And many women become depressed after a major lifechange, the death of a loving one or loss of job can seemingly happy events, such as becoming a parent or getting married, it can cause depression.
For other women who are predisposed to the disease, a relatively small event-for example, losing a dog-can trigger a debilitating episode.

While no one knows what exactly causes depresion, there always be an apparent reason, and some inherent risk factors.

Women Lifestyle Factors - On major women life events, such as moving away from friends and family, changing jobs, worrying of being old, graduating from college, getting married or divorced, becoming a new mother, or retiring.

Stress - Can be attributed to a difficult relation like fights with family members or disputes at work, overwhelming amount of work or financial problems

Trauma In Life - It’s like a physical, sexual, or emotional abuse caused by many life experience, such as grief from the death or illness of a loved one, the death of a parent in childhood, or being abused or neglected by someone.

Genetic Causes - It’s worth mentioning that this may be an environmental factor rather than a genetic one, since no gene for depression has been found.

Keep in mind that depression can affect any women, from any race, ethnicity, or income level and you don’t need to live with it.
Most important thing is recognizing that you have an illness and seeking appropriate treatment, this might be cool enough for your depressions

So what’s the best way? Conjure a wild sex fantasy.

When you dream up a racy scene, you replace worry with excitement-and “it’s physically impossible to be worried and excited at the same time:. So your adrenaline gets chaneled away from the endless loop of worry and is used to drive positive feelings instead

Some expert calls it “changing bad adrenaline to good”: It’s the erotic encounter making your heart beat fast, not your flight delay. This gives you control over your worry, and control is a guaranteed adrenaline converter.
In addition, coming down from your exhilaration-high naturally relaxes you.

So go for fireworks in your fantasy and for the best results, your daydream should be Olympic-quality risque

Contributed to Women Diary on Net

“Do I know you?” I asked. “No. But you look nice today.” And she walked on.

As I continued on my way, I realized I was smiling. I felt taller, better, as though this stranger’s kind remark had given my self-esteem a booster shot and improved my physical wellbeing at the same time.
Isn’t it great?

And let me know what you think. You’re looking wonderful today!

Source : Unknown

“During the stress of the holidays, it’s more important than ever to take care of yourself in order to maintain your mental and physical well-being,” explains Melissa Johnson, Executive Director of the President’s Council on Physical Fitness and Sports.

Is it possible to take care of yourself and maintain your energy—and enjoy the festivities of the season? Absolutely! Try the following tips from fitness and nutrition experts, and you’ll be surprised how they’ll boost your holiday spirit:

• Good Morning: “Eat breakfast, and make sure it includes some protein and whole grain,” suggests Christine Gerbstadt, MD, RD, and a spokesperson for the American Dietetic Association (ADA) based in Central Pennsylvania. “It will rev up your engine at the beginning of the day.” For example, eat yogurt and a piece of fruit and a whole-grain roll or oatmeal sprinkled with almonds or walnuts with skim milk.

• Java Jive: As many of us know, caffeine disguises itself as a temporary pick-me-up, but, in fact, it will leave you feeling more tired within a couple of hours. “Sixteen ounces of caffeine in the form of tea or coffee has been shown to be safe,” Gerbstadt says, “but anything beyond that can make you feel jittery and agitated.” Instead, reach for a cup of caffeine-free or herbal tea.

• Routine Business: Maintain your exercise routine, says Johnson. “Actually expending energy will help you to have more energy.” If needed, break up your routine into 15-minute increments, so you can squeeze it into different parts of your day. “Go for a short brisk walk outside,” suggests Lona Sandon, assistant professor of nutrition at University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center in Dallas and a spokesperson for the ADA. “The fresh air will make you feel better and also take away from the stress of your desk or preparing a meal for your extended family of twenty.”

• Buddy System: “Find an exercise buddy during the holidays,” says Johnson. “This person will keep you accountable for your exercise and also provide built-in support.”

