depression
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Posted: February 11, 2022
Listen Up, HR Program Managers and Mental Health Innovators!
Behold Boatloads of Compelling Guided Imagery Research on Improving Stress, Anxiety, Depression, and Quality of Life!
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Posted: April 05, 2021Categories: Update from Health Journeys
Well, it’s been a whole year now since we all retreated from our normal social lives to protect ourselves from COVID-19. So, I’ve got to ask: how are you doing?
Now, admittedly, some people are deep-dish introverts who, before this past year, never could cadge enough alone-time to ponder, reflect, absorb or process the day’s events and their own thinking about them. Those folks are stressed when they don’t have enough time away from others.
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Posted: September 08, 2020Categories: Update from Health Journeys
As PAINWeek kicks off its 2020 Live Virtual Conference this year, we’re taking a look at some of the latest research regarding shingles (herpes zoster), postherpetic neuralgia (PHN), and the correlations between this long-known condition — which can go from simply pesky to downright hellacious — and the novel coronavirus, COVID-19.
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Posted: August 25, 2020Categories: Update from Health Journeys
Stop me if you’ve heard this story. Some years ago now, it’s been reported that a student asked famed cultural anthropologist Margaret Mead what she considered to be the first sign of civilization. Her response? A 15,000-year-old fractured femur that had broken, then healed. Connecting hip to knee, the femur is the longest bone in the human body, and when broken, it takes about six weeks of rest to heal — six weeks during which this person would have been completely reliant on members of their community.
What does it say about humanity that our earliest ancestors were inclined to so thoroughly uplift and care for each other in times of need? -
Posted: August 03, 2020Categories: Ask Belleruth
Dear BR,
My husband has thrown me away, no compassion, no love. Hateful. I have spent the last 26 years in various therapies with no help. I want to go Home.
I have been a throw away all my life. No tolerance for me. Apparently I have to pull myself up. People have no time for this. My heart is broken. I don't know what to do. Is there any Health Journeys help for me? -
Here’s a question for you, now that we’re a little halfway through this mishigas of a year: what does “normal” even mean anymore?
I won’t quote dictionaries at you; you know better than anyone else what normal looks like for you. As humans, we’re simple creatures of habit. We get into routines, we set our own boundaries, we develop preferences and nurture them. We create our normal, settle in and get comfortable — and then along comes a pandemic to throw everything into the air like so many juggling balls. -
Posted: July 21, 2020Categories: Update from Health Journeys
We talk about shame in the singular quite a bit, don’t we? Sometimes we partner it with guilt (though, as we’ve said before, we do make sure to separate the two), but shame rarely works alone. That’s because it tends to create more problems and delay healing others.
Here are some studies that tell the tale — or some important new pieces of it:
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Posted: July 14, 2020Categories: Update from Health Journeys
Have you ever walked into a room full of people and immediately doubted your right to be there? Or stared at yourself in a dressing room, convinced you were looking into a funhouse mirror? Did you ever wonder if everyone around you could tell you were faking it (whatever “it” is), and that at any moment, they’d call you out as a phony?
It’s hard enough existing in the unforgiving public eye, let alone when we carry that punishing and often cruel perspective into our most private spaces. And I don’t just mean our houses — I mean our hearts, souls, minds, bodies, and spirits.
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Posted: November 20, 2019Categories: Update from Health Journeys
Even the holly jolliest of us can get a little overwhelmed during the holiday season. If you slip into Grinch mode before Thanksgiving and stay there until after Valentine's Day, though, you might actually be feeling SAD.
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Posted: August 13, 2019Categories: Update from Health Journeys
A few years ago, Laureen Campana, RN, MPH, NP, then President-Elect of HSACCC (the Health Services Association of the California Community College system), and coordinator of student health at Columbia College, approached me after a session of guided imagery training I’d given at the U of Arizona Integrative Medicine Fellowship program.
Part of my talk showed the research on how guided imagery and meditation were associated with significantly reduced stress, anxiety, depression; and improved sleep, concentration, and performance. Many of the studies were done with college and university students (they’re sitting ducks for investigators, as we all know).