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Doctors Explain the 10 Best Ways to Deal With Occasional Hangovers

November 24, 2021 by Chris Butler

Going to a party is very exciting, and most gatherings have some alcohol there for their guests to enjoy. When you’re having fun and a drink or two, you may ingest more than what your body can handle without realizing it. It seems that it goes down so quickly. But it only takes a few minutes before the true impact of that until hangovers take hold.

Hangovers are a sign of overindulgence. You can’t just call off work or forget the things you must do because of a little too much whiskey the night before. When your head is looming and you’re dealing with dizziness, you might live to regret the previous night’s decisions. Some lucky people never experience a hangover, but most will have some effect from overindulging.

Nine Common Signs of Hangovers

If you’ve ever had a hangover, you might think that the symptoms you experience are the same as someone else. However, you might be dizzy and nauseous while another person has muscle weakness and vomits. Here are the common signs of hangovers, and you can get one or all of them.

Nausea and vomiting
Dry mouth accompanied by excessive thirst
Headaches and muscle aches
Overall weakness
Shaky and unable to walk straight
Dizzy or Vertigo (Room spinning sensations)
Mood disturbances
Heart palpitations
Concentration issues

Tips for Preventing a Hangover

So, you know that you’re going to drink with your buddies; here are a few things you can do to prevent this unpleasant feeling the next day.

Don’t drink on an empty stomach; it only worsens things.
Try to stick to clear drinks like vodka and avoid caramel-colored whiskey or other dark liquors, as it tends to have a more dramatic effect on the body.
Please don’t drink too much, too fast, as it will catch up to you.
Eat and drink water along with your spirits.
Smoking and enjoying liquor together can cause stomach irritation.
Set a limit on how many drinks you know you can handle without getting sick.

Note that experts agree that the only 100% sure way to keep a hangover at bay is to avoid drinking. The measures listed here might limit the pain but are not a guarantee.

Nine Best Ways to Deal With Occasional Hangovers

While drinking in moderation can be perfectly acceptable, if you drink enough to be hungover the following day, you can cause some issues in your body. Did you know that too much liquor can cause you to become dehydrated?

If you keep this pattern up for too long, it can cause permanent damage to your liver, brain, and even your central nervous system. However, if you have this issue on occasion, here are nine ways to help your hangover.

1. Coffee

Coffee is known to help people stay alert and awake when they’re working long shifts, and it’s due to the vast caffeine content. The good news is that it’s an effective solution for a hangover too. How often have you heard someone say that they’re going to drink some coffee and sober up?

Be careful not to drink too much coffee as it can cause migraines, which is another issue you don’t want to handle. Try to get a mildly strong cup, or even an expresso will do. Most people who experience hangovers on occasion swear by coffee to help them get through the discomfort the next day.

Also, drinking coffee does not have science to back it up, although medical journals note that it’s worth a try if you are not sensitive to caffeine:

Caffeine (often taken as coffee) is commonly used to counteract the fatigue and malaise associated with the hangover condition. Although this traditional practice lacks scientific support, William Hickey, quoted at the beginning of this article, wrote that “very strong coffee proved of infinite benefit” (Spenser 1913).

2. Sleep Off Hangovers

Most people don’t get sufficient sleep after a night on the town, and rest is one of the best ways to combat drinking too much. If you were out at the club till 2 am, and you must be at work at 9 am, it doesn’t leave too much time for shut-eye. However, the Mayo Clinic advises that sleep is one thing you can do so that your body can rest and recover.

If you’re too sick, then you might need to call off work or cancel your plans for the day. It’s best to plan your night of fun when you don’t have to work the next day.

3. Flush Your System With H20

When you drink water, the body eliminates toxins through your kidneys. Did you know that liquor diminishes your water levels? So, when you drink water, you’re rehydrating what the spirits took away.

Liquor is a toxin, and if any of its impurities are left behind, then the water you flush through your system will get rid of them. Have you ever noticed that when you drink, you tend to urinate more? This increase stems from the fact that your body is trying to rid these liquids.

When you put more water into your system, it helps to flush the liquor out. If you become dehydrated when you drink spirits, you may notice dizziness and lightheadedness. Water will also take care of those feelings as it helps to rehydrate you.

4. Hair of the Dog

If you know anything about binge drinking, you know that it’s often said that you need the hair of the dog that bit you to deal with hangovers. However, do you know where this saying originated? According to Dictionary, in the olden days of England, when a person was bitten by a rabid dog, they would treat the person by taking the hair of the dog and placing it on the wound.

If you’re dealing with issues from whiskey, taking a little sip of the same thing that “bit you” helps cure the problem. The theory is that the same germ that got you the first time will relieve it the second time around. According to Healthtian, studies prove that taking a bit more liquor in after a night of binging can help raise endorphin levels in the body, making you feel better.

Though there’s not a lot of studies on this matter, many people swear by taking a “hair of the dog” the next day.

5. Vitamin C

Who doesn’t love a glass of orange juice? It may help with your hangover too. If you want to get rid of that foggy brain, then why not try some Vitamin C? According to the doctors at Harvard University, their research has proved that taking some essential vitamins before you start drinking can lessen the effects.

What vitamins do they recommend? Well, they say that you should try Vitamins B, C, and zinc. However, Vitamin C tends to be the one that helps the most when it comes to dealing with the pain of a hangover.

6. Eat Carbs for Hangovers

Did you know that when you’re drinking, it lowers your blood sugar levels? Part of the fatigue and headaches you experience can be due to compromised glucose. The problem is that many folks drink on an empty stomach, and they forget to eat when they become inebriated. So, eating something as simple as a piece of toast can help bring your blood sugar back into balance.

7. Eat Asparagus

Eating asparagus for a hangover may be the best-kept secret yet. This vegetable is beneficial because it’s full of minerals and amino acids that help your body repair its intoxicated state. It also reduces the toxicity of liquor in your blood. Since this is a vegetable with diuretic properties, it can help you flush these toxins from your system.

Nutritionist Serena Poon agrees that it might help. Citing a small study that shows promise for this remedy, she says the following:

“I would caution against using this research to justify over drinking, but if you do find yourself in a place where you are feeling unwell due to alcohol consumption, adding asparagus to your plate might make you feel a bit better. Also, there is no downside to eating asparagus, unless you have an allergy.”

