Tag Archives: journal

Feb17

5 Simple Methods To Properly Manage A Chronic Illness

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5 Simple Methods To Properly Manage A Chronic Illness

It can be challenging to properly manage a chronic illness at first. But it is possible to live a healthy and fulfilling life by taking proper care of it. Here is how you can help yourself out with these simple tips:

Pay Attention to Your Medication:

When you first get sick, it can be strange to have to take so many medications. People with epilepsy and diabetes have to follow their doctors’ orders very carefully. Otherwise, you can experience severe consequences. An online pharmacy like The Canadian Drug Store is a godsend if you can’t move around much, live in a remote area, or can’t get out for other reasons. You can easily order what you need and have it brought right to your door.

Listen to Your Doctor:

If you have a chronic illness, your doctor may suggest medications, therapies, or changes to your way of life to help you deal with it. In many cases, it’s important to carefully follow their advice and take your medicines as they say. And if you have questions or worries about your treatment plan, don’t be afraid to talk to your doctor or nurse about them. You’ll never be turned away if you ask about it.

Educate Yourself:

It can be very helpful to learn as much as you can about a condition you have. It can help you understand why your doctor wants you to make changes and cut down on the 25% of hospital stays that happen every year because people don’t do what they’re told. You can easily find reliable sources online. Or make positive changes with support from groups.

Keep a Journal of Activities:

Keeping track of your symptoms and any changes can be beneficial. You can then give this information to your doctor, who can use it to make any necessary changes to your treatment plan. The easiest way to do this is to write down your symptoms every day in a notebook or an app. Write down how bad each symptom is and if there are any things, like foods or activities, that make it worse.

Look After Yourself:

This is probably something you’ve heard a thousand times. But living a healthy life can help you deal with the symptoms of a long-term illness. This means eating a healthy, balanced diet, working out regularly, and getting enough sleep. All of these are good ways to deal with stress. Also, it’s always good to avoid bad habits like smoking and drinking too much alcohol. You may also need to stay away from foods or activities that make your symptoms worse or start them.

It can be challenging physically and emotionally to properly manage a chronic illness. Use the tips above to make things a little easier on yourself!

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Apr8

Great Ways To Make The Most Of A ‘Hopefully More Free’ Summer

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Great Ways To Make The Most Of A ‘Hopefully More Free’ Summer

We need not begin with the regular preamble speaking about how tough and strange the last year has been, and how excited many of us are to receive a semblance of normal, touch wood, this upcoming summer. You already know every viewpoint on the topic, and have likely expressed some yourself.

However, what we can suggest is a few great ways to make the most of this summer provided you have the space and the freedom to do so. Many of us are dying to see our friends again, and simply cannot wait to blow off some steam and socialize as we really need to. It’s as simple as that. But how can we make sure we make the most of it without feeling like a child in a candy store? After all, when we go from being able to do almost nothing to having every opportunity open up again, choosing one thing, by implication, prevents us from choosing everything else.

That can leave us anxious.

In this guide, we’ll discuss a few measures that you can take to make the most of this summer at your own worthwhile pace. Let’s get started:

Join A Summer Sports Team:

A summer sports team can provide a fun challenge for obvious reasons, but they can also help us feel more connected to other people and meet new folks alike. For this reason, volunteering for a team in your local community, donning rugby training wear to help you curate your own team, or simply spending time joining a new martial arts club could be a good idea, and may even help you connect with a new discipline you never knew you needed.

Try A New Cuisine:

Trying a new cuisine may seem like something you can do any time, and it can. However, there’s nothing quite like the blossoming of the warmer seasons to get food ‘in season’ and to support the return of local businesses opening with confidence. Perhaps you could order authentic ingredients that help you make the most of this cuisine type too or you could spend some time going on a restaurant tour with a friend. There’s nothing better for bonding than eating with someone, particularly after a long absence from one another.

