For those of us in the northern hemisphere this is a day well worth celebrating. Today marks the shortest day of the year. Or, to put it another way, from here until summer every day will be a little bit longer, there will be a little bit more light, and eventually the days will get warmer and we will have …
Mindfulness in the News
A number of people called my attention to the December 15 NY Times The Power of Concentration article written by Maria Konnikova on the topic of mindfulness. As I read it, I noticed certain parallels with my December 8 2-Minute Meditation blog post, mainly that there is recent research that shows that as little as 5 minutes of mindfulness per …
Stranger Danger
I have been avoiding the newspapers for the last couple of days, because I don’t want to get caught up in the frenzy of stories about the Sandy Hook shootings. You may say that this kind of avoidance is exactly what I have written in opposition to in other posts. However, I have a special reason. I have two young …
Mind Body Issues
Health problems fundamentally challenge our sense of self and safety in the world. Those people who are able to maintain equanimity in the face of medical disease and aging are truly admirable. There must be about a million articles about how to accomplish this – so I am not sure that what I have to say adds much to the literature – …
Inspiration and Skepticism
A very dear and cherished friend is visiting us. She has inspired this post. Every time we are fortunate enough to visit with her I have an opportunity to wrestle with the dichotomy of faith and inspiration, as opposed to science and skeptical inquiry, that is at the heart of Western medicine. Carey has vigorously embraced healing and faith. And …
No News
That is right, today’s post is about the lack of news… how silly is that? No news is an update on the promised changes to our forum, which has slowed down quite a bit since I announced that we were going to be transitioning to a different “platform” (a different WordPress application). Since then I have been busy trying to …
Something Fishy
Journal Watch (which is published by the very well respected New England Journal of Medicine) recently reviewed the evidence about omega – 3 fatty acids and depression. The editors concluded that fish oil can be helpful but the key to effectiveness is the amount of one of the two fatty acids that are the primary ingredients in fish oil. The …
Having Plenty
We have been talking about the many forms of craving (food, love, sex, etcetera) and how the desire to have these things can be like an addiction to a drug. A reader of this blog shared the posts of another fellow Bay Area blogger – Rick Hanson, PhD. His most recent post is all about an antidote to craving – …
Two Minute Meditation
Sometimes when we most need to get to the meditative or mindful state… it can be hardest to get there. For many people, being a bit energized.. with our thoughts going quickly, many ideas, drawn to many things… sounds are more profound, colors are brighter, smells and tastes are richer… is such a time. There is good news. We have …
Healing the Inner Child
Right off, we have to say that much of what has been written on this subject sounds pretty flaky. The problem is that the ideas have been popularized and applied to people and situations where they really didn’t apply. “My ‘inner child’ was wounded by your refusing to pay for the ballet lessons that I wanted,” for example. And yet the …
To Tell or Not – Part 2
In another post, we talked about the question of whether or not to tell friends and family about the challenges of living with mood disorders and, in particular, whether or not to share a diagnosis (such as bipolar). The discussions there about the many misunderstandings and misconceptions about moods and mood disorders that are commonplace in our society is relevant …
How Could Light Help?
There has been considerable skepticism about the value of light therapy for people with seasonal depression, despite a very compelling research literature. Perhaps this might, in part, be because the way that light might affect mood has not been clear. In a recently published animal study, change in light exposure increases stress hormones, depresses mood, and impairs learning through changes light …
To Tell or Not – Part 1
One of the hottest topics on our forum, and one that led to a request for a blog post ,is the topic of whether or not to tell someone about your moods, particularly if you have a mood diagnosis. For mostly historical reasons, this issue is especially a concern for people with bipolar mood variations as opposed to unipolar moods …
Christian Mindfulness
I will be writing posts from time to time that are a response to questions posed on this site. The first question that we received had to do with whether mindfulness can be reconciled with Christianity. And, if not, if there is an alternative practice that can achieve the same goals. Since I am not a theologian, I am not …
Thank you
We have gotten a couple of thought provoking requests for new content, but the combination of an extremely busy week and the desire to do a good job replying has meant that we haven’t finished the job of writing the posts. Nevertheless, we want to thank those subscribers who sent us requests. And to reiterate our intention to answer every …
A Little Romance
This week we spent some time with a couple of people who, in different ways, have become “addicted” to romantic relationships. One is a man in his early 40’s. The other is a woman in her early 30’s. They are quite different in terms of personalities, but there are some very strong similarities in terms of their childhood and relationship history. Both had quite …
Stormy Weather
The first of the big winter storms blew through the Bay Area today. Winds whipped up the already large waves and the pouring rain made it hard to see much more than a few feet in any direction. Of course, there were some hardy folk out there surfing anyway. But we assume that most of you recognize that when there …
Traveling
Traveling can be exciting, but it can also be very stressful. It is particularly important for people living with moods to do prepare for travel before they leave. A surprisingly high percentage of serious mood catastrophes, in our experience, happen during trips. And they are almost always preventable. First, if your traveling to some place without good medical care, it’s a …
Forum Update
Update– Our Forum has been gradually picking up steam, but the current setup, using Bublaa, has been difficult to administer. We are considering making a change to a system hosted by WordPress (the folks who host this site) called BuddyPress. If you have thoughts about this plan please let us know. If we do make the switch the Forum will …
Family Scapegoat
I had a conversation with two women today about their relationship with their husbands and children. They often find themselves feeling scapegoated for things that go wrong in the household. While I was talking with them, I recalled many other women who have described similar experiences. I started to wonder how this happens, and what can be done about it. …