Food, Serotonin, and Depression: Improve Your Diet and Boost Your Mood

Food, Serotonin, and Depression

You’re feeling down, out-of-sorts, and unmotivated. Before you know it, you find yourself binging on chocolates, pastries, and soft drinks. Somehow, stuffing yourself with sweets and starchy carbohydrates chases that dark cloud that’s been hanging over your head away… at least for a time. Why? The Connection Between Food and Serotonin Serotonin is a neurotransmitter—the…

Read More

Cutting to Cope: Understanding the Mechanism Behind Self-Injury

Cutting to Cope

Absentmindedly and unintentionally, you step into the bathroom to put up some freshly folded towels just as your daughter exits the shower. Her eyes widen. She quickly wraps the towel around herself. But you’ve already seen what she’s trying to conceal. – Scars and partially healed wounds. You freeze and stare at her, unsure about…

Read More

5 Reasons Why Gratitude Can Change Your Life

gratitude

Do you see your life as a glass half empty or half full? All too often we tend to be ungrateful for the things we have. That is, until something happens in our lives and suddenly everything is gone – money, friends, hope. It’s in those moments when our eyes get opened. Then, we finally…

Read More

Stay Calm to Successfully Handle Your Child’s Meltdowns

emotional child

Your face flushes red. You nervously glance at the onlookers, thoroughly embarrassed about the scene your child is making. Refusing to listen to anything you say, your child is screaming, stomping, threatening, and thrashing about – completely out of control! Sounds like something you’ve experienced? Don’t feel guilty if you have a hard time loving…

Read More

Does Your Child Have Asperger’s? 10 Signs to Look For

asperger's

“His words were gushing out like a waterfall. I watched him pace back and forth in the room, recounting the statistics he had read in a book about baseball – his great passion. I knew a lot of people didn’t understand him. They often found his behavior annoying and odd. “All his life, he had…

Read More

Your Mind Won’t Shut Down? Resolve Your Sleep Problems

sleep problems

The room is dark, aside from the moonlight softly illuminating the window blinds. Not a sound – from outside the home or inside – disturbs the tranquility. A perfect setting for a refreshing slumber. But here you are – lying awake. Your eyes are staring at the ceiling, thoughts racing through your mind. Everything from…

Read More

Social Anxiety: Common Symptoms and Coping Strategies

social anxiety

We’ve all experienced moments of shyness. They can arise unexpectedly but don’t typically present as a serious obstacle to social interaction. According to the Social Anxiety Institute (SAI), shyness is classified as a “personality characteristic.” Social anxiety, on the other hand, is a disorder. The SAI characterizes this disorder as displaying “a significant amount of…

Read More

Anxiety Coping Tips: 12 Ways to Calm Your Mind and Body

anxiety coping tips

“I can tell when it starts. My body begins to tingle as if ice is running through my veins. I start getting dizzy. My heart begins to race, my breathing becomes shallow…” “The first sign is when my vision becomes blurry. I can’t see straight any more. Then it feels like I’m being squeezed into…

Read More

Tics in Children: Why They Happen and What Can be Done

tics in children

Here it was – the dreaded math test. And with it came the oh-so-familiar urge. He could feel it getting stronger. He tried to control it. Tried to hold it in. But it kept building, until he just couldn’t hold it back any longer… and he let it out. His shoulders jerked several times. Relief…

Read More

Seeking a Quieter Mind? 10 Ways to Stop Mind Chatter

quieter mind

Today’s the day your commitment to meditation is about to become a reality. You dim the lights, turn off your cell phone, burn some incense, and get comfortable. But within seconds of closing your eyes and trying to focus on your breathing, in creeps the first mind monkey. Mind monkey? What’s a mind monkey? “The…

Read More

Overcoming Anxiety and Worry with Mindfulness

overcoming anxiety

In Pali, the term is sati; in Sanskrit, it’s smrti. British scholar Thomas William Rhys Davids translated this as mindfulness. Sati is literally translated as “memory,” but it’s rarely used alone. It appears constantly in the phrase “mindful and thoughtful” and generally refers to a presence of mind which is expected of a “good Buddhist.”…

Read More