STRESS RELIEF: EVERYONE NEEDS it sometime

         This is a very helpful relaxation video I used today. Everyone needs some relaxation once in a while, and there are many for free on You Tube. Lately I have been doing these relaxation techniques and I notice how much calmer I feel. Let's face it, life is stressful. Though I LOVE my kids, they can do things that I allow my self to get stressed over. I have an anxiety issue that I've had since I've been a child so therefore, I had to find HEALTHY ways to cope with it. Sure my prescription of "nerve pills" is helpful, but is it really? It helps for the time being but when it wares off my stress and anxieties are still there. So, I turned to this recently. Because clearing my mind, letting go of stress, and allowing myself to calm down really puts a reality on stillness that is so needed in life. So, try this out if you never have. Try this out if you never  feel quiet, take ten fifteen minutes for yourself. Especially being a parent it's important because we need to learn to quiet our minds or calm down at the drop of a dime. Give it a go, and if it works let me know. If you don't have 18 minutes and 36 seconds for this one like I said, there are shorter ones out there. that last as little as 5 minutes. If it comes down to do this or flip out....take the time. Not into meditation, what are some other useful techniques you use for stress? Ive done guided immagry, running, exercise, and just flat out took a nap. What do you do?
xoxo

Megs

IMPORTANCE OF GETTING YOUR KIDS TO JOURNAL/SCRAPBOOK

     When I was in school, I hated creative writing. As I got older, I found that keeping a sort of journal/scrap book helped me. Several reasons. As I get older I can always look back and see how much I have grown, or how things in life changed. Being able to visualize the change, see it on paper, brings reality for an adult/teen to see that yeah times get hard, but "will this problem matter 10 days from now, a year, ten years?" Usually It won't but it's hard to see the light at the end of the tunnel.

     My youngest daughter is 6. She was having some issues sleeping, and some feelings about life a 6 year old shouldn't know about I wouldn't think (no body likes me, everyone wants me to be unhappy). I made her a journal out of an old cook book(you can see it on this blog by clicking here>>> homemade cook book journal. DIY journal art "cook book" journal ). This also gave us the chance to be creative together putting it together. However, when she is having a bad day, sometimes I give her a "time out." Not as in she's in trouble, but as in "Princess, you're getting mouthy, you are not listening, please take time out and go write in your journal. Or draw a picture of how you are feeling." 9/10 times it works. I feel doing this is giving her a head start in expressing her feelings, and NAMING her feelings~which is hard for adults let alone kids. They think they feel either happy, angry, mad or sad. But there are so many more emotions. When she comes out she is so much more happier from writing, drawing or even pasting photos, cut outs, or other memorabilila in her SPECIAL journal. 

    When she comes at me with a, "mom I don't know what to write." I give her ideas off the top of my head. Here is a quick list of ideas.

• What is your biggest dream come true.
• What do you want to be when you grow up, and how will it help other people.
• Name three things you would like to know about your family or family members.
• Make a "bucket list" or list of things you'd like to do on the next rainy day. Then every rainy day, go back and check them off as you do them.
• Write about your hero, who it is, why they are your hero, what things have they done that you would like to do too someday.
• If animals could talk what animals would you want to talk to, and why?
• Describe your dream vacatoin.

There are so many more ideas, but there is always something that the kids can write about a few times a week. Again, this will prove helpful during hard times they can look back at their las "hard time" and see how quickly it went away. Skills for identifying emotions are important. How can we fix negative feelings or celebrate positive ones if we are stuck with 4 feelings~happy,sad,angry,mad? I found giving a description or list of feelings when my daughter gets her "time outs" to journal, helps her to use more than one feeling. Especially for a 6 year old, it's best to have pictures and names below them to help her spell them. I am able to then ask her how she felt and explain the meaning. This is great for vocabulary.
  I hope that parents find this helpful for children with nightmares, behavior problems, emotional issues, boredom, or to even use it as a family "night" making journals, and/or decorating them and/or writing in them. 
   No matter what your child does, if they show effort it's important to notice outloud to the child their efforts and accomplishments. This will build self-esteem in the end. How do I know? I once was a child who couldn't express emotions. I had no outlet when i was upset. I was bored as an only child. As I started writing, and my parents commented on my writings, I then moved from loose leaf paper to putting them in a scrap book, and eventually buying a journal with birthday money at the age of 8. My progress in writing helped me to become a fast reader, and enabled my self-esteem to grow.
  Try it out. I recommend it and so does my 6 year old daughter, along with MANY teachers, parenting experts and Psychologists.
Here is an example of some emotions or a chart you could use:

There are plenty of websites that offer these charts, as well as charts thruout the day. Here are a few links.

