Tag: Depression

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Weight Loss Exercise

Are You Burned Out?



Burnout is the term used for a state of exhaustion; mentally, physically, and emotionally. Who gets burnout? It can be young mothers or busy volunteers who try to be everything to everyone with no time left over for themselves. It can be employees who are doing the work of many with no end in sight or an employer who has a lot of pressure to show results. It can be you. Take a look at these possible symptoms to see if you might be suffering from burnout:

Apathy in all areas of life.
Unsociable – unwillingness to socialize with others. Withdrawn.
Chronically fatigued or exhausted.
Poor sleep patterns or insomnia.
Weight gain or weight loss.
Possible depression.
Anger.
Low tolerance for others’ comments or behavior. Irritable and on edge. Overreact.
Physical symptoms – headaches, other aches and pains, constantly sick.
Forgotten how to have fun.
High level of criticism of self.
Self medicating with food, alcohol, or drugs.
Feelings of powerlessness and low self image.
Do things out of sense of commitment, but begrudgingly.
Mood swings.
Anxiety.

If you recognize many of these symptoms of burnout, don’t brush them aside. It’s time for you to take positive steps to stop the burnout. If you don’t, you may continue on with further physical or mental problems. There is no quick fix to relieve burnout, but there are steps you can take that will slowly guide you to a healthier, happier life.

First off, you need to explore what is causing your burnout and address the source. Options then are to get away from the stress, minimize the number of occurrences or the degree of stress, or learn how to change your attitude towards the stress. Think of some positive triggers that sound pleasing to you:

* Take a vacation to distance yourself from the stress and to relax.
* If your job is a bad fit or you’re to the point of feeling physically sick when you think about your job, you need to take positive action towards finding a new one. Don’t make excuses about the downturn of the economy, company layoffs, not qualified, etc., take action anyway.
* Start saying “no” to others who demand more of your time than you are willing to give. There should be no guilt because if you don’t take care of yourself first, there will eventually be nothing left for you to give.
* Learn to routinely treat yourself to relaxation, even if you don’t want to or feel too busy. Pick what works for you – a bubble bath, a good book, an all time favorite movie.
* Rediscover a passion. Once upon a time you liked to do ______________. Start doing it again, even in small doses.
* Seek help from a counselor, medical doctor, or mental health professional.

Burnout can happen when you’re overcommitted and overworked. If you’ve taken a look at the list of possible symptoms above and feel like you have burnout, take steps now to get back on track and love life again.


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Weight Loss Exercise

Acupuncture as Alternative Therapy



Acupuncture as Alternative Therapy

Acupuncture as Alternative Therapy

Why Acupuncture is a Great Alternative Therapy

Whether you want to believe it or not, there are literally millions of people located all around the world that engage in the practice of the alternative therapy of acupuncture each and every day. There are many reasons to practicing this alternative therapy that the Chinese instituted, too, but the best reason of all is that it actually has been found to work. On the same side of the coin, though, there are many reasons why acupuncture is a great alternative therapy to deal with. Here are some of the arguments for why acupuncture is so great throughout the whole world:

The Mystery of Acupuncture

One of the reasons that many people consider acupuncture therapy to be such a great and revolutionary therapy is because of the mystery behind the whole concept. Let’s face it: the idea that ancient civilizations in the Far East used this type of therapy to be able to cure the sick, help with many different illnesses across the board, and use it as a trade item is just downright weird and mysterious. Furthermore, why would the civilization who started it all want to take this alternative therapy to other lands, including the United States? There could have been great profits by allowing only the Chinese to experience the benefits of acupuncture, but now everyone throughout the world is able to experience them. Indeed, the mystery behind some of the questions and origins of acupuncture therapy truly contribute to how amazing and great the therapy of acupuncture really is.

The Benefits of Acupuncture

This was touched on a little bit, but acupuncture has a great deal of benefits that are able to be clearly seen and researched by those who are intrigued. Some of the common ailments that are able to be treated with acupuncture therapy successfully include the bacterial common cold, influenza, cholera, constipation, diarrhea, Depression, arthritis, ear aches, headaches, hernias, hemorrhages, as well as a whole host of other illnesses, disorders, and other diseases that haven’t yet been named. In addition, though many cancers may also be able to be healed through the use of the great acupuncture therapy! But there are also so many diseases and disorders that have yet to be studied whether or not they are truly helped by acupuncture!

