Laughter heals. Laughter makes us feel better. Laughter lifts us up. Laughter empowers us in the face of worry and uncertainty. Laughter can help restore our emotional balance and our faith in humanity. Laughter helps us bear stress. Really, it can.

But what to do when you could really use a balance and restored faith in humanity  tune-up, but there's nothing all that funny going on?

Practice laughing.  Make it happen on purpose. Doesn't matter whether you're feeling it at first, doesn't matter if it seems like faking it, doesn't matter if it takes a while.  The emotional brain is kind of naive - sorry, but it's true. The cortical processes underlying emotional reactions aren't rational and can be pushed around by what we're exposed to.  You already know this, of course - that's  why emotions are contagious. So use it as a force for good - practice laughing. 

How? Time-honored method - expose yourself to someone else laughing. Hey, YouTube! Suggestion - go for silly and popular. Silly is good, the emotional brain likes silly; popularity= irresistibility. 

Example below. Viral? Oh hell yeah.

There's a great line in the sci-fi novel "Babylon's Ashes", #6 in James S.A. Corey's kickass The Expanse  series (season 2 of Syfy's very entertaining TV adaptation is soon to drop), where a ship's captain, trying to decide on a course of action under perilous circumstances while wrestling with self-doubt and guilt about her previous choices, is asked, "What's the magic word?" 

Huh? Magic word?

Turns out, the magic word is "Oops".

As in, "Oops, I made a BIG mistake", "Oops, I didn't realize/look closely enough/think it through before I acted/know what I didn't know", "Oops, that didn't work out the way I really thought it would", "Oops, I dropped it and it broke into a million pieces.", etc. 
​
An overarching theme (ooh, big-time Lit class!) in Babylon's Ashes is that big decisions must always be made without enough information to be completely certain of the outcome. In fact, the character who is the most sure of himself makes choices with catastrophic consequences, then when things go to hell, justifies his own actions and blame everybody else. He's got responsibility, but no accountability and for sure, no compassion. Everybody suffers because of this jerk.

You can use "Oops" as a key to unlock the door of taking responsibility without being crushed by blame or immobilized by uncertainty. "Oops" is not about trivializing mistakes. Rather, it's about allowing yourself to admit that you missed the call/blew it/dropped the ball/didn't realize/got too anxious to think/spaced out/was too preoccupied with ____/was an idiot/didn't know what you didn't know, etc., etc. etc. Then, allowing yourself to keep on keeping on, learning as you go. There's always going to be another decision to be made or action to be taken. Being mired in indecision and avoidance doesn't get you off the hook, it just makes you feel helpless.

Forward we go - doing the best we can with what we've got at the time. 
 
Very handy, that "Oops". 

​A February 2016 article, "MAP training: combining meditation and aerobic exercise reduces depression and rumination while enhancing synchronized brain activity", in the journal Translational Psychiatry describes what must surely be one the most simple and straightforward treatments for depression around.

The program: one-hour sessions twice a week: 20 minutes of basic focused attention meditation, 10 minutes of very slow walking meditation, then 30 minutes of aerobic exercise on a treadmill with 5 minute warmup / 20 minutes at 'moderate intensity' and 5 minutes cool down. After eight weeks, participants reports an average 40% reduction in their depression symptoms.

• NYT article
• Translational Psychiatry ​article

Making decisions - yes/no, stay/go, change/don't - is hard. It’s challenging to think things through objectively and all too easy to feel confused. You might get stuck thinking endlessly until your head fogs up, then just avoid the whole issue as long as possible until circumstances force you to respond, often with fewer or less desireable options that may have been available earlier.

When you need to make a decision, particularly about a possible action or change, use the power of writing.  Laying out the pros and cons of both sides in writing will help you clarify your concerns. Get it out of your head and onto the page to gain perspective. No matter how complicated things are, this method will aid you to make a more informed choice. 

