Depression Rescue

By Lisa Fyfe

Don’t we all, secretly, really want life to be only good?

Of course, we all know that life is a combination of many emotions, happening simultaneously. At any given moment I can feel happy, annoyed, confused, and a little anxious. The trick is to be able to accept all these feelings at once and stop trying to fight the ones we don’t like.

For example, my family recently took a vacation to the mountains. We had a great time, especially the kids, who loved running and playing outdoors with the children of friends we traveled with. We had great conversations, enjoyed an amazing outdoor concert, enjoyed wonderful food and wine, and had lots of laughs. The traveling part, however…

The challenge for me was not to let the difficult parts — crying children who do not enjoy sitting in car seats for an extended period of time and who require lots of interaction — overwhelm the wonderful part, which was real quality time spent together as a family.

I practiced a meditation I learned from Dr. Jennifer Howard, (who also writes for ezinearticles.com)which was to imagine holding both experiences –the enjoyable and the difficult — in either of my hands at once. I visualized the enjoyable feelings in my hand as light, airy, and smooth, and the difficult feelings as heavier, more angular, and dense. Rather than wishing the heavier feelings would become more light, I simply “held” both of these feelings at once, until they morphed and began to feel naturally balanced and indistinguishable from each other.

I love this meditation because it provides a visual for living a balanced, emotionally integrated life. In order for our feelings not to become out of balance — as in depression where sadness becomes the primary focus, for example — we need to work to accept all of our feelings, not just the pretty, desirable ones.

What’s helped me to do this has been the realization that even the most challenging experiences have brought my life some value. To take a much lighter example: during the difficult drive to the mountains I discovered that my son has an wonderful sense of humor and that he has a engaging social disposition.

Coming to this realization required several steps: I had to acknowledge that his fussing was making me angry because it interfered with my version of a perfect vacation — something to do with quiet children in a car so that I could enjoy the mountain view. I had to acknowledge this anger and the feelings that lied beneath it, which freed it to dissolve. This allowed me to focus my attention on him, (which is the ever-present requirement/challenge in parenting, to turn our attention away from ourselves to our children) so that I could help him to manage his emotions. Through engaging with him we strengthened our bond, thereby enriching both our experiences.

I find it very healing to return to this theme of accepting both the pleasant and the unpleasant because it helps me to realize that life is both of these things, at all times. I stop grasping for the unattainable — an easy life — if only for a few moments. I’m able to glimpse in to see the beauty in the midst of the struggle and often the beauty is so intimately connected to the difficult part that I have to laugh. How truly perfect life is, in the midst of imperfection.

Lisa Fyfe, M.S., is a former high school English teacher turned stay-at-home-mom. Her interests include natural health, nutrition, and parenting as a path to spiritual growth. She is a Reiki Master, essential oil healer, and also runs a website that documents her natural recovery from depression, at http://www.holistic-treatment-for-depression.com

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Lisa_Fyfe http://EzineArticles.com/?Taking-the-Bad-With-the-Good-Makes-Us-More-Whole&id=1310336

Tags: depression, meditation, spirituality

by Greg Katz

We always associate peer pressure with negative attributes. The myth of peer pressure is that it drives us to do things that are not in our best interest. Let’s reframe peer pressure and see how it can serve you in improving your health and help you develop your inner illness warrior. Recent research by David Spiegel at Stanford University shows that although support groups don’t increase longevity, they do increase the quality of life of participants.

The most likely place to engage peer pressure following an illness diagnosis is a support group. Most organizations have disease specific groups so that the members have a common ground and language. One of the aspects of a support group is that its admission is rolling so people leave and new people enter the group so you have varying levels of experience with the illness. Here’s some ways that peer pressure in the group can improve your health.

Creating Options and Alternatives

No matter how much research we do we won’t be able to discover every treatment option, alternative therapies or allied health resources related to our illness. Everyone’s interests will differ so if you’re more inclined to research natural remedies, someone else in group may be looking at clinical trials for new allopathic treatments. It’s this opportunity to create a treatment buffet that broadens your options in planning for treatment. There is an increased likelihood that we’ll follow through on treatment when we have more information about options and alternatives. Having the power of choice that is instigated by members of the group is empowering.

Making Decisions

Having others in a group who are ahead of you in the treatment process is a gift. You don’t have to re-invent the wheel. You don’t have blaze any new trails. All you have to do is get the information both factual and anecdotal and make informed decisions. The members of your group will offer their input but it’s not a prescription, it’s only their experience. The members of the group are like a living pro and con list offering you the triumphs and tragedies that come with specific treatments. Take the information and use it to make treatment choices that fit your life and your end goal correlating with your definition of wellness or health.

Keeping You On Track

One of the great assets of belong to a support group is that once you make a decision and announce it to the world you have group that will hold accountable for your actions. You will be asked about how your implementing the treatment plan and how it’s impacting your day-to-day life. They aren’t trying to bully you, but the simple truth is that compliance with treatment regimens increases your chances at recovery. You don’t get to pick and choose the days you take your medication, it’s non-negotiable.

