By Julia Sorensen
 Are you trying to overcome depression? Perhaps you suffer from seasonal depression that is just starting to lift as the spring months approach. Whether you are a person who experiences low grade depression (like a chronic virus) or a deep unrelenting sad mood that seems to stretch over the horizon, it is likely you are here, seeking ways to lift that ton of bricks off your shoulders.
In our quest to feel good, we sometimes lose the forest for the trees and stop allowing ourselves to feel down. If we do not have a period of mourning, however, we cannot bust through to the other side of our depression to the joy, where contentment lies.
I often speak to people who have had a significant loss either through a death, a divorce, a relationship ending and yet they will not allow themselves to experience the depression they are feeling in their quest for abundance and positive mood which is often not authentic but a mere mask or facade.
As human beings we are deeply interconnected, we love deeply and when those
connections and relationships suddenly grind to a halt, it is not surprising that we experience depression, sadness, loss, anger, and negative mood sometimes for prolonged periods.
If we were not supposed to experience pain, depression, or negative moods, we would not have been born with the capacity to experience these low feelings, rather we would have been born only with the capacity to feel love, joy, happiness. Some people try to skip this deeply sad stage by avoiding depressed feelings and try to skip to the happy moods which can compound their feelings of loss when it backfires on them.
Rather depression can signal sometimes bluntly that there is inner work to address, that there are sad feelings that need to be looked at, acknowledged, accepted before we can move on to the good stuff. Long-term studies look at this now and recognize that medications can take you so far but the support and assistance from a therapeutic relationship is the key to transcending your sad feelings.
Yes, feeling painful feelings is probably the most difficult experience you will have and yes, many run from this stage into addictive distractions anything but look at those dark emotions.
Sometimes the pressure to get over it and move on is a secondary wounding in the experience of depression, many wonder why they cant just snap out of it living lives of quiet desperation. With training, you can learn to change the way you are thinking about your life the key to emotional wellness.
Remember that good feelings and positive emotions are fuelled by your thoughts. Its what we are thinking and flooding your brain in the form of thought 24/7 that will determine good or negative emotion. Change your thoughts, your inner critic, your self talk, the way you judge important events, the beliefs you hold about yourself, how you interact in society and you will also change your life to experience new perceptions that will bring those feel good emotions. Tapping into your head chatter and paying attention to the words that are running around your brain by writing it down and learning to re-think and re-script your inner voice will bring improvement in mood. Learning to be more objective and less negatively emotionally charged will also improve depression.
Learning to change the way you think about yourself, your life, your beliefs may mean that you need to radically slough off old, ingrained ways of viewing yourself and your life to bust through depression and sadness. Once this is achieved, however, there is no limit to the joy, love for life, and abundance you can experience in the wake of depression.
Need Help? Free resources at http://thecbtcoach.com Julia Sorensen, MA, RPC, CBT is an integrative Cognitive Behavioral Therapist/Coach who can help you switch your thinking patterns around to experience joy through depression. Julia is also author of, Overcoming Loss Stories and Activities to Help Children Transform Grief and Loss published through Jessica Kingsley Publishers.
Health Education Ignites Your Access To Top Medical Care
By Curt Graham, M.D.
 Perhaps you know it already. Nothing is more important in your life than the status of your health. From brain function to trimming your toe nails requires every function in your body be purring in unison. Health education enables it.
Good health isnt automatic. Your personal responsibilities for maintaining and improving your health are a lifelong obligation---not a privilege. If you dont comply with what health care providers, including home health care nurses, are telling you to do, you suffer. The problem with complying is an ever increasing struggle to get enough time in direct contact with the physician or other healthcare provider to be properly and fully informed.
Your healthcare suffers accordingly.
The smarter you are through health education about how the healthcare system works, and how to use strategies for manipulating the medical care process for your benefit the more ability you will have to easily and quickly propel your healthcare to top. This article tells you how to do that in abbreviated terms.
How much importance you assign to maintaining your health defines your responsibilities for improving it. Obesity is an example of those who consider their health secondary in importance to other things. Who cares?.......We all do.
I hate to tell you this, but the hefty responsibility for medical treatment and care is gradually being transferred to your own shoulders. Medical doctors, in a sense, are moving from a position of directing your medical care to a position of assisting in your healthcare. And what does that mean to you?
