Anti-inflammatory Foods

“Severe mental illnesses (SMI), including major depressive disorder, bipolar disorder, and schizophrenia, are associated with increased inflammation. Given diet’s role in modulating inflammatory processes, excessive calorie-dense, nutrient-deficient processed food intake may contribute toward the heightened inflammation observed in SMI.” (Frontiers in Psychiatry, May 15, 2019)

Anti-inflammatory foods include:

• salmon
• tuna
• flax seeds
• tart cherries
• oranges
• strawberries
• curry
• edamame
• green tea
• whole grains
• tomatoes
• olive oil
• blueberries
• green, leafy vegetables
• nuts

One Simple (but Pesky) Change

Do you have hundreds of unread emails haunting you but can't delete them because “what if one of them is important?”

Delete them. If you miss something important, you'll find out sooner or later. And you are much more likely to miss important things if your inbox is perpetually full.

After that liberating act, check your email and clean up your inbox(es) daily. Don't read everything. If it's not important, delete it.

If you've signed up for way too many email lists, unsubscribe as they pop up.

You'll feel so much lighter, so much more together and on top of things. You are so virtuous and organized!

Turn Off the News

Turn off the news.

That's it. Simple. I allow myself one hour of TV news a day, but rarely even do that.

Go to youtube and watch one or two short segments of a network you trust.

Read the paper.

Follow people on Substack and other platforms that compile articles and essays by author, and read only those.

Television and radio news are designed to agitate you. Turn them off.

Depression Lies

Do you get depressed because you think your life will never get better and there is no way to make changes and you will always be underemployed and in debt and broke and unlovable and pathetic?

PLEASE NOTE: 

You think these things because you're depressed.

They are not true.

Martin Luther King, Jr.

Today is Martin Luther King, Jr. Day

"King realized that to solve the problems of human life, especially the deepest problems - like racism, poverty, and war - we have to become, in a sense, abnormal. We have to stop going along; we have to stop accepting what everyone else believes. We have to become maladjusted if we are at all to become creative...

"King knew what it meant to be maladjusted, psychologically, because he was not normal, psychiatrically. He had multiple periods of severe depression, and twice made suicide attempts as a child. Near the end of his life, some of his staff tried to get him into psychiatric treatment, but he refused." 

Read the whole article from Psychology Today HERE.

Get Help!

In an online article (since deleted) I once read “10 Excuses for Avoiding Psychotherapy”. 

The first was a doozy: “If I go into therapy it means I'm a loser and I'm weak and can't stand on my own feet. It's better to work on myself without a crutch so that I keep strong.”

There is actually not a smidgen of truth to that. 

Just like you would do if your car needed fixed, or your heart needed surgery, or you needed legal assistance -- get professional help. You deserve to feel better.

The Rock on Depression

Depression is not a weakness.

CLICK HERE to watch this a short, surprising and inspirational video featuring Dwayne Johnson opening up about one serious bout of depression in his life.

Just Breathe

There is so much going on in the world – wars, major earthquakes, political unrest... For years now things have been vibrating at an extraordinarily high frequency and keeping many of us agitated. 

It's crucial to regularly still your mind, even for short intervals. But it's difficult when you're on the computer at work and in your “down” time. So much information and stimulation constantly. Just breathing is wonderful!

Simple breathing exercises will do. Breathe deeply. Hold that for a few seconds. Release.

Calm your thoughts.

Repeat for a few minutes.

Psych Central

For over 25 years PsychCentral has been a trove of information. It's a great website!

Here's a short article from 2016: 12 Ways to Shut Off Your Brain Before Bedtime.

Simple but proven tips like to turn off all of your screens 2 hours before bedtime. If only...