Thursday, March 31, 2011

A Happier Mood...Naturally!

Below are some great ways to boost your mood naturally and get a little happier! Of course in horse therapy just spending a little time with your horse could brighten the darest of days! 

"1. “Spend time in wooded areas or green parks,” she says.

Certainly, all places in the great outdoors are not created equal. Stepping onto a busy, bustling street with cars whizzing by can easily give you a headache, and dampen your mood (especially if the area is filled with pollution).

So seek out the truly “green” spots in your area.

For instance, I love NYC, but some streets, with their honking horns and sewer-like smells can get overwhelming. But step into Central Park, and it feels like you’ve just stepped into a different, calmer and tranquil world. It’s absolutely beautiful.

If you don’t have access to a park or wooded area, Hohlbaum suggests visiting “a botanical garden or even a flower shop.”

2. Be mindful and grateful.

Pay close attention to the small stuff, to the little treasures in your surroundings: the trees, the flowers and even the outlines of each leaf, she says.

“It is a great exercise in concentration and relaxation as you become absolutely present to the current moment.”

Hohlbaum also cites Mark Coleman’s advice to recite a mindful meditation every day.. “Saying a prayer of gratitude as you observe nature can make you more aware of the true gifts the planet provides us every day,” Hohlbaum says.

3. “Connect with the earth.” 

Gardening “is another really great way to literally dig into the dirt and feeling connected with nature,” Hohlbaum says. “Plant seeds or even a small garden in pots on your windowsill. Watch them grow and, with them, your confidence, connection and calm!”"

Pegasus is an organization that brings recovery through Horse Therapy and Equine Courses to help people achieve an addiction cure! Visit PegasusEct.com for more information! :) 

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Thursday, March 24, 2011

Smiling in the Rain

Everyday someone around you is having a bad one or an outstanding one. In horse therapy we learn something about ourselves from the horses...and that is to have an attitude of "Smiling in the Rain" or finding happiness in tough times. If your going through a tough time right now here are some things I do to find that happiness over the short term troubles of now...

-Pray or go to a quite place

-Spend some time with a horse

-Talk to somebody

-Give something away...it can be anything to anybody

- Be simplistic

Redstone_arsenal_army_concert_tour

If today is an amazing day for you, then please go find someone and make it the same for them as well :) It WILL go long ways. This is an interesting article I found about money and materials and how they affect happiness...check it out. 

"Psychologists also have found that being highly materialistic affects happiness, with those who are most concerned about money and possessions actually being less happy.

Keeping too close tabs on the economy, such as daily monitoring of economic indicators that have been on a roller-coaster ride since the recession began, also hinders happiness.

“We find that people whose moods are up and down a lot are less happy. People who are less reactive to every event, in general, are happier,” Diener says.

But what about what money can buy? Previous research has found that using money to pay for something novel, social or experiential brings more happiness than buying things.

Some newer studies confirm these results. San Francisco State University researchers presented findings earlier this year to the Society for Personality and Social Psychology, based on what participants said about their purchases.

They said they thought eating out or buying theater tickets was money better spent than on more things, such as a new tech toy or clothing, and the experiential purchase provided greater happiness for themselves and others, regardless of the amount they paid or their income."

Source:http://psychcentral.com/blog/archives/2011/03/13/staying-happy-in-bad-times/

 

Pegasus is an organization that brings recovery through Horse Therapy and Equine Courses to help people achieve an addiction cure! Visit PegasusEct.com for more information! :) 

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Thursday, March 17, 2011

Rich and Poor Depression