8. Try Ginger to Ease Hangovers

If you have an upset stomach that comes along with your hangovers, then ginger may be beneficial. Ginger is known to have a profound effect on chemotherapy-induced vomiting, as per a study listed on the National Library of Medicine. Many holistic practitioners recommend using ginger to help with nausea associated with pregnancy, so it’s great for other stomach upsets too.

9. Sip Juice

The Mayo Clinic also notes that sipping juice is another option to help restore electrolytes and minerals in your body, which will make you feel better. Since your body loses a lot of water and electrolytes by frequent trips to the restroom, you need to restore those to bring everything back to normal.

Final Thoughts On Dealing With Occasional Hangovers

While this is just a list of the nine things used for hangovers, there are many more. You may need to try a few of these remedies before you find what works best for you. Some may work better for others than they do for you, as every system is different.

If you know that you’re going to be drinking, the best thing you can do is to use some preventative measures to avoid having a horrible hangover the next day. Remember, drink slow and don’t consume spirits on an empty stomach, as these are two of the worst things you can do.

6 Reasons Why You Should Stop Chasing People

November 24, 2021 by Lakeisha Ethans

Is there someone you know you want in your life, but they’re not particularly interested? It could be anyone, like a distant or absent family member or even someone you have a crush on. It might even be a clique of people who you wish would be your friend. Whatever the case, you should stop chasing people who might reject your friendship.

But this is an effort already doomed to either fail or hurt you. It’s an endeavor that isn’t worth embarking on, no matter how badly you want those people in your life. Here are six reasons why you should stop chasing people.

1. When You Stop Chasing People, You’ll Have The Room For Good People In Your Life

If you focus all your energy on chasing someone, you miss the chance to use that energy on more positive people.

This is because:

You feel emotionally and mentally drained and can’t invest in relationships with anyone else.
You actively shut out the possibility of other relationships by only wanting one with the person you’re chasing.
Red flags stop looking red; you’re less likely to notice questionable behavior in other interactions.
You become more likely to lash out at those around you, driving the people who matter further away.
You’re not fully present when spending time with other people, as your mind is on that person you’re chasing.
You don’t get to enjoy the improved self-esteem and positive effects from healthy relationships, which furthers a destructive cycle.

This behavior can form a highly destructive cycle in your relationships. If you’ve ever wondered why people who leave toxic relationships often end up in more unhealthy bonds – well, this is why. You get used to putting in all this effort for nothing and lose sight of what authentic connections should be like.

Your self-esteem also tanks when you spend all your time chasing people. You’re used to not receiving anything positive in turn. This means you’re less likely to seek out other healthy relationships. You don’t even remember that you deserve those excellent bonds with others!

The people you have to chase are not people who deserve your time. Those who will be kind and good to you will not require any chasing down!

2. You Stop Wasting Time When You Quit Chasing People

Think about all the time you’re wasting on the person you’re chasing. There are so many valuable seconds you’re giving up in favor of someone who won’t return your energy! Instead of spending all your time chasing people who don’t want you in turn, you can use that time to:

Take up hobbies, classes, and seek out new experiences.
Spend time on your improvement and growth.
Dedicate yourself to valuable “me-time” for self-care and rest.

Nothing can be gained from all the resources you spend on making yourself acceptable to people. At the end of the day, “getting” the people you want in your life rarely pays off. You’ll often realize just how pointless all your spent energy was. If your time isn’t spent on something productive that makes you feel good?

3. You’ll Be Happier If You Stop Chasing People

Many people believe they’ll be happier once they finally get the person they’re chasing. But that’s not the case, because:

You build up an idealized idea of what life would be like when you “win” that person. Reality can’t live up to those expectations.
Your idea of the person you’re chasing becomes romanticized and incorrect.
It can serve as a foundation for unhealthy, codependent relationships, where one person’s happiness hinges to an extreme degree on the other.
You seek the validation of the people you chase instead of focusing on your self-esteem and self-respect.
Life never turns out happier when your entire universe centers around another person.
You become less authentic as a person in your effort to chase people and appeal to them, losing parts of yourself in the process.
You spend all your time focusing on what you don’t have and how rough you feel. This prevents you from being optimistic and focusing on gratitude and good things.

But here is the truth:

The truth is that we often convince ourselves that achieving specific goals will genuinely make us happy. You may have convinced yourself of that fact. But true happiness is something that comes from within. In reality, happiness is very much a personal choice, and it will never work if it’s so dependent on various factors like this.

Studies genuinely show that you can actively choose to be happy. Of course, factors like mental illnesses and mood disorders can affect this. But for the most part, deciding to be more comfortable will work way better when you make the personal effort to enjoy your life. Focusing on the person you don’t have is decidedly not the way to respect yourself enough to achieve that.

At the end of the day, if you chase people, you’re forming an unhealthy and toxic connection to them. The people who want to be around you will not make you run after them. No one’s happy in a toxic relationship, even if it’s one you thought you wanted.

4. You Can’t Change People Or Their Minds

There’s a toxic idea floating around that any single person is capable of “changing” another. The reality is that people are responsible for their actions. They are the only ones who can take steps to change their selves. There has to be a conscious decision on their part to do this.

No matter how much you chase someone, you cannot change their mind. They have already decided they don’t want to spend their time with you. If you try to convince them otherwise, even if they agree, there will always be a part of the interaction that isn’t authentic. Doing someone just for them isn’t the same as doing something because you want to do it for them.

The sooner you realize that you can’t change someone, the better. If they won’t accept you by switching, why are you changing yourself to chase them?

5. Stop Chasing After People, You’ll Be Healthier

We’ve already discussed the way that chasing people can often result in toxic relationships. And unhealthy relationships come with all sorts of terrible effects! Worse still, you don’t need to end up successfully “getting” someone to suffer from a poor bond.

