mood – TranscendingSquare

We can not always choose our attitude – just smile and be happy – nutrient deficiencies can cause mood changes that are not going to change without getting the nutrients. Then the change to a better mood can happen rapidly sometimes, within 20 minutes for magnesium if needed.

Hunger, sleepiness, stress or anger, loneliness, all may interfere with mood or mood control. Patience is a virtue, and practice helps. So does a good night’s sleep. Low blood sugar can lead to irritability or poor concentration, so can poor sleep. Briefly resting can help recharge things towards a better mood, and sometimes a walk may help.

Nature or images of nature cam help sooth stress and walking was found more beneficial in natural surroundings than in urban settings for relieving stress.

Brighter lighting indoors can help mood if sunshine isn’t available. Sunshine helps our circadian cycle and helps make vitamin D, surprise also water soluble forms of vitamin A and D. Full spectrum lighting might be a good health and mood supplement during winter months.

Salt crystal lamps can help improve air quality for mood due to negative ions being released. These may also help improve air quality by helping remove odor particles or mold. When the salt is warmed it releases negative ions and possibly a little ozone, but not much based on sites selling other types of air cleaners. Ozone is safe if it is not in excessive amounts and it can also have a positive effect on mood.

The negative ions or ozone help air quality by clumping with air particles which causes them to drop from the air. Then just sweep it up.

http://www.natural-salt-lamps.com/negative-ions.html * I am unaffiliated with this site but as personal testimonial – I went upstairs to get my lamp because the basement smelled musty and unpleasant. Using the salt lamp several hours a day does give it a fresh feeling and salty ocean aroma instead of musty.

This helps with mold spores or odor particles or secondhand smoke chemicals and odor. Too much ozone can cause headaches, but the salt crystal doesn’t produce much, not compared to ozone producing air cleaners. The negative ions may build up, so leaving the lamp warming all day may be more than you want. I do reach a point where I want to turn off the lamp after it had been on for hours.

The reddish glow may have health benefits as light therapy if other lights are turned off. In the evening having dimmer lighting can help the body adjust to getting ready for sleep. Bright screen blue light is too much like sunny day light and keeps our circadian cycle genes set to active awake mode. Blue light blocking glasses are available to wear for the last 3 hours before sleep time, to help the circadian cycle switch gears.

We need that to happen for growth and repair genes to be activated and the active awake, inflammatory functions are turned off for the night. The two systems share a protein, so they have to take turns. We can’t use both pathways at the same time if they both need the same assembly line machine.

Himalayan Salt Cystal lamp, it has a dial so it can be darker and cooler, less ozone released.

Joy can be practiced. The feeling of gratitude and connection to others or the planet can be a support when things are tough. Pausing to look for beauty, or snap an image, smell a flower, pet a friendly animal, all can be an island of joy in an otherwise busy day.

My site peace-is-happy.org is my art escape with posts that are generally shorter than are found on this site. It also has sustainable building information and biodiversity- peace is living within a community of friends, family, and wildlife. Peace is clean air, water, and food. Peace is shelter on a cold day, or a shady canopy on a sunny summer day. Peace is caring for oneself, and the community as an extention of oneself. Peace is lending a hand and accepting one when in need.

Peace is a warm puppy, or a comfortable baby. Hat-tip to Charles Schultz and his book “Love is a Warm Puppy.” The titles on the peace-is-happy.org site are based on his simple and beautiful little book.

Love is a soft blanket,

to surround oneself or others.

Peace is love for oneself and others,
even when annoying or annoyed.

The peace-is-happy.org site has a page with links to a podcast series I did last year regarding our feelings or mood and what those feelings might mean. They may not mean anything beyond, you need a nap or a snack. Or they might mean the snack you had was not a great choice for your later mood. But in either case – might not mean that someone else was purposely trying to irritate you. You – might just be feeling irritable.

The podcast is called: How Are You Feeling? The webpage has links to the audio and to transcripts with references and occasionally additional information. https://www.peace-is-happy.org/how-are-you-feeling

Disclaimer: This information is being shared for educational purposes within the guidelines of Fair Use and are not intended to provide individual health care guidance. Please seek an individual health care provider for individualized health care guidance.

In 1933, Franklin D. Roosevelt said “the only thing we have to fear is fear itself,” during his first inaugural speech as a newly elected President of a United States. The country was suffering from the Great Depression and many people were unemployed and struggling to survive. You can hear his inspiring words from that day in a short excerpt from the speech, and read the full transcript at historymatters.gmu.edu: [http://historymatters.gmu.edu/d/5057]

So, first of all, let me assert my firm belief that the only thing we have to fear is fear itself—nameless, unreasoning, unjustified terror which paralyzes needed efforts to convert retreat into advance. In every dark hour of our national life a leadership of frankness and vigor has met with that understanding and support of the people themselves which is essential to victory. – Franklin D. Roosevelt, 1933, First Inaugural Address, [http://historymatters.gmu.edu/d/5057]

Fear can paralyze and divide us at times when we need to take action and work together to make changes that help stabilize the situation causing fear.

There are a lot more psychiatrists with prescription pads than there are suicide bombers and lots more individuals with unhealthy microbiomes than either psychiatrists or suicide bombers. The odds of encountering a psychiatrist may be lower than the likelihood of meeting someone with an unhealthy microbiome or having the bad luck of being in the vicinity of a suicide bomber.

The psychiatrist with a prescription pad writing olanzapine/Zyprexa prescriptions may be turning otherwise non-violent people into violent people (who may or may not also develop diabetes or other unpleasant side effects); and the individual with an unhealthy microbiome may have anxiety or other negative mood symptoms because of the neurotransmitters that are being produced by the types of bacteria colonizing the intestines. Some types make positive mood neurotransmitters and some types make anxiety producing neurotransmitters. Read more about the intestinal microbiome and mood: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0166223613000088]

We have been trained by advertising to fear too many things, silly things like whether someone might notice our body odor, or whether our outfits are the currently popular style, or whether the little one will get accepted at the best preschool so that they will have a better chance of later being accepted at the best university. The only thing we have to fear is fear itself because it disables us from making decisions based on our values rather than basing them on advertising messages.

Note for anyone who may be trying to wean off of olanzapine/Zyprexa, based on patient forum comments and my own experiences with the medication: (with your psychiatrist’s approval and guidance) Cut the tablets into smaller and smaller fractions and gradually taper off the drug over several days/weeks/whatever it takes; and taking a tablet of ibuprofen every four-six hours when stopping the medication may also help with withdrawal symptoms from the olanzapine/Zyprexa, because ibuprofen’s anti-inflammatory and pain relief functions are also due to it preventing the breakdown of our natural cannabinoids, however ibuprofen doesn’t cause psychiatric affects or withdrawal symptoms, so it must not be affecting the cannabinoids in quite the same way as olanzapine/Zyprexa.

/Disclaimer: This information is provided for educational purposes within the guidelines of fair use. While I am a Registered Dietitian this information is not intended to provide individual health guidance. Please see a health professional for individual health care purposes./

Tag: mood

Joy is healing and may need a little help.

So, “we have nothing to fear but fear itself,” psychiatrists and their prescription pads, an unhealthy microbiome, and the occasional suicide bomber