Tag: Therapeutic Thursdays

Categories
Health Mental Therapeutic

When to give yourself a timeout.

When to put yourself in timeout .... a therapeutic article on My Pocketful of Thoughts with Arelis CIntron Dias

Have you ever given yourself a timeout? Do you know when to give yourself a time out? As adults we intuitively know when to tell our children to “Go sit in timeout”. We see them slowly start to unravel and then all hell breaks loose. What do we do though, when we’re pushed to our limits? We may tend to yell more. We may become withdrawn. What if we could prevent the mental breakdown from occurring altogether by giving ourselves a timeout? If you haven’t thought much about giving yourself a timeout, read on for what I learned about taking timeouts.

Continue reading “When to give yourself a timeout.”
Categories
Health

How to fight sleep.

Are you wondering how to fight sleep? Do you have a million and one things to do and don’t have the time to do it? Are you in the middle of a project that could make your life better if you had the time? Are you finding yourself on the bring of crawling into your closet, curling up in a fetal position and closing your eyes? Are you trying to squeeze in an extra half hour to get shit done? You’re not alone. In fact we’re meeting today. Right now. Yes, that’s right! Read on to see how I’m successfully fighting sleep! - My Pocketful of Thoughts

Are you wondering how to fight sleep? Do you have a million and one things to do and don’t have the time to do it? Are you in the middle of a project that could make your life better if you had the time? Are you finding yourself on the bring of crawling into your closet, curling up in a fetal position and closing your eyes? Are you trying to squeeze in an extra half hour to get shit done? You’re not alone. In fact we’re meeting today. Right now. Yes, that’s right! Read on to see how I’m successfully fighting sleep!

Since February, I’ve become an unexpected mom. Did you know there were more ways to have children than having sex? OMG, I didn’t either! If you did, why didn’t YOU TELL ME!

Anywhooooo, I’m a little sleep deprived so I wanted to share what I’m doing to fight sleep! I highly suggest you NOT do anything on this list as it will effect your health in a negative manner.

  1. I DRINK Starbucks beverages that have espresso in it. Tip: Ask for an extra shot or two depending on how long you want to be up.
  2. I THINK about your personal finances right before you close your eyes. The Lord knows how much I have to pay in credit card bills and loans from my college years. I have put it in his hands and I believe that this debt is all temporary but it still keeps me up at night. It’s like an eternal alarm is set to remind me that I have a bill due tomorrow and I have to go online to pay it. Except that the alarm is broken. I’ve paid my month bill and its weeks before the next one. Yet the alarm in my head keeps going off. This is my least favorite way to fight sleep because it makes me feeling anxious. Its a similar feeling to leaving the house and wondering if you left the stove on with food cooking on it still.
  3. Create a schedule you can’t control. Children will help you do this. If you don’t have a child you may borrow mine 🙂 If you have more than one child even better as you start to get schedules that conflict and you find yourself doing a ballet ensemble.
  4. Insert what keeps YOU up at night so I may have a larger selection!

I write all this to tell you that you’re not alone. Millions of us are fighting sleep every day to get everything on our list done. We’ve become great at juggling, prioritizing and crying silently on the inside. I know you’re beyond exhausted and now I understand why that guy carrying the two coffees early this morning barely blinked as he crossed the street without looking up. I totally got him this morning!

Just remember that sleep deprivation is dangerous to you, your health and the people around you. Your body needs sleep to heal and repair itself from the everyday stresses. If you are not sleeping enough you will eventually feel the effects and become a zombie. You won’t become the flesh eating kind but you might not be able to tell the difference. You will gain weight. You can have headaches. Your appetetie could change. It’s not pretty, look at my picture above!

This is all temporary. This is all temporary. This is all temporary. This is all temporary. 

This IS all temporary. I repeat this about a thousand times a day. I also look around to see who can help me. Take a minute to look around at the people who love you and would help you out if you really needed it. Figure out when to schedule in some YOU time. Thank you Biba for that pep talk! I’ve been using my MoviePass and heading to the movies a few times a week. Look for lots of upcoming movie reviews. Take a nap. Go to the gym and exercise for 15-20 minutes to get the blood flowing. Scream into your pillow. Leave the pile of clothes to sort through til the weekend. Don’t drink the coffee an hour before you have to go to sleep. Remember to take care of you.

If you don’t take care of yourself no one else will. If you can’t take care of yourself, how can you take care of anyone else? Stop fighting sleep and figure out how to get some more. We’ll talk about your findings next week!

What’s keeping you up at night? Are you a zombie too? Do you look as crazy as me? Please say yes LOL What helps you?

Until then,

signature

Categories
charity Do Gooders Soulful

Help someone celebrate another birthday with the American Cancer Society!

Help someone celebrate another birthday by making a donation to the American Cancer Society - My Pocketful of Thoughts

Would you help someone celebrate a birthday if you could? You’re nodding your head yes, right? What if I told you that this someone’s birthday party would only happen if they lived long enough to see it? They’ve just found out that they were diagnosed with Cancer. What if you were able to play a part in helping them to get to their next birthday? Could you give the gift of hope? The American Cancer Society gives the gift of hope to so many families!

 

This year I got to attend the 16th Birthday of Nick Lucas. Nick is Daniel’s little cousin. Family and friends gathered together for this milestone in this young man’s life. When he blew out the candles on his cake we were all a little teary eyed. But this was no ordinary birthday party. The happy tears that dampened our eye that night reminded us of the miracle that life truly is. Nick was diagnosed with Stage 4 Cancer in 2009.

