“Humor enhances our ability to affiliate or connect with others. Humor helps us replace distressing emotions with pleasurable feelings. You cannot feel angry, depressed, anxious, guilty, or resentful and experience humor at the same time. Lacking humor will cause one’s thought processes to stagnate leading to increased distress. Humor changes behavior – when we experience humor we talk more, make more eye contact with others, touch others. Humor increases energy, and with increased energy we may perform activities that we might otherwise avoid. Finally, humor is good for mental health because it makes us feel good!”

Humor & Laughter: Health Benefits

humor, stress, laughter, Discovery Health, Association for Applied and Therapeutic Humor