Being mindful when doing daily tasks is a lesson in informal meditation practice. The Great Irish Poet Seamus Heaney died yesterday. He won the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1995. In this youtube, he reads his poem, Blackberry Picking. This poem has always been a favorite of our family. As in all poetry, […]
Depressed, anxious, or both? Part Two
Depression is a Treatable Illness According to the National Institute of Mental Health, an estimated 17 million adult Americans suffer from depression during any 1-year period. Depression is an illness that carries with it a high cost in terms of relationship problems, family suffering and lost work productivity. Yet, depression is treatable. Everyone feels down […]
Anxious, depressed, or both?
Anxious people fret. Depressed people brood. Anxious people worry about what may happen, while depressed people ruminate about what has already happened. In each case, life becomes more and more constricted. Sometimes the two conditions may look similar because both use avoidance as a coping strategy. Think of avoidance as going back to bed and […]
Finding Happiness: You Can’t Always Get What You Want
Grasping for Happiness may Lead to Depression Those only are happy who have their minds fixed on some object other than their own happiness. – Mill Judging by the huge number of psychological and self-help books claiming to know the secret to happiness and how people can increase it, we have become a nation […]
How Lifestyle Changes Can Be Therapeutic—And What To Do When They’re Just Too Hard
How Lifestyle Changes Can Be Therapeutic—And What To Do When They’re Just Too Hard The October 2011 issue of American Psychologist featured an article on how mental health professionals significantly underestimate how unhealthy or missing lifestyle factors—for instance, nutrition and diet, or service to others— contribute to many emotional health problems. It also discussed how […]