Today Nick’s mom shares their story with us:

Hello Friends, 

I am reaching out to you for your treasured and respected support. Our son was diagnosed with two forms of Leukemia on September 14th, 2009. He underwent a bone marrow transplant in Boston on February 5th, 2010. As a family we knew we had to show Nick that not only his family supported him but the community at large was giving him support, motivation, drive, and most importantly – hope. We joined the American Cancer Society Relay For Life of Monroe & Trumbull in June 2010. This is where Nicolas took his first lap around the track as a cancer survivor with numerous other survivors. He celebrated, remembered, and fought back with so many other community members! Nicolas was on daily chemo at the time and continued to be on chemo for two years. In the year 2000, the drug Gleevac was introduced for CML patients.  My son was put on that drug and it is what got him to remission. Getting Nicolas into remission was the key to his bone marrow transplant success. It is why we as TEAM NICK continue to fight and will continue our fight when we relay every year. This year’s Relay event takes place June 6 to June 7, 2014 at Trumbull High School. 

We are reaching out to you to expand our support system to make a difference in our fight against cancer, not only for Nicolas – but for every child with cancer and every adult with cancer. Any dollar amount will get us to our goal of $5000.00. We have big dreams as a team to continue our fight. We would love your help in order to make this dream a reality for our survivors. 

Again thank you from my family and TEAM NICK!

–Seleste, Joao and Nicolas Lucas

Team Nick Slideshow - Celebrating another Birthday with the American Cancer Society & The Relay for Life - My Pocketful of Thoughts
Photo Credit: Seleste Lucas

This year I am joining Team Nick raise money for the Relay for Life Event at Trumbull High School on June 6th. I had the opportunity to attend last year’s relay and it was an experience and a half. As I was making a lap around the school cafeteria, I felt like my grandfather was walking with me. He passed away in 1995 from Lung Cancer. I recently had a scare with Breast Cancer myself. Cancer is real but we can fight against it.

IDonatef you’re able and willing please consider making a donation to Team Nick by going here or clicking the donate button.

For more information about the American Cancer Society, please visit their website, Like their Facebook Page and follow them on Twitter or Google Plus. For more information about cancer go here. For more information on Relay for Life events and how to donate go here.

Are you a survivor? Did you just get the news? Has someone close to you been touched by cancer? Have you participated in a charity event to honor yourself or a loved one? Share with us below!

Until then,

signature

Categories
About Me Random Thoughts

Don’t shoot! I’m NOT a real zombie!

im not a #zombie !!! don't shoot! - My Pocketful of Thoughts

I’m not a real zombie! I swear! It’s just been a rough couple of months! No really. No one bit me that was zombie-esque. Although, that would explain a lot. You see what had happened was . . .

Continue reading “Don’t shoot! I’m NOT a real zombie!”
Categories
Health

X Marked the Lump on my Breast

X Marked a Lump on My Breast - An story about knowing what to do for early #BreastCancer Detection My Pocketful of Thoughts http://wp.me/p3jfjy-O6

WHAT IS THIS? My fingers felt a grape size lump under my right breast. Is this a lump on my breast? My heart skipped a beat. What does it look like? I asked Daniel, my future husband, to describe it to me? It looks like a pimple. Maybe. OK. So maybe it is a pimple and my skin is reacting to it. To be on the safe side I’ll make an appointment on Monday. The what if its not kept my mind racing for hours. It took all of my willpower to not get into bed and cry. It took all of strength to not freak out. If I did freak out then this finding was real. Do you check yourself regularly for any changes? 

Continue reading “X Marked the Lump on my Breast”
Categories
Therapeutic

Confessions of a Procrastinator: Cutting Out the Distractions! #PocketThoughts

Level 125 of Candy Crush Saga
Level 105 of Candy Crush Saga

This post is dedicated to Janeane Davis of Janeane’s World who is currently helping me manage my procrastinating tendencies!

This year I have told myself, this is MY year. I’m going to write more. I’m going to live more. I’m going to create the life I see in my mind’s eye. My list went on and on. January came and went and I still hadn’t written down my goals. Everyone wrote about their word; the word that would describe what they would focus on for the rest of the year. It’s May and I still don’t have my word.

Continue reading “Confessions of a Procrastinator: Cutting Out the Distractions! #PocketThoughts”
Categories
Therapeutic Therapeutic Thursdays

Marriage…Giving Up A Piece of You?

I finally finished reading Committed by Elizabeth Gilbert.  I began a discussion about it a few months back in the post titled Should We Come with a WARNING Label?  While the title may be explanatory it might make sense to revisit it.

I liked the research done about the topic of marriage.  The different points of view of what marriage is and what makes it survive varied from country to country, but the one constant was the work that went into it.  I believe that marriage should never be taken lightly and neither did Elizabeth.

There were many points in the book that I jotted down, but what I’d like to discuss with you today is what you think about marriage.  Do you feel that marriage is giving up a piece of you?

‘…Robert Frost wrote that “a man must partly give up being a man” in order to enter into marriage – and I cannot fairly deny this point when it comes to my family.  I have written many pages already describing marriage as a repressive tool used against women, but it’s important to remember that marriage is often used as a repressive tool against men, too.  Marriage is a harness of civilization, linking a man to a set of obligations and thereby containing his restless energies…’ Pg 197

In all honesty, this idea of marriage being a repressive tool saddens me.  I am not married yet.  But I do not want to feel repressed and I do not want my husband to be to feel repressed either.  I love his restless energies.  I would hope that we could have a 50/50 relationship, where the responsibility of a marriage is not carried more by one person than the other.  I know that we have our strong suits and I feel confident that we work as a team on virtually everything except for picking a restaurant.  I do feel that the times have changed significantly, enough to say that the husband and wife no longer have assigned roles.  What say you?

What are your thoughts on marriage?  Do you disagree with marriage being a repressive tools for both sexes?  Are aspects of this statement true?  Let me know your thoughts below!

Until then,