Below you'll find a list of all posts that have been categorized as “Self Help”
Fall is just around the corner in the Northern Hemisphere, and the impending seasonal change means impending mood changes, too. For every person who goes into September with a New Year’s feeling: new school year, new challenges, new friends; there is another who starts the autumn with anxiety, melancholy, or even dread of the dark days to come. Our agrarian …
What is rumination and how can it be overcome? Rumination, or repetitive negative thinking, can be a symptom, and possibly even a cause of depression. But where does it come from, does it have any upsides, and what can you do about it if you feel stuck in an endless loop of regret, recrimination and overthinking the past? Psychologists distinguish …
Diets and Moods Evidence for the importance of diet for mental health is slowly gathering. People are looking into the importance of specific diets like the Mediterranean diet, which we have highlighted here before. And the next big area of research into diet and mental health looks like being the ketogenic diet. Many people have heard of the Atkins diet, …
Some reflections by Denise Collins on The Mighty We were struck by this great post on The Mighty, (which is a fascinating site with lots of discussion groups to explore). One of their discussion groups is about depression, and Denise Collins is a regular contributor there. Recently, she posted this reflection on how writing helps her when she is depressed. …
Consumers’ Checkbook for the San Francisco Bay Area has a ratings table for medical care practitioners in the area that looks at a number of important criteria, including patient recommendations and peer recommendations (other doctors). This is a subscription service, and you have to sign up for at least the free 7-day trial period to get the list, but if …
Living with mental illness or mood disorder day after day can be taxing and tiring. You have to be more disciplined, stronger, more organized and more on top of things than anyone else you know. You are bombarded with advice about dealing with a chronic illness: exercise helps, diet is important, be sure to get enough sleep, but not too …
Bright light therapy has been in use for some years for insomnia and seasonal affective disorder, and results in those areas are very promising. Until recently, however, there has not been much data available about the use of bright light therapy for major depression. A recent study, though small, was reported in a presentation at the American Psychological Association’s 2021 …
Gardening improves mood Spring has sprung and people are looking to the outdoors, plants and gardening for a mood lift, a lifestyle change and a tried and true path to happiness and fulfillment. For those who think such attitudes are maybe a tad over-optimistic, we can show a surprising amount of research on the mental and physical health benefits of …
Anger seems to be a topic on everybody’s mind these days. Meltdowns in the mall, road rage, demonstrations, shootings… What’s going on? Well, as we all know, it’s been a stressful two years, and there seems to be a lot of pent-up steam to be let off. But since we are supposed to be civilized adults, we also need to …
Bipolar and sleep disruption People with bipolar can have as much sleep disruption in a week that those without mood disorders will experience in a much longer time frame. Mood swings can cause major changes in sleep patterns and disrupted sleep makes it much more difficult to maintain mood stability. That’s why MoodSurfing offers so many resources about sleep and …
Aerobic exercise has long been recognized as an important adjunct to prevention and management of mental illness, especially mood disorders, depression and anxiety. A new study from Sweden looks at almost 200,000 people who participated in cross-country ski racing there, and found that participants (whom researchers considered a “proxy” for physically active people generally) show a much reduced incidence of …
The American Psychiatric Association (APA) conducts regular surveys of a representative sample of American adults, and this month the poll asked people how they feel about their mental health and whether they are resolving to do something to improve it next year. The survey findings show that mental health is on many people’s minds and taking steps to improve their …
“I don’t know how people do it. I just can’t juggle work and family and everything I have to do and take time for self-care on top of it all.” Sound familiar? A lot of people think self-care, whether taking time for meditation, exercise, or even just lunch, is a kind of reward, that you get when all the other …
Holiday stress is a reality of life for many people, but for those struggling to manage chronic illnesses like bipolar, the holidays can be a real trial. Each year, MoodSurfing encourages readers to spend some time before the holidays reflecting on how they want to face up to, and hopefully get some fun out of, the winter holidays. Here are …
Set goals and stick to them A client recently recommended a new book: Essentialism: the Disciplined Pursuit of Less by Greg McKeown. Our client liked the way the book encouraged her to think “is this (object or activity) going to get you to your goals, or not?” She said she learned to pare down the tools she was using, so …
Meditation Apps: a new review Meditation is one of the best ways to cope with the stresses and anxieties of daily life, and MoodSurfing has long been a fan of awareness and relaxation techniques from many sources. Recently, the phenomenon of websites and apps to facilitate the meditation experience has become widespread and the field is competitive and constantly changing. …
Return to the office? Well, maybe People who have been able (or forced) to work from home during the pandemic are estimated to be about one-third to one-half of the US workforce. For these workers, who may have been called “office workers” in the past, a big reckoning is coming up. Some are anxious to return to the office environment …
For now over 70 years, Americans have delegated the month of May as “Mental Health Awareness Month” (since 1949). And with medical experts and researchers across the planet sharing their observation that the Covid-19 pandemic is going to continue to have an array of mental health impacts into the foreseeable future, mental health awareness needs to remain in the forefront …
What’s the best way to cope with stress? Our friend Rick Hanson, whom we frequently quote in this blog, wonders why people don’t Take Pleasure. There are so many fun things to do, some take hardly any time or money, why don’t we just take time out to smell the roses, or the dinner cooking, or the perfume… Why don’t …
Sometimes you just can’t get your mind working. You wonder what’s going on, things you want to remember just slip through your fingers, and time gets away from you. It happens to everyone, but major episodes of mania or depression can result in reduced cognitive capacity, which takes time to heal. Reduced cognitive capacity can be scary; we wonder if …
