10 Ways to Treat Depression Without Antidepressants Sarah Landrum, ContributorWaking Times You’ve probably been told that antidepressants correct the chemical imbalance in your brain. As it turns out, that’s not quite true. In fact, antidepressants might be doing you more harm than good. Even if antidepressants do work, the fact remains that they’re insanely expensive. It’s better to view antidepressants as a last resort, and try some – or all – of these alternative treatments first. 1. When you’re depressed, negative thoughts pour into your mind like water from a broken dam. Nothing – except meditation. “In the group work that I’ve done with sufferers of anxiety or depression, I’ve found (mindfulness meditation) very beneficial because it calms the mind,” says psychologist Katie Sparks. 2. Then again, maybe being an almost-Buddhist isn’t your thing. In that case, try exposing yourself to funny TV shows/movies/books/what-have-yous. 3. Depression is a manipulative and malicious little monster. Don’t listen to it. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9. 10. 1. 2.
Trigger Positive Emotions People who see the glass half-full are certainly happier than the pessimists of the world, and learning to think positively is worthwhile. However, changing the way you think can be surprisingly tricky, especially when the going gets tough. What if there were a way—a shortcut or hack—that positively affected how you feel when you just can’t seem to shake the blues? A few years ago, I came across a simple idea that has been validated in hundreds of experiments and has given rise to quick and effective exercises that can help you feel happier, avoid anxiety, increase your willpower, deepen relationships and boost confidence. Perhaps most surprising of all, it does not involve trying to change how you think. The idea dates back to the turn of the 20th century and to the work of Victorian philosopher William James. According to James’s theory, forcing your face into a smile should make you feel happy, and frowning should make you feel sad. Here are 10 positive-action exercises to try: 1. 2.
Yoga and Meditation Protect Cancer Survivors at Cellular Level Meditation and yoga are renowned for their ability to help cancer survivors alleviate mental and emotional distress. But now a significant new study has revealed that their benefits go even further into the cellular level: the findings show that yoga, meditation and social support protect the health of breast cancer survivors by helping to maintain telomere length. Telomeres are protective caps of DNA found at the ends of a chromosome. Since they keep the ends of the chromosome from fraying and deteriorating, they are often compared to a plastic tip on a shoelace. For the study, published in the journal Cancer, Alberta researchers discovered that telomere length was strongly preserved in breast cancer survivors who practice meditation and yoga or who participated in social support groups. “It’s important for people dealing with difficult emotions to find a way of processing them in a healthy way. The results are startling.
7 ways to practice emotional first aid You put a bandage on a cut or take antibiotics to treat an infection, right? No questions asked. In fact, questions would be asked if you didn’t apply first aid when necessary. So why isn’t the same true of our mental health? We are expected to just “get over” psychological wounds — when as anyone who’s ever ruminated over rejection or agonized over a failure knows only too well, emotional injuries can be just as crippling as physical ones. We need to learn how to practice emotional first aid. Pay attention to emotional pain — recognize it when it happens and work to treat it before it feels all-encompassing. Yes, practicing emotional hygiene takes a little time and effort, but it will seriously elevate your entire quality of life. See Guy Winch’s TED Talk, Why we all need to practice emotional first aid.
How to Free Yourself From Repressed Emotions Ryan Brown, ContributorWaking Times A common way in which we deal with unpleasant emotions is to suppress or ignore them. These are normal coping mechanisms our minds uses to handle situations we don’t particularly want to deal with in the present moment. When strong emotions come into our consciousness, there is often something inside of us which says, “This is going to ruin my happiness right now and I don’t like that, so I’ll just deal with it later.” The problem with this approach is that ‘later’ never comes and these emotions get pushed further down, out of our conscious awareness. It is a basic law of the universe that energy cannot be created or destroyed, it can only change form. This ‘dust’ is actually emotional energy that resonates with the repressed emotion. This internal pressure of repressed emotions is what many of us are afraid to look at. When an emotional trauma occurs, there is the choice to either deal with it effectively or to turn away from it. The Good News
Special Education – Nebraska Department of Education Revised Technical Assistance/Guidance Documents – August 2018 Extended School Year (ESY) Guidance Document – Aug 2018 (PDF) Improving Learning for Children with Disabilities (ILCD) Guidance Document – Aug 2018 (PDF) Least Restrictive Environment (LRE) Guidance Document – Aug 2018 (PDF) Non-Public Services to Children with Disabilities Enrolled by their Parents in Non-Public Schools – Aug 2018 (PDF) Transition Planning Guidance Document- Aug 2018 (PDF) IDEA Part C Determination The US Department of Education (the Department) has issued a determination under sections 616 and 642 of the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) for each state/territory. Public Reporting and Determinations Guides Public Reporting Part B Levels of Determination 2017 Alternative Assessment Criteria – The Alternate Assessment information is new and the Alternate Assessment Criteria document is required to be completed. IEP Team Decision Making Flow Chart District Phase II TIP New Guidance from the U.S.