People often think that the only bad “unhealthy relationships” are committed, long-term romantic ones. In reality, all forms of poor social connections, including familial and platonic ones, can negatively affect health. So even if your primary bond with someone is chasing them, that can be enough to trigger poor results. Here are some things that happen to your health when you’re in a poor relationship of any kind:

· Heart Disease

Research shows that those in poor relationships are at a higher risk of developing heart disease. This includes increased risks of fatal cardiac episodes. All the stress and tension from dealing with toxicity can be bad for you! This includes increasing your blood pressure, say other studies in long-term unhealthy dynamics.

· Increased Inflammation

You enter fight-or-flight when you’re in a stressful relationship – including one where you’re chasing someone. This worsens inflammation in your body. If you spend all your time chasing that person, this can become chronic, according to research, damaging your immunity.

· Shortened Lifespan

Your social relationships can have a significant effect on your overall lifespan. If you interact poorly with others, you’re cutting your life short, say studies. Since chasing someone distracts you from forming truly positive relationships, you’re putting yourself at risk in this context!

· Worsened Chronic Illness

If you deal with chronic illness, a bad relationship can worsen their symptoms, say studies. You’ll notice that you’re in more pain and have more trouble functioning just because of your poor interactions with others!

This isn’t even getting into the mental health effects of toxic relationships. Even just chasing someone forms an unhealthy dynamic, and that dynamic can already be fraught with:

High levels of anxiety as you worry about how they think of you or what they might want.
Sadness or even depression due to an inability to “get” the person you’re chasing.
Decreased self-esteem because this person’s disinterest in you affects your confidence.
Stress from the repeated strain in your relationship with that person.
Potential trauma from poor treatment if the relationship develops.

6. You Won’t Chase Something You Don’t Want

Have you ever seen an animal chasing after something that it thinks it wants? Consider a cat chasing a toy. They suddenly leave it once they have the toy because it’s only fun when it’s in motion. Or think about a dog that chases after a car. It doesn’t want to catch the vehicle! There’s nothing it can do with it, and the dog’s actions are putting it in danger!

The purpose of these metaphors is this. Sometimes, the momentum of chasing someone is what keeps you going. If you never stop to question what you’re doing and why you’ll keep going. Chasing someone can be surprisingly mindless for something that takes up so much of your time, effort, and energy!

Now, think about what you’ll do once you “get” this person. Consider this person’s actions and how they’ve treated you thus far. Don’t you think that this treatment will continue, even if they let themselves get “caught” by you? Don’t you have more self-respect than that? They’re disinterested now and’ll be disinterested when they stop running. Your bond will always be skewed.

Keep yourself grounded in reality. Do you know anything about this person you’re chasing? Do you truly know who they are? What will happen if they’re not like the idealized version of them that you have? Don’t chase after the idea of someone so much that you lose sight of the truth.

Final Thoughts On Some Reasons Why You Should Stop Chasing People

People are complex individuals. You can’t ever really honestly know what people are thinking and feeling. What you can know is your worth. Don’t diminish yourself or dull your shine so that you can chase other people. Remember that those who truly matter will not string you along, and they certainly won’t need to be pursued.

Can Sleep Deprivation Disturb Motor Control And Coordination?

November 24, 2021 by Lakeisha Ethans

Most people have been sleep-deprived at some point in their life! That feeling of dragging yourself to your feet like a zombie after too-little rest is one you can likely relate to. You’ll notice just how little energy and coordination you have throughout the day and will be more irritable and less productive. Even all the fuel of caffeine doesn’t make up for the sleep your body craves!

Approximately one-third of adults in America deal with sleep deprivation, and it’s getting steadily worse. More and more studies have shown just how damaging this trend is. Short-term impacts are immediately apparent, but long-term effects have become more understood over the years. That’s why most people are advised to avoid sleep deprivation. Unfortunately, not many of them listen to that advice!

Many people associate drowsiness with mental effects, but it can be pretty bad physically, too. In fact, you’ll likely be clumsier and much less coordinated! But is that just a coincidence, or is there science behind it? Can sleep deprivation disturb motor control and coordination?

1. Yes, Sleep Deprivation Disturbs Motor Control And Coordination

To get the main question out of the way. Yes–sleep deprivation has effects on coordination and motor control! This has been well-researched for decades, and to some degree, it logically tracks. The more tired you are, the less likely you are to be able to perform various psychomotor skills at high accuracy. Some studies that further illustrate this are as follows:

“Effects of Total Sleep Deprivation on Fine Motor Performance”, published in Sleep Medicine and Psychophysiology in 2001. This study indicated that muscle performance is significantly impaired by sleep deprivation. Muscles would also become tired more quickly, causing them to lose motor control function over time. In fact, even the day after sleep deprivation occurred, muscles would continue to face this issue, affecting motor coordination significantly!
“Psychomotor Skills in Total Sleep Deprivation”, published in the International Medical Journal in 2021. This research paper confirmed the presence of all the typically understood negative effects of sleep deprivation on motor control and coordination. It also clearly established that the same effects apply even in cultures where sleep deprivation is considered more common, illustrating that this is not a mind-over-matter issue.
“The effect of sleep deprivation on fine motor coordination in obstetrics and gynecology residents”, published in the American Journal of Obstetrics and Gynecology in 2008. This study showed that individuals subject to sleep deprivation performed more poorly at various medical tasks, especially in dominant hands. It also suggested that female individuals may have a higher tolerance to sleep deprivation, though their coordination was still affected.

But what are some of the finer details of sleep deprivation and its effects on coordination? Read on to find out!

2. Sleep Deprivation Effects Diminishes Coordination, Including Your Gait

A human gait is a coordinated, patterned movement of limbs made during movement and motion. Basically, it’s the way that you walk and move in everyday life. Motor control and coordination are part of what drives this mechanism, and sleep deprivation can really mess with it!

Research reveals that individuals lose their gait control when they lack sleep. This makes them clumsier, causes uneven footsteps, and can affect safety when performing daily walking activities. Some factors to note here are:

· Irregularities In Your Coordination

An inability to control one’s gait can lead to clumsiness. After all, a gait pattern involves various different characteristics, such as kinetic and potential energy, velocity, external forces, and ground contact. You need to have these uniformly regulated in order to move well. When you’re sleep-deprived, they become irregular, and you’ll be more likely to miss steps or trip over yourself.

