Monday Motivation – Stress Management Strategies

* Help others

* See humor in everything – more laughter

*Listen to music

*Singing – karaoke anyone? 😊

*Annual physicals to catch health issues early rather than wait for crisis.

*Drink more water

*Eat as healthy as possible as often as possible. No one is perfect.

*Engage in self care – bubble bath, manicure, pedicure, massage, facial, sit and relax, deep breathing, hug yourself, etc.

What are some ways you manage stress? Look at stress differently. It does not have to be all bad. It can challenge us or it can also let us know we need to slow down and rest.

Manage stress before it manages you.

~mh 💕😊

“Play that Funky Music”

Listening to music as well as singing heals! It can help with anxiety and depression.

Music is so very important to life.

We should never let our circumstances define who we are. Music, on the other hand, defines us from an early age. Research has shown that music listened to between the ages of 10 and 30 “defines that individual for the rest of their lives”.

I listen to a variety of music from all decades and genres but find myself gravitating back to the 70’s more often than not. That was my formative years and when I listen to the songs now I am taken back to my childhood to relive memories that are both happy and sad. This time around I am paying more attention to the lyrics and the artists. I have even begun to search song meanings. I believe we can create whatever meaning we want to each song but I find it interesting the nature in which each song was conceived.

I reminisce and can see myself at age 12 putting on headphones and singing in my room, listening over and over and writing down what I thought were the words. We did not have Google! 🥴

Vivid memories of being on the dance floor when going to clubs in high school, sitting behind Oakwood Bowling Alley with friends at age 13 are among my many reflections when listening to music and singing. The louder and more passionate I sing, the more impact the song had in my life. Takes me back to a time of innocence, less worries. A time when the future had no meaning. Oh…to be a kid again. Wait! I am still a kid! Hehe! 😁

Songs remind me where I have been and allow me to see how far I have come. I am greatly thankful for the songwriters and those who brought the words to life. I could not survive this earth without music.

I have been taking notes of the songs I would like to sing karaoke, those that give me a spark and jolt of energy to keep going. Every day is not a good day but at any point can turn around. I have experienced it solely listening to music!

Sometimes it is difficult to listen to music and that is okay. If I am really in a funk, depressed or grieving… and I have been there many times… I cannot listen to music nor sing. I listen to sports radio at that point or nothing and do some deep thinking or simply cry and that IS OKAY! I know my mood has lifted when music is enjoyable and I begin singing again.

Prior to Covid I began working on my bucket list. Road trips and going to concerts were just a few. I drove to San Francisco from Texas to see The Eagles and it was fabulous!!

Here is a sample of the many songs I have catalogued as keeping me sane and grounded. There are a few 80’s and even a few 60’s. Interestingly enough, the station on Pandora I have been listening to has not played any Elvis songs as of yet and I have been listening for awhile. Hmmm….. he was certainly one of my favorites.

Songs are listed in no particular order but merely as they were played through Pandora. I am still adding to the list. I did not realize there were soooo many!! Recognize any? 😁