Can Ayahuasca Cure PTSD? April M. Short, Reset.meWaking Times Donald “Donnie” Bumanglag spoke with Reset just months after sipping the psychedelic, sacred, traditional healing brew ayahuasca in the Peruvian Amazon. Unlike many of his fellow participants in the week long retreat program, Donnie is a 33-year-old veteran military combat medic and father of four. And, like many veterans, he was on the verge of suicide due to severe PTSD symptoms prior to his visit to the jungle (22 veterans take their own lives in the U.S. each day according to the Department of Veteran’s Affairs). For years, Donnie’s life felt like a trap he couldn’t escape. He grappled with the duality of “not just being the guy that was there to kill everybody, but also being the guy that was there to help people.” “It became very convoluted many, many times,” he said. Today, thanks in great part to stumbling upon a TED Talk about ayahuasca, he is living symptom-free and full of a hopefulness that seeps out in his voice when he speaks. War
School Matters - Information for Teachers This site has been designed for use as a cross-curricular ICT tool for Key Stages 1, 2 and 3. Through a series of fun, interactive games and activities, children will learn about different food-related issues: food safety, diet and nutrition, farm to fork and food technology. Activities can be used on individual PCs or interactive whiteboard in a variety of lessons, including science, geography, PSHE and citizenship and design technology. The site content is based around the Food Standards Agency recommended key stage competencies and all content is checked for accuracy by both the FSA and an independent educational consultant. Subjects Covered Food Safety This section aims to teach children a practical awareness of food safety and hygiene, with cross-curricular links with design & technology, PSHE & citizenship, and science. Find Out More Diet & Health This section aims to teach children about nutrition and healthy diet choices, with cross-curricular links to science, PSHE and citizenship.
11 Ways Our Society Treats Us Like Caged Rats: Do Our Addictions Stem from that Trapped Feeling? Charles Eisenstein, The FixWaking Times Instead of a moral failing or physiological malfunction, is addiction an adaptive response to circumstances? You’ve probably heard about those addiction studies with caged lab rats, in which the rats compulsively press the heroin dispensing lever again and again, even to the point of choosing it over food and starving themselves to death. These studies seemed to imply some pretty disheartening things about human nature. The rat addiction studies also seem to validate the main features of the War on Drugs. The implication is that drug addiction is not a moral failing or physiological malfunction, but an adaptive response to circumstances. Are we like rats in cages? Here are some ways to put a human being in a cage: —Remove as much as possible all opportunities for meaningful self-expression and service. —Cut people off from nature and from place. —Move life – especially children’s lives – indoors. The cages suffer no easy escape.
Cook, Learn, Grow! - A Cooking Blog for Kids My Mantis ET Encounter Part 3 - SOULSALIGHT | SOULSALIGHT My Mantis ET Encounter Part Three: Mantis Name Revealed By Luther Birdmaker, Soulsalight Member If you are living in a dream state, Your identity is fixed for specific reasons And questioning that identity has no purpose Since to play that game - to fulfill; that story - Just is to follow those rules, adopt that identity. But to a being who is awakening, No question is more exciting than, Who am I? Read My Mantis ET Encounter Part 1 & Part 2 By the time the next medicine circle rolled around again in late spring of 2014, I felt ready for it even though I always feel nervous going in. The first appearance of the mantis had corresponded to my kundalini awakening experience six months earlier, when I had come to understand that this being was helping to facilitate this process. I began to feel the most exquisite forces even in my daily life, without the help of powerful plant medicines. On the third day, alone and broken open by the medicine, I went even deeper.
New Research Reveals the Real Causes of Depression Dr. MercolaWaking Times Depression is thought to affect about one in 10 Americans.1 In 2010, antidepressants were the second most commonly prescribed type of medication in the US,2 hinting at the severity of the problem. Contrary to popular belief, depression is not likely caused by unbalanced brain chemicals; however there are a number of other biological factors that appear to be highly significant. Chronic inflammation is one. As noted in the featured article:3 “George Slavich, a clinical psychologist at the University of California in Los Angeles, has spent years studying depression, and has come to the conclusion that it has as much to do with the body as the mind. Scientists have also found that your mental health can be adversely impacted by factors such as vitamin D deficiency and/or unbalanced gut flora—both of which, incidentally, play a role in keeping inflammation in check, which is really what the remedy to depression is all about. Inflammation and Depression Dr.
Real talk: I've suffered from depression. Have you? This can help. Ready for some reality? In a place where the “pursuit of happiness” is one of our most inalienable rights, it often feels out of reach to me. This past winter, I had an entire month where I didn't want to do anything. I blamed it on "needing a break," but now that the sun's been out more I've realized the truth. I was depressed. (You may have noticed the lack of emails from me.) More specifically, I was suffering from seasonal affective disorder. At the time, I didn't want to admit anything was wrong with me. In truth, it was my body craving some rather basic nutrients -- primarily vitamin D. I know I'm not alone. The statistics are both alarming and heartbreaking… Depression in its myriad forms has swiftly become the leading cause of disability worldwide. In the United States alone, 1 in 4 adults suffer from a diagnosable mental disorder. But not all is well with our pharmacological approach to mood disorders. Granted, when appropriate, prescription drugs have their place in medicine.
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