Don’t be SAD or Depressed This Holiday Season

support@wellness.com — Wed, 25 Nov 2015 08:00:00 Z

Wellness.com - Don’t be SAD or Depressed This Holiday Season by Clark Bartram

It's that time of year. Halloween has just passed, the once abundant supply of Snickers bars, lollipops and Tootsie Rolls now nothing more than empty wrappers and the eclectic mixture of smells in a pillowcase. Now we have Thanksgiving, Christmas and a season's worth of birthdays to contend with as we try to navigate our way to a healthier body. However, lurking under all of these obvious triggers is a silent assassin looking to take us out without us ever without our knowing it and it's called SAD. SAD is an acronym meaning “Seasonal Affective Disorder" or “Seasonal Anxiety Disorder." No matter what you call it there is a good chance that it is affecting you, in a negative way, and unsuspected. SAD can potentially affect each and every one of us, but studies have shown that it is more likely to affect women and is more devastating to women than men. Regardless of your gender, SAD can sabotage your efforts to live a healthy lifestyle throughout the holiday season and winter time in general. Without getting too scientific on you I'll break it down as simply as I can in an effort to 1) make you aware of its signs, and 2) give you some simple methods and techniques you can use to overcome this sneaky disorder that wreaks havoc on so many during what for many is the most joyful time of the year. According to The Mayo Clinic, some of the tell-tail signs of SAD are: - • Irritability - • Tiredness or low energy - • Problems getting along with other people - • Hypersensitivity to rejection - • Heavy, "leaden" feeling in the arms or legs - • Oversleeping - • Appetite changes, especially a craving for foods high in carbohydrates - • Weight gain - I like to consider myself a pretty positive and motivated guy, but the other day when it was 5:17 P.M. and I was already in my Family Guy PJ's, had a peanut butter and jelly sandwich devoured and ready to call it a night I realized that I too was being affected by this disorder and I needed to do something quickly and deliberately before I fell into a deeper depression and a downward spiral that could last until the daylight savings time switch in March. That is when I began to research this often overlooked aspect of mental fitness and realized very quickly that it needs to be addressed and brought to the attention of anyone trying to make advancements, whether emotional, physical, spiritual or otherwise. Before I get into the remedy for this situation I feel it's important for you to understand, even on a very surface level, why this happens in many cases. Our body works on a 24-hour clock referred to as a “Circadian Rhythm" and when daylight savings time ends and the clocks go backward it throws this whole operating system off. Unless we “reboot" the system we will be fragmented, running slowly and not at our optimal performance standards. For example, my dog eats at 4 P.M. every day, and if she doesn't get fed, she begins to whine. Well, after we revert to daylight standard time, she starts whining at 3 P.M. not realizing that the time had changed and it wasn't feeding time on my calendar. Given the fact that dogs don't wear watches or carry smartphones, all she can go by is her “natural clock," the 24-hour Circadian Rhythm. We're no different; we have our internal natural clock that needs to be adjusted this time of the year, otherwise we suffer the consequences, With that said here are some simple things you can do so you don't end up on the couch, in your pajamas, searching true fridge for the nearest and easiest “comfort food." - Get some sun - Superman knew what he was doing when he sought the powerful rays of the sun in order to charge himself back up when he was feeling less powerful than he was used to. The sun will help with the natural hormones like serotonin and melatonin that typically slow down when you spend more time in the dark. In addition to the sun you can find lights designed for this all over the net. Manage your stress levels - An easy way to do this is breathe. Do yourself a favor and take 5-10 deep breaths through your nose with your eyes closed. Do this anytime you feel stressed, mad or just consistently throughout the day. Get moving - Exercise is simply movement. Do something. Dance, walk, jump up and down…just get moving - Be social - When you want to curl up and sleep, get out and socialize. Do the opposite of what you want to and keep your brain active and sharp. Supplement - You need some good essential fatty acids, adaptogenic herbs and vitamins and minerals. Nothing fancy, just the basics. Seek Professional Help - If it's really bad, go talk with a professional. Listen, you are not crazy if you see a counselor, you are actually very smart. Getting those stored up feelings are vital to mental health and we should all be able to vent, without gossiping, to a qualified professional in an effort to stay sane. So, do yourself a favor this winter, find your comfort in things other than food, avoid being SAD by staring it down and dealing with it head on. You owe it to yourself to be HAPPY: - H-ealthy - A-ctive - P-roactive - P-ositive - Y-our best