Start Documenting Your Travels:

Documenting your travels can be an excellent way of inspiring you to go further afield, try something new, or to simply note down your thoughts about being allowed to travel around the world again (or within your country’s borders). Documenting your travels in this nature could be aided by recording your days with your mobile phone, writing a blog on a website, or in simply making a scrapbook or journal of your thoughts throughout the day. Little efforts like this help you take some time for you and may even help you come to insights you weren’t expecting.

With this advice, we hope you can make the most of a free summer and, most importantly, to enjoy it through and through.

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Feb7

4 Stress-Busting Means Of Engaging Your Creativity

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4 Stress-Busting Means Of Engaging Your Creativity

To open this post, we need not speak about the difficulties of the last year, and just how life has changed. It’s a well-worn topic. However, it’s very true that the importance of self-care and the willingness to keep ourselves in check (and to check up on others) has never been so important. As such, figuring out a few methods for achieving exactly that is certainly worth our time. One method that is rarely spoken of when it comes to self care is that of practicing creativity.

Why is this? Well, sometimes, creativity can feel like work or practice. It’s not as if playing a piano is something we can all sit down and just learn by ear, it takes hard work and practice to get good before you can begin really flexing your creativity. The last thing you want to assign to someone having a stressful time is more work.

Or is that the case? Does creativity have to feel like work or could it feel like play? Perhaps it could be both. After all, most runners are all too familiar with the feeling we get when starting a run (feeling groggy, tired, irritable) and then how fun it gets once the endorphins are flowing and we feel like we could keep going for hours. Creativity can function in that way. It can also help us feel confident, relaxed, energized, inspired, productive, useful, and able to express ourselves. That has to be worth something quite important, to the point where we would totally recommend keeping on top of those considerations from now into the long term.

Let’s see what creative ambitions can fit within this worthwhile category:

Journaling:

People rarely feel that journaling is a creative hobby, but it truly is. Putting your thoughts, ideas, impressions, beliefs, or experiences down into written form can be very cathartic. Journaling can not only help you expel your ideas more readily, but it helps you understand exactly what you were thinking and why. This is doubled when you return to that which you’ve written and see just where you were at the time, and how you’ve grown. Giving yourself this kind of insight is not only a great practice for your mental health, but it can help you learn a new skill. Writing isn’t easy and it takes plenty of practice to get good at. A journal is a fantastic place to become more literate. It can also serve our next task:

Creative Writing:

People often think that creative writing needs to be strictly within a category. Either you’re writing poetry, a short story, a novel, or a travel log. That’s not true, of course. Writing is whatever you’d like it to be. Some of the best writing we have is when authors have the courage to break the rules, like the novel Finnegan’s Wake by James Joyce, filled with difficult-to-decipher language that is both strange and very curated, almost poetic.

Creative writing helps us focus on our thoughts and what impressions we may wish to grant an audience, but it also helps us present a story line, write our thoughts for people to read, or perhaps veil our artistic insights in poetry or songwriting. Creative writing, like journaling, can be quite cathartic except the rules are much more open and freeing, giving you a sense of potential in every word you jot down. Why not try and write a page long stream of consciousness this week? It might inspire you to further expand your creativity.

Arts & Crafts:

Of course, many people prefer feeling like they have something tangible to offer, and arts and crafts can help us focus on actually making something rather than endlessly reflecting. That can be great to keep us focused and somewhat distracted, rather than ruminating on the tough times we’re going through.

For instance, you might find that putting together a wonderful mandala kit helps you create a beautiful decoration that you take pride in every time you see it. Arts and crafts can also serve a real purpose. You might use your seamstress skills to fix up some of your old clothes or reupholster your furniture by giving it a lick of paint and a varnish. Maybe you’ll just reclaim some wood and use a chisel and hammer to try your hand at amateur sculpture in your garage. Having a project like this on the go can feel very rewarding, as over time it takes form and you see your plans come to actual life.

