
Meditation Could Be as Effective for Anxiety as Medication, Study Says | Psychology Today
Anxiety is the most common mental health challenge in the U.S., with 34% of the population affected by an anxiety disorder during their lifetime. A new scientific study is the first to directly compare meditation/mindfulness to medication for the treatment of anxiety.
Maximize Headache Relief From Home With Drug-free, Natural Treatments | Migraine Again
Although medication is an important part of any migraine or headache rescue kit, there are a number of things you can do to relieve headache pain at home. When it comes to self-care, there is no shortage of natural remedies and at-home antidotes. Here’s our guide to the top home remedies to treat…
How to Heal from Childhood Trauma: 3 Steps to Start Coping | Better Up
Physical or sexual abuse This kind of trauma can cause not only physical damage to the child but also psychological damage that can last for years after it happened. Physical abuse includes any kind of physical violence against a child. It’s sometimes masked as a “discipline measure” by many adults.
RAINN Online Hotline
Your privacy and safety are crucial. Please make sure you are in a safe place and that you are using a secure device and Internet connection. Please note that while we have taken numerous measures to keep your communications safe while using our site, no Internet transmission is 100% secure.
The Science of Wanting: How We Unhook from Dopamine | Mindful
Dopamine is a neurotransmitter in the brain that helps motivate us to fulfill our basic needs, but in our modern age of plenty, it can also lead to overindulgence and addiction. So how can we find balance and contentment in an age of instant gratification? Anna Lembke’s gateway drug was Twilight,…
Happy Public Domain Day! Virginia Woolf’s To the Lighthouse Is Copyright Free | Hyperallergic
January 1 is the annual Public Domain Day, meaning a large collection of historically significant literature, films, artwork, and photojournalism is now totally accessible for public use. The Public Domain Review has created a special advent calendar countdown spotlighting their top picks in…
17 Best Food Blogs to Sate your Hunger in 2023 | Influencer Marketing Hub
How did we ever manage to cook before the arrival of the internet? I suppose we had to rely on cookbooks, cooking tv shows, and knowledge handed down from our grandmothers. Of course, the more daring would experiment in the kitchen, remembering the successes, and mercifully forgetting any culinary…
My Childhood on Planet of the Apes (Memoir)
The most important rule in our world was that no one had to be human two days in a row. It was only fair.
Books by Alexandria Constantinova Szeman
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The Alexandria Papers Newsletter #63 | Dr. Alexandria Szeman 8 January 2023
My little Saschie. She doesn’t want me to take down the Christmas lights.
A Journaling Practice to Help You Let Go of Limiting Habits | Mindful
Instead of judging yourself for what you want or what you’re feeling, explore these writing prompts to help you turn toward your experience with greater understanding and self-compassion. Encountering the people, places, and things that activate us out in the real world can feel like too much…
Relief from Chronic Migraine: Medications and Other Treatments
Chronic migraine is defined as a migraine headache that occurs 15 or more days a month, for at least three months. Episodes often last four hours or more. Finding relief from chronic migraine symptoms can be difficult. Explore multiple treatment options here.
New longitudinal research highlights how grave the effects of childhood trauma can be for anxiety and depression | Psychology Post
Childhood trauma is well-known to have adverse effects on mental health into adulthood, but the nuances of these outcomes are not well understood. A study published in the Journal of Affective Disorders explores how childhood trauma impacts specific aspects of depression and anxiety over time. …
RAINN Online Hotline
Do you need help dealing with sexual assault, rape, or incest? Call @RAINN ‘s Hotline 800.656.HOPE (4673) to talk to a trained staff member from a sexual assault service provider in your area. Don’t feel comfortable talking? Use chat/text instead.
How to Use Journaling to Cope With PTSD | VeryWellMind
Some psychotherapists are now recommending journaling, also called expressive writing, to help people cope with the symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). If you have PTSD, here’s how journaling can help, as well as how to do it. Journaling is one method of helping people cope…
Minimalism and Hygge: How to Make Your Home Cosy Without Adding Clutter | BalanceThroughSimplicity
Here are some ideas on minimalism and Hygge and how to embrace both whilst enjoying a simpler lifestyle. I’m sharing some tips on how to make your home cosy without adding clutter so you can enjoy feeling warm and safe at home and still stay clutter-free! Autumn is my favourite season.
The best of 2022: the new books I’ve loved this year | TolstoyTherapy
This website started out as a celebration of my love for classic literature. Tolstoy is even in the name! But that said, over the last decade, Tolstoy Therapy has evolved around…
16 Bread Baking Tips Your Grandma Forgot To Tell You | Joybilee Farm
Use these bread baking tips from Grandma and learn how to bake better bread with the perfect rise, chewy, golden crusts, and pillowy soft crumb.