Overcoming The Fear That's Holding You Back

support@wellness.com — Tue, 09 Dec 2014 08:00:00 Z

Wellness.com - Overcoming The Fear That's Holding You Back by Clark Bartram

In James Allen's timeless masterpiece, “As A Man Thinketh," he describes fear like this: - “Thoughts of fear have been known to kill a man as speedily as a bullet, and they are continually killing thousands of people just as surely though less rapidly. The people who live in fear of disease are the people who get it. Anxiety quickly demoralizes the whole body, and lays it open to the entrance of disease; while impure thoughts, even if not physically indulged, will soon shatter the nervous system." - Pretty sobering if you really think about it, and if you are really honest with yourself you probably can admit to the fact that fear has had some negative effect in your life. I know it has mine, so I decided to look a little deeper into overcoming fear before it overcame me. There are so many things we are fearful of; loss, failure, death, loneliness, people, dogs, cats, pickles and even success. Now I understand that many of us have reason for fearful thoughts, but in most cases the fear we have are based upon the “what if" premise. “What if I lose my job?" “What If they don't like me?" so on and so forth. If I'm being totally honest with you, I've been guilty of that kind of fear myself and I cannot promise you I won't be in the future. Just because I'm writing this article doesn't mean I have it all figured out, it simply means I'm making a serious effort to understand why and what I can do to not get stuck in that thought process and have it affect me the way James Allen describes it. I've researched fear and how to overcome it and I've seen a common thread amongst the people I've studied, here it is. You MUST FACE IT! - If we ignore it, feed it, allow it a permanent residence in our soul it will eventually wreck our lives. So how exactly do we face it? - Here is what I've come to realize in my life and it's something I think can help you revolutionize the way you handle this situation that we all encounter at some point in our lifetime. Ready? Embrace it! Don't run from it, don't fight it, don't replace it, don't ignore it…embrace it! The mistake I think people are making is thinking that fear is a bad thing when it isn't. Fear is a great thing. The emotion of fear was given to us to help us survive. It's the evolutionary process that has affected the way we see and respond to fear. When a lion is chasing you the fight or flight mechanism kicks in. We all know that so I'm not teaching you anything new here. What I'm trying to articulate is that fear is good and we must embrace it otherwise we die, unless we can beat a lion in a fight. That's real. When we are in a situation where we need to react to the natural response of “fight or flight" it's NOW. It's go time. Maybe you've read the powerful book “The Power Of Now" by Eckhart Tolle, maybe you haven't but what Tolle says, boiling it down to one thought, is: Don't worry about what's in the past or what the future might bring, the only thing you have in life is NOW! That's it. You cannot change the past or affect the future. You might not even have a future, who really knows, so why project fearful thoughts into the future or harbor fearful or hurtful thoughts from the past? - Here is what I've done in my own life. I've learned to understand the difference between the fear response that was placed in us by nature and the fearful thoughts that we create by our imagination running wild. If I'm walking in an alley and something jumps out at me I run. If I'm sitting in my house and I think to myself, “what happens to my family if I get cancer and die?" I quickly put that thought of fear in its place! It's not worth my time or energy, especially since I'm fully aware that it will serve no positive outcome in my life with the possible exception being going to the doctor for a check up and raising my life insurance policy to meet the needs of my family in the event something does happen to me. I don't feel the need to elaborate any further because I know you are all very intelligent people and know what I am sharing is accurate. I'll leave you with this additional quote from As A Man Thinketh. “Strong, pure, and happy thoughts build up the body in vigor and grace. The body is a delicate and plastic instrument, which responds readily to the thoughts by which it is impressed, and habits of thought will produce their own effects, good or bad, upon it." - James Allen book is available free online, I highly suggest you read it, but read it slowly and deliberately.

Wellness Posts by Clark Bartram

​Don’t be SAD or Depressed This Holiday Season

Overcoming The Fear That's Holding You Back

Don’t be SAD or Depressed This Holiday Season