Day 2821: Antidepressants

As a clinical social worker, I cannot prescribe antidepressants, so I talk to people about other types of antidepressants, which I like to call “personal medicine.”

Do you see any antidepressants here?

For me, all those images are antidepressants, including that homemade, well-worn window sign that says “THANK YOU HEALTH CARE WORKERS.”

What are your antidepressants, these days?

Music is  an antidepressant for many.   Here are Blood, Sweat & Tears performing “Manic Depression” in 1980:

Comments are also antidepressants for me, so I look forward to taking that personal medicine later today.

As always, gratitude is an antidepressant, so thanks to all (including YOU) who help me combat depression with this daily blog!

 

Day 2576: Therapy

Since I practice group therapy and individual therapy, I must have created many other “Therapy” posts, right?

What attracts my attention now is this:  the only other post I’ve published with “therapy” in the title is Day 430: What I learned at the group therapy conference,  and that is one of my shortest posts, ever.

So why this therapy post, today?

That’s a sign I saw yesterday at Designer’s Circus in Boston. At Designer’s Circus, I found Therapy and Joy.

That’s Joy, who was one of the many people at Designer’s Circus who heard that I was there to shop for a dress for my December 27 City Hall Wedding and who wanted to be involved in the process.

That’s Kathleen, one of the owners of Designer’s Circus, who helped me find two great dresses. Spending time with her and the other wonderful people I met at Designer’s Circus was definitely therapy for me.

After retail therapy at Designer’s Circus, I got more therapy at the annual glass sale at Almost Perfect Glass in Cambridge, Massachusetts because I spent therapeutic time with my good friend Deb, seen here at last year’s sale.

Wherever I look, I find therapy. Can you find therapy in my other photos from yesterday?

If you want pizza therapy, go to Santarpio’s in Boston, which makes the best pizza I’ve ever had.

How about some music therapy?

Because I especially love group therapy, I wonder how my group of readers will respond to this post.

Gratitude is great therapy for all of us, so thank you!

Day 2517: Information for healthy living

Just now, when I searched my thousands of blogs for a previous post about “information for healthy living,” this is what WordPress told me:

Nothing Found

Sorry, but nothing matched your search criteria. Please try again with some different keywords.

 

And here I thought I’ve been giving you, my readers, information for healthy living for approximately two thousand, five hundred and seventeen days!

Well, as I like to tell people, there’s no time like the present, so let’s begin:

That photo helps explain and corroborate today’s title, but there’s no information for healthy living there!

Let’s see if there’s any information for healthy living in the rest of my photos from yesterday:

When I search YouTube for “information for heathy living,” lots of videos show up, including this one:

 

Yesterday, I told my wonderful Primary Care Physician —  Dr. Laura Snydman at Tufts Medical Center —  that I hoped  my dancing was as good for healthy living as medicine is.

Here‘s Bailey and Gino from So You Think You Can Dance (which I think is great medicine):

 

Feel free to add more information for healthy living in the comments section, below.

Here’s some healthy thanks from your grateful blogger:

 

 

 

Day 1894: Prescriptions

In my work as a therapist, sometimes I write prescriptions for people.  I’m not licensed to prescribe medications, so those prescriptions have included

• Rx:  Keep doing what you’re doing.
• Rx:  Be kind to yourself.
• Rx:  This too shall pass.
• Rx.  One  day at a time.
• Rx:  One minute at a time.
• Rx: Follow your heart.
• Rx: Stay safe.
• Rx:  Forgive yourself.
• Rx:  Love yourself.
• Rx:  Speak your truth.
• Rx:  It’s safer than it feels.

I happen to have a blank prescription here.

What prescription would you write for yourself, here and now?

My daily prescriptions include writing this blog and sharing photos.

Those Yogi Tea sayings seem like prescriptions to me.

What’s the prescription for the rockin’ pneumonia and the boogie woogie flu?

Prescribed thanks to all who helped me write today’s blog post and — of course! — to YOU.

Day 1759: What do you like most about yourself?

What do you like most about yourself?

What I like most about myself is that  …

• I offer  therapy/support groups where people  bring in and answer excellent questions.

• I encourage people to think about and practice  personal medicine.

• I follow my own values and standards.

• I try my best to live righteously and love everyone.