Painting:

If you’re looking for some inspiration, there’s a special Twitch channel playing Bob Ross episodes 24/7, showcasing how even amateurs can enjoy painting and get something from it if they try. Why not gather some paints and give it a shot? You could mess around with watercolors and have fun with your teenage child. You might decide to do a self-portrait, something fun and whimsical or perhaps as realistic as you can try to make it. You can also experiment with the surfaces you paint on if you like, such as painting a beautiful family mural in your kitchen or corridor wall with images of your loved ones.

Don’t discount painting just because you may not have had time to enjoy it before. The process can be highly rewarding if you give it time, piece by piece, with a little verve and care.

With this advice, we hope you can more easily see the benefit in trying a new creative passion, even if you’ve never touched that process before. These suggested activities are cheap, fun, and can sustain you during difficult times. Best of luck!

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Jan14

Living With Anxiety? Here’s How To Make Coping Easier

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Living With Anxiety? Here’s How To Make Coping Easier

You know that feeling, where your heart starts to pound and your breathing quickens in response to a stressful or worrying situation? Or maybe you’re familiar with the feeling of having sweaty, clammy palms when you have an overwhelming or stressful situation to deal with? These feelings are both anxiety, which is the body’s response to feelings of stress and being overwhelmed.

Having a little anxiety on a semi-regular basis is fairly normal. However, it’s when anxiety begins to take over your life that there can be a problem, and it is something that is worth looking further into. While realising that you have anxiety can be stressful, don’t panic – there are plenty of ways that you can make managing living with anxiety easier.

It’s important to remember when it comes to anxiety that there is not a one-size-fits-all approach to anxiety management; what works for one person may not work for another. The key to successfully being able to manage anxiety is making sure that you find the right approach for you and your needs. This could mean talking with a therapist or trying an inpatient program at Honey Lake Clinic or one of your local facilities.

Bearing that in mind, below is a guide to a selection of anxiety coping and management strategies that you might find helpful. Have a read, take note, and determine which options work best for you:

Identify your triggers:

One of the most important steps that you can take when it comes to managing anxiety is identifying what triggers it in the first place. For some people, anxiety is triggered by experiences like starting a new job, meeting a partner’s family or friends, having to give a presentation at work, or attending a health appointment. For others, anxiety isn’t about experiences, it’s simply linked to stress and overthinking different things.

The fact is, that everyone has their own anxiety triggers; what triggers a friend with anxiety to become anxious may not trigger you, and vice versa. Often, anxiety is linked to a previous experience or situation, and things that are linked to those situations and experiences can, therefore, cause anxiety.

For example, say you got stuck in a lift and it took a while to be rescued. This may result in anxiety around using lifts or of being in confined spaces. Or, perhaps you had a loved one pass away in traumatic circumstances, you may find that you start to become anxious about other loved ones and the traumatic circumstance that caused the death, such as being involved in a road traffic accident.

By identifying what your triggers are, you can help make managing your anxiety a little easier. Because once you know what causes you to become anxious, you can begin to work out strategies for dealing with those feelings.

Decide the best strategies for coping:

When it comes to living with anxiety, it is no easy task. For some people, anxiety can be a minor annoyance and for others, anxiety can be completely and utterly debilitating. But by putting coping strategies in place, you can make managing your anxiety simpler and easier. The key here is to decide what the best coping strategies are for you and your anxiety.

Focused deep breathing is one anxiety management strategy that a lot of people find helpful. If you feel that you are becoming overly anxious, you might find that focused, deep breathing could help. You can either try and utilize this technique on your own or you can opt to use an app like the Calm app to help you manage the process of deep breathing to calm your anxiety.

Some people find that getting out and about helps them feel less stressed out. Sometimes, simply taking the time to get out of the house and go for a walk can be all it takes to relieve some of the stresses and strains that you might be struggling with.

Other anxiety sufferers find that sourcing certain treatments, such as Neurofeedback anxiety support can help them to make managing their anxiety and its associated symptoms a little easier to navigate. CBD products are also something that can help with the tension and stress of anxiety. Blessed CBD offers capsules, oils, gummies, and creams that could help take the edge off from particularly triggering events or situations. As always, do your research before you begin a CBD regimen to determine what is best for you.

