December 23, 2021 – Healthier

Be happy for you, be happy again

It All Starts With You If there is something in your life that isn't bringing you happiness you have to let it go. That can be relationships in any magnitude: family, friendship, or a spouse or partner. It will be difficult, but is it worth your peace of mind? If you are unhappy with yourself, who's responsible? You guessed it, You! Be gentle with yourself and take baby steps. If you desire to lose weight, don't attempt to quit what you're doing cold turkey, that seldom works. Wean yourself off of your bad habits, and each day will be a...

Self Love

Ways to Find a New Happy

There are so many avenues to explore in regards to finding new happiness. Below you'll find some tips to help you find your idea of happiness. Find a New Hobby When it comes to hobbies, the possibilities are endless. And the best part is, it's entirely up to you. You can be as adventurous, creative, mysterious, or outgoing as you want. You can try out a new hobby alone or with friends. According to Rachel Goldman, PhD, FTOS, a licensed psychologist, "It [hobbies] can serve as a fun distraction, but it also helps decrease stress and puts our focus on something...

Self Love

How to Be Happy Again

What does it mean to be happy? There are so many ideas and perspectives when it comes to being happy. By definition happy means characterized by or indicative of pleasure, contentment, or joy. Truthfully, Your 'happy' is whatever it means to you. Of course, not everyone will agree, but that is to be expected because no two people are alike. Have you been generally feeling down about things lately? What has caused that change? As you may have heard before, getting to the root of an issue will pinpoint the problem and ultimately tell you where you need to start working towards change....

Self Love

How to Exude Confidence

Self-confidence refers to your belief in your skills, qualities, and ability to succeed. Having confidence in yourself is not only important to your health and well-being—it can also affect how you are perceived by others.1 People who exude confidence tend to be seen as more capable and trustworthy.https://a4f5a2809e7998322f3c33543995c378.safeframe.googlesyndication.com/safeframe/1-0-38/html/container.html Unfortunately, not everyone feels confident in their abilities. For example, you might feel more insecure in certain situations or settings. In other cases, feelings of anxiety or low self-esteem might interfere with your ability to act assuredly. Fortunately, there are things you can do to exude confidence in any situation, even when you might not be...

Safe Sex

An LGBTQIA+ Guide to Having Safer Sex

When you think back to health class in high school, you might not have realized back then just how heteronormative it was. Standard education about sex, unfortunately, leaves out the LGBTQIA+ population of youth, with most young people reporting they don't find themselves represented in the education they receive.1 Classes are often focused on pregnancy and abstinence in relation to heterosexual intercourse only, with no guidance offered for LGBQTIA+ sexual engagement. The absence of representation in sex-ed harms LGBTQIA+ youth and can lead them to make less safe choices in adulthood if they don't receive the information that would otherwise...

Dreaming

What do Dreams Mean?

In the early 1900s, Sigmund Freud wrote extensively about the theory of dreams and their interpretations. Freud believed that dreams are a manifestation of our deepest anxieties and desires, often relating to repressed childhood obsessions or memories. In addition, it was his belief that almost every dream topic, irrespective of its content, represented the release of sexual tension. In Freud’s Interpretation of Dreams 1899, he developed a psychological technique whereby dreams could be interpreted; he also devised a series of guidelines to help us understand the motives and symbols that appear in our dreams.

Dreaming

The History of Dream Interpretation

Going back around 5000 years ago in Mesopotamia, the earliest recorded dreams were documented on clay tablets. In the Roman and Greek periods, people believed that dreams were messages sent directly from one or more deities, from deceased people, and that they were the predictors of the future. Then there were cultures that practiced dream incubation, their intention being to cultivate dreams of prophecy.

Dreaming

Today’s Explanation of Dreams

Today, many people see dreams as a connection to the unconscious mind. There are varying natures of dreams, such as exciting, frightening, melancholic, magical, adventurous, and even sexual; and our dreams seem to range from normal and ordinary right through to bizarre and completely surreal. With the exception of lucid dreaming, the events that occur in our dreams are normally outside the control of the dreamer. The dreamer is self-aware during lucid dreaming. Sometimes, dreams can implant a creative thought, thus giving the dreamer a sense of inspiration. Throughout cultures and time, opinions have varied and shifted about the meaning...

Dreaming

The Length of Dreams

Our dreams vary in length: they may last for just a few seconds, and they’ve been known to last for between 20 and 30 minutes. The reason why some dreamers are able to recall their dreams is because they have been woken up whilst in the REM phase of sleep.(2) On average, people have between three and five dreams each night, with some having up to seven; however most of our dreams are quickly forgotten. It seems that our dreams tend to last longer as the night progresses and, when we have a full eight-hour sleep, the majority of our...

Dreaming

When Does Dreaming Occur?

It’s during the REM (rapid eye movement) stage of sleep that dreams mainly occur, because this is when brain activity is high and most resembles that of being awake. It’s the continuous movements of the eyes during sleep that identifies REM sleep; however, dreams can occur during other sleep stages, but these dreams tend to be less memorable and much less vivid.