· Automation

Many people view walking as an almost automatic activity. Few people need to put that much effort into their coordination when they walk. But the subconscious processes that drive this near-automation rely on cognitive function, which is damaged when you lack sleep. The brain picks up on the information it sees and adjusts your gait as needed to meet new requirements or suggestions. In other words, gait is influenced by tons of different things, and clumsiness from lack of sleep drives this point home.

· Compensation

Compensating for a lack of sleep by catching up on zzz’s at other times can reduce the severity of gait control issues. While you can’t really pay off sleep debt and will still face gait issues, getting some rest is better than none.

3. Sleep Deprivation Is As Bad For Coordination As Alcohol Consumption

Alcohol consumption is pretty well-known for disturbing motor control and coordination. Studies indicate that a lack of sleep does just about the same thing! Research showed that:

17 hours of sleep deprivation leads to poor performance on motor coordination tests. This is as poor as or worse than they would be at a BAC of 0.05%.
Response speeds at 17 hours are even up to 50% slower than they would be for a BAC of 0.05%!
Longer periods of sleep deprivation reached levels equivalent to a BAC of 0.1%.

Drunk Driving Causes Loss Of Coordination With Startling Impacts

You’ve likely heard time and time again that drunk driving causes severe outcomes. Given these results, driving drowsily is just as dangerous! In fact, sleep-deprived driving is such an issue that the following statistics are true for the United States:

Each day, 250,000 drivers fall asleep while driving.
More than 100,000 automobile crashes have sleep-deprived driving as a factor annually.
Approximately 80,000 injuries from road accidents occur with sleep-deprived driving as a factor annually.
Approximately 6,550 deaths from road accidents occur with sleep-deprived driving as a factor annually.
54% of adult drivers admit to driving drowsily.
28% of adult drivers admit to falling asleep behind the wheel.

Sad Outcomes of Driving Drowsy Or While Intoxicated

Driving under the influence of alcohol does not manifest in exactly the same way as driving drowsily. However, the results are similar enough that sleep-deprived driving should simply not be done. To compare them, consider:

Drunk drivers are often overly confident and impulsive, causing risky and dangerous behavior. Drowsy drivers, on the other hand, are unable to respond appropriately and remain attentive on the road.
Both drunk and drowsy drivers deal with worsened decision-making, alertness, and motor coordination-based reactions.
Both drunk and drowsy driving result in approximately similar accident numbers.

It is worth noting that sleep deprivation in the case of dangerous driving doesn’t have to be severe to cause issues. Sleeping six or seven hours a night – just one hour short of the recommended minimum – doubles your risk of an accident. That risk will double again at five hours or less, say studies. If you’re involved in an accident due to sleep deprivation, call panama city car accident lawyers for essential legal support.

4. Sleep Deprivation Disturbs Reaction Time

Reaction time refers to one’s ability to respond to various forms of stimulatory input physically. It takes some degree of coordination to have a good, graceful reaction time. Most individuals take under 0.2 seconds to provide a physical response to stimulus, according to research.

But that speed doesn’t come from nothing! The complex human brain is working overtime to go through multiple processes. It has to recognize the stimulus and sensory input, such as what it hears, sees, or feels. It then must then decide quickly how to respond and which body part is responsible for that response. After that, it has to send a message through the spinal cord to the appropriate body part so that it gets the message!

As you can tell, this requires some degree of motor control and coordination by the whole body. Smooth levels of coordinated movement are most possible when you have enough sleep. Studies show that when you’re deprived of that important rest, your reaction times increase steadily. Some factors to keep in mind here are:

· Sleep Debt

Lacking sleep in general slightly increases reaction time. But sleep debt has to be taken into account, too. The less sleep you get, the more sleep debt you incur, and you have to get enough rest to “pay off” the sleep you lost. Worse still, sleep debt often can’t be repaid on a 1:1 ratio, requiring more rest than was originally lost to get you back up to sleep. Your reaction times will get slower and slower as you rack up debt.

· Bodily Needs

The human body has a lot of functions that it needs to keep going at once. The less sleep you have, the more effort has to be put into all of these functions. If you’re very sleep-deprived, your brain has to decide what functions get the most focus, says research. Often, this leaves your reaction-based coordination impaired, as your brain focuses on more necessary actions.

· Danger When You Lack Coordination

The lack of motor control in terms of reaction speed is a significant problem for safety among those who are sleep-deprived. Athletes, medical professionals, pilots, construction workers, and other similar individuals need their reflexes and attention to work safely. Driving is an especially dangerous thing to do at this time. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention states that drowsy driving is an extremely common reason for deadly accidents. Sleep-deprived people lack the focus and coordination necessary to drive safely and react to various road conditions.

Final Thoughts On Some Ways Sleep Deprivation Can Disturb Motor Control And Coordination

Sleep deprivation can dampen your coordination, motor control, reaction time, and gait control. It’s also just as bad as alcohol consumption at impairing you, especially on the road. And, on top of that, it has numerous additional negative effects! It can increase cardiovascular problems, put you at risk of obesity and diabetes, and damage your immune system. It can also lend itself to a risk of mental disorders, chronic pain, and hormonal imbalance.

If you struggle with sleep deprivation, speaking to a doctor can help you find solutions that get you back on track. In the meantime, you can also do things yourself to help manage the issue. Making sleep a priority is a good start. Aim to get eight to 10 hours of sleep per night and set a consistent sleep schedule 7 days a week. Getting into a bedtime routine can also help you wind down and relax, fighting insomnia.

You shouldn’t simply be aiming to cope with sleep deprivation. Instead, you should be addressing it and putting it to a stop. The effects on your coordination and overall health are not worth it!

3 Reasons Never to Fight Your Emotions (And Ways To Feel Them)

November 24, 2021 by Lakeisha Ethans

Emotions can be overwhelming and frightening. You might turn to various methods to dampen the severity of what you feel. Commonly, you may decide to fight your emotions by pushing them away or denying them. Or they may feed their feelings instead of further stoking them out of proportion.

But neither of those tactics allows you to take the most necessary step: feeling your emotions. Here are three reasons you shouldn’t feed or fight your emotions and ways to handle them instead.

