The Laughing Spoonie - Living on the Bright Side of MS

A very complaint by most people is having too many things to do but with too little time to do them in. Most of us wish, at one time or another, that there were more than our allotted 24 hours in each day. Not having enough time to do the things you want, time for your family, or what your boss wants you to do, is one of the most common contributing factors to persistent or chronic stress.

Life for almost everyone is a series of stressful events, hopefully interspersed with periods of abatement and recovery. However, many people are operating their day to day lives under a continuous current of tension that seems to never leave them.

As adults we tend to be pretty opinionated about how teenagers have become in the last decade or so. Playing the devil's advocate here, what if the teens and students are actually under a great deal of stress and we are simply refusing to acknowledge it? 

Perhaps teens and adolescents are ill-equipped to deal with the daily stressors and pressures put upon them today, and they are simply reacting the best way they know how. Which is why mindfulness training for teens and students is getting more and more attention, and it's working!

Insomnia plagues many people and yet there are so few options for a good night's rest that actually work. You'd think in the day and age where a smart phone that can video call anywhere in the world, handle your agenda, reserve tickets at the theater and monitor your nanny in real-time… there would be more advances in how to beat insomnia! Isn't there an app for that?

Do you ever feel like you can't manage to complete a single task without being distracted? Perhaps at work you have been multi-tasking for so long, devoting your undivided attention to a simple mission feels impossible. You've got the phone to deal with, other employees interrupting, emails coming in that need your attention, etc. 

Relationships are hard work. People get busy with life and simply neglect to nourish their union. Sometimes it turns into a competition for time between family, work and self-care. With all that happens in a day or even a week, what's left over for sustaining a relationship? Exactly that, leftovers. 

Unintentionally, we often over...

Chronic pain. It's horrendous, obviously painful, often debilitating and causes a plethora of other issues when conventional treatments fail. Chronic pain sufferers commonly experience anything from anxiety and depression to pain medication side-effects and addiction. All of this on top of excruciating pain that can't seem to be controlled. Using the mindfulness approach for chronic pain may be just what the doctor didn't know to order...

Life with kids is hectic, to say the least. If you're lucky enough to get one down for a nap, the others will inevitably require your immediate undivided attention, the third snack for the day or your taxi skills to get to another activity. Moms are on the move! They typically don't get the luxury of scheduled breaks or the end of their shift. 

Which is exactly why mindfulness for busy moms is essential! When you think about it, being a mom is all about

Many prominent psychologists and counselors are employing Mindfulness-Based Cognitive Behavior Therapy (MiCBT) as a practical approach for their clients. In particular, therapists are using this technique more and more for bipolar disorder.

This should not be limited to therapists and professionals in the mental he...

Mindfulness for depression is a different story, yet similar in tactic. The object is to be purposeful in thought, right? Be mindful. So wh...

One can argue mindfulness for ADHD is a bunch of hooey just as easily as they can deny ADHD even exists, but when Dr. Lidia Zylowska and her team blew the minds of disbelievers with a 2008 study, many doubters h...