Day 2027: PTSD

In November 2016, I wrote another Post Titled Similarly, Definitely.  Something else happened that month which continues to give People Translating Signs Desperately another kind of PTSD.

 

Do you have PTSD?  People Talking Stress Decidedly in my therapy groups have it.

 

Prioritizing Therapeutic Stress Diversions can Perhaps Take Stress Down.

An antidote for President Trump Stress Disorder might be meditating on “the opposite of Trump,” as a Person in Therapy Suggested Delicately, yesterday in group.

Here’s a Published, Thorough, Single, Delineated list of other antidotes:

https://annkoplow.com/2013/03/06/antidotes-for-unhelpful-thoughts/

Previously, Time Showcased Despotism:

I’m getting PTSD looking at the results on YouTube for “President Trump Stress Disorder,” so here’s one of my current Personal Therapeutic  Stress Dispellers:

Piano, Trumpets, and Singing De-stress.

Prioritizing Thanks Seems Deserved.

Day 1216: So what if …?

One of the stress-relieving “antidotes” I give people in therapy is this:

The So What? Technique. Consider that an anxiety-producing possibility (even the worst case scenario) might not be as bad as you fear. For example, “So what if this one person doesn’t like me? Not everybody is going to like me.” or “So what if I lose my cell phone? It’ll be an incredible hassle, but I’ll be able to deal with it.”

So what if …

1. I’ve already blogged about this technique before, over a thousand days ago?
2. I confuse the link icon with the quote icon on WordPress all the time?
3. I considered many different topics for today’s post before I settled on this one and one of those other topics might have made a “better” blog post?
4. “Better” and “worse” are relative and subjective?
5. My patients have to do without me for one week while I’m on vacation?
6. We can’t  please everybody all the time?
7. Nobody’s perfect?
8. It’s difficult to balance other people’s needs with our own needs?
9. I dropped my iPhone this week and the glass is now a little cracked?
10. Somebody tried to log into my Facebook account from India yesterday?
11. I probably won’t get a call back when I audition for “The Voice” for the second time, in June?
12. I might make some mistakes when I sing at an Open Mic next Friday?
13. My son is going far away from home to the University of Edinburgh this year?
14. Something always needs repairing and around here, it’s usually one of the two toilets?
15. I can’t say “yes” to every social invitation?
16. People are inevitably going to hurt other people’s feelings, some times?
17. Not everybody is going to feel the same way about us that we feel about them?
18. The flowering trees in the Boston area might not be as spectacular this spring, because of the April snow?
19. One of our cats sticks to me like glue and the other one runs away from me?
20. My cardiologist says I can’t ride mopeds or scooters any more?
21. My son can’t attend the annual Sheepshearing Festival in Waltham, Massachusetts today with me and my boyfriend because he’s doing a run-through of another play he wrote with his friend Cameron?
22. This list is so long that people might be skimming it, at this point?
23. I keep adding to this list even after I published this post?
24. These are the only pictures I have to share with you today?

So what if you can’t choose a favorite picture there?

So what if you don’t like this tune, which I LOVE?

So what if I never locate a copy of the Berklee College of Music recruitment video I helped create in the 1990s, which used that tune in the opening?

So what if people don’t leave a lot of comments about this post?

So what if I need to write another blog post approximately  24 hours after I publish this one? I love doing this, every day. Thank you for being a part of it, here and now.

 

Day 676: Colors

Several years ago, I went into a store in the Boston area and noticed that people from a local radio station were there. One of the DJs announced to the shoppers:

A prize to the first person who can come up with eight musical groups with a color in the band’s name!

I don’t know if I’ve mentioned this in any of my previous colorful or non-colorful blog posts, but I love

• CONTESTS and
• WINNING.

I wonder if people who are reading this know that about me, or whether they are finding this out for the first time, much like I discovered, just now, that I can use colored letters in WordPress.

Anyway, the radio guy in the store announced that contest, and my mind went to work.

I now interrupt this story to bring you this question:

What band names, with colors in them, can you think of, right now?

While you’re thinking of those, here’s some mood music, brought to you this morning from high (or medium) atop the Koplow Family & Friends Building in beautiful suburban Boston:

(YouTube video of Duke Ellington‘s “Mood Indigo” found here)

And in case you prefer a different kind of music, here’s another tune, with the same color in the title:

(I found “Indigo Passion” by the Atlanta Rhythm Section on YouTube, in this video created by DJ Bayonic)

Okay, ladies and gentleman! For my listening and viewing pleasure, please place your colorful, musical names in the comment section, directly below this post.

For your listening and viewing pleasure, here are the band names I came up with, back then:

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Green Day

Simply Red

Whitesnake

Black Sabbath

Deep Purple

Pink Floyd

The Moody Blues

Blue Cheer

I remember the radio D.J. doubting “Blue Cheer” as a real band name, but I must have convinced him (without anybody having access to the internet, back then), because:

Like I said, I love winning.

And I love colorful things, including these:

and these:

… which are the “Coping and Healing” group handout folders, that people get to choose from, before they join my therapy groups.

I also love shades of grey (which is an antidote to the unhelpful cognitive distortion of Black-and-White Thinking), as you can see by this still life in my office:

I like to point out the ever-present box of tissues to people in individual and group therapy, to let them know that all feelings are welcome. I like to point out that clock, too.

Speaking of feelings, time, color, and art, yesterday I got this email from my long-time friend and amazing artist Paul Nagano (previously appearing in posts here and here):

Dear Friends:                                

                    THE FINAL

                               OPEN STUDIO  

 

                 of PAUL NAGANO in Boston

Saturday and Sunday —     Nov. 15 and 16     —     11am to 5pm

                 This is a 

                             CLEARANCE SALE 

               because I will be leaving Boston and moving to Honolulu on December 19.

 

Almost EVERYTHING — 

art, frames, books, art materials, objects, kitchen utensils, tools, 

even a few pieces of furniture  —  will be available for sale.

 

You will also be able to view the original of my magnum opus from this past summer–

“PARINIRVANA in the Great Garden” —

 

 

 I look forward to seeing you for a fond farewell.

 

Please, as always, bring some canned goods or other non-perishable food items

to benefit our Annual Food Drive for the GREATER BOSTON FOOD BANK.

 

 

Thanks.

  

lovanaloha,

P a u l — (after 47 years, leaving Boston on Dec. 19, to live in Hawaii 

                       …..and…….    arriving    there     on     Dec. 22)

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In response, I sent Paul this one-word email (even though I knew this move was coming):

 No!!!!!!!!!!!!!

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and Paul replied:

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Remember, Ann, CHANGE is GOOD!  –even when it’s bad, and a little sad.

lovanaloha,

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I’m going to let Paul have the last words, today, except for these:

THANKS TO EVERYONE !!!