Depression and Christmas

Depression and Christmas

Here are two variables: depression and Christmas. First, Christmas is one of the most important festivals and has become the most popular worldwide. Christmas brings us the opportunity to celebrate with our loved ones, the birth of Jesus. For most people, they expect that this is a time of surprises, joyful moments at parties, family and social gatherings. It is also an opportunity to reflect on our lives.

So in that sense if we dig a little, Christmas is not necessarily the cause of why people get depressed. People get depressed by the unique and individual context in which comes into their lives. And for this, it is important to know what it means to be depressed. Why do I get depressed, if Christmas represents happiness? Depression from the psychopathological perspective is characterized by prolonged states of mood characterized by sadness, melancholy, anxiety, slowness, apathy, loss of interest, negative thoughts, insomnia, guilt and others.

When you get depressed at Christmas it is because you have allowed inadequate feelings and thoughts in your mind that discourage you to enjoy your present. Some of the reasons that people become depressed at Christmas are: living on past experience, are lonely, have an unrealistic view of the meaning of Christmas, have emotional wounds associated with Christmas, empty existence and/or spiritual.

Some strategies for managing depression during this time that I also urge to put into practice throughout the year are:

1. Always concentrate in what you want to happen, not in what happened.

2. Know your inner world. What affects you, what aspects in you lead you to unpleasant sensations. Know the origin of your situation now and reflect on it.

3. What do you need to work on because still it is not solved? If the thought of someone, object or experience makes you feel an intense emotionally charged, you must work it with a professional.

4. Evaluate how you relate with yourself and the world. Begin to make decisions that move you to change your present experience.

5. Enjoy the good that comes into your life.

6. If it brings you sadness not to be with someone special, you can visualize being with the special someone and transmit all the love that you would like to give.

7. Experience positive emotions through laughter, pleasure or physical activities, music, going to your church, serving others.

8. Live in gratitude, forgiveness, compassion and love unconditionally.

If there is an issue that keeps you persistently experiencing this state of depression, it is important to seek professional help to work with you the causes. Otherwise, you will continue anchored in depression leading to suffering.

http://www.mindfuljourneycenter.com/depression-christmas/

How early trauma influences behavior

How early trauma influences behavior

Traumatic events leave their mark. People exposed to a traumatic experience early in life are more likely to be affected by illnesses such as borderline personality disorder or depression. However such experience can also have positive effects in certain circumstances. Thus, moderate stress in childhood may help a person develop strategies to better cope with stress in adulthood.

For the full article: http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2014/12/141201125158.htm

http://www.mindfuljourneycenter.com/

Mindful Living Workshop Series

Mindful Living Workshop Series

Take a break from your busy life  and join us on

Saturday, December 6, 2014 for our

“Mindful Living Workshop Series”.

 from 10:00 AM to 1:00 PM (EST)

 Holiday Inn Express 

2540 Davie Road

Davie, FL 33314

Learn how to make connection with yourself and understand how we relate to our world by practicing body awareness and mindful movements.

 This program is approved for 3.0 CE hours for Florida Licensed Massage Therapists by Florida Board of Massage Therapy

 Effective Date: 10/23/2014 CE Broker Course Request Tracking Number:  20-467431

Body Awareness Can Turn You Inside out! 

Participants will be able to:

1. Identify three different ways that people interact with their outside environment.
2. Understand and be able to differentiate between the concepts of proprioception and interoception as they relate to body awareness.
3. Discover the benefits of a balanced nervous system and how maintaining decreased nervous system activation can lead to improved health and healing.

Dancing Mindfulness: "A Great Way to Live in the "Here and Now"

After this workshop, which includes a sampling of a Dancing Mindfulness class, participants will be able to:

1.  Discuss the relevance of these elements to trauma/addiction recovery, especially when accessed through movement.
2.  Explain the rationale of accessing body-based coping as optimal for trauma/addiction recovery.
3.  Describe the benefits of a movement-based, holistic practice for emotional healing, making specific connections between the principles of traditional recovery and the principles of mindfulness.  

https://www.eventbrite.com/e/mindful-living-workshop-series-tickets-13691697235

https://www.facebook.com/events/1502782396657222/

Lying Children

Lying Children

Lies during childhood or lying children are complex and it is often difficult to understand the reasons why they occur. Understanding and awareness of this phenomenon is important because it helps to prevent and minimize their occurrence.

When the child lies might be to satisfy his self-esteem. These needs arise during the development and about 6 years old, the action to lie is a response to a bad intention. In early childhood, a psychological state and its surroundings can cause this action to lie and even to be part of their adult life.

At about the age of 3-4 years old, children through these experiences, make their own dynamics, imaginative play and share these with adults and/or other children. This process helps them develop more complex areas that will impact later the development of their own personality. Experiences during this process can promote two results:

• The child develops mythomania behavior (pathological lying) and may permanently live in a world of fantasies even in adulthood.

