This post is from my archives. I have a love-hate relationship with December. Many people do. I feel like December adds another 50 percent of things to be scratched off of my “to do” list, and therefore tells my sympathetic nervous system that panic mode is appropriate, that we are aboard the Holiday Titanic and...
I call the two months between Halloween and New Years the “eating season.” No matter where you turn, there’s a bowl of your favorite candy on someone’s desk, decadent holiday treats at your doorstep, and invitations to parties. The holidays are packed with stress, and we all know the easiest, safest, most affordable place to...
Musician and songwriter Willie Nelson once said, “When I started counting my blessings, my whole life turned around.” Study after study on gratitude shows how simple exercises of appreciation build emotional resilience, improve our relationships, and promote our well-being. Gratitude researchers like Martin Seligman, PhD, director of the Positive Psychology Center at the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia; Robert...
For highly-sensitive folks and persons predisposed to sadness, the holidays create a perfect storm for depression. There is the added stress of holiday shopping, decorating, and parties, not to mention dealing with strained family relations; snowball and gingerbread cookies seem to stalk you; and a sense of forced merriment has a way of making you...
Two years ago, I talked with a prominent psychiatrist about what could be done for all the people who have treatment-resistant depression who do not respond — or only partially respond — to the drugs on the market today. “We wait for better drugs to come out,” he said. I wanted a better answer, because my experience with the...
I am a writer and chaplain trying to live a simple life in Annapolis, Maryland.