Take Possession of Your Mind

More than forty percent of people with bipolar disorder struggle with alcohol and drug abuse (Cerullo, 2007). Bipolar individuals are three times more likely to be diabetic than the general population (Thompson, 2010). Bipolar disorder and physical health are closely linked, with risk factors such as weight gain, metabolic syndrome, smoking, and diabetes contributing to cardiovascular disease and early death (Young, 2013). In her article Madness: A Bipolar Life, Marya Hornbacher captures the essence of bipolar disorder: Here's the hell of it: madness doesn't announce itself. There isn't time to prepare for its coming. It shows up without calling and sits in your kitchen. Then restate each concern in positive terms. For instance: I'm worried about quality control becomes Our objective is to improve quality control in order to reduce returns by 15 percent. Brainstorming. This is a tried-and-tested method for generating ideas. It works in small peer groups--usually of eight participants or fewer. Define an issue, then ask for ideas. Your objective is quantity rather than quality. Allow no discussion of the ideas. Allow no judgment or criticism or, for that matter, praise. Have someone write each of the ideas on a blackboard. Jennifer $734,549 Sam $373,407 A fun way to figure out what your money will be worth after compounding is to use the compounding calculator at moneychimpcom.

This is what I am talking about: getting wealthy, strong and steady. The earlier you start, the bigger compounding effect you will enjoy. By the way, if you just had two less beers or alcohol drinks per week, you would save about $20 per week, $80 per month, $960 per year. Compounding this money over twenty years at 6 percent would give you $37,444; Financial Goals and Disciplines I am big on setting goals, particularly when it comes to my finances. Financial goals will provide you with focused discipline, a productive and beneficial direction that fuels your ambition to create a lifestyle you desire. Do what matters and focus on connection. The other stuff is secondary and requires no apology either way. LET PEOPLE INTO YOUR EVERYDAY LIFE Ordinary life is no joke. That's likely why you picked up this article. You want help getting out of life's grind and monotony, partly because it's hard but maybe even more because it's lonely. All of us have a long list of responsibilities to manage, and most of us manage them alone. I find it incredibly tough to ask for help with everyday responsibilities or even to share their emotional weight with friends because my problems don't feel important enough. I don't want to be a bother, I don't want to sound like I'm complaining, and aren't we all supposed to know how to put our heads down and just get it done? I'm so good at comparing miseries and dismissing mine in a flash. Getting up, mealtimes and going to bed: her whole life was organised and controlled. How had it become this way? It appeared that when they first married she had tried very hard to please her husband and had allowed him the control of the daily running of the house.

She did not realise that once these routines became fixed she would be unlikely to get him to change them. It is very important not to allow strict routines to develop in the relationship, as once established, trying to change them may cause a lot of stress and anxiety. When routines are a problem If family life is totally regimented by routines, the whole family may feel very controlled, and life can feel as though nothing is ever spontaneous or fun. If your relationship is relatively new, then start as you mean to go on. So, if there is something your partner is doing that you really cannot stand, try to stop it before it develops into a set pattern. If the routine is already established, however, it may be very difficult or even sometimes impossible to change completely. Living means understanding the causes of happiness and misfortune in your own life. It is the only way we can see where we stand in the form of satisfaction. Relaxation is a side effect of this process. It arises - but not because it strives for, but as a result of doing nothing and profoundly letting go. Mindfulness Meditation is a Pleasant State There are forms of meditation, for example, fantasy trips, the intention of which is to regenerate and relax by experiencing beautiful inner images. Everything that is otherwise exhausting and uncomfortable in life hides for the time of meditation. In mindfulness meditation, we practice something else: awake, open and present we perceive everything that appears in our minds from moment to moment: body sensations, sounds, thoughts, feelings, moods, impulses. The appearances are not always pleasant. Sometimes complicated thoughts and emotions can appear - or unpleasant sensations when we register that our legs fall asleep and our bums hurt. You ask how long it plans to stay; In the early years, it's like a switch flips on, and though only a moment before you were totally sane, suddenly you have gone mad. But as you learn to manage madness, you begin to notice sooner that it's on its way (Hornbacher 2009, 225).

The following is my own story about a bipolar episode I had in 2007. I remember becoming manic over a several day period. I started sleeping infrequently, developed racing thoughts, quit eating and believed everything that happened was an omen. My mania began to escalate and I stopped going to work and quit taking all of my medications. A few days later I made a suicide attempt by swallowing all of the pills I had of Lithium and Seroquel. After taking the pills I laid down on the couch and passed out. About an hour later, I regained consciousness because I heard piano music coming from the apartment above me and came to my senses enough to call 911. After the flow of ideas peters out, begin to analyze the ideas, focusing on how to establish criteria for judging the value of each idea. In this way, you should be able to winnow the welter of ideas down to a few viable ones. Small-group discussion. Break larger groups into small groups (four participants is a good number), each of which is assigned a particular problem or issue to discuss. Appoint a leader of each group, whose job it is to keep the talk focused. Another participant should record the results of the discussion. After a period of time, reconvene the smaller groups into a larger group and ask the recorders to share the results of the individual discussions. Team-Building Communications The idea of teams in the workplace is not new, but until fairly recently, teams were assembled by managers, run by managers, and always subordinated to top management, which reserved to itself all the major decisions. In fact, most of the time, teams were formed mainly to do no more than execute the decisions of management. Unfortunately, most educational systems don't focus on personal financial planning, but that's no excuse. You alone must assume responsibility for your financial position, and setting goals is one way to be responsible. According to a report from Pew Charitable Trusts, 80 percent of Americans are in debt.

The GOBankingRates survey, which identified millennials as ages nineteen to thirty-four, found that 67 percent had less than $1,000 in savings. You would be surprised how many people, when asked, have little or no clue as to their total monthly expenses and how much they bring home in income after taxes. If you fall into that category, change that apathetic mindset today. Start by tracking what you spend over a month's time. Many apps are available to help you track, but good, old-fashioned pen and pad works just as well. Next, what are your earnings after taxes? You can look at your pay stub to see what taxes are being deducted, or you can speak with the payroll company to calculate this number. There are people without food, parents, soap, civil rights. Who am I to complain to a friend about my kid getting a phantom stomachache and making me miss my massage appointment? That's a true story, by the way. But it's also true that my back pain was intense, pain affects my mood, and my mood, as my fourth grader recently pointed out, can be a little grumpy sometimes. You think you're supposed to let people in only when things are really bad, but what about when your everyday challenges feel really bad? Carrying them alone is trying to be a genius about something that doesn't matter. Self-reliance doesn't matter if there's no community to go with it. We're allowed to need one another. In fact, it's beautiful to do so, especially in the most ordinary, everyday moments. YOU DON'T HAVE TO BE IN CRISIS TO ASK FOR HELP Small changes are sometimes possible if the non-Asperger partner is willing to stand their ground. For example, one woman's Asperger husband insisted that no one was allowed to speak while they sat at the dinner table: meals had to be in absolute silence. Mealtimes for the woman and the children became very stressful and not an enjoyable experience.