Why You Shouldn’t Feed Or Fight Your Emotions

Practice self-awareness to avoid doing these things. Here are three reasons why:

1. It’s An Avoidance Tactic When You Fight Your Emotions

Both feeding and fighting your emotions are forms of avoidance. And avoiding how you feel is never a good way to handle those emotions, especially for more complex or challenging situations! It’s easy to understand how fighting emotions end up being a means to avoid them. You push those feelings away, so you don’t have to deal with them. This can take many forms, including:

· Distraction

You might try to distract yourself from your emotions by throwing yourself into work, hobbies, or various forms of media. You can become highly absorbed in something and tire yourself out through it. In the process, you falsely believe that you are being productive and think this is an excellent way to cope.

· Mental Leaps

There’s no end to the mental jumps you may go through to fight your emotions by avoiding them. You might attempt to intellectualize or rationalize your feelings, thus depriving yourself of their actual nature. You might convince yourself that your feelings are not valid and push them aside. You could criticize yourself for having those emotions at all. These sorts of mental jumps remove you from reality and can damage your self-esteem.

· Imagining Escape

You might fight your emotions with avoidance by imagining an escape from them. This habit is different from visualizing success, which is inherently optimistic. Instead, it involves becoming wholly lost in fantastical ideas of a way to be free of these emotions. For example, you might envision winning the lottery and moving to a different country. Or you may mentally rehash arguments, again and again, imagining that you said something different.

But what about feeding emotions? How can actively encouraging your feelings somehow be avoiding them? The truth is a little surprising! Instead of experiencing the validity of emotion, you wind up further inflating it into something different. You disconnect from reality and create a different, more extreme version of events.

This almost makes your feelings feel more justified to you. Instead of accepting your emotions as they are, you stroke their fire to make them worse. To do feed your emotions with avoidance, you might:

· Transfer Accountability

To make yourself feel more justified, you may shift accountability onto others. You may imagine someone you have a conflict with to be a truly evil person. Or you might blame difficult life circumstances for what is happening to you, excusing your behavior based on your past experiences. You do anything to play the victim in this scenario.

· Criticize Yourself To An Extreme

You may think back on your life and pinpoint all the times you’ve felt similarly. You then inflate them, stating that they’re all your fault, even when they were outside of your control. This leads you to believe that you are entirely deserving of negativity. Your feelings then morph into something more complex.

· Unhealthily Express Your Emotions

You may throw things, storm around, or kick and scream to express how you feel. These actions only serve to make you angrier in the long run. They heighten your stress levels and distract you from reality.

Worse still, all forms of emotional avoidance are also types of suppression. They repress how you genuinely feel. Research shows that suppressing feelings makes them much worse and can manifest in many unhealthy and harmful ways!

2. It Gives You Huge Amounts Of Stress If You Fight Your Emotions

Fighting or feeding emotions both put a lot of mental and physical strain on the body. You experience a lot of stress when you perform these actions. Your hormones go into overdrive as you produce more and more stress hormones like cortisol and adrenaline.

This is because the act of denying feelings makes the body enter a minor sort of fight-or-flight mode. Your body then focuses on survival, unable to perform regular daily functions with ease. Its entire goal is to keep you safe – and, ironically, the only thing it’s doing is making things worse!

Allowing yourself to interact with and feel your emotions diminishes stress. Your brain and body learn to handle these experiences with a level head, building emotional strength in the process.

3. When You Fight Your Emotions, It Stops You From Moving On

Dwelling on bad things by fighting or feeding them prevents you from moving forward. But that’s part of what gets so addictive! When you fight your emotions, there’s some form of payoff that makes you feel good at the moment. You might feel validated, self-righteous, or protected by your denial. In the short-term, that can be useful as a coping mechanism – but then it comes back to bite you.

The only way to move on from strong negative emotions is by feeling them. You have to get close to the truth of those emotions and allow yourself to experience that realistically. This is because feeling your emotions lets you:

· Remember Roots and Meaning

When you fight your emotions, it’s easy to lose sight of what matters. You get so wrapped up in what you feel that you can’t see the forest for the trees. You act based on tiny clues of emotion and never get down to what’s causing them because you’re fighting them so hard! Without the ability to dig at roots, you can’t ever move on from feelings.

· Make Decisions

Knowing how to process, regulate, and feel emotions truly allows you to make rational decisions. You know what parts of you are driven by emotion and react to them accordingly instead of letting them subconsciously influence you. In the famous book “Descartes’ Error: Emotion, Reason, and the Human Brain,” we’re reminded of this. The expert author states that emotional context is central to wise decision-making!

· Learn and Grow Instead Of Trying to Fight Your Emotions

The ability to feel complex emotions allows you to learn from them and reflect on them. You have the opportunity to learn from each one, update your knowledge as you go, and realize your true capabilities. If you only fight your emotions, you’ll spend so much time avoiding them, and you can’t learn from what you avoid.

How To Feel Your Emotions

1. Observe and Acknowledge Them

To feel something, you have to acknowledge that it’s there. This is why you must mindfully observe and be open to the emotions and sensations you feel. Try performing these four steps:

· Step 1: Pause

When you feel a strong emotion beginning to bubble, take a deep breath and pause. Don’t react – just hit the brakes. If necessary, you can also remove yourself from the stressful environment for a few minutes.

· Step 2: Scan Your Body

Carefully observe your body from head to toe. With your mind, scan every single part of you in an organized manner. Observe what each body part is doing and how it is feeling. Where are your emotions physically manifesting?

· Step 3: Mindfully Note Everything

Acknowledge and state how each part of your body has reacted, whether out loud or in your head. It is crucial to do this mindfully. Do not judge yourself or try to stop the way you feel. Observe, note, and let them pass over you.

· Step 4: Describe And Link

Now, it’s time to join your notes with descriptions and observations. Use your words to describe each sensation openly. Do not apply any other stories to them other than their direct experiences. For example, do not say, “My cheeks are warm because my boss yelled at me.” Instead, say, “I’m noticing heat in my cheeks, and I feel small.”

2. Know Your Go-To Feed or Fight Tactics

If you tend to feed or fight your emotions, it’s essential to understand how this manifests. Knowing your go-to tactics allows you to recognize them. Keep an eye out for these behaviors in yourself and put a stop to them when you see them. Find alternatives that would enable you to stay engaged with your feelings while also helping you to regulate them.