Shambala – Three Dog Night 1973

Hold on Loosely – 38 Special 1981

Hold Me – Fleetwood Mac 1982

How Long – Ace 1974

China Groove – Doobie Brothers 1973

You Can Do Magic – America 1982

Sugar, Sugar – The Archies 1970

Rhiannon – Fleetwood Mac 1975

Southern Cross – Crosby, Stills and Nash 1982

Ventura Highway – America 1972

Baker Street – Gerry Rafferty 1978

Gypsy – Fleetwood Mac 1982

Judy Blues Eyes – Crosby, Stills and Nash 1969

Biggest Part of Me – Ambrosia 1980

Everything I Own – Bread 1972

Sittin’ on the Dock of the Bay – Otis Redding 1968

I can’t Go for That – Daryl Hall and John Oates 1981

Rockin’ Robin – Bobby Day 1958

Build Me Up Buttercup – The Foundations 1967

Let’s Groove – Earth Wind & Fire 1981

Sister Golden Hair – America 1975

Sweet Talkin’ Woman – Electric Light Orchestra 1978

Sweet Home Alabama – Lynyrd Skynyrd 1974

Mainstreet – Bob Seger 1972

Peace Train – Cat Stevens 1971

You Ain’t Seen Nothing Yet – Bachman-Turner Overdrive 1974

Ramblin’ Man – The Allman Brothers 1973

Evil Woman – Electric Light Orchestra 1975

I’ll Be Around – The Spinners 1973

Money For Nothing – Dire Straits 1985

Come Monday – Jimmy Buffett 1978

Lean On Me – Bill Withers 1972

Respect – Aretha Franklin 1967

Still The One – Orleans 1976

Against The Wind – Bob Seger 1979

Wasted on the Way – Crosby, Stills & Nash 1982

Shame on the Moon – Bob Seger 1982

Under the Boardwalk – The Drifters 1964

Oh Girl – The Chi-Lites 1972

Margaritaville – Jimmy Buffett 1977

Baby I’m-A Want You – Bread 1972

Take it to the Limit – The Eagles 1975

Lyin’ Eyes – The Eagles 1975

Escape (The Pina Colada Song) – Rupert Holmes 1979

Tin Man – America 1974

Get Together – The Youngbloods 1967

Last but not least……Play that Funky Music – Wild Cherry 1976

I will work on the 80’s, 90’s, 2000’s and today. Music has definitely evolved.

I hope you will make notes of songs you find uplifting or that take you back to a blast from the past. Create a playlist. It can be highly cathartic guiding you forward providing a new outlook while creating new meaning to a past gone but not forgotten.

mh – 💕😊

Where do YOU stand?

I stand against any protest that is violent no matter the cause. It seems we as a country have been walking backwards for some time and now we have stooped to an all time low. Whenever someone goes on a shooting spree we say they are mentally ill. I say people who feel compelled to partake in this type of madness need an evaluation to determine where does such rage and hatred come from? This is not civil and we can argue there were other things that happened in 2020 that were similar and those, too, were not civil but we’re dealing with this right now so let’s stay in the moment.

This country is like a dysfunctional married couple who can’t move forward because we are too busy bringing up the past all of the time.

Where is the leader of this country to slam the gavel down and say this is not acceptable and we will not allow it to be? He’s been banned from Facebook and Twitter because that’s the new way we roll. 👀🙄 🤦🏼‍♀️

A very sad day indeed. We have truly become our own worst enemy.

2021 – You made it!

2020 is now a memory. Gone but will never be forgotten.

2020 was home to illness, death, unemployment, homelessness, broken hearts and so much unanticipated anxiety, depression and a growing number of suicide attempts and completions.

Sounds like any other year but this one was quite different with the Covid Pandemic, being house bound, quarantined, masks being added to the wardrobe, no attending concerts nor sports, the closing of many businesses and being quite scared to go anywhere.

I know for me, I am lucky to be entering 2021 alive. I feel extremely Thankful. We have all had our share of challenges with some much more than others. Mine included anxiety from Covid due to being a healthcare worker in an emergency room anticipating a Covid illness while taking every precaution not to become ill, being hit by a drunk driver on my way home from work in the wee hours of the morning on September 10th and food poisoning in November which brought about more anxiety than I ever could have imagined plus a slow recovery and this was shortly after a Covid exposure from a coworker.

I have seen people come to the hospital and be admitted to the Covid floor with loved ones not able to visit. They left not knowing if they would ever see them alive again. Many days spent driving home thinking of them through tears of helplessness.

I have seen whole families Covid (+) and their elderly members suffering the greatest.

Nursing homes with Covid outbreak sending residents to multiple hospitals in a panic and then not taking them back until they have quarantined for 14 days.