Method:
​1st – List the benefits & downsides of ‘Option A’ (usually keeping things the same) and ‘Option B’ (making the change) in the appropriate quadrant.  Don’t settle for “nothing”.  Ask yourself:  

• What are the good parts/the things I don’t want to give up? List those in A1
• What’s likely to happen (lose, stay stuck with, get worse) that I don’t want if things stay the same? A2
• What could I gain that I want if I make this change? B1
• What makes doing this hard, what am I afraid might happen? B2

2nd - Look at each item and consider:

• How big a deal is this? How important is it to me? (1-5, S/M/L, whatever) The longest list isn't necessarily the most important. The value of a particular can outweigh the number of items. 
• Is this a short-term thing? A long-term thing? Some consequences don’t show up until later, or change over time.  You could even do one version for short-term and another for long-term - notice what changes.

3rd - Are there things you don’t know? Tip: worries, a.k.a. "what ifs?" often can be turned into questions.  Write those down - how can you find out?  

Finally - evaluate - Which side weights more, particularly in the long run?

Remember - rarely is there a ‘perfect’ choice where everything is good and everyone is satisfied. Life is messy. Be brave! Aim to act like your best self.  

From the esteemed Andrew Weil, MD, a breathing exercise that activates your parasympathetic nervous system, counterbalance to our usually-way-too-active sympathetic nervous system (producer of the famous fight/fight/freeze response). Dr. Weil prescribes four rounds of 4-7-8 breathing to shift out of tension into calm and even sleep. 

In the midst of what is surely the most bizarre election season in living memory, perhaps it would be helpful to review some old advice on how to maintain one's mental stability when it seems that the world really is in the handbasket, headed down to a very hot place.

And by old, I mean old.  The Yoga Sutras of Patanjali are presumed to be at least 1,600 years old, maybe more. Yet the advice in Sutra 1:33 about how to not get all freaked out by what other people do or say feels quite fresh and relevant.  

From Christopher Isherwood's translation:

and T.K.V. Desikachar explains Sutra 1:33 like this:

Notice the term "cultivate" in the first quote.  That's a reminder that growth takes effort and attention over a period of time. It's worth it, though, since friendliness is the antidote to jealousy, compassion allows us to be supportive rather than judgmental, delight lifts us up when envy or comparing ourselves to others drags us down and indifference (not paying too much attention) frees us from getting worked up with worry or outrage.

And if at first, you don't succeed, no worries - there will always be plenty of opportunities to practice!

One day you finally knew
what you had to do, and began,
though the voices around you
kept shouting
their bad advice--
though the whole house
began to tremble
and you felt the old tug
at your ankles.
"Mend my life!"
each voice cried.
But you didn't stop.
You knew what you had to do,
though the wind pried
with its stiff fingers
at the very foundations,
though their melancholy
was terrible.
It was already late
enough, and a wild night,
and the road full of fallen
branches and stones.
But little by little,
as you left their voices behind,
the stars began to burn
through the sheets of clouds,
and there was a new voice
which you slowly
recognized as your own,
that kept you company
as you strode deeper and deeper
into the world,
determined to do
the only thing you could do--
determined to save
the only life you could save.

~ Mary Oliver

Ever wonder if you should be taking some kind of vitamins? Trying to research this topic can be a fast train to Confusion Land, where hype, unsupported claims and contradictory information abound. 

Don't give up, though - supplementation can help, especially when you're just starting or are in the middle of improving your diet and lifestyle - going for less of the stuff that comes out of a sealed package or can and more of that stuff that actually grew in the ground.  Interested in suggestions?

​"The word that allows yes, the word that makes no possible.
The word that puts the free in freedom and takes the obligation out of love.
The word that throws a window open after the final door is closed.
The word upon which all adventure, all exhilaration, all meaning, all honor depends.
The word that fires evolution's motor of mud.
The word that the cocoon whispers to the caterpillar.
The word that molecules recite before bonding.
The word that separates that which is dead from that which is living.
The word no mirror can turn around.
In the beginning was the word and that word was

CHOICE."

 Tom Robbins ~ Author, ​Still Life With Woodpecker

Manage verb "to succeed in doing something, especially something difficult" (from the Cambridge Dictionary).  

Managing ADHD is a process, not something done once, but every day. Naturally, some days go better than others.  If you've just been diagnosed or even if you've known for a while but want a refresher, check out these basic guidelines for managing ADHD.