• Feeling journal for kids with chart
• feeling and behavior charts for FREE
• "Name It to Tame it" Feeling charts for children

Hope you parents, or journal fanatics like myself or teachers found this helpful. I do. Any questions or coments, Feel free to give them as you please.
xoxo~ Megs

My hero: Abe Lincoln, Leader, Hero, and Manic Depressive

I finally got THREE things I wanted. 1.) a night AND day alone with the Hubby Chris.~A.K.A. babysitters for the kids...OVERNIGHT and at the same time  2.) To lay back alone and watch a movie with Chris RELAXED without having to Pause it, stop it, or forget it due to interruptions that come with having a beautiful family and much 'needy' children. AND 3.) I got to do numbers one and two while completing number three. Watching the new release movie "Lincoln." 
I have always thought of Abe Lincoln of a GREAT role model, wonderful man, honest and caring Christian and great political leader. As a child in school, I would do reports on Abe when I was given the chance to pick a topic. Of course, in Elementary School, I was limited on my choice of books to gain information from. However, every report was different, each revealing more and I remember doing six reports all together-so with my memory there may have been more.
I always thought that Abe was awesome because he was able to stand up to so much controversy, and overcome the conflicts, hurdles and bumps in the road when it came to his idea of the ever famous, and then seemingly ludicrously impossible idea of signing the 13th Amendment.  Today, after watching the movie "Lincoln", I realized that even as a child I thought that to be a couragous task, but I didn't fully grasp all the negative feedback, put downs, all the trouble, the fighting for what he believed in, and even the lack of support from family, and even his best friend, Joshua Speed.
So, the movie focused on Abe's Presidency, what he did as a leader to unite the country, and what he did FOR THE PEOPLE. I must admit that I thought the movie would be good, but just a documentary and have little comical moments. However, anyone who knows about President Lincoln knows that he was known for telling stories and jokes, which sometimes caused him to gain some criticism throughout the term. As I was watching the movie tonight, I had wondered, WHY didn't I know he was this funny? Really? I always quote him. I always find awesome quotes about life, love, people and Christianity that are wise and so intelligent. I can't help but notice how his mind and my mind work alike. I figured it out. He and I suffer from the same ailment. 
Manic Depression. Also sometimes referred to as Bipolar disorder. I notice when growing up, I was under a load of stress. I always used comedy as a way to channel my energy when I was depressed and had to appear somewhere like work, school, and being a parent. Why? Because it got my mind off of  being depressed. I thought if I could focus on something else then I'd feel better and nobody would know what was wrong with me....because there was a time I didn't know nor did I want someone to tell me. But after watching the movie and with my ever wondering mind, I did do some research and found that there are many documented incidents of Abraham Lincoln's depression, as well as a book called "Abraham Lincoln's Melancholy" by Joshua Wolf Shenk. In a couple reports I read on this book I found that it focused on how Abe used his "comedy" to focus on what he needed to get done. He stated that telling his stories and jokes are what kept him going sometimes. It's as if being Manic and Bipolar at the same time, it's a feeling that is not fun when someone is forced to go from the "manic and exciting" end of the pole down to the "sad and depressed" end which happens unexpectedly and uncontrollably. This is why President Lincoln told stories and jokes when there was stress in the room, when times were hard. Just as a kid, I used my humor to get sent to the principal's office  or to miss too much work while isolating. We both used humor, he just had a better way with it that was more positive. He used his humor, and his ailment to help found our country again.
So, tell me. Why is Bipolar and Manic Depression now a means for someone to get put on disability? We now have medication to help, as well as doctors, counselors, psychiatrist, psychologists. Why now do we need to also become "disabled"? I see commercials with the "disability lawyers" who claim to get you disability...the money you 'deserve'...if you suffer from any of the following: Bipolar, anxiety, Manic Depression, Post Traumatic Stress Disorder, ADD, ADHD, and the list goes on. In times of Mr. Lincoln these medicines, knowledge, and help from professionals were not available. Why do we NEED to get disability and stay in bed, stay at home wasting our God given talents?  Lincoln who faced going thru the Great Depression, the Civil War, not to mention he lost his only brother at a very young age, his mom, aunt, and uncle died due to disease. A few years later his sister died after giving birth while delivering a still born baby. He also lost his job, had his business collapse and was in debt for 17 years, he failed to be nominated for congress, senate and the vice presidency too! He also had the failure of rejected by two women. But, he didn't quit. He fought, became President of the then "ununited" States during the Civil War and had to unite millions of Americans while dealing with his own issues, taking care of a family, and running a country.I'm sure after all of these events he wasn't just depressed, rather would have had some Post Traumatic Stress Disorder as well.
So, instead of using his Manic Depression, and catastrophic events in life as an excuse to run, hide, give up, and lay around and wile in the mire, he stood tall, and used his Bipolar (which can cause creativity as the brain races during mania), to pull a country together and become one of the best loved, most heroic, brave, and UN disabled humans and Presidents of the United States of America.
I no longer feel I need to hide my Bipolar. No longer do I feel it's an ailment, rather something to make me stronger. I believe that in times of trial, confusion or hard times, if we dig deep enough for information, we can find someone, somewhere in history or present, that has our same issues. Seeing someone else completely overcome such set backs with such success is inspiring enough that I don't feel anything could hold me back from success. Who am I to complain? I have been able to be a successful parent, student, wife, daughter, and part time work at home mom. Now though, when I'm feeling melancholy, I know who to think of and that will help me make it through whatever I need to. Because the present is important. Hiding from my condition will not help me continue to raise a happy and successful family. Hiding and isolation are ways to miss memories. Never miss a minute because each minute lost is a memory not made. A wise Abe Lincoln once said, "See what is before you in the here and now, that's the only thing that counts."