By joining a support group you enlist your own illness army. The information available to you is priceless. You can cut a lot of time off your learning curve about coping with illness from those who are ahead of you on their own journey to wellness.

Looking for other ways to shorten your learning curve on coping with illness? Get your FREE copy of our special report “The 5 Pillars of Health and Healing” and as a special gift you’ll receive our audiovisual program “Instilling Hope for Health”. It’s available right now and it’s FREE at http://www.survivingstrong.com

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Greg_Katz http://EzineArticles.com/?Health-Crisis?–3-Reasons-to-Join-a-Support-Group&id=1324798

Tags: Illness and Depression, Support Groups

by Franchis

It is a well-known fact that subliminal messages are real, in fact, I use them to help individuals re-program their minds when they have been infected by what I call negative mental viruses and imprints. Imprints actually begin long before we become aware of them, and actually they begin when we are in our mother’s womb.

We won’t be speaking here about genetic imprinting, but rather about subliminal mind messaging. This happens at incredibly fast speeds as images and words are being flashed infront of your eyes at milisecond speeds undectable to the human eyes. Although the eyes cannot see the messages, or process them within the conscious mind, the subconscious mind picks them up and retains them.

So imagine you are sitting infront of the television set, or you walk into a store, get on an elevator, drive your car, go to a movie; you are being bombarded with subliminal messages over and over and over again. It could be thoughts that make you hungry, or angry, or give you a catalyst to “act” in some way contrary to your normal behavior pattern or demeanor. Or it can be inaudible whisper messages in audible programs. There are subliminal tape machines that professionals use to process self-improvement tapes, and these are also used in mass media productions. There are skeptics that will not believe this, but nonetheless it is true. Certainly there are laws in place that restrict the inappropriate use of such techniques, but who would know??? People do not have to believe in subliminal messages in order to be affected by them. It takes no effort. Subliminal messages are absorbed both through the eyes and the ears.

Although these invisible and inaudible messages can destroy our willpower to one degree or another, they can also be used to enhance our lives. Subliminal messages can be used to change your daily life in ways that are unimaginable to the average person. These messages can be used to imprint a new and positive behavior, or mental attitude. Professional sports players and executives and other prominent people around the globe use subliminal message sequences and hypno-therapy to help reduce addictive behaviors, perfect a skill, or be better at giving a speech, retaining information and many other enhancements to their personal lives. Simple ideas like repeating positive affirmations are lower levels of subliminal imprinting. If you see an encouraing statement every day, it will eventually affect you.

You can better appreciate how subliminal messages work when you understand that the mind is like an iceberg, with 10% being the Conscious Mind and 90% being the Subconscious Mind. Any message that is not filtered out by the critical Conscious Mind slips into the uncritical Subconscious Mind and has a massive effect on attitude and behavior.

This is actually a wonderful discovery and one that can greatly benefit the majority of people. How wonderful to be able to improve one’s life without any effort. That’s right – it takes no effort on the part of the receiver. You can even program yourself by placing positive messages on your computer screen, along with positive images too. That silly stuff you have heard about placing million dollar bills and checks written to yourself for thousands of dollars in conspicuous places really works! Leave a few of those “million dollar” bills in your purse/wallet and in the kitchen and bedrom. It will eventually program your mind to be able to accept that amount more easily. You can program yourself by placing positive affirmations on the front screen of your phone and many places around your home. Imagine that every time you opened your computer and it had a wonderful message flashing such as “I am successful” “I make wise decisions” “I feel wonderful” “I only eat when I am truly hungry”—you get the idea!

Since I have successfully used subliminal custom tapes in therapy sessions with clients over the last twenty-odd years, I know that they work. Now that I am seeing clients again, you can come in for a visit, experience a subliminal positive messaging session with Sound & Light technology combination to improve your life. I will also be selling the Professional Quality Subliminal Tapes for personal use once again. I use only the foremost authority in the country’s tape/CD sets to help overcome specific life impasses.

It is worth the experience! Help yourself change your life today. You CAN overcome addictions, negative attitudes and habits that impact your life daily, absorb more when you read, have greater confidence, and achieve many of your life goals. Positive imprinting starts happening from the moment we are conceived and continues throughout our lives. TAKE CONTROL OF THE MOVIES IN YOUR MIND…make yourself THE STAR!!

If you are interested in supporting your body’s mental/emotional system, consider a Totally Well Supplement to help feed your body more of the elements it needs daily. Just click the Link at the top right of this main page. If you don’t see what you need on my list, call for a custom formula.

Wishing you every success physically, mentally and emotionally!

Read out Alzheimer’s treatment . Also check out for herbal remedies for anxiety and anxiety attacks

Article Source: http://www.articledashboard.com/Article/Mind-Messaging-and-Subconscious-Mind/310899

Tags: mind messaging, subconscious mind