The Alexandria Papers Newsletter #70 | Dr. Alexandria Szeman 12 March 2023
Why Your Best Thoughts Happen in the Shower or When Walking | Psychology Today
Seemingly mindless activities are mindful experiences that put us in the moment and can lead to the state called “flow.” Ceasing from deliberate thought can yield unexpected insights from ideas incubating in the subconscious background. Solitary activities let us disconnect from the outside world….
Why You Might Want to Give Green Light Therapy a Go for Migraine | Migraine Again
Are you looking for a non-medicinal approach to easing your migraine attacks? There are plenty of natural remedies out there, and one of the newest might be worth a go: green light therapy, a noninvasive therapy that has shown promise for helping those with migraine as well as other conditions,…
Trauma distorts our sense of time and self. A new therapy might help | Science News
Trish Tran narrates her life in staccato notes. “I remember carrying my little sister on my back because she’s too tired and walking through the huge sunflower fields … and me feeling so tired I didn’t think I could walk another step.”
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.
3 Hidden Stressors That Are Sabotaging Your Mental Health | Oprah Daily
Outsmart them with these easy habit adjustments.
Decluttering When You Don’t Have Time: 4 Tips to Make Progress Today | The Simplicity Habit
Use these tips for decluttering when you don’t have time to sneak in decluttering tasks to start making progress immediately. Do you feel totally overwhelmed by the sheer amount of clutter in your house – but don’t have the time to truly tackle your mess?
How the Victorians Created the Modern English Novel | Literary Hub
Over 120 years since the Victorian era ended, its literature continues to have huge staying power in the collective imagination of the English-speaking world. We all have a clear idea of what “Dickensian” London looks like. We know what it means to be a Scrooge, or to be a bit Jekyll and Hyde.
9 Books That Rethink Our Narratives About Health and Healing | Electric Literature
In their Grammy-winning comeback song “Not Ready to Make Nice,” the (formerly Dixie) Chicks sing, “They say time heals everything but I’m still waiting.” The lyrics claim power in not healing, in refusing to shut up and let it go when those in power continue to benefit from that very expectation.
Bread Folklore: Medicine, Divination Tool, and Love Magnet! | Icy Sedgwick
You wouldn’t think something as humble as bread would have so much folklore attached to it. Yet many of us encounter bread folklore when we’re young. I’m sure we’ve all heard the old wives’ tale that eating your bread crusts would make your hair curly.
Sourdough Ears 101 | Sourdough Brandon
This post may contain affiliate links for products and ingredients I use and recommend. For more information, see my disclosures here. One of the most popular sourdough baking topics I’ve been asked to write a guide about is how to get sourdough ears.
Naked, with Glasses (the story)
This is how the plan to kill your husband could begin. You come home early from work. You have a headache. A terrible headache. The worst headache of your life. You have this grant proposal to write. It’s not finished, and it was due yesterday.
Books by Alexandria Constantinova Szeman
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Filed under Baking, Books, chronic pain, Cooking, Health and Wellness, hemiplegic migraines, Meditation and MIndfulness, Mental Health, migraine, Migraine with Aura, Migraine Without Aura, migraines, Newsletters, PTSD, Sexual Abuse, Sexual Violence, The Alexandria Papers Newsletter, Trauma
Tagged as books, bread folklore, decluttering, electric literature, english novel, Icy Sedgwick, literary hub, mental health, migraine, migraine again, mindfulness, minimalism, oprah daily, rainn, rainn online hotline, science news, sexual abuse, sourdough brandon, sourdough ears, the simplicity habit, trauma, victorians

The Alexandria Papers Newsletter #68 | Dr. Alexandria Szeman 26 February 2023
Stuck in a Rut? Here’s How Mindfulness Can Help | Mindful
When the same old same old isn’t serving us as well as it used to, our mindfulness practice can broaden our perspective and help us see different pathways that may have been there all along. I was driving through Ohio with a colleague when the GPS informed us that we were facing an hour-long delay…
What Are Signs and Symptoms of Migraine? | Migraine Again
Migraine is associated with a surprising array of symptoms that can vary from person to person or attack to attack. In fact, while some refer to migraine as a migraine headache, a headache is only one of several symptoms people experience.
Chronic Pain Checklist: 9 Places to Look for Affordable, Effective, Low-Risk Treatments | Everyday Health
Many Americans live with pain. Indeed, according to a February 2022 article in the journal Pain , 50.2 million people in the United States reported experiencing pain on most days or every day. If you’re one of them, you know the many struggles of coping with persistent pain.
14 Self-Care Tips for Sexual Assault Survivors Suffering from PTSD | brighthorizonsne.org
For those suffering from acute or long-term post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and depression, there are often times when these become so overwhelming that it can be difficult to even accomplish the basic functions of daily living.
