With winter approaching, many people are affected by seasonal affective disorder and fight the wintertime blues. Since my busy life has made it difficult for me to post lately, I thought I’d repost my series of practical tips to get those happy hormones in your brain working to create a happier you this winter. Enjoy! As a pharmacist, a patient, and a child of God who’s had to be “parented” quite a lot over the last eight years, I {Read More}
Tips to a Happier You in 2012~Be careful little ears what you hear
21 July, 2012 by Leave a Comment
Summer months are lazy months. Kids are home from school and all they want to do is sleep late and then when they finally do get out of bed, they plop down on the sofa to television. And I fall right into the trap with them! Especially if there’s housework to be done. Procrastination is often my adversary. When I start feeling like a sloth… {Read More}
Tip to a Happier You in 2012~I’ve been kidnapped!
15 July, 2012 by Leave a Comment
Well, here it is Saturday evening, and I haven’t posted my {tip to a happier you} for today yet. But I have a good excuse: I’ve been kidnapped and taken to Tree Hill, North Carolina! I’ve been shot in the chest, almost drowned, gotten arrested for beating up an abusive father, given birth early to twins that I wasn’t supposed to be able to get pregnant with only to have my husband forget and leave one of them in the car, been {Read More}
Tips to a Happier You in 2012~Made to Crave
7 July, 2012 by 6 Comments
Here are a few things I know about taste and mood: It makes us happy to eat something sweet…a comfort food. If we eat a healthy diet, we feel better and are therefore happier. A spoonful of sugar helps the medicine go down. We feel happier—more satisfied—when our stomachs are full. And last but not least… Food is often about relationships. Relationships between us and God, us and friends, and us and our own soul. There have been tons of {Read More}
Tips to a Happier You in 2012~The Power of Touch
30 June, 2012 by 1 Comment
I’m back to my posts on how we can use the five senses God gave us to fight depression and made us happier. Today it’s the power of touch. The touch of Jesus is illustrated through story after story in the Bible. The story from the prescriptions verse above where he touched the leper and healed him. The story of Peter when he stepped out of the boat to walk on water. When he took his eyes off Jesus, he {Read More}
Tips to a Happier You in 2012~Choosing to See Truth
16 June, 2012 by 1 Comment
As a pharmacist who became the patient for seven years, I gained quite the understanding on depression. If you’ve never experienced it, I’m rejoicing with you! It’s not a place you want to go. If you have experienced it…well, I’m right there with you. In the gloomy pit of despair and hopelessness that is depression, desperation is born. The desire to be out of that pit is overwhelming. We will do anything to get out. Prozac, one of the most {Read More}
Tips to a Happer You in 2012~When life gives you lemons, sniff them!
9 June, 2012 by 54 Comments
“Smell is a potent wizard that transports you across thousands of miles and all the years you have lived.” – Helen Keller God gave us five senses—hearing, sight, taste, touch, and smell. All of these senses send direct messages to our brains. Consider the information given by the Social Issues Research Center on the subject of fragrance and emotion: The association of fragrance and emotion is not an invention of poets or perfume-makers. Our olfactory receptors are directly connected to {Read More}
Tips to a Happier You in 2012~What are you afraid of?
2 June, 2012 by Leave a Comment
There really is an app for everything. My kids were playing with my phone the other day asking me things like, “Do you know what Astrophobia is? Or what about Didaskaleinophobia? Katasaridaphobia?” They found an app that listed all known phobias. A smorgasbord of all of the crazy—and not so crazy—things people are afraid of. Did you know there are over 500 identified and named phobias? Here’s a small sample: Astrophobia– Fear of stars or celestial space. Katsaridaphobia– Fear of cockroaches {Read More}
Tips to a Happier You in 2012~Have a Happy Mother’s Day!
12 May, 2012 by 5 Comments
To all of you who are mothers, Happy Mother’s Day! To all of you who are not biological mothers, you have the opportunity to be a mother to someone. All it takes is love…unconditional love. Every child has a love language, and all three of my children get their love tanks filled with my undivided time and attention. So this mother’s day, whether you are a child spending time with your mother, or a mother spending time with your child(ren), {Read More}
Tips to a Happier You in 2012~Learning What’s Urgent vs. What’s Important
5 May, 2012 by Leave a Comment
This morning I heard a poem on WLFJ that one of the morning hosts wrote, and once again found my self in tears driving down the road. The older I get, the sappier I get. But anyway, it really goes well to illustrate my {tip to a happier you} today: The Letting Go Test By Leslie Nease Nine months of growth inside of my womb And in what seemed like an instant, she was there in the room My heart {Read More}
Tips to a Happier You in 2012~Stretch Your Way to Happy
28 April, 2012 by 15 Comments
When Marlee was just a toddler, she would stretch endlessly. When I would go to get her up in the mornings, she would stall saying, “Hang on, I’m not finished stretching yet.” And she would stretch to one side, then the other, procrastinating because she didn’t want to get out of bed. But she always got up in the best of moods! Stretching does so much for our mind and body. When I get up in the morning, I try {Read More}
Tips to a Happier You in 2012~Do what you love
22 April, 2012 by Leave a Comment
I love to take pictures of people. It’s both challenging and rewarding to capture the essence of someone’s personality in a photograph. Sometimes you can see personality characteristics in a photograph that you can’t see in real life. We were created in God’s image, and every single one of is is a masterpiece created by the Master Creator. One of the best ways to fight depression—or even just the blues—is to do something that you love. For me, photography is one of {Read More}
Tips to a Happier You in 2012~The Artificial Sweetener Conspiracy
14 April, 2012 by 1 Comment
Since we’ve been talking about how sugar affects your health, I thought it would be helpful to look into the plethora of sugar substitutes available to us today that are FDA approved. My research, most of which I already knew, brought me back to the conclusion I shared in an old blog post, God’s Pharmacy. We just can’t leave well enough alone. God gave us some great stuff when he created the earth! But we insist on manipulating it to suit our {Read More}
Tips to a Happier You in 2012~Rest
7 April, 2012 by Leave a Comment
These next two months will hold many moments for me to stop and reflect. My firstborn is 18 years old today and will be graduating from high school next month. If time were personified she would obviously have wings. I’m really not sure where the last 18 years has gone. I look back at clouded memories wishing every moment had been recorded. But they weren’t. It’s up to me to hold those memories close to my heart. It’s up to {Read More}