• I appreciate and share great music.

 

• I express gratitude, including thanking all who help me create these daily blog posts and — of course! — YOU.

 

Day 1640: Personal medicine, again

Because this blog is personal medicine for me, I’ve been publishing daily posts since January 1, 2013.  During that time, I’ve personally blogged twice before about personal medicine (here and here).

Yesterday, in a therapy group, it was personal medicine for all of us to share our personal medicine.

Notice that the first item on my list of personal medicine is my sister. That’s because Ellen had texted me during the group that she was in the building where I work. After the group, I had the personal medicine of hanging out with Ellen in the lobby of the hospital. She showed me a graph she had created about how Perceivers perform tasks.

Ellen showed me the personal medicine of that chart because, in Myers-Briggs lingo, I’m a perceiver and she’s a judger. I was initially interested and excited, then I got diverted by other priorities.

One of my other priorities yesterday was to go on a walk-through — with my boyfriend Michael, our realtor Jane, and the current owner —  of our very-soon-to-be-new home near the ocean.

 

It’s personal medicine for me to look at that last photo. Imagine the personal medicine of living there, after the closing today.

When Michael and I got back to our soon-to-be-not home last night, we found a note from my son Aaron. Michael did his own personal medicine of  writing back on the note.

Did you see that music is also on my list of personal medicine, above?

I hope you know your comments are also personal medicine for me. Please share your personal medicine, below.

Personal thanks to all who helped me create another personal-medicine post and — of course! — to YOU.

Day 1115: How to let go of embarrassment

Is there any thing you’re embarrassed about, right now?  If so, let’s figure out

What do you know  about letting go of embarrassment, based on your past experience and your own wisdom?  If you can’t think of anything, please don’t be embarrassed.  When somebody unexpectedly puts me on the spot and asks for answers, I’m embarrassed about how long it can take me to think of something useful.

I’m also embarrassed that I can’t remember everything people came up with, yesterday in my office, when we were brainstorming about how to let go of embarrassment.  I do remember the list included:

• acknowledge what’s embarrassing you,
• recognize how the embarrassment is affecting your thoughts, feelings, and actions,
• figure out who originally gave you the idea you should be embarrassed in this situation,
• challenge that assumption,
• share your thoughts and feelings with somebody you trust,
• recognize that other people get embarrassed,
• let go of the embarrassment as quickly as possible, and …

Because I’m a little embarrassed about my handwriting, I’ll point out that #9 says “Treat yourself kindly.”

As usual, I have an embarrassment of riches, photographically, that I’d like to share with you today:

 

Which of those images are most embarrassing to you?  How might you begin to let go of that embarrassment?

It’s embarrassing how easy it is for me to ask for comments for my daily blog posts.  Please don’t be embarrassed to leave one, below.

This might be embarrassing, but I’m not going to thank anybody for their help in creating today’s blog.  I’d definitely be embarrassed, however, if I didn’t thank you — of course! — for reading it.

 

Day 1037: Candied

Dear sweet readers,

Can you guess why today’s post may be Candied?

Many of us, this time of year, buy too much candy for Halloween, and get candied ourselves.

Candied, indeed.

Yesterday, many sweet people in therapy talked about eating candy (among other things) and how that made them feel.

All that sugar activated my sweet tooth, so  I tried getting candied …

… and got cookied, instead.

As I suggested to others throughout the day …

… mindful eating includes recognizing slips and self-forgiveness. Our self-worth is NOT dependent on what we eat or how we look.

By mindfully letting go of the extra sugar I’ve been eating lately, I was able to notice and appreciate other sweet things around me.

Now it’s time to share some sweet music in this candied post.

Candidly, I chose today’s title partly because of this:

The Candide Overture by Leonard Bernstein is here on YouTube, with over one million sweet views.

What are your candied thoughts and feelings, now?

Sweet gratitude to all who helped me create this candied post and special thanks to you — of course! — for bringing your sweet self here, today.

Day 730: Honestly

Honestly, I’ve been wondering what kind of post to create on the last day of this year AND my second year of blogging.

Honestly, I could reminisce about the highlights,

the lowlights,

and the midlights

of the days and nights of 2014. But honestly, it would take me a long, long time to go through all the photos and all the experiences I shared with you in 2014.

