Health

Emotional Spring Cleaning

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Finally, after what seemed like an endless winter, spring is in full bloom. No more long grey days and no more snow! (At least for a few months)

I don’ t know about anyone else, but when spring comes I always feel the need to clean out the clutter. Out with the old, in with the new!

While I was thinking about my spring cleaning plans and all the organization I was going to be doing, I thought this is the perfect time to do some personal spring cleaning! A personal reflection, if you will.

As I was reflecting on my own emotional health and thinking about the stressors in my life, I was reminded about this article I read a little while back on toxic family members. You check this article out here.

Personally, I found this article a little comforting because I have some strained relationships with certain family members in my life and often would feel guilty for distancing myself. It made me realize that just because they are family doesn’t mean I have to sacrifice my own mental or emotional health. Sometimes keeping a good amount of distance is the best thing you can do. Does anyone else struggle with this?

Now that I have my mental health in check, it’s time for me to get back to cleaning out closets. I should also probably get to work on my yard or those dandelions are going to be taller than me soon!

Here’s to good mental health!

-L

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The Post Christmas Plague

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Happy 2017 everyone! I hope that everyone’s year has gotten off to a wonderful start. The end of 2016 and the beginning of my 2017 was definitely interesting, but so far things are going great! In my last post I promised that I would tell you all about my lovely post Christmas ER visit. So without further adieu, here you go:

First I should mention that I do not like urgent care, I am not a fan of the doctor, and really really hate the emergency room. I will go to the doctor for yearly check ups, but unless my head is falling off you will have to drag me to any other medical visit kicking and screaming.

A little over a week before Christmas I was sick (shocking I know). I had the nasty cough, body aches, chills, hot flashes; the whole nine yards. However, after a couple of days of being flat out on my back I was feeling a lot better. The cough had other plans though and decided to stick around. On Christmas Eve and Christmas it decided to rear its ugly head causing me to throw up because I was coughing so hard. My husband insisted I go to urgent care, but since I didn’t feel sick and it was just a cough I refused. (I’m super stubborn or just a real pain in the ass. My husband is so lucky).

Anyway, the day after Christmas I got up to go to an early chiropractic appointment and my husband got up to take me. I should have known something was up, because there was no reason for him to drive me 15 min to a 5 min appointment. After my back and neck were once again semi functioning properly (I think all the coughing pulled some muscles) the sneak drove me straight to urgent care. I was not pleased, but he insisted he was worried so in we went where we sat for over an hour to see a doctor. To top off the long wait time I had to wear one of those super sexy masks because I was coughing. It was really hot and fogged up my glasses when I would breath.

When we finally got into see the doctor all hell broke loose because my blood pressure was really high and apparently that’s a BIG deal. Three different nurses and the doctor ended up taking my bloods pressure. They also switched machines and did it manually about 4 times. The doctor determined that I had bronchitis, but because my blood pressure was so high he said he would let me leave (at this point I was seething at Tom. I was starving and now super anxious). The doctor then asked why my blood pressure was high and what I was so anxious about. (Well thanks genius, ask a super anxious women why she is freaking out after you scare the crap out of her and tell her she can’t leave. That always works with someone who has anxiety). 

After all that nonsense he gives me a breathing treatment, which unbeknownst to me had epinephrine in it and cause me to shake uncontrollably and freak out anymore. Finally, hours later, they gave me some blood pressure medication, a pain pill for my chest, an Ativan to calm me the fuck down and sent me home with instruction to go to the ER if my blood pressure didn’t go down. (Yeah fucking right. After that hell I just went through you think I am going to be all willing to hit up the ER). Once we got home my husband put me to bed, where I immediately passed out, and then the plotting began.

Knowing full well that I wasn’t going to willing go to the ER, while I was sleeping, my husband packed me a bag and arranged for someone to pick up the dogs. Once he was ready he woke me up and said that if I didn’t get in the car my brother in-law was going to call the ambulance. That would have been humiliating, not to mention expensive, so I got in the car.

I do have to say that the hospital was much faster, but the whole being stuck with needles multiple times was not my idea of fun. I am not ashamed to say that I cried every time they had to draw blood or insert an IV. Oh, I also accidentally spilled a whole water bottle on the intake desk while checking in. After x-rays, EKG’s, and multiple blood tests I was diagnosed with pneumonia, bronchitis, and once again high blood pressure. Everything else came back normal. They gave me a nice cocktail of meds and I got to watch TV while they waited for them to kick in. Once my blood pressure started going down I was released with strict instructions to stay on bed rest and follow up with my primary care to get this whole blood pressure shit straightened out.

Let me tell you, if you think the idea of bed rest sounds fun, you are wrong. After a couple of days you are so bored. I watched a lot of random TV and I couldn’t read because with the narco they had me on I couldn’t remember the sentence I just read. I would end up reading the same sentence over and over. In fact, I couldn’t remember shit. Other fun side effects, included:

  • I had to write down when I took my meds because I had no idea if I had taken them
  • When I tried to do laundry I ended up shrinking a few of my sweaters because I had no clue what was going on
  • I wasn’t able to drive because god knows where I would have ended up
  • Sometimes the sentences that came out of my mouth made no sense
  • Pretty sure I watched some movies, but no idea which ones

Doesn’t it sound like a fun two weeks! Thankfully I am much better now and slowly getting back into my normal routine. Although, it did take like a week to get the Christmas decor put away because I would get so worn out doing any little task that I would have to go lay down.

With the new year I am making changes to make sure I am healthier and happier. I don’t really want to stroke out because my blood pressure is too high. (Not really funny, but you have to stay in good spirits, right?)

Until Later!

L

Ooohhhmmm….