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.
Mental health: it’s not always good to talk | The Conversation
Few of us would question the need to break the silence around mental illness. Countless campaigns have drilled into us that such silence is harmful and that we should try to break it wherever we find it. Britain Get Talking is one such campaign.
The Best Books of 2023 So Far (Updated February 2023) | People
It’s been decades since 17-year-old Thalia Keith was murdered at Granby, her New Hampshire boarding school. The man convicted of the crime- Granby’s athletic director-remains in prison. But when Thalia’s former classmate Bodie Kane returns to teach there in 2018, she and her students take a…
Small-Batch Cheesy Focaccia | King Arthur Flour
Recipes Bread Flatbread Focaccia has many admirable qualities – the golden crust; the olive oil aroma; the tender, fluffy interior! – but a short shelf life. It’s best enjoyed the same day it’s made. That’s where this small cheesy focaccia comes to the rescue.
Auggie Vernon and the Eclipse (a poem)
He has everything he needs set up in the back yard: two triangular UPS shipping tubes held together by duct tape in the middle, with a pin-pricked piece of foil on one end and a piece of white paper on the other end of the box, but he’s not interested in the eclipse itself
Books by Alexandria Constantinova Szeman
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Filed under Baking, Books, Childhood Sexual Abuse, chronic pain, Chronic Pain Treatment, Health and Wellness, hemiplegic migraines, Meditation and MIndfulness, Mental Health, migraine, Migraine with Aura, Migraine Without Aura, migraines, Newsletters, PTSD, Sexual Abuse, Small Business, The Alexandria Papers Newsletter, Trauma
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The Alexandria Papers Newsletter #67 | Dr. Alexandria Szeman 12 February 2023
The stress secret: 12 ways to meditate – without actually meditating | The Guardian
Meditation isn’t for everyone. Or at least not when life has taken you so far from calm that your brain is soup. “It’s the nature of the mind to have this ongoing conversation in the background,” says Joy Rains, a mindfulness practitioner and author of Meditation Illuminated: Simple Ways to Manage…
Morning Migraine Again? How to Wake Up Pain-Free | Migraine Again
One of the most common migraine patterns many of us experience is going to bed feeling fine then waking up with debilitating headache pain.
Learning About Long COVID From Other “Invisible” Illnesses | Psychology Today
People diagnosed with ME/CFS must manage extreme fatigue, and their experiences have implications for those with long COVID. A challenge of managing an illness like ME/CFS is its invisibility to others, despite its severe impact on a person’s ability to function. Ensuring people feel believed is…
Self-Care for Trauma Survivors Dealing With Noisy Newsfeeds | Psychology Today
Sexual abuse fills our daily newsfeeds. Just this month alone, there is sexual assault news from the Boy Scouts, Catholic Church, US Hockey, Hollywood, and the White House. How can victims and survivors heal effectively while being constantly triggered as the stories, lawsuits, and judicial systems…
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.
4 Questions That Can Reveal Your Psychological Needs | Psychology Today
Self-reflection can help you better get to know your psychological needs and how these are being met or not met. Try these question prompts for learning insights into yourself. The best compliment I received this year was when I was telling my doctor about breastfeeding struggles with my newborn.
How Chaucer’s medieval Wife of Bath was tamed and then liberated in the 21st century | The Conversation
Chaucer’s Wife of Bath is one of the most famous characters in English literature. Since appearing in the Canterbury tales in 1387, her tale has been rewritten and adapted by authors from the French philosopher Voltaire in the 18th century to the contemporary author Zadie Smith in 2021.
The rise: a history of American biscuits | King Arthur Baking
Flaky, fluffy, buttermilk or baking powder, biscuits are as old (and as complicated) as the country itself. Trace their history and their evolution across centuries.
The Lies Our Parents Tell Us (a poem)
The Lies Our Parents Tell Us begin in childhood: you’re not dumb, you were not an accident, the sight of you doesn’t make us sick, we don’t think you’re ugly, and we swallow the lies, with open hands and grateful hearts, because we’re so hungry, because the lies are all we have.
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Tagged as biscuits, chaucer's wife of bath, chronic illness, history of biscuits in America, long COVID, meditation, mental health, migraine, mindfulness, rainn, rainn online hotline, self-care, survivors, trauma survivors, walking, Wife of Bath

The Alexandria Papers Newsletter #66 | Dr. Alexandria Szeman 5 February 2023
4 simple mindfulness practices to stay calm and reduce stress | Healthshots
Anxiety is a common issue for most people these days. However, staying lost in the worries of the future makes us less equipped to practice being mindful. Understand how to practice mindfulness using these expert-suggested effective tricks and learn to manage your anxiety.