• Stay in Step: When you’re at the mall, wear a pedometer, suggests Johnson. The device will prove to be a good motivator for counting your steps while doing your holiday shopping.

• Use Good Diet Sense: “Avoid overeating. I know this sounds like a no-brainer,” says Sandon, “but it can happen easily at holiday office parties.” Eat a healthy snack, such as carrot sticks, a banana, or a hard-cooked egg or before showing up to the party. “Treat these events like an everyday eating occasion and not an indulgence,” says Sandon. “It’s a holi-day—not a holi-week or a holi-month.”

• Get Your Zzzz: “Get enough sleep,” suggests Sandon. “No party is worth not getting enough sleep.” And this is often one of the first things to give in your self-care routine.

• Be Wary Of Spirits: Avoid excessive alcohol consumption, says Gerbstadt. According to the distilled spirits industry, twelve ounces of beer equals one and half ounces of liquor or five ounces of wine. At holiday parties, stay aware of how much you are consuming; it doesn’t take much to start taking a toll on your body.

Source : Weight Watchers

The understanding and use of this non-verbal cues in facial expression are familiar to us nearly from birth. We can improve our ability to understand what people are really communicating aware of what we are broadcasting to the world with the non-verbal cues by familiarizing ourselves with a few basic nonverbal signals.

Body positions, movements and postures more often tell us exactly what they mean, which may be the exact opposite of what they are saying. Unfortunately, many people are unaware of how loudly they communicate with their bodies.

Using and reading of body language is largely unconscious. We should understand what a person indicates with their gestures and body positions and we rarely stop to think about how we send out our own messages.

And one of the most basic instances involves our personal “space.” We notice that when a stranger or someone gets too close, we feel uncomfortable. Unconsciously we know the distancing from others that is appropriate for our own culture. Every day we judge our own distance and respect the space of others by avoiding getting too close and follow our “feeling” to adjust to the correct distances from friends as opposed to acquaintances or strangers.

Ok let’s see a simple example here, this guy walks up to you slowly and keeps his eyes on you, smiling openly and approaching slowly with his head tilted, then says, “Excuse me. Do you know where I can mail a letter around here?” Do you think he desperates to find a post office?

So how to stop isolation from making depression getting worse?

1. Have at least one person that you can turn to and make regular contact with 3-4 times a week. He/ she must be someone that you can call when you need to talk, someone who can be with you just watching TV or going to a movie. No need to talk about how you feel if you don’t want to and make sure that you don’t want to be questioned about your feelings. And hope they will understand it and will be there for you when you need them.

2. Many sufferers just want to be alone in a quiet room and shut out the world and have your own space. There’s nothing wrong with this at all, but try not to make it as your new regular habit. Schedule this once, maybe twice a week at most and be strict with it. And for the rest of the week, be around people, or special person we discussed in the first paragraph.

3. When you feel need to be alone in your own space, do it in a way that helps you rather than hurts you. Try these : mind puzzles – logic problems, crosswords, spatial puzzles etc. – jigsaw puzzles, draw or paint, watch TV or movie, play a musical instrument, write stories, read a book or magazine and listen music. But not with a heavy book or music.
In this way, isolation doesn’t become a period of deep introspection where you worry or fret about problems or go over the past or beat up on yourself. You get the peace and tranquillity but not the torment that can accompany it during a depressive episode.

If you feel isolated and that life seems like a “virtual reality”, you can try those techniques above. Isolation is a part of depression and the key to lessening the impact is to understand how it happens and use it so it helps you beat depression instead of keeping you trapped in it.

Basically there are two kinds of fears people experience about flying: fears of crashing and dying; and claustrophobic fears of being “trapped” in the airplane once the door is shut.
Fearful flyers thus try to feel better by trying to feel “in control” of various aspects of the flight experience. Since the flight is really not under their control, this striving for control makes them more afraid, not less.

A fearful flyer generally needs an entirely new strategy for tackling this problem, because the solutions a fearful flyer usually tries tend to make the fear worse, not better. It’s a case of “the harder I try, the worse it gets”. (If you want to learn more about this paradoxical aspect of anxiety.