Honestly, I’d like to write a regular, run-of-the-mill post today, because isn’t today just another day (no matter how much significance we tend to give certain days over others)?

Honestly, all the posts I wrote for you (and — honestly —  for me, too)  this year included:

• some acknowledgement of the past (usually, a link to the day before),
• a list or other collection of connections,
• a mixture of light and dark,
• an invitation to let go of fear, dread, shame, or something else that gets in the way,
• some ideas about moving forward,
• a mixture of thoughts and feelings,
• randomness,
• love, and
•  honesty.

Honestly, every post I wrote for you and for me in 2014 helped me

• learn,
• grow, and
• face the day ahead with more courage.

Honestly, if it weren’t for this blog, I don’t think I would have seen, heard, thought, felt, and experienced as much wonder, curiosity, and hope in 2014.

Honestly, having this blog was like confiding in a community of great listeners,  carrying everybody’s presence with me no matter where I went, and enjoying everything so much more, because I knew I could show it to you the very next day.

Honestly, I saw these yesterday, and looked forward to sharing them with you today:

     

Honestly, I think Harley’s gotten more comfortable with everybody, in 2014.

Honestly, I really need to straighten up and clear off my blogging table.

Honestly, I took only ONE of all those delicious chocolates offered to me at work yesterday. Would you like to guess which one I took? Which one would YOU have chosen?

Honestly, whenever I ask you to guess, listen, look, or respond  in these posts, I don’t need you to do anything. I’m just glad you’re here.

Honestly, whenever I say that I heard a song on one of my walks that fits a blog post perfectly for me, I’m telling you the truth. For example,”1999” by Prince was the first song that came on yesterday and I thought,

Wow!  That’s always seemed like the PERFECT New Year celebration song, ever since I first heard it in 1982. I can’t wait to use it in my end-of-year celebration post!!

Honestly, I can’t find “1999” anywhere on YouTube right now.

Honestly, every time I’ve encountered an obstacle in 2014, whether in blogging or elsewhere ,  it’s all worked out — maybe, even for the better.

Honestly, who knows?  We’re all just doing the best we can.

Honestly, as I was dancing yesterday, next to my car in my work-place parking lot …

…  I heard a song which reminded me of the one video I kept meaning to share with you in 2014.

Honest!

Honestly, this is why I love that video of Carly Rae Jepsen, Jimmy Fallon, and The Roots playing “Call Me Maybe” with kids’ classroom instruments, so very very much.

It’s filled with honest, heart-felt joy.

AND bongos*!

Call me maybe, tomorrow? I’ll be here.

Many honest thanks from me to you, here and now.

---

* Also found, in 2014, here, here, here, here, here, and here.

Day 231: Back to work

I feel ready to go back to work, although I continue to have some trouble sleeping The Night Before Something Important.

Of course, every day is important, but my brain seems to think that some days are more important than others. (For a great joke about the human brain, by Emo Philips, see this short post.) (And while we’re at it,  here‘s another great Emo Philips joke, in another end-of-vacation post, no less.)

Before I went to sleep, a few hours ago, I tried taking a half-dose of  an over-the-counter, “traditional” herbal sleep aid I bought in the UK last week.  Usually I avoid any kind of sleep aid medicine, just because I haven’t had good experiences with them. And it’s not working (yet).

So I’m going to try another sleep aid, which HAS worked for me before: doing a quick blog post in the middle of the night.

Yesterday afternoon, on my Last Day Before Returning to Work After My Unusually Long, Two-Week Vacation, I went for a long walk, listening to lots of favorite tunes.

As I often do, I found that a joyful experience.

Here are some shots I snapped along the way:

.

The weather, on that walk yesterday, was “gloomier” than it had been days before, when I took these photos, nearby:

The point I wanted to make, right now, was there was beauty to be seen, no matter what the weather, no matter where I was walking.

I saw beauty in London and Edinburgh, of course, last week.  In those places, it was impossible to miss.

But beauty is everywhere, if I’m open to it.

When I return to work tomorrow, there’ll be beauty there, too. My own worries, tiredness, expectations, and “cognitive distortions” might obscure that beauty, for moments.  But it’s always there.

I look forward to seeing it, in the days ahead.

Thanks for reading, everybody.