People living alone with Covid anxious to return home to care for themselves sadly not wanting to tell other family members of their anxiety. The need to step in and assist with this conversation is what I do and will offer every time. Family members will listen if we talk to them and tell them what we need. It’s all about communication.

2020 has been a great example of the importance of living in the moment. We far too often live in the visions of our future. Visions are important but living is more so. Living in the moment sounds so ‘cliche’ but it really is all we have and should be doing. Your future self will thank you.

Plan for the future but don’t live there. Live in the now.

Here’s to 2021. No expectations. No resolutions. No thoughts of what is to come. There is only one day at a time and I am going to savor every moment as if it were the only one I have.

Cheers!

(Don’t forget to eat your black eyed peas!)

~mh 💕😊

Monday Motivation – Shift the Mindset

I work with people who struggle from many disorders whether it be medical or mental or both. Sometimes I come across people who don’t know anyone else who is struggling and they feel all alone and ‘abnormal’. Never ever feel alone because there are millions of people struggling with you!!

Ask yourself this question, “ am I a victim of my circumstances or am I much more than my illness?” Whatever is occurring in your life, focus on all of the things you can still do and not on what has become a challenge.

Shift the mindset and the challenges will be less difficult.

TheMighty.com is a great community of support. The below article is well worth the read. Engage in change and change will occur!

8 Things I’ve Learned From Several Decades of Bipolar Disorder

~mh 💕😊

A life gone too soon.

Another one of my daughter’s high school classmates has taken their life due to postpartum depression. Such a tragedy.
Please reach out to people even if you don’t think they’re struggling because the last thing you want to do is reach out and them not be there to respond. 😢

https://www.postpartum.net/locations/texas/
Check your state for postpartum depression information. 

Home

Home

Home

https://jasonfoundation.com/

ALL are Welcome here!!!

This was NOT the consensus of social workers as a whole. I can’t imagine any social worker being OK with this. If they are, they shouldn’t be a social worker. Find a different career. Social Work IS a helping profession.

The Texas Board of social work examiners was bullied into putting this into effect and we will ask for immediate removal. The social work profression does not turn away ANY individual nor should it be tolerated. What game is the Governor playing? Shame on him.

Whether you want to believe it or not Texas is not a helping state. We don’t help our elders, we don’t have optimal mental health services and the list goes on and on. It amazes me why people want to move here because when they need help they can’t get it and and now Texas wants to oppress a vulnerable population. No matter your religious beliefs, not believing that everyone deserves fair treatment is immoral from where I sit.

YOU ARE MORE THAN WELCOME HERE!!!!

https://thehill.com/homenews/state-watch/521748-texas-social-workers-drop-nondiscrimination-rules-for-lgbtq-disabilities

~mh

Monday Motivation – Stress – Don’t let it destroy you.

There is good stress that helps us grow and then there is not so good stress that creates anxiety and depression and sometimes takes away our will to live.

3 things to remember to lower/eliminate ‘bad’ stress:

ADAPT to the environment.

Or

SHIFT the mindset and view the environment differently.

Or

CHANGE the environment.

There are always options. It is a matter of putting health as a priority or not.

Your choice.

Write down your stressors and ‘look’ at them and ask yourself, “is it worth it?”

What’s the barrier to lowering your stress today?

~mh💕😊

Monday Motivation – Be nice to your neighbors, Right and Left.

Depression, anxiety, addiction and all other mental illnesses do not care if one is Republican or Democrat.

Suicide does not care if a person votes left or right.

There are no VIPs where mental illness is concerned. 

When people reach out for help they are asked a lot of questions but one of them has nothing to do with their political affiliation. IT DOES NOT MATTER.

With all of the anger, hatred and no respect for life in the US right now, I am thinking mental illness is the new contagion. Sheesh!

Stop the Madness!! We can do better.

National Suicide Hotline:
1-800-273-8255

Suicide and Crisis Center of North Texas
214-828-1000

~mh💕😊