In general, this means you need to get better at accepting the role of a passenger. A passenger is a person who presents himself/herself at the gate and turns over the responsiblity of flying to those who are trained and paid to do the job; who makes no effort to control that which he cannot control; and whose only job during the flight is to wait, while allowing himself/herself to be as comfortable as possible. As a passenger, you are literally “baggage that breathes”! As a passenger, you need to know how to accept and work with your emotions and fears, rather than resist them.

Adapted article from Arthur Buchanan, President/CEO of Out of Darkness & Into the Light

Stresses of modern life mean that we regularly finish work and go home to worry about it for the rest of the day. This causes a lack of sleep and other problems, these are unlikely to be undone by listening to five minutes of relaxation music every three months. Relaxation is not something that comes naturally to many of us. It works best when listened to for a minimum of 30 minutes but if you do listen regularly then five minutes during your break at work will still have a calming effect.

Even at work or home with your family you can effectively listen to relaxation music with your MP3 player or personal stereo. Even listen to it on the bus or when you’re out shopping. Put on your headphones and, again, make sure that the volume is at the right level. If you have the volume too low you will be able to hear the kids screaming and cars passing by but if you have it too loud it will become uncomfortable.

Listening to relaxing music can aid relaxation greatly. Find a darkened room and light some small candles or burn some incense oil if you find this relaxing. Make sure your relaxation music is turned to a volume that drowns out any background noise but is not so loud that it becomes obtrusive or uncomfortable.
While you have yourself on your own music, you can read the music lyrics to keep enoying the music on the way.

Adapted from article by John Mancini, a writer about hypnosis and relaxation

FACTOIDS: American LGBT persons spent 54 billion dollars in travel in 2004; UK LGBT persons spent nearly 44.8 billion dollars on travel in 2004
(These estimates include travel within and outside their respective countries, what
part of the UK’s $$ are coming to America or vice-versa is not reported.)

All over the world travel industry specialists have developed great cruises and
travel packages specifically designed for the LGBT traveler and their partner. These travel accommodations/packages include, but are not limited to, gay friendly cruises that include travel with others that are gay and vacations packaged for gay pride festivals.

There is a wide variety of cruise destinations available to the LGBT traveler. The
new 2006 itinerary and offerings for gay cruises are available throughout the internet. Destinations include Costa Rica, Ireland, Alaska and the Mediterranean to name a few. Cruise liners/companies such as Atlantis and Windjammer West specialize in accommodating you and your partner a cruise you will never forget. Consulting the many gay magazines online will also be a great resource to find your perfect vacation.

Gay pride festivals provide a vacation that is not only fun and inspiring, they also
offer a time of mutual exchanges in social solidarity. Worldwide from the United States to the UK and other localities, gay pride festivals are being organized.

For example, one of the largest and most popular gay pride festivals (GPF) is being held this summer in Paris, France. Contacting the Paris office of Tourism will enable you to locate the best gay friendly accommodations. Through research on the internet, you can find websites specific to booking flights and travel packages to this and other GPF events. The best news I found was that you don?€?t have to be wealthy to take advantage of the multitude of travel offers available.

On that note of affordability, much of the vast information I garnered from several
research sources suggests that a huge percentage of LGBT persons are wealthy. Many so-called experts have perpetuated the myth and refer to the community as being

“DINK” (dual income no kids). I don’t know about you, but I am acquainted with several LGBT persons who aren’t DINK.

Thankfully, the travel industry doesn’t play into this myth (well not most of them) and many offer “travel packages” that are affordable and inexpensive. So check out the internet, talk to friends who have traveled and can suggest a good travel package or destination (word of mouth is the best), watch for websites that are tailored to the LGBT community. Many states in the US and other countries have LGBT specific websites about travel and don’t forget public and university libraries that have travel sections full of reference materials. After you have chosen your
destination, its time to plan that vacation.