Why Skipping Meals Can Trigger Migraines and How to Avoid It | Migraine Again
For many people living with migraine, not eating can trigger migraine attacks. Even for those who don’t suffer from chronic migraine, it’s important to eat regularly to avoid migraine attacks from not eating and hunger headaches. Here’s why you should avoid skipping meals and the best tips and…
Why Your Brain Sees Anxiety as an Advantage (and How You Can Calm It Down) | The Best Brain Possible by Debbie Hampton
Your brain’s top priority is always keeping you safe and alive. Therefore, your brain is biologically wired to be jumpy and reactive. It feels safe and like it is doing its job well when you feel that way. That feeling of anxiety has been fundamental to our species’ survival throughout evolution.
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.
These 5 Exercises May Ease Your Depression and Boost Your Mental Health | CNET
The key to fixing your mental health may be as simple as moving your body. Exercise can improve your mood and relieve symptoms of depression and anxiety. It’s also a great way to alleviate stress. Exercise can sometimes be a loaded term, especially for people who don’t love going to the gym.
Does Historical Accuracy Matter in Historical Fiction? | Crime Reads
I write a historical fiction series set in World War Two London. My protagonist is a Scotland Yard detective called Frank Merlin. I place great importance on being historically accurate in my books. I take the view that as I am attempting to transport my readers to a very different time and place,…
19 Slow Cooker Soups To Help You Stay Cozy This Winter | BuzzFeed
Winter isn’t all bad, especially when there’s homemade soup to warm up those cold nights. The following soup recipes come together entirely in the slow cooker, so you can set it, forget it, and enjoy a home-cooked meal.
The Butcher Birds (a poem)
Each morning as we walk the farm’s perimeter, we find victims of the butcher birds.
Books by Alexandria Constantinova Szeman
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Filed under Books, Cooking, Crime Drama, Meditation and MIndfulness, Mental Health, migraine, migraine self-care, Migraine with Aura, Migraine Without Aura, migraines, Newsletters, Panic Attacks, Panic Disorder, The Alexandria Papers Newsletter
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The Alexandria Papers Newsletter #64 | Dr. Alexandria Szeman 15 January 2023
How to Use Mindfulness for PTSD | VeryWell
Using mindfulness for PTSD may be a good way of coping. Mindfulness has been around for ages. However, mental health professionals are beginning to recognize that mindfulness can have many benefits for people suffering from difficulties such as anxiety and depression.
Guide Me: How Can I Prevent the Next Migraine Attack? | Migraine Again
It’s easier to prevent a migraine attack than treat one. Discover evidence-based strategies for prevention, including natural and alternative remedies.
5 New Year’s Resolutions for Trauma Survivors | Psychology Today
Trauma survivors struggle to take care of their mental health as much as their physical health, but this should be prioritized in the new year. Unmet needs in childhood often manifest in adulthood, leading to unhealthy behavior patterns-but 2023 can be the year to start unpacking.
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 spot an eating disorder | Psyche
When you are close to someone – a family member, a romantic partner, a longtime friend – you are likely to be fairly attuned to subtle changes in behaviour that could signal a shift in that person’s wellbeing. For many people, these changes are connected to eating.
How to Start a Self-Care Journal | Read Poetry
If you’re a writer, chances are you have a stack of journals tucked away in the back of your closet, likely filled with memories, heartbreaks, and musings. Many of us as a means of self-care to process thoughts, feelings, and experiences. But have you ever created a journal solely for self-care?
Awards: Best Memoirs of 2022 | SheReads
Every year thousands of our readers vote for their favorite books of the year in the She Reads Awards. Find out more about the books that were nominated and see which book was voted the Best Memoir of 2022. The winner of the Best Memoir of 2022 is . .
30 Easy Bread Recipes for Beginner Bakers | Taste of Home
Baking bread is more popular (and easier) than ever! If you’re new to it, don’t be intimidated. Consider these easy bread recipes and become the baker you always knew you could be! Be sure to check out our ultimate bread baking guide, too.
While the Music Lasts: Poem to My Younger Self
Each night, standing in the hallway at the open / door of the bedroom, I see you lying in the / fading light, his arms around you, your head on his / chest, his lips against your hair, and I want to tell / you everything.
Books by Alexandria Constantinova Szeman
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Tagged as books, bread baking, bread baking for beginners, chronic migraine, cptsd, eating disorders, journal writing, journaling, memoirs, migraine, migraine again, migraine prevention, migraine self-care, mindfulness, New Year's Resolutions, new year's resolutions for trauma survivors, poem, poetry, psyche.co, Psychology Today, PTSD, rainn, rainn online hotline, self-care, self-care journal, survivors, taste of home, trauma survivors, very well, while the music lasts: poem to my younger self