While you’re at it, you can also take note of triggers that prompt these reactions from you. That way, you can be more aware of when these triggers occur and know to be cautious about your responses.

3. Express Your Emotions Healthily

Feeling emotions takes time. You’ll have to regularly practice and tune into your feelings. One way to do this is by expressing your feelings. Instead of feeding your emotions, conveying them positively allows you to process and reflect on how you feel correctly. Here are some ways to do this:

· Perform Physical Activity

Physical activity is a healthy way to work off stress and pent-up emotion. Go for a walk, perform a quick workout, do some stretches, and get moving! Remember that you should not be using physical activity to fight your emotions or avoid them. Instead, they’re a means to help reduce the tension you feel so that you can regulate your emotions at a more manageable rate. Research shows that exercise promotes better emotional resilience!

· Keep A Journal

A journal is a great way to express your innermost thoughts and emotions in a judgment-free zone. You can write absolutely anything that comes to mind. Later, once you’ve expressed yourself, you can look back on your writing to reflect on them. This exercise is a valuable tool to reduce emotional distress and facilitate better growth by feeling your emotions.

· Talk To Others

Expressing yourself to a happily listening ear can be an excellent way to process your emotions. Just make sure that the person understands you’re just venting if you don’t want any advice! You can speak to a family member, friend, or other trusted individual. If that’s not possible, seek out support groups or professional help from a counselor or therapist.

Final Thoughts On Some Reasons Why You Shouldn’t Feed Or Fight Your Emotions

When you feed or fight your emotions, you do yourself a disservice. You avoid your feelings entirely, which stifles your growth and riddles you with stress. Learning to experience your feelings by observing and acknowledging them, expressing them healthily, and recognizing your behavior is crucial!

How Self-Kindness Can Heal Emotional Abuse

November 23, 2021 by Lakeisha Ethans

After you’ve gone through an emotionally abusive situation, all you can think is, “how am I ever going to get better”? What can you do in cases where the world seems to be crumbling around you? Can you get back on your feet and start healing?

When experiencing emotional abuse, it is expectable to feel defeated and not have the power to love yourself. That can lead to a lot of self-consciousness and self-judgment. But that mentality isn’t going to help you get any better. Instead, it would be best if you tried to practice self-kindness. So, here are some ways a positive attitude can help you heal after you’ve experienced emotional abuse.

What Is Self-Kindness?

Self-kindness, or self-compassion, is not so different from being kind towards other people. Kindness arises when you see that someone is suffering, you acknowledge their pain, and you try to take actions that can help them. In the same way, a person practices self-kindness when they acknowledge their pain and are proactive in healing.

Self-kindness is an idea found in Buddhist cultures.

Some of its central tenets are the following:

Self-compassion instead of self-judgment
Common humanity instead of isolation
Emotional regulation instead of ignoring your feelings

Most people, especially those who have experienced abuse, have a negative view of themselves when going through tough times. People believe that they should smile through the pain and get over it. That mentality can be very harmful, especially for victims of abuse. It doesn’t allow you to acknowledge that the pain you are feeling is valid. On the other hand, self-kindness is based on the idea that whatever you are feeling is legitimate and shouldn’t be ignored. Instead of thinking, “I should just get over it,” you should think, “I am having a difficult time right now.”

Acknowledging your feelings isn’t enough to be self-compassionate. It would be best if you also accepted the change. When people think of change, they usually associate it with the idea that something wrong about them should be fixed. But that couldn’t be further from the truth. Self-kindness allows you to accept change while understanding that who you are is enough. You are not changing because you are worthless or something wrong with you, but because you want to feel happier.

Self-kindness is positive and proactive. The absence of negative attitudes doesn’t mean you are practicing self-kindness. Just because you aren’t judging yourself doesn’t mean you are self-compassionate. You need to take that extra step and act in positive ways. Remind yourself how important you are, treat yourself, rest when you need to, and so on.

It would be best if you accepted that you are human and you are going to have bad days sometimes. Just because you ended up in a bad situation, that doesn’t mean you are weak. People who are emotionally abused are always the victim, and you should never blame yourself if that happens to you.

3 Ways Self-Kindness Can Help You Heal Emotional Abuse

To practice self-compassion, you need to allow yourself to become an essential person in your life. Whenever you encounter hard times, think about what you would do if a friend were in your shoes. Would you help them? If so, how? When you have your answer, use that plan to help yourself. Allow yourself the same kind gestures you give everyone else.

1. Self-Kindness Allows For Reflection

If you’ve just escaped an abusive situation, the last thing you might want to do is think about what you’ve been through. To protect yourself, you will try to bury everything deep inside and forget about it. But the trauma manifests whether you think about the past or not.

Because trauma affects you subconsciously, you won’t be able to run away from it. If you have been manipulated and gaslighted, you will inevitably develop trust issues. If you run away from your emotions, you will feel their repercussions without dealing with the root cause. This is why it’s better to look back and understand what you’ve been through.

When you reflect, you can understand what actions caused your trauma, so you’ll know your triggers. The more you look back, the more you’ll know how you are affected. What sort of trauma do you have, and why has it developed. Sometimes, people who have been abused lock their memories in the back of their minds, and then they don’t even understand why they have issues interacting with others. This behavior is very harmful and can affect you for life.

How To Increase Self-Awareness by Reflecting

So, what role does self-love play in this equation, and how can it help you reflect? When you are practicing self-kindness, you allow yourself to feel your emotions to their true extent. You will validate your trauma and go through everything step-by-step. Of course, some people will need a period in which they don’t think about their abuse. This is different from person to person. But that period can’t last forever.

After you’ve cooled off, you need to go through everything and validate your emotions. Take a day for yourself, grab a cup of tea, and think about everything that has happened. Only once you understand what you’ve been through can you start to heal actively.

2. Self-Kindness Helps You Validate Your Pain

While understanding what you’ve been through is a crucial first step, you have to also validate your emotions. Most people who experience emotional abuse tend to blame themselves for what happened. They don’t see themselves as the victim, relatively as weak. They might think they deserved what happened to them.

