More thoughts on sleep

Because of my growing concern about my bad sleep habits (by choice), I woke up the other morning with these thoughts on my mind…. “Sleep is like re-charging a battery. A full charge gives the battery full performance. A half-charge gives it half-performance. By way of sleep, when we don’t recharge our body system to the full recommendation of 8 hours and at a normal time, then we function and perform, in all ways, at a much lesser rate and quality”.

What a beautiful day!

Here in St. George, Utah, we have the most gorgeous fall and winter weather. At 3:30 this afternoon the temperature was 72 degrees! The air was fresh and clean smelling with a slight hint of a breeze. The sun was a welcomed warmth against my skin. It was the kind of afternoon where you delighted in sitting out in the midst of this pleasure, and deep breathing of its magic. Oh what great therapy for the stressed and depressed soul!

Hanging out in la-la land....aka the internet!

In actuality my depression is always a part of me...but in the fall and winter season it manifests itself more and even within this season I have my good and bad days. So I do various things to help that, as stated in these previous blog posts.

I have discovered that it helps me to go to la-la land for awhile when I am very down. I try to talk myself out of my sad feelings but sometimes I just need to go somewhere with my mind for awhile. For me, getting away or diverting my thoughts to something else usually helps a great deal.

Not everything works for me. When I am sad and melancholy, I have a hard time getting interested in books, organizing my surroundings, doing household tasks, working on projects, and the such.

I have a new found ability, or talent if you want to call it that. I love to write. That helps me. I love to watch movies. I love to get on the internet. We are all different and so we all have to find what helps and works for us.

Hanging out in la-la-land...aka the internet, is not all that bad. Some more healthy people will think it a big waste of time and that it will bring evil spirits. But the internet is chock full of helpful, interesting, fun, educational, and healthy information. It is a great learning place...and I am thinking only of the good, clean uplifting stuff. Educationally...the internet is unending in it’s resources. Whatever you want to know and learn about can be found in this form of la-la land...a temporary vacation spot for the sad, melancholy mind.

The locality and climate of where we live makes a difference, too

I live in St. George, Utah, USA. It is a very large city compared to the small country western town where I lived before. Not that I like large cities, I really don't. BUT....I do love the climate here! And for me that is the huge plus side of living here.

I can't handle very cold, snowy winters. It makes my depression much, much worse. Living here in St. George provides the ideal winters for me. I would say the normal high temperature during winter hovers around 50-60 degrees. The average normal winter lows at night gets around 25-30 degrees. Our summers DO get a little hotter than most places (110-115 degrees average).

I have a new blog friend who lives in Malaysia, and he has never been to the United States. He asked me if I would post some photos of where I live so that he could see some of the country.

Well, since previous to this I had already had thoughts of beginning another blog devoted just to the sights of beautiful St. George (and other areas of Utah), I have decided to do just that.

So, visit my new scenic blog.... "The Mountain and Desert Beauty of St. George, Utah, USA." See the link to the left of the roller coaster at the top of the homepage.

Busyness Elimination Therapy (or letting things go)

Pure and simple....it is just eliminating, or letting things go from our time schedule. When I start having too many demands on my time and find myself dreading leaving the house all the time to be somewhere that I have a responsibility to be....that is when my body starts short circuiting. Little by little different symptoms begin to appear, showing an effect it is having on my body and nervous system. Some of these symptoms are high stress, feeling overwhelmed, depression, irritability, crying, and dullness of mind. A friend of mine told me that she was concerned because she was having trouble with her memory. When she told me all that she was involved in, I thought no wonder she is having trouble. Her brain and her body was in overload.

There is nothing wrong with eliminating some things from our schedule....we are NOT failures by doing so, and we SHOULD NOT feel guilty for having to do this. It is for our own health and well-being. We are no good to ourselves and to others if we allow our self to get mentally, physically and emotionally ill.

Writing Therapy

Writing can be a very good outlet for the "downs". It does not matter if you have writing skills or not....just get a spiral notebook and pick up a pencil and start writing about your feelings!

Are you angry, frustrated or annoyed with something...or someone? Do you feel you are a victim in someway or another? Are you overwhelmingly sad? Do you have fears, anxiety, very low self-image? Write about it. Write about your feelings and thoughts. Get it all out of you, and onto the paper. Put a date on it and keep it.

Keeping all your writings can help you down the road by going back and re-reading them. It can help you to see the progress you have made. Of course you can throw your writings away....but this is THERAPY....and it can help you a lot by keeping them.

Can't Sleep?

When I am depressed I sometimes do and sometimes don’t have trouble falling asleep....once I get to bed, that is. There are some people I know that DO constantly have somewhat chronic trouble sleeping. And it sometimes is because of the depression medications they are on. On top of all those medications, now they have to take another one to help them to sleep.

Then maybe we can’t sleep because we are wound tighter than a drum from all the heavy stress we are under. And when we lay there trying to fall off to sleep our mind will just not calm down long enough…it keeps thinking and thinking about this, that, and the other.

We need to find a way to relax the body enough (along with the mind) to enable us to drift off. I have tried many different herbal products to relax my nerves and they have all helped somewhat. But this one product beats them all. I don’t know if I will get in trouble or not for mentioning the brand. But the name of the product is “Knock-out” by Schiff. I bought it at a health food store. It has Valerian, B vitamins and L-Theanine to help calm and relax the body so it can drift off to sleep….then it has Melatonin (made by the brain) to maintain normal sleep patterns. Once we can get our sleep patterns back to normal, we can stop taking Knock-out. Then if we should fall into the same non-sleep problems again….we just start taking the Knock-out again. A friend of mine was truly amazed at how well the tablets worked for her the first night she took them!