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Once again life has been extremely crazy. Work is as busy as ever, I’m getting ready to move out of the city, and most recently I got engaged so wedding planning has been added to my never ending to do list. I am beyond thrilled, but I never realized how much went into planning a wedding. (Ecstatic in fact!)

Anyway, last week I was able to escape work to attend a meditation seminar and I thought I would share some information I learned about meditation and a little article I wrote about the seminar. Because why not? Everyone can use some relaxation and rejuvenation. I know I can!

Here are some things I learned from the session:

Life can be extremely stressful. Each day we are met with multiple responsibilities from work, family life, and even social engagements. Week after week we try to cram everything we can into our already jam-packed schedules; leaving us exhausted, worried, and honestly at times, completely overwhelmed. While you can’t quit your job or neglect your family obligations, there are some things you can do to help relieve some of your stress.

One thing that many people have found to be very helpful at stress reduction is meditation. Originally meant to help individuals gain a deeper understanding of life, today meditation is used for relaxation and stress reduction. In fact the practice of regular meditation is linked to many benefits including increased self-awareness, increased focus and discipline, stress and anxiety reduction, increased emotional stability, helps you think more clearly, and helps your overall physical health. When you take a little bit of time out of each day to meditate you can begin to clear your mind from the abundance of information that tends to build up each day and causes us stress.

Through techniques such as meditation,  you learn how to quiet your mind so that you can break free from overwhelming stress and get what you really want out of life.

On Monday February 16, 2015, I attended a meditation session at the Junior League of Chicago (JLC), where we learned about a few different types of meditation. These different types of meditation only take a few minutes of our day, but can do so much for our emotional health and overall well being. The four different types of meditation we covered included breath meditation, guided visualization, mantra or affirmation meditation, and finally yoga nidra, or sleep yoga. Each one is discussed in more detail below.

Breath meditation: The overall purpose of breath meditation is to calm the mind and develop a sense of inner peace. With some simple breathing we are able to change the chemistry of our minds, creating more space and making us think more clearly.

Guided visualization: Based on the concept that the mind and body are connected, this technique uses thoughts and suggestions that guide your mind toward a relaxed, focused state. When you imagine the details of a safe, comfortable place you are able to reach a state of complete relaxation. To help with the visualization it is common to use an instructor, tapes, or scripts.

Mantra or affirmation meditation: In this type of meditation you silently repeat a thought or phrase over and over in your mind to help prevent distracting thoughts. Mantra meditation is more challenging, but it is good for building strength and power in your thoughts.

Yoga Nidra: Also known as sleep yoga, this type of meditation brings about an incredible sense of calmness, quietness, and clarity. It is one of the deepest types of meditation where you go into a deep sleep, past the dreaming state, but still remain awake.

At first you may find that no matter what you do you are unable to keep your mind focus, but the idea is to start small and gradually add more time as you go. You will never be able to completely stop certain thoughts from entering your mind, but with practice you can create more space or focus, giving you more control over your mind.

So if you are looking for a way to focus better, stress less, get better sleep, and be a better partner meditation may just be the answer.

Here’s to Better Mental Health

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Most of you have already been going strong with your New Year’s resolutions and while we are already halfway into January, it’s never to late to come up with some additional goals for the new year. After all, there are always ways in which we can improve ourselves.

It has been a little while since I have posted anything mental health related so, with the start of a new year,  I thought it was the perfect time to take a minute and talk about improving our mental health. More specifically, what can you do this year to improve your overall mental health? Well, I’m going to tell you…

With the commencement of 2014, it is a good time to step back and take a look at the past year and identify some areas of your life that you would like to improve over the next year. No matter if you are suffering from a pre-existing mental health condition or not, everyone can benefit from a resolution to improve one’s overall mental health. Many individuals think that New Year’s resolutions are a waste of time because most people will end up failing to keep them anyway. However, even if you were unable to keep them for the whole year you still made some sort of progress toward bettering yourself and that in itself should be praise worthy. Transition and reaching new goals isn’t going to happen overnight, but when you put your mind to it and keep a positive attitude it can be done.

Examples of resolutions for mental health

When you actually sit down to write your new year’s resolutions identify some specific goals you have about improving your overall mental health. This can be anything that is important to you, there are no resolutions that are better than others. In order to get you started here are some ideas that you could include in your 2015 New Year’s Resolutions:

  • Make a commitment to develop better sleeping patterns: When you don’t get enough sleep it can exacerbate many health problems, which includes mental health issues. Getting higher quality sleep will have a more positive effect on your mood.
  • Consider eliminating toxic people from your life: Surround yourself with good friends who are going to be supportive and not bring you down. Identify those who are beneficial to your happiness and are not going to bring about constant negativity or any type of physical or emotional harm.
  • Don’t sabotage yourself: We are the strongest cause for our own unhappiness due to our own thoughts and beliefs that we have about ourselves and the world around us. Changing the way in which you think about yourself and view the world can do wonders for your overall emotional well-being.
  • Identify ways to reduce stress: Daily life can bring about a lot of stress, which can exacerbate the symptoms of a mental health condition. Write down some ways that can help you relax and when you find yourself becoming overwhelmed take a break from the day to relieve some of that stress.
  • Make peace with the past: Many individuals have things in their past that are keeping them from living the happy life that you want to live. Make it a priority to move past those old issues so that they are not able to hold you back anymore. In some instances it may be a good idea to go see a therapist, if you don’t already, to help you work through any issues that may be getting in the way of achieve overall good mental health. A therapist can help you develop a plan that to work through all of these issues and to allow you to take on 2015 as a happier and healthier individual.

Remember that a new year is a chance to start over and to reach personal goals that we have set for ourselves. It is a time for personal growth where we can independently work on our overall well-being, it should not be a stressful time filled with guilt.