This is where practicing compassion towards yourself can help you. When you allow yourself to put everything into perspective, it can help you understand you have been wronged. When you start having a positive attitude, you will understand that you were hurt, and it’s not useful to beat yourself up over it. Instead, you will start to accept yourself little by little. You have to learn to stop judging yourself for feeling defeated and hurt.

Those are normal emotions that are legitimate. Everyone feels that way at a certain point in their life. You don’t have to be tough; you don’t have to seem fine when you are not. Allow yourself to feel and understand that you are allowed to show your pain. If you need to lie in bed all day and think about what happened, do it. If you need to cry, do it. Your pain is valid, and self-kindness will help you understand this.

How To Be Kinder To Yourself

When practicing self-kindness, your focus will shift from “what will others think if I appear weak?” to “what do I feel?”. If you are still in that abusive situation, this is especially important. You have to learn to drown out their manipulation. Don’t focus on what the people abusing you think. Focus on what you feel. The most essential validation you will get is the one you give yourself.

And when you are being emotionally abused, you are probably feeling real pain. Your chest constricts, you can barely breathe, your head hurts. You need to understand that the pain is more important than the insults people throw at you. Don’t sacrifice yourself to make them comfortable.

If you need, sacrifice your relationship with them to save you. Self-compassion can help you understand that you matter much more than your abuser, and you should seek to heal your wounds.

3. Self-Kindness Allows You To Act

The most challenging thing for people who have gone through abusive situations is to be proactive. Most victims think they are unworthy of help, and they punish themselves for what happened. That behavior can be very toxic, but, luckily, it can be changed using self-love.

When you start allowing yourself to care about your well-being, you will be in a better place to do the things you need to do. If you are in an abusive environment, chances are you won’t leave as not to enrage your abuser. But, with the help of self-compassion, you will understand you are worth more than your abuser’s feelings.

That can give you the boost you need to set yourself free of that situation. Or you can at least reach out for help. The more you value yourself, the more courage you will have to ask other people to help you get through everything.

Find A Healthier Environment

Once you get out of that environment, you still need to practice self-kindness. If you feel like you can’t trust people anymore after what you’ve experienced, don’t push yourself just because “you have to.” Allow yourself to have the space you need and even set boundaries. If you need to be alone, don’t go out just because friends asked.

Stay in bed and watch movies if you think that will help. Communicate with people, tell them what you need, and make sure those needs are fulfilled. And that’s just one example. No matter your trauma, you should have the same approach: be kind and treat yourself.

Final Thoughts On How Self-Kindness Can Help You Heal Emotional Abuse

Being a victim of emotional abuse isn’t something you should take likely. While you might be dying to get back to a normal life, you need to heal first. Hiding your feelings deep in the back of your mind might seem like the easiest thing to do, but it isn’t in the long run. Self-kindness is the best way to cope with all the trauma you have been left with.

Self-compassion is all about treating yourself even when times are hard. You might be tempted to beat yourself up over what happened, but you need to understand that you are a victim. It is not your fault you were abused. You need to heal and grow so you can live happily for the rest of your life. Once you start treating yourself with respect, you will be better equipped with the pain.

Self-kindness allows you to reflect and understand your emotions. You can also start to validate what you are feeling and understand that your pain is something you are allowed to touch. Once you go through those steps, you will finally be ready to act in your best interest. Make the changes you need to make without judging yourself.

No matter how you choose to use self-kindness, it will help you heal or start the healing process. And, always remember that you deserve the same kindness you give everyone else around you.

10 Signs of Cognitive Decline (And 5 Ways to Strengthen The Brain)

November 23, 2021 by Lakeisha Ethans

Have you ever been concerned about what the future might hold? Do you know the first signs of cognitive decline? Do you wish you knew a way to strengthen your aging brain?

As people get older, the brain can get atrophied, just like any other muscle in the body. Cognitive decline can happen to everyone as time passes by. And the possibility of you losing your cognitive abilities is one of the scariest things ever. So, what are the signs of cognitive decline, and how can you stop it?

What Is Cognitive Decline?

Cognition is the combination of brain processes that include the ability to learn, remember, and make judgments. It is the ability to gather information, analyze it, and produce the appropriate response. Cognition is necessary for people to understand their environment and decipher the sensory input they receive.

Through childhood and adolescence, cognition is constantly changing and developing. As people become adults, their neurons start dying. Thus cognitive functions start declining. People who suffer from neuropsychological disorders have to deal with a faster decline of cognitive capabilities. This can look like people forgetting how to do routine tasks or slowly becoming unable to take care of themselves.

This process is called a cognitive decline, or mild cognitive impairment (MCI). It limits a person’s cognitive abilities and renders them unable to correctly respond to stimuli. More often than not, people struggle with confusion and memory problems as they age. Cognitive decline slows down the learning rate, thus increasing the need for repetition to learn new things.

With aging, people start being able to pay less attention to prolonged tasks. They have difficulties filtering out irrelevant information. There are many issues associated with aging and your brain’s health. These symptoms can stay stable for years, with little impact on your daily life, before starting to affect you truly.

The Ten First Signs of Cognitive Decline Include The Following:

According to the team at dementia.org, these are the earliest, most observable signs of cognitive decline:

Forgetfulness or the inability to recall names.
Losing or misplacing things.
A drop in work performance.
Getting lost when going out to once-familiar places.
A lack of concentration.
Losing focus on everyday tasks quickly.
Inability to retain information.
Decreased mental acuity.
Forgetting details of one’s life.
Overlooking important information when dealing with finances.

Specific examples are forgetting appointments, dates, recent conversations, and events, losing your sense of direction, and being more impulsive. Health professionals can help mitigate the worst impacts of cognitive decline in these situations, like Alzheimer’s. And, there are some things you can do individually to strengthen your brain.

5 Ways To Strengthen The Brain Before You Observe The Early Signs Of Cognitive Decline

Now that you know what to look for, here’s some good news. You can engage in brain-strengthening activities to keep the mind sharper.

1. Exercise And Diet

The first thing you can do from home to prevent cognitive decline is exercise and make sure you have a healthy diet. These activities are relatively easy to do. You don’t have to go to a fancy gym or have a fancy chef. Instead, you can do it at home.