Another thing that helps me is to play some "sleep music" and leave it playing all night long. You can find special sleep music CD's that promote sleep by using Delta Waves to create prolonged states of tranquility. Delta Waves emulate brain waves in deep sleep, and can assist those who have trouble falling asleep. This kind of music is "different" but very, very effective.

Sleep

Since I have started my four websites, it seems like I am always sitting at my computer. If I have a day full of other activities and appointments, then I am on my computer in the evenings and it extends to way into the early morning hours. I cannot seem to discipline myself to get off the computer. I will look at the clock and tell myself to turn it off…then I think, “fifteen more minutes”. Yea, right….next time I look at the clock it is three hours later!!! Sometimes it is 4 or 5 o’clock in the morning when I am dragging myself to bed.

I feel that I have really messed up my sleep rhythm by not going to bed at a decent time so that I can wake up reasonably early in the mornings.

Sleep is so vital to repairing and revitalizing the body. There is much to say about the saying, “early to bed and early to rise makes a man healthy, wealthy, and wise”.

Now, if a person is struggling with stress and depression…..poor sleep habits are one of the worse things they could do to themselves. They, above all, need the “early to bed and early to rise…."

So if you want more upsy and less downsy.... get better and longer sleep, okay?

A Plug for Chiropractors and Acupuncturists

I don’t know what I would do without my wonderful Chiropractor and my gem of an Acupuncturist. I truly feel that I was guided when I chose these two particular individuals to use their very gifted craft to help my body to do it’s own healing.

My Chiropractor .....
Before August of 2005, I never understood the TRUE purpose of chiropractors or the importance of regular maintenance spinal adjustments. I just thought you go to them ONLY when you hurt your back real bad. But was I wrong! I really had an eye opener and an education, as my chiropractor has taken the time to explain to me the workings of the body as it relates to the spine and the multitude of nerves coming from all along the spine and going to all parts of the body. I never realized how important it was to do what we can to ensure and improve the nerve function of our body.

Through our every day activities, we are always moving, bending, turning, stepping wrong, falling, tripping, etc. We never know when this can cause vertebrae and discs to become misaligned and in time irritates the nerves.

If something is out of alignment anywhere along the spine, it can cause stress and irritation to those nerves that are in that area, which in turn messes up the communication of the nervous system with the brain. A free flow of nerve energy from the brain controls the pituitary, pineal, para-thyroid, thyroid, thymus, adrenal, pancreas and sex glands. Each of these glands is dependent upon the others. Just one out-of-order gland disrupts all the rest. The result is physical, mental and emotional problems.

A chiropractor locates the trouble spot, uses gentle adjustments to the back to realign an out of place vertebrae and get it back into its natural position. This then will relieve the pressure and irritation. With the proper nerve supply, the energy flows freely again and any miseries are eliminated by nature’s own healing power.

In regards to DEPRESSION.....because chiropractic adjustments increase energy flow throughout the body, we receive better hormone production. The body can then release it own pain killers, like endorphins…and it gives a little boot to the glands that produce dopamine, serotonin, and norepinephrine (the neurotransmitters in our brain). Lack of these causes depression.

My Acupuncturist.....
What a skilled and highly knowledgeable gal she is. Little did I realize about August of 2006, that I was going to receive another education, but in the area of acupuncture. I first started going to her to see if she could help me with my chronic leg problems. I have varicose veins real bad and of course that is caused by lack of circulation.

What a totally fascinating field acupuncture is. It is amazing. It is a centuries old Chinese method of bringing balance to the body so that you can achieve and maintain a state of health. Our body is in an ever-changing state of health and illness. It moves from one state to another throughout the day and night. Hormones rise and fall, melatonin waxes and wanes, insulin and blood pressure levels go up and down. When elements in the body are in balance, health is the result. When they are out of balance, dis-ease occurs.

Depending upon your symptoms, the acupuncturist will insert practically pain free, very thin and round tipped needles into one or more of the 361 acu-points located along one or more of the 14 meridians on the body. Each of these needles sends out an electro-chemical message to the brain, that asks your body to respond in a particular way. Acupuncture is a direct means of asking your body to heal itself.

Energy flow through the 14 meridians can become excessive, disturbed, reduced, or even stopped. Poor circulation, illness, and stress are among the many factors that can cause blockage or disruption of this energy flow. When energy flow is interrupted, disease in the form of pain, depression, illness or reduced organ function is the result. Balancing the energy and clearing blockage by way of the acu-points and meridians brings about health and well being, using the body’s own mechanisms to do so.

In regards to DEPRESSION… acupuncture treatments open up the receptor sites for dopamine to enter. Dopamine is the “feel good” hormone. I receive treatments very often because of my chronic leg problems, the torn cartilage in my knee and now for my depression and stress. The last two visits, the treatments were for my stress and depression. My goodness what a difference between the before and after feelings! After the treatment I kind of felt like I was in a sort of la-la-land for awhile. Very, very light and carefree feelings. And without medication! I highly recommend acupuncture treatments for what ails you. Anything you can do to put your body in a position where it can heal itself….that is the natural way.