Tag: selfcare

Working on Us, Week 6

Posted on by Barb
Hands Over Face
Photo from Pixabay

On her blog, Beckie of Beckie’s Mental Mess has introduced a set of prompts that touches on mental illness. Each week she offers up 2 prompts for bloggers to use in a nonfiction, fiction, or poetry piece. You can respond to either prompt, or both. For more information, click here. The rules are below. This week, I am responding to Prompt 1.

 

Rules:

  • Write your own post and create a pingback to the original post here.
  • There are no right or wrong answers.  Write in any format you see fit.  (Answer’s, fiction, non-fiction, poetry, poem, short prose…anything).
  • You can do one or all prompts.
  • You have from July 10th. through to July 17th to submit your entries.
  • Please reblog the original post in order to spread more awareness.
  • If you the blogger have a suggestion/question you want to ask in the future weeks, please submit them in the comment section of this post.
  • Let’s see if we can get some men involved in this weeks prompts, your feelings a validated here too!
  • Plus, as an added bonus, whoever responds to the following prompts will automatically be reblogged to promote your blog site!

~ 💚 ~

Week #6 Prompts: 

Prompt #1 Questions:

1. There are so many varieties of depression out there, such as Bipolar Depression, and (SAD) Seasonal Affective Disorder.  What type of depression do you suffer from, or have? I’ve suffered from bipolar depression for half of my adult life, as well as from seasonal changes (SAD).

2. What do you do to fight your depression? (Meaning, therapy, medications, meditation, ECT). Medication and therapy, inpatient hospitalizations, partial hospitalizations, and finally ECT, which I no longer undergo. And to be honest, I don’t know if I would choose that treatment option in the future.

3. Does anything help you, and if so… What? ECT has helped in the past, but it isn’t a permanent solution. More recently, my psychiatrist switched my mood stabilizer from Tegretol to lithium, which has lessened my depressive symptoms. It’s working.

Self-Care: Chiropractic Care

Posted on by Barb
Spine
Photo credit: wu_135 on VisualHunt / CC BY

My lower (and sometimes upper) back is killing me. It has been since sometime last year or maybe last autumn. I can’t remember.

At first I attributed this to sleeping on the couch which I did almost every night because of my insomnia. Then I thought it was because of the bed.

For weeks now (that I remember), I’ve been waking up in bed in a huge amount of pain. Sometimes the pain even wakes me up. I finally decided to take care of myself and saw a chiropractor. I’d seen one in the past, but then she moved away and I never looked for another chiropractor.

So last Saturday, after my new chiropractor checked out my spine by having me do range-of-motion-type (I think that’s what it’s called) stuff like squatting and walking, it seems that my back is seriously fucked up. He went through all the different stuff that isn’t as it should be (he was very informative; unfortunately, my poor cognition doesn’t allow me to remember much). I have mild scoliosis (a curve in the spine) and my core needs work. *groan* When he said that, all I could think of was having to do a bunch of lower abs exercise. Yuck!

After having gone to physical therapy where they give you different (stretching) exercises as “homework,” how could I have thought that I wouldn’t get homework from the chiropractor? Especially one who is also a physical therapist! Luckily, it’s only one exercise and it’s not v-sits. (Yet.) I’m to lie on my back with my legs in the air like a baby, and practice breathing from my diaphragm. Not as easy as it sounds, but doable.

Have you ever been treated by a chiropractor? What are your thoughts?

2 Ways of Living

Posted on by Barb

Sand FootprintsHow to live seems to be a huge thing now, like “living intentionally” and “living your best life.” I first heard of the former sometime last year, and I just don’t understand what it means. My therapist explained it to me, but I still don’t get the concept.

People say things like, “set an intention (for the day/week/month/year).” What does that mean? According to Wikipedia, it’s living a life “based on an individual or group’s conscious attempts to live according to their values and beliefs.” Does that mean intending to do something specific that day, that aligns with your beliefs? How do you choose what the intention will be? Do you have to be accountable to somebody, or just yourself? Do you need a bullet journal? I don’t know. (By the way, that is not a dig on bullet journals.)

Then there’s “living your best life.” The first time I heard this was during my first hospitalization last year. There was a goals group in the morning, and one patient set a goal every day to “live his best life.” Basically, I think it means to live up to your potential. Personally, I thought he said this every day to make sure he had a goal to share during group. After all, the more you participate willingly, the sooner you’ll be discharged.

I guess I learned how to live my best life while writing this post by reading up on it a bit, but that doesn’t mean I’m doing it. As for my intentional life? That still needs work.

Do you live intentionally and/or your best life?

No More Electronics

Posted on by Barb

SONY DSC
Photo credit: Mr.[ A7b il7oB }™.. on Visual Hunt / CC BY
Recently, my husband and I stopped using electronics and watching TV while we’re eating. It doesn’t sound like a big deal, but the habits are so ingrained in us that it just happens automatically: my phone dings, I check it. If I happen to take a picture (of like, my food) while we’re eating, I immediately post it to Instagram. And then continue eating. Often while we’re having a conversation, something comes up that has to be Googled, and my husband just picks up his phone to Google it.

We have been doing well, thankfully. Sure, one of us slips up now and then, but for the most part, we’re rocking no electronics!

We began doing this because it was presented as a challenge in my weight-loss app. Who doesn’t like a challenge? Also, not using electronics during meals was part of a chapter on eating mindfully, to sort of prepare us for doing just that. Not using electronics while we eat lets us better concentrate on our food, which helps us remain in the present. It’s what mindful eating is about to me, anyway.

We’re encouraged to take a bite, chew slowly, and note the flavors, the textures, how the food feels against our mouths, what it’s like to swallow. It sounds kind of weird, but your relationship with food will change. You’ll appreciate it more. You might even eat less because you’ll feel full from eating slowly. By the way, did you know that putting your fork down after each bite helps you eat slowly?

Finally, a major point in our eating without electronics is that it allows my husband and me to have a conversation instead of vegging in front of the TV. We still eat in the living room, though, but hopefully we will eat at the table again.

Have you heard of mindful eating, or practice eating mindfully? What are your thoughts?

Massage Creepiness

Posted on by Barb
woman relaxing relax spa
Photo by Pixabay on Pexels.com

Massage is wonderful for depression because you release serotonin. If you’re depressed, your serotonin level may be deficient. It also helps reduce the tightness in your muscles, but you already know that!

I used to get a massage every 4 weeks at the salon where I go regularly. Then my massage therapist took another job, and I haven’t had regular massages since. He was never replaced. This was like a year ago. Since then, I’ve only received maybe 2 massages, one by a man and one by a woman.

There’s a massage place not far from me. All they do is massage. I’ve been there once before and left satisfied. However, I’ve been hesitating making an appointment. I don’t know why. Maybe because you get any one of their 14 therapists, male or female? Though most of them are women.

I’ve had one male therapist — the one who left the salon — and I felt comfortable around him, not vulnerable. I had another male therapist one time only, and he did an awesome job. It was the best massage I’ve ever had! I didn’t feel vulnerable around him, but he was kind of creepy. He would moan and groan every so often while working on me. Yikes!

So I don’t know what to expect with guys. On the one hand, men apply pressure strongly and really get at those knots. On the other hand, they (and I suppose women) can be weird, like the Moaner.

Maybe I can request a specific therapist, or whether I prefer a male or female therapist. All I have to do is pick up the phone and call them. But I hate talking on the phone so much, which is another reason I’ve been procrastinating. Even though my muscles are screaming to be unknotted!

Would you prefer a massage therapist of the same or opposite sex? Or does it matter?