Exercise comes with an array of medical benefits. It helps prevent heart disease, lowers blood pressure, prevents diabetes, and lowers colon and breast cancer risk. Besides these direct health benefits, exercise can help your psychological well-being. It helps with insomnia, anxiety, and depression.

Engaging in regular exercise prevents cognitive decline and can help people who already experience memory loss or other symptoms. For example, exercise is helpful for people who carry the APOE4 gene variant, which makes them more susceptible to Alzheimer’s.

Diet is also critical when taking care of one’s mind and body. A Mediterranean-style diet is the one that helps the most. It is a diet based on fruits, vegetables, whole grains, beans, nuts, and seeds. It includes small amounts of meat, such as fish and poultry, but limits red meat.

This diet has been shown to improve cardiovascular health and lower the risk of certain cancers. It protects against cognitive decline. This diet has been correlated with slowing the progression of dementia in people with the condition.

2. Mental Stimulation To Offset Those First Signs Of Cognitive Decline

Many people believe that education level is the most important thing to keep your brain sharp. But that’s not entirely the case. Researchers believe that education is less important than staying mentally active.

One study involving people in their seventies showed that the people whose hobbies were activities that require mental engagement. Things like reading, writing, puzzles, doing crosswords, and playing board games helped them stay sharper for longer. In the following five years, they were found to be half as likely to develop mild cognitive impairment as other people their age. Continuous learning is associated with lowered risk of developing dementia or Alzheimer’s

Part of keeping your brain stimulated is knowing how to keep stress levels under control. Don’t pass off stress a part of your daily routine, as it can lead to cognitive decline later in life. While most people can’t get rid of all stress, there are ways to learn to cope with it. Meditation and breathing exercises can do the trick for many people. As long as you can take care of yourself, you will be able to manage stress levels. And the better you can manage stress, the less strained your brain will be.

3. Social Interaction Can Positively Slow Down The First Signs Of Cognitive Decline

All aspects of someone’s life can suffer massively from a lack of social interactions. One could argue the same about your mental sharpness. If you don’t have the right stimuli around you, it will decline. That is to say; if you don’t surround yourself with the right people, you won’t be able to strengthen your aging brain.

Research shows that people with strong social ties are less likely to experience cognitive decline than the ones who are alone. Social interactions help people strengthen their memory and cognitive functions. In contrast, people who are isolated are more prone to depression, which correlates with a faster cognitive decline. Social isolation is a significant risk factor for many health issues, like heart disease and depression. The WHO connects low social participation and fewer social contacts to increased dementia risk.

Having a solid network of people who care for you can help you release stress. Social activities also put you in a position where you have to engage with critical mental processes. For example, social movements can strengthen attention and memory. Also, social engagement supports neural networks, slowing down cognitive decline. It can also delay the onset of dementia.

4. Reduce Tobacco And Alcohol Consumption To Offset The Earliest Signs Of Cognitive Decline

When people think about why certain vices are wrong, they only think about immediate health concerns. Lung cancer is probably the first thing that goes through someone’s mind when considering why they should quit smoking. But the physical problems aren’t the only side effects of such vices. People who consume tobacco and alcohol often are prone to cognitive decline.

Smoking is associated with cancers, cardiovascular disease, and pulmonary conditions, amongst many others. But studies have shown that people who smoke are at a higher risk of developing dementia and Alzheimer’s. Medical professionals recommend quitting smoking if you want to lower the risk of cognitive decline. If you don’t know where to start, there are behavioral and drug interventions for quitting tobacco.

With alcohol, the story is a bit different. Some medical professionals believe that low-to-moderate intake of alcohol is beneficial for brain health. Others seem to think that even light drinking can be harmful. But everyone agrees that excessive alcohol consumption is a significant risk factor for dementia and cognitive decline.

To make sure you keep your mental sharpness, keep away from large quantities of alcohol. While it is your decision if you want to indulge in more moderate amounts, large quantities can only be harmful. Same as with tobacco, there are behavioral and drug treatments to help you.

5. Therapies To Help Combat The First Signs Of Cognitive Decline

The most effective way to slow down cognitive decline is to reach out to a professional and get a treatment catered towards your needs. If you start being concerned about the possibility of experiencing cognitive decline, visit a therapist and ask for their advice.

As soon as you notice signs of cognitive decline, you might want to get that checked out. It might not be anything concerning, or it might be the beginning stages of certain psychological conditions. It’s better to know where you stand. A yearly visit to a cognitive therapist will only help you. Even if there’s nothing for you to worry about, it is better to take precautions.

In case your therapist notices that the state of your cognitive health is concerning, they might recommend that you do some therapies. There are a variety of evidence-based therapies that can help slow down impairment. The therapy you use depends on the levels of cognitive impairment you are dealing with.

Amongst these therapies are neurofeedback, light therapy, CVAC, and more. For example, neurofeedback is the process through which your brain’s capacity is harnessed to reshape the weakness in the brain’s function. But that’s not the only option you have, so it’s essential to check with your therapist to see which solution fits you best.

Final Thoughts On The Importance Of Knowing The Early Signs Of Cognitive Decline…And Knowing How To Increase Brain Strength

As time passes, people have to start dealing with cognitive decline. The mental processes get weaker. As a result, people cannot learn new things, and they can’t focus on prolonged tasks anymore. There are many other effects of cognitive impairment, but the most common are memory loss and confusion. This process is a normal consequence of passing time, but that doesn’t mean you can’t manage it.

Having a healthy lifestyle is key to strengthening an aging brain. The first thing you have to take care of is your body. You have to exercise regularly and have a healthy diet. Some diets have been found to correlate with a lower risk of dementia. If you have vices, like tobacco use and alcohol consumption, you have to let that go. Those substances can take a toll on your brain’s health.

You need to keep your brain stimulated through engaging exercises or social interactions. People who keep themselves isolated are more prone to depression and cognitive decline. If you find that you can’t improve your mental strength by yourself, reach out to a professional. Many therapies can be used to rewire your brain and ensure it stays sharp for longer.

And even if therapy isn’t what you need, regular visits to a therapist are still good. They can help ensure you prevent certain diseases, like dementia and Alzheimer’s.

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