Aside from researching your trip for a destination and a price comparable to what you can afford, start planning your trip early. You will want to include in your plans arranging appropriate passports, hotel or rental car reservations, tickets, visa’s and travel insurance. Make sure the travel insurance you purchase covers emergency assistance, job loss or transfers, uninhabitable accommodations, travel accidents, delays, lost or delayed luggage, weather-affected cancellation, medical and dental expenses, terrorism, and identity theft. For the LGBT community one more consideration needs to be taken into account.

Be sure your travel insurance covers domestic partners. Travel specialists such as www.csatravelprotection.com are one place to get useful information on the above mentioned insurance protections for travelers.

When planning your vacation find out if your hotel or B&B is gay friendly. Sometimes just asking the staff (or here’s where that word of mouth from a friend comes in handy) will get you the information you need. Does your choice of vacation location have a variety of dining out options, exciting activities, local culture that you would love to explore? By doing some research you can choose a location that will be fun and affordable.

We have talked about research and choosing your vacation destination, strategies and advice on planning. Now comes a personal piece of advice. Don’t forget to take the camcorder and two cameras. You two can decide who takes which camera but here’s my point. Have you ever been on a trip, came home and there’s pictures of everything but what you wanted pictures of?

The onset of a phobia may be tied to a traumatic event, but often there is no such trigger, or the cause is subtle. Sometimes an event that triggers a phobia event doesn’t even need to be experienced directly to develop into a phobia. People can develop a fear of flying, (aviophobia), just from hearing about a scary and bumpy plane ride a friend experienced.
Most people with a phobia will always try to do what they can to avoid the situation they dread. It is when a fear has seriously disrupted one’s way of life that he or she seeks help.

Have any idea to forget your fears? The most common treatment to help one shed a specific fear is called cognitive-behavioral therapy. It will try to change the way a person thinks about a feared situation to allow the person to face the fear.
A therapist will try to help the person during a session to think through and evaluate the thought process that leads to anxiety. Understanding that turbulence is fairly normal during a plane trip, for example, a person may be able to rationalize their anxiety away the next time they need to fly. But this kind of cognitive therapy only half of the successful treatment. After understanding how one should think through a fear, he or she needs to actually apply the technique in real life.

Another therapy is behavioral therapy as it leaded by cognitive therapy, where the patient is confronted with what it is that makes them so afraid. This may begin with imagery or a scaled-down version of the thing that is feared, gradually leading up to more and more intense experiences. It is here where an antianxiety medicine, such as Valium, or Klonopin, may be used to help the person get the nerve to stare fear in the face, but drugs are used only if really needed. If a person is always given an antianxiety drug before an experience, he or she may believe that they are unable to successfully handle the scary experience without a pill.

In fact, many people able to overcome a fear without the help of a therapist with their own interest and curiosity about learning the process of behavioral therapy. To overcoming the phobia, he or she need to be emphasized the intensity, frequency and duration.
He or she could start to writing a list of the things that find most threatening about to the fear in order of most anxiety-filled to the least. For example, if you are afraid of spiders, arachnophobia, finding a web in your house may cause only a little sense of panic, while encountering a tarantula may send you running in terror. After this list is compiled, stand up to what you dread, confront your fear and allow yourself to be distressed, then hang out in the distress, and pull back when you want.

Usually it is normal to be moderately stressed at first. For a fear of spiders, you could first look at photographs, then go to the zoo to see spiders in a controlled environment. Or have your time to hike through the woods, and even go into a dark basement looking for them. Once you start confronting a phobia, keep taking tiny steps towards reaching your goal and persistence: a life not crippled by anxiety and worry.

Researchers from the University of Texas M.D. Anderson Cancer Center found that cancer patients who practiced Tibetan yoga were able to sleep better at nigh. The technique involves controlled breathing, slow movements and holding postures, meditation, and visualization. While not significant, many of the patients reported less anxiety, fatigue and depression. The group is conducting more long-term studies on the benefits of Tibetan yoga in cancer patients. Practitioners of the exercise say that it takes about six months to see the full effects. Exercise also improves sleep patterns. Anything that takes your mind off your problems will help you sleep.