Keeping a journal of your thoughts and feelings can also be helpful when it comes to managing anxiety. Writing down what is making you feel anxious helps to get that concern out of your head and can make dealing with it less daunting and stressful.

Talking is another useful way to help make living with anxiety easier too. When you talk and share how you are feeling, you start to feel less pressure and less stress as a result. Whether you find talking with a friend or family member, speaking to a therapist, or talking to other anxiety sufferers helpful, talking can be a fantastic tool for reducing feelings of anxiety.

You may also want to consider joining some anxiety support groups, as it’s often helpful to have other people to talk to who understand what it is that you are going through and are able to offer support by sharing their own experiences.

Managing anxiety is no simple or straightforward task but the ideas above can help minimize those feelings and get you moving in the right direction.

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Jan5

How You Can Be Kind To Yourself In 2021

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How You Can Be Kind To Yourself In 2021

If there is one good thing about a new year, it’s that it gives you a clean slate to try something new. For some people, this is kicking bad habits. For others, it’s being more in-tune with their friends and family. This is all well and good but it’s also important to remember to be kind to yourself in 2021 too. We all know how tough the previous year was, and while there are still reverberations from 2020, it’s still possible to put yourself first for the new year:

Keep a journal:

Keeping a journal is not just a great tool to keep track of your days, it can also help you reflect and work through any problems you encounter throughout the year. This will give you the chance to recognize how insignificant such problems were, even if they seemed too much to handle at the time. A journal will also help you see how much you have grown throughout the year and give you something to look back on fondly. Ideally, you want to write in your journal every day so your memories don’t fade.

Try something new:

Humans are not designed to stand still, but many people will get to a point where they don’t explore anything new. There’s nothing wrong with being comfortable, but it can mean that you get dissatisfied with life. This is why it’s always useful to try something new, whether you want to try something you’ve always wanted, like running a marathon or losing weight, or even doing something that you’ve never done before. This could be rock climbing, dyeing your hair a different color, or testing out foods that you have never had.

Make new friends:

It’s tricky to make new friends as an adult. Everyone seems too busy, and they have so many responsibilities that it feels impossible to find the time to hang out with someone else. However, the potential for new friends is out there. You just need to know where to look. If you’re trying new hobbies, look for online communities who can advise you on whether a Shimano Tyrnos conventional reel is the right fishing tool or whether a sub-five minute kilometer is something to celebrate, which it is, by the way!

Spend more time with yourself:

One of the most effective ways to be kinder to yourself this year is to spend more time with yourself. It’s nice to hang out with friends and family, but you also need the chance to recharge and do what you want to do. It’s important to get comfortable in your own company, so put your feet up, pick out your favorite book, and relax. You’ll find that you enjoy your own company much more than you expected.

Be kind:

Some people will spend all of their time trying to be kind to others and forget about being kind to themselves. However, it is impossible to fill others’ cups when yours is empty. So, don’t be afraid to give yourself some time to recharge and be kinder to yourself. Once you feel one hundred percent, you can start thinking about helping others, too.

2021 can’t be as bad as 2020, right? Use the tips above to help you start this new year on the right foot!

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Apr25

Simple Techniques For Improving Your Mindset

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Simple Techniques For Improving Your Mindset

Whether it’s trying to find success in your business, get a promotion at work, or improve your relationship, one of the most important aspects to changing anything in a positive way is by improving your mindset. But, this is not always as easy as it sounds because most people have been conditioned to have a negative mindset, so it’s something that will take daily work on a consistent basis and a lot of the same stuff over and over to finally change.

However, it’s completely worth it, and one of the best things you’ll ever do for yourself. In this post, we’re going to share with you some simple techniques for improving your mindset:

Journal:

When most people think of journaling, they think of teenage girls writing in their diary about their latest crush at school. But, true journaling is nothing like this at all, and can be one of the most effective ways to really create change in your life. The great thing about journaling, is that there isn’t just one way of doing it. So, if you’re thinking that you don’t know how to journal properly, then there really is no proper way – it’s simply about writing down the things you feel and even the things you’d like to believe about your life until you actually start to believe them. Journaling can be a very healing thing, so if you’re looking to improve your mindset, then this is something you should try.

