The Zaky Touch
This is just too cute...
The Zaky is an ergonomic infant pillow designed by a mom to mimic the size, weight, touch, and feel of her hand and forearm to help her baby with comfort, support, protection, and development.
The Zaky can help calm your baby and help your baby sleep better through the night.
To see and read more about it, go to the Pregnancy Store here.
I wish I had giant hands and arms to cradle me.
Now there's an idea...
MuddHugs
xoxoxoxo
Mind Power
Hi All!
Here's a book that's been captivating my attention for the past two days...
In Make Your Mind Work For You -- New Mind-Power Techniques To Improve Memory, Beat Procrastination, Increase Energy, And More!, Joan Minninger, Ph. D., and Eleanor Dugan offer different techniques to help you develop an experienced mind -- one that makes the right decisions and leads you to take the right actions. You learn to solve problems, store and recall information, control anxieties, and experience more pleasure and satisfaction in everyday life. You also learn how to prioritize so that you achieve not only efficiency but also success.
Naturally, the book excerpt I chose to share with you has to do with depression. Here, then, are the strategies that our authors suggest for dealing with this unfortunate and much too common affliction.
Withdraw
Don't deal with difficult issues when you are depressed. Set aside a few minutes to sit and really focus on how horrible you feel. Imagine your toes, your knees, your hips all deep in blue, soggy drepression. Then see your body, your arms, your neck cold and wet. Finally the blues totally engulf you, closing over your head. Savor the immersion in this quivery blue environment (choose another colour if you really like blue). After a few minutes (if you can sustain your mood that long), notice how hard it is to keep up this intensity. Let the depression slide away in reverse order. Or maybe it changes colour, taking on a warm glow. You are now ready for one of the following steps.
Share
Mention to someone supportive that you have had a rotten day. Don't dwell on it, just get it out. Then go on to lighter topics. (Bartenders and therapists are good listeners, but friends and relatives are cheaper and often just as good.)
Pretend
Put on a brightly coloured outfit, dance, tell jokes, sing, jump up and down. Put on a false face of merriment. Often it turns the tide. A study at the University of California at San Francisco, discussed in Approaches to Emotion: A Book of Readings, edited by Klaus Scherer and Paul Ekman, showed that you can call up different emotions by changing your expression. Psychologist Paul Ekman asked people to make faces, raising and lowering eyebrows and lips. People consistently experienced emotions that matched their facial image. So, when your heart is aching, a happy face can cheer you up. If it doesn't, at the very least you'll be able to come up with some wonderfully ironic poetic images for your autobiography.
Reward yourself
No need to indulge yourself with a 1,000-calorie sundae or a $5,000 wardrobe, unless you can afford them. But you might consider a movie or sauna, some bubble bath, a bunch of daisies, a new box of paper clips, a few extra minutes at coffee break or in the shower or with the morning paper.
Do a kindness
Plan something nice for someone else. This is usually the last thing on your mind. That's why it is invaluable. Getting your Knowing Mind to notice and pay attention to someone else is a good way to start the rebellion that ends depression.
Do something physical
Run, jog, walk. Deliberately drop a file folder or handful of rubber bands and then pick up all the pieces one at a time, bending from the waist. Rearrange your possessions. (Leave other people's alone!) Even if you're in traction or a wheelchair, there are still parts of your body you can exercise. Roll your eyes, make faces, wiggle your ears and anything else that will move.
Plan
Even if you're so low you could walk on stilts under a dachshund, focus on doing one thing later today that is pleasurable. Arrange to meet a friend. Phone someone interesting. Have something special for dinner. Get your Organizing Mind to construct lists of potential pleasures.
Write it down
One of the valuable things about keeping a diary is learning that nothing is permanent. Some people think whatever they write is carved in stone. I help my writing classes realize that just the opposite is true. Sorrow, pain, happiness, elation -- all come and go. When you are depressed, you feel as though you have always been depressed and will remain that way forever. But nothing is forever, even depression.
Very interesting book. You can even get the Audio CD version (Your Coach in a Box) on Amazon.com by clicking here.
Big hugs and lots of kisses,
Mudd
xoxo
P.S.: Questions or not, I'd love to hear from you. Please email me at
anxietybuster@gmail.com or simply click the link on the sidebar.