Portrait of the Poet as a Woman
Your second wife calls to say that the children get ill after you bring them home Sunday night it must be something they eat what do I feed them something dreadful? She calls collect when she’s away. If I ask who’s calling she says, This is his wife.
Books by Alexandria Constantinova Szeman
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The Alexandria Papers Newsletter #62 | Dr. Alexandria Szeman 1 January 2023
Want to Eat Mindfully? Here are the BASICS | Mindful
Looking to bring mindfulness to the dinner table? Lynn Rossy shares six steps to prime your mind for savoring your next bite-whether it’s chicken nuggets or kale. BASICS is an acronym for a complete set of guidelines that walks you through the mindful eating process from beginning to end.
Migraines: Steps to head off the pain | Mayo Clinic
Migraines cause pain as real as the pain of injuries – with one difference: Healthy habits and simple remedies sometimes stop migraines before they start. By Mayo Clinic Staff Medicine is a proven way to both treat and prevent migraines. But medicine is only part of the story.
Being ‘Miss Independent’ May Not Be As Healthy As You Think | Shape
There’s a lot of cultural celebration around the concept of independence, particularly in the United States. People who can take care of themselves receive praise, and the terms “self-made” and “single-handedly” are markers of true, hard-won success.
Do you need help dealing with
sexual assault,
rape, or incest? Call
@RAINN ‘s Hotline 800.656.HOPE (4673) to talk to a trained staff member from a sexual assault service provider in your area. Don’t feel comfortable talking? Use chat/text instead.
7 Daily Habits That’ll Improve Your Mental Health in 2023 | CNET
Making goals for the new year is a ritual we all take part in right after the holidays pass. Maybe this year you’ve made a resolution to get out of debt or devote more time and energy to eating better.
Keeping on with the Reading Trend | Sixty and Me
Since reading is a great pastime for women our age – and for anyone, really – here’s another list that I was able to complete and review. Continuing my search for funny women authors over 50, I stumbled across Jenny by researching her agent for a client of mine.
No Knead Fig and Walnut Bread | Mangia Bedda
This easy no knead fig and walnut bread is fragrant with cinnamon and lightly sweetened with honey. All is you have to do is stir all the ingredients together and forget about it for 6-24 hours. Enjoy slathered with butter or cream cheese for breakfast, as a snack or any time of day!
26 Seriously Useful Baking Tips You’ll Wish You Knew About Sooner | Tasty
To help make your bakes the absolute best.
Holiday (a poem)
“Day followed day, and this and that Seemed to be happening As always, but through it all Already loneliness was seeping.”
Books by Alexandria Constantinova Szeman
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Filed under #CSA, Baking, Books, chronic pain, Chronic Pain Treatment, Cooking, Health and Wellness, hemiplegic migraines, Mental Health, migraine, migraine self-care, Migraine Treatment, Migraine with Aura, Migraine Without Aura, migraines, Newsletters, Trauma
Tagged as baking, baking tips, books, Childhood Sexual abuse, cooking, cooking tips, healing, mental health, migraine, migraines, mindfulness, poem, poetry, trauma

The Alexandria Papers Newsletter #61 | Dr. Alexandria Szeman 11 December 2022
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No newsletters for the remainder of December, for the holidays and the new year. I’ll see you in January 2023. Meanwhile, here’s a picture of my youngest cat (11.5 years old) on the blanket I’m making for them, and she’s wishing you a happy end of the year.
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If you suffer from chronic conditions such as anxiety, depression, or posttraumatic stress disorder, meditation may worsen your symptoms. Traditional meditation, such as sitting silently and relaxing your mind, is very challenging when your inner world is in chaos. Consider nontraditional forms of…
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When we feel mentally and physically well, we’re better able to care for ourselves and others We can try using these 5 tips to practice self-care during the holidays Try 10 meditations for holiday self-care When there’s a lot going on in our lives, we tend to deprioritize taking time to care for…
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According to a new survey, no, most of us would not feel comfortable talking about our migraine and mental health with our doctor. A whopping 77% of people with migraine and depression or anxiety say they hesitate to talk about their mental health with their medical provider, according to the…
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As a physical therapist, there’s one thing I am sure about when it comes to the human body – it is meant to move. Our anatomy and physiology are fine-tuned to navigate and interact with the world.
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Year-round, we encourage providers to adopt a trauma-informed lens-to use knowledge of trauma and its impact to make decisions about all aspects of their relationships with clients and how they run their program. During the holiday season, the need for a trauma-informed approach is critical.