Upgrade your circle:

It’s been said that you become the average of the five people who you spend the most time with, and if you look at most people, you’ll see that this is true. While this certainly doesn’t mean that you should go cutting family and friends out of your life, it just means that you should be careful of the company you keep, because their mindset will become yours and if you’re constantly around people who are complaining, who seem to be constant victims, and never move forward in life, then don’t be too surprised when the same things become true for you.

Feed your mind:

Improving your mindset takes work and it’s work that needs to be done consistently. It is important to make sure that you’re feeding your mind with positivity and things you want to be surrounded with instead of getting sucked into negativity and drama – especially on places like social media where you only see negative things. Follow people and read things that inspire and lift you up instead of making you feel like everything is rubbish all of the time.

Avoid the media:

The mainstream media today is one of the biggest sources of negativity in the world, so if you really want to improve your mindset, then this is something to be avoided. This doesn’t mean to bury your head in the sand and pretend like bad stuff doesn’t happen. But, instead of listening to everything bad that’s happening, look for the good that happens, because there’s plenty of it, it just doesn’t make for good headlines or news reports.

Improving your mindset will improve all aspects of your life, so get started on changing yours today!

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Jan30

Using Keystone Habits To Build A Healthier Daily Routine

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Using Keystone Habits To Build A Healthier Daily Routine

We all have habits that we carry out every day. Some habits are healthy, such as going to bed early and drinking a lot of water. Other habits are not so healthy, e.g. smoking and snoozing the morning alarm ten times. The healthier habits we have, the better our day usually goes. Overall, this can add up to a much more productive, satisfying life. Those with healthy habits tend to achieve more, enjoy life more, and feel their best. Wouldn’t you like to be one of those people?

In this post, we’re going to focus on keystone habits. What’s a keystone habit? A keystone habit is a habit that can impact how you act the rest of the time. They are the habits that can spark chain reactions. If you’re still confused as to what this is exactly, we’re going to go through a few great keystone habits to pick up:

Making Your Bed In The Morning:

Making your bed in the morning takes mere seconds, but it’s a habit that can spark more productivity and a sense of achievement for the rest of the day. People who make their bed without fail get that sense of having completed something great before really getting the day started, and this can have a fantastic impact on mental attitudes.

Drinking A Pint Of Water Before Anything Else:

Drinking a pint of water rehydrates the body after a long sleep, flushes out toxins, and keeps us energized. Doing this before you have your daily coffee will get you off to a great start, and you’ll likely drink more water throughout the day as a result.

Exercising Earlier On In The Day:

This isn’t an essential keystone habit – some people prefer to exercise later on, and that’s fine. However, many people report feeling absolutely unstoppable after a morning workout and, of course, this can directly impact how much a person gets done during the rest of the day.

Journaling:

Journaling can free the mind from wandering and annoying thoughts. It can help you to spot patterns and come up with solutions. It can even help you to reduce your stress levels and increase your productivity! Journaling is a great way to cope with difficult times, too, so if you know you’re going to be heading somewhere like the radiation oncology department, journaling beforehand can help you to deal with your feelings and get into a more positive mindset.

Meditation:

Meditation is said to reduce stress and depression as well as improve sleep and creativity. Even just 5 minutes per day is better than nothing at all.

A Morning Routine That You Enjoy:

Getting up and starting the day with a total morning routine that you enjoy could give you a headstart on the day. For instance:

  • Brush your teeth and wash your face
  • Make your bed
  • Drink a pint of water
  • Read a chapter of a book with a coffee or tea
  • Work out
  • Eat a healthy breakfast
  • Shower and get ready for the day

Doing all of the above in succession will literally make you feel unstoppable and you’re far more likely to have a better day because of it! How will you use keystone habits to build a better daily routine?

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