The season of indulgence has begun. If you received trick-or-treaters at your home, then you may still have leftover candy tempting you. Thanksgiving offers a delicious feast, served up with a side order of gratitude, followed by the biggest shopping day of the year.
The holiday season is presented as “the most wonderful time of the year,” but for many, it is overwhelming, lonely, and draining.
Do you ever soothe yourself with food after a hard day? Usually we think of emotional eating as turning to unhealthy comfort food when we are upset. But you can attend to your mood by making healthy eating choices. With a few yummy substitutions in your snack drawer, you can improve your psychological and physical health.
Blood sugar fluctuations can be associated with moodiness. Stabilize yourself emotionally while managing your weight by eating healthy snacks in between smaller meals. For example, you might consider putting a baggie of nuts and dark chocolate chips into your purse or desk drawer to keep yourself consistently fueled and emotionally even. Dark chocolate seems to improve mood by boosting endorphins. Continue reading
Imagine that a dear friend calls you in distress. How would you respond? What would you say? What would your tone of voice sound like? Now, consider how you talk to yourself when you are distraught, or when you’ve made a mistake. Do you treat yourself with the same kindness and warmth you would offer to a friend? Is it easier to be understanding and kind toward someone else than to yourself?
If you tend to approach yourself with criticism and harshness, consider how you can be a better friend to yourself. When you support a friend, you likely see your friend more holistically. You see your friend’s struggles and strengths. You see his/her mistakes in a broader context. You can be merciful toward your friend. How might you bring this Friend Mindset to your own self-observation? Continue reading
Clinical depression is categorically different from the common experience of having the blues for a few hours or days. Depression is a lasting, pervasive, and overwhelming feeling of deep sadness, irritability, apathy, hopelessness, and self-loathing that interferes with life functioning. Other symptoms of depression include concentration problems, obsessive negative thoughts, increased or decreased sleep and/or appetite, feeling sluggish, and thoughts of suicide.
Like cancer, depression is an attack from within. Instead of the body being besieged by its own cancerous cells, in the case of depression, the person is viciously assaulted by his/her own thoughts. Just like cancer, depression is a biological disease. The brain’s chemistry causes self-destructive thinking and behavior, which can be disabling and even lethal, in cases of suicide.