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Interest in psychological manipulation has never been so high, according to online dictionary searches. “Gaslighting” beat out other words such as “oligarch,” “cancel culture,” and “Omicron.” The US dictionary publisher Merriam-Webster announced on Monday that their 2022 word of the year is…
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Journaling does more than just help you record your memories or find self-expression. It’s good for your health.
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You don’t have to wait until Thanksgiving to practice gratitude – you can do little (and big) things all year round to express your generous spirit. It’s easy to get caught in the stress of the day-to-day and forget all the things that are actually going your way.
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“The main thing you’ve got to overcome is getting discouraged… writing pros is the hardest thing in the world” – Ernest Hemingway (July 21, 1899-July 2, 1961) Arnold Samuelson refused to hand over the $5 fee to get his diploma in journalism at the University of Minnesota.
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“I need your John Hancock.” “He’s the prodigal son of our family.” “That job was like working in the seventh layer of hell.” “He has a Willy Loman-esque resignation about him.” “We’re navigating between Scylla and Charybdis here.” Anybody with the literacy of an eighth-grader could read those…
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Here they are, the holiday classics! These are the top-rated main dish and side dish recipes you need for a perfect traditional Christmas dinner. They cover the savory side of Christmas dinner, from prime rib, baked ham, and roast turkey to scalloped potatoes, green bean casserole, and cranberry…
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Christmas lunch and dinner would be nothing without the comforting classics we love to eat year after year. These 49 recipes are the ones we hold dear at this time of year, whether they be classic through and through or with a slightly modern…
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Tagged as #csa, anxiety, books, Childhood Sexual abuse, childhood trauma, depression, gaslighting, gratitude, holidays, journal writing, journaling, migraine, mindfulness, self-care, trauma, triggers

The Alexandria Papers Newsletter #60 | Dr. Alexandria Szeman 4 December 2022
Guided Meditation: Notice How Sadness, Loneliness, and Anger Show Up in Your Body – Mindful
Instead of trying to make difficult emotions change or go away, you can simply tune in to how they show up in your body, and see how they’re always changing on their own. When we’re caught in the throes of an emotion like sadness, loneliness, or anger, shifting our awareness into our body allows us…
Self-Care: The Struggle is Real | Migraine.com
A man with migraine shares how he put his loved ones and responsibilities ahead of his self care when he had episodic attacks.
7 Self-Care Practices Every Migraine Sufferer Should Know
A hangover headache is bad enough, but a full-on, out-of-nowhere migraine attack? What’s worse? If you are a migraine sufferer, no matter how long it lasted, you know what your brain and body can feel like after an episode. You’re tired AF, cranky, and probably feel like crying.
How to Actually, Finally, Truly Set Some Boundaries With Your Family This Holiday Season | WonderMind
If you’re dreading the holidays because they typically come with ~family drama~, I’d like to introduce you to the magical power of setting boundaries with family. You’ve probably scrolled past a TikTok or two about the importance of this powerful thing called a boundary…
Resources for Sexual Assault Survivors | Greatist
We include products we think are useful for our readers. If you buy through links on this page, we may earn a small commission. Here’s our process. Trauma is easier to cope with when you have support, just like a broken bone is easier to set with a cast.
Keeping a Journal Isn’t Lame, It’s Self-Care | YourTango
At one of my very first Scholastic Book Fairs, I begged and pleaded with my mother to get the “Dear America” package. It was one of my favorite book series growing up, and it even came with a hardcover journal so you could add pages when you ran out.
Exercise for Mental Health: 8 Keys to Get and Stay Moving | NAMI
Mental illness has deeply impacted my life. I have experienced the flooding of anxiety and the drowning of depression. I have waged, and won, several battles with postpartum depression and been through loss and grief.
What Can We Learn From A 1794 Novel About Turning Points In Crime Fiction? | CrimeReads
Turning points are incredibly important landmarks in crime fiction. They are the peak or series of peaks we climb to, where everything shifts inside the story. These moments are when we realize nothing is what it seems. Once we reach them, whether it is the climax of the book or an earlier point of…
A Guide to the Essential Regional American Pizza Styles | FoodAndWine
Before the 1950s, most Americans didn’t know what pizza was. Arriving to the U.S. in the late 1800s, it was considered a cheap “ethnic” food, eaten mostly by marginalized Italian Americans in hole-in-the-wall restaurants or on the street.
Top 20 Tips for Food Bloggers | Cookie+Kate
I wish I had some magic secrets or shortcuts to share, but the truth is that food blogging is hard work. I receive questions about the subject fairly often, so I sat down to compile my best tips for food bloggers and ended up with an even twenty.
Books by Alexandria Constantinova Szeman
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Tagged as baking, books, Childhood Sexual abuse, cooking, crime fiction, mental health, migraine, mindfulness, self-care, trauma