Acupuncture is a break From Traditional Values

One other reason that many people consider acupuncture to be one of the best alternative medicines is because it is a chance to break free from the traditional values of our culture at least for a little while. While the American culture tends to shun anything new that is also unknown and cannot be studied scientifically, acupuncture therapy definitely cannot and has not been studied scientifically yet. The many benefits of acupuncture have not even been tapped yet since no one knows exactly what goes on in the body!

All in all, though, acupuncture is an awesome therapy that must be practiced in order to be kept throughout the ages. Even though there are plenty of skeptics around, the number of believers in acupuncture continues to grow everyday!

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General Weight Loss Tips

Thoughts on Twitter

This week flew by! I kept up with taking food photos, but had a hard time coming here to make an actual post. This week successful in a few ways: I tracked all of my food, I lost seven pounds, I exercised, I got a lot of work done. And then not so successful because I just felt bad about myself all week. I know it is most likely hormone related depression, but it’s awful to feel bad emotionally.

I go in and out of clarity and that feel good feeling that suddenly, without warning goes away. All I can do is just ride it out. I have very mellow dramatic thoughts in days like this so I know it’s better for me to just stay away from most forms of social communication where all I want to do is whine and be passive aggressive. Social media can be lonely especially when you feel ignored or that your life is summed up in  140 characters.

I really want to get out of social media as my main means of keeping up with people. On the other hand I enjoy sharing projects,  blog and stuff I’m working on. I just sometimes feel like when I’m away from twitter, I lose touch. And it shouldn’t be that way, I didn’t even know what twitter was until recently- and now it’s my main source of communication with far too many people. There isn’t a lot that feels good about twitter and I haven’t read much that contributes positively to my life.

I have a friend who doesn’t use social media in any way. She has two businesses that run on word of mouth and when we want to catch up? We meet for lunch, email or call. We do this about once a week, and it’s refreshing not to have our relationship hanging in the balance of tweets. Call it old fashioned, but it’s a way less complicated friendship. We aren’t annoyed by the tweets of each other, or judging what the other has said, or reading into every menial thought or complaint the other has shared. I’m never worried that I didn’t congratulate her or acknowledge her in her latest tweets because I missed it. And I’m never sore with her because she never tweets me back, or interacts with me. We just have real communication, and it feels healthier.

I’m not saying twitter/facebook isn’t helpful, but I often feel left out of the swing of things. I don’t have a boring job and I’m not wishing the days away until the weekend (omg! TGIF!!!)  with my thoughts on twitter. Most days I have nothing witty, funny or smart to say. I don’t want my interaction on twitter to be my only interaction with friends. When I tweet it’s usually about an interesting article I’ve read, or that I’ve updated my blog, or that I have jewelry to sell, or that I exercised. Everything else is just noise to me.

Because I don’t share every detail of my life online (I know that’s hard to believe) I get that feeling that people are suspicious of me. That they feel they don’t know the real me. And it’s true. This isn’t the whole of me, I don’t share every single project I’m working on, every single thing my husband or cats do, every time I leave the house, every thing I’m involved in- because really…who cares? I would bore myself with it all and I suspect others would be too. And when I do share something I’m excited about…no one does care. And that’s okay. Because there comes a point when we all start thinking things about each other that we normally wouldn’t think in a real relationship: okay,  we get it, you’re awesome. everything you touch turns to gold. you’re a goddess and totally rocking life. we all want to be like you.

Celebration on twitter often feels like bragging. And then I realize that sometimes my self-worth, my likability hangs in 140 character. And that is  not acceptable.

I feel like twitter has become a place tell anyone all of the random thoughts we have throughout the day. You’re sick again, your knee hurts, you hate your job/co-workers/boss, there is a spider on your desk, you hated some movie or tv show, you are having a shitty day, but wait, it’s awesome again(!). It just feels like uncontrolled mind noise, not moving forward, but backwards. I say all of this to say, that I am backing away from using social media as a way to keep up with people. I like email, I sometimes don’t mind a call or even a text, and planning for the next time we see each other.

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