• The child will learn the value of truth and will later adopt it as part of their repertoire of moral/ethical behaviors.

The important persons who take care of the child have an important role in this process. If during this development the child is provided with care, attention and are taught by modeling guidance and assertive and positive social behaviors, the child will develop a healthy self-worth. This will allow the child to balance their personal needs with the demands imposed by the environment. It will also develop a healthy identity that will help them adapt to the social world, through self-improvement and competition.

The child who learns to speak the truth, in many cases is because the unconditional love received, the attention or care for their emotional and social needs during this process. By not feeling that they must lie to be accepted and loved, they learn to suppress the desire to lie and therefore assume the consequences that lead to lie, for example, to be punished by the bad action incurred. The important people for the affective needs and nurturing of the child who do not offer care and attention in this process and does not teach the importance of telling the truth as a principle of self-love, will be promoting the child to adopt and learn that they need to lie or that only with lies they will receive recognition, acceptance and importance. This, in the worst cases could cause a serious psychopathology, because it will be difficult to distinguish between what is real and unreal, affecting their social relationships in the future and choose to live a life of fantasy.

The child who has adopted this behavior may do so because:

▪ Need to attract attention, because otherwise the child would not do it and do not feel important.

▪ At home it is not allowed a genuine self-expression, to freely behave in the way they want, because there are strict controls and authoritarian parenthood.

▪ In the home could be a normal and natural behavior of lying to conflict situations and/or there are problems related to emotional instability. Therefore, the behavior of lying is imitated as it is normal for the child.

▪ The child is mocked, ridiculed and devalued when they appear as they want. Therefore, prefers to lie and live a fantasy to escape their painful reality (I'm not important).

▪ Nobody takes the time to teach the child that it will be better if you learn to tell the truth and there is no positive reinforcement to this action (to tell the truth).

It is important to take time in early child development, to allow self-expression and to teach the merits and the importance speaking with the truth. I suggest that instead of paying attention to the lies incurred by the child, provide more attention to the reasons and motives for lying, giving more importance to the truth. Reinforce and teach the value of speaking honestly and real. Promote any action at home that enables a healthy, safe and self-esteem with the truth. These are just some of the things you can do and think if your child is lying or in early childhood development (because there is always a first time).

Reference: www.ub.edu.ar/investigaciones/tesinas/163_lapidus.pdf

Tkach, C.  (2005). La mentira Infantil.Tesina.

http://www.mindfuljourneycenter.com/

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Most effective PTSD therapies are not being widely used

Most effective PTSD therapies are not being widely used, researchers find

Post-traumatic stress disorder affects nearly 8 million adults in any given year, federal statistics show. Fortunately, clinical research has identified certain psychological interventions that effectively ameliorate the symptoms of PTSD. But most people struggling with PTSD don't receive those treatments, according to a new report.

For full report: http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2013/04/130411152401.htm

For more information about treatment for PTSD:

http://www.mindfuljourneycenter.com/es/

Overwhelming Emotions

Overwhelming Emotions

People struggling with overwhelming emotions often deal with their pain in very unhealthy, very unsuccessful ways because they don’t know what else to do.  When a person is in emotional pain, it is not unusual to hear them to be rational and to think of a good solution. Nevertheless, many of the coping strategies used by people with overwhelming emotions only server to make their problems worse.

Here is a list of some common coping strategies used by people dealing with these problems:

1.       They spend a great deal of time thinking about past pains, mistakes, and problems.

2.       They get anxious worrying about possible future pains, mistakes and problems,

3.       They isolate themselves from other people to avoid distressing situations.

4.       They make themselves feel numb with alcohol or drugs.

5.       They take their feelings out on other people by getting excessively angry at them or trying to control them.

6.       They engage in dangerous behaviors, such a cutting, hitting, picking at, or burning themselves or pulling out their own hair.

7.       They engage in unsafe sexual activities.

8.       They avoid dealing with the causes of their problems, such as an abusive or dysfunctional relationship.

9.       They used food to punish or control themselves by eating too much, not eating at all, or throwing up what they do eat.

1     They attempt suicide or engage in high-risk activities, like reckless driving or taking dangerous amount of alcohol and drugs.

All of these strategies are a path to even deeper emotional pain, because even the strategies that offer temporary relief will only cause them more suffering in the future.  Traumatic Incident Reduction (TIR) is a technique that has been proved to resolve overwhelming emotions.  In Mindful Journey Center we use this technique, please contact us by email: irodriguez@mindfuljourneycenter.com or by phone at 954-376-0496 for a consultation about how TIR can help.

http://www.mindfuljourneycenter.com/overwhelming-emotions-2/

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Critical Issues in Trauma Resolution

"Critical Issues in Trauma Resolution Seminar"

Mindful Journey Center and Applied Metapsychology International are proud to present today Dr. Moore in Puerto Rico for "Critical Issues in Trauma Resolution Seminar".

http://www.mindfuljourneycenter.com/