You are now offered choices instead of being told what is going to be done. You must be medically knowledgeable enough to make the right decision/choice for yourself. Health education is key.
Your time with any healthcare professional is so limited that you are now being forced to resolve your healthcare questions another way.
Your resources for health information have changed from a quickie office visit with the healthcare provider who used to provide knowledge to books, articles, and newsletters.
Your ability to speak directly with healthcare providers for medical information has become severely restricted. Now, you must rely on second guessing whether the office staffers answers are correct, complete, and reliable.
Second hand medical information is well known to be unreliable.even dangerous on occasion.
For these and many other reasons you will increasingly need outside resources for reliable healthcare information which will at least help you to maintain adequate healthcare, if not improve it.
Your health responsibilities, however, go well beyond becoming an expert about your own disease problems. Your family will expect you to be their healthcare advocate as well. Once you discover where you can find reliable healthcare information, whether its online at Cullmanchat Medical Forum, from a home health care nurse, or by reading articles about health you become a highly regarded asset to your family and friends. Talk about a way to improve your self-esteem! Wow!
So where are those reliable sources for health education you need?
1.Physicians online doctors or in the medical office.
2.Internet trusted medical websites or websites publishing peer reviewed info.
3.Healthcare Institutions hospitals, clinics, and doctor offices.
4.Medical Educational Facilities medical schools, teaching hospitals.
5.Internet Article Directories where medical information is peer reviewed.
6.Public Libraries
Health education and information are often available in many formats, such as CDs, MP3 audios, downloaded/printed from Internet sites, medical newsletters, email advice or recommendations, articles about health, and others.
Then.. theres another responsibility beyond all those mentioned above. Want to take a guess what that is?
Applying your health education and medical information aggressively.
Just learning all you need is not enough..you have to use it in a beneficial way. Weight loss is a hot topic in the media today along with dieting and special dieting programs. If youre obese, then lose weight. If youre depressed, seek immediate mental health services.
Why do most people know what to do, but never do it? The answer to that question is multi-faceted and quietly resides inside each persons mind. A common reason for procrastination and inertia is way beyond problems with motivation, desire, goal setting, self-intimidation, and distractions.
No one takes time to tell you exactly how to do it.
Its a fact that has long been neglected in the medical community. How many times have you been told, Lose some weight, or get yourself together, or forget all that crap. But, how often does anyone then go on to tell you the best, fastest, safest, and proper way to go about it? Doesnt that fry your oysters?
If anyone has an idea to do something and doesnt know how, how do you think most people react to that? You betput it off for a better time (which never comes), find something easier to do, find someone to do it for you. Its exactly the way people react to healthcare problems and issues.
If you know and understand the what, how, why, and when about some area in healthcare you should take action on, you are much more likely to go at it.
Ask yourself these questions:
1.If I knew exactly how to improve my health, would I likely go ahead
and do it?
2.If I knew where I can find legitimate reliable healthcare information, would I feel more secure about how I am being treated medically by my doctor?
3.If I have a place that explains healthcare issues in an understandable way, wouldnt I be able to get much more out of my visit with my doctor?
4.If my medical and healthcare is worsening, wouldnt it be smart to dig into the health education information available to me and benefit from it?
Comment: Eventually everyone will be taking on all these responsibilities. The problems with our health care system will require itunless you have no plans to live long enough to ever enjoy your grandchildren. The solution to better healthcare is knowing what to do and how to do it by diving into every source of health information available. Health education materials are available nearly everywhere..grab em!
2008 L & C Internet Enterprises, Inc. All Rights Reserved.
Please feel free to copy, send, or distribute this article as long as the article is not changed, and the resource box is included as written.
The author, Curt Graham, is a retired medical doctor who has written extensively over his 35 plus years in active medical practice. His caliber as a published author in Modern Physician is surpassed only by being designated as an Official Guide to Health Education on SelfGrowth.com. Want to learn the strategies and tactics anyone can use to get top medical care? Go there now! http://www.HealthCare-Toolbox.com
Counseling |
It is important to know that you have options when it comes to counseling and therapy, and to always remember that ultimately YOU are in charge. If you were hiring someone for a job, wouldn't you ask for referrals, interview applicants, and make a decision based on who best suited your needs at the time? Choosing a therapist is no different. 