Twenty-years ago – before we knew much about free radicals and antioxidants – nutritionists said consuming a healthy diet provided all nutrients people need for good health. While eating healthy foods is still good advice, many people need supplements to protect them from free radical damage.
Intense exercise increases free radical production and oxidative damage to tissues. Turkish researchers found that young swimmers who took daily vitamin supplements had reduced makers of oxidative damage. This study suggests that active people need vitamin supplements, even at a young age.

Bipolar Syndrome works like this, usually when someone has bipolar syndrome that person has manic depression or in some cases a fission of personality; in other words, one minute the person is happy, and then in an instantaneous fashion the person is sad, lonely, angry, or confused.

However, bipolar syndrome Debra Lafave may have, even her ex-husband said that she was taking medication for antidepression; however, if she was taking medication for antidepression then why would she blame bipolar for her actions? Was she not taking her medication that day? It does not absolve her actions. When Debra Lafave had sex with a 14 year old boy is because it was taboo and it enticed her to break that taboo. Bipolar also works in ways in which a person’s aberration takes effects with their actions. For example, Debra Lafave in an interview kept saying that she hated the media, and then within seconds she responded that she was going to college studying journalism. A paradox is usually a sign of bipolar, because the person is contradicting thoughts and the things they say.

It seems Debra didn’t have sex with a 14 year old because she didn’t know what she was doing, or she had bipolar syndrome, but that she had a chance to break a taboo and she went for it. A case of euphoria is a part of bipolar; however, there are case studies that have bipolar clients in which they are fighting more on anger and suicidal thoughts rather than breaking taboo’s.

Bikram teachers counter that doing yoga in a heated room helps people achieve the postures slowly and safely. Unfortunately, enthusiasm and competition among participants might be making people push harder than they should, which leads to injury. Back experts, such as Dr. Stuart McGill from Canada, stress the importance of stabilizing the spine for back women health.

Excessive flexibility promoted by Bikram yoga can result in unstable joints that can cause problems. Developing normal flexibility is good, but Bikram yoga may be too much of a good thing.

STEP TWO: Get In Your Face
The very best way to do something regularly is to have constant reminders to do it. It should be so present that you almost can’t avoid it. One great tool for staying focuses on your goals is an exercise journal. Using it will also keep those goals creeping closer.

STEP THREE: Seek Out Positive People
Cultivate new friends, people who like to exercise, and suddenly exercise feels much easier. You don’t have to make yourself do it; you want to do it. You don’t want to miss out on the fun. And if you know friends are stopping by at eight o’clock in the morning to do a walking tape with you, you’ll be much less likely to cancel than if you are on your own. Get to this point and you’re golden.

In addition to being actual exercise partners, friends can either support you or undercut you in more subtle ways. Friends and family members who notice the differences in you each week and comment on how much closer to your goal you are can help tremendously. People who put down your walking program and suggest that you skip it are poisoning your motivation. Explain to them that you need their support. If they don’t change, and they are friends or coworkers, they can be avoided. You can’t avoid your family, but you can make it very clear to them how important this is to you.

Don’t forget the value of “virtual” support, too. Books, tapes, and websites can all contribute to weaving a community of helpers around you and setting up an environment that constantly reminds you to stay on task.

STEP FOUR: Commit It To Writing
How many New Year’s resolutions have we made, fully intending to keep them, and then a few weeks later they disappear from our thoughts entirely? That’s why it’s vital to write down your goals. Putting them down on paper makes them real and unalterable; you know clearly whether you’ve met them or not. Of course, committing them to paper and then burying the paper in some drawer doesn’t help, either. Use a journal to develop your goals and check it every day. That way, you’ll fulfill Step Two: keeping your goals in your face.

Read the list:
How to Get And Stay Motivated (Part 2)
How to Get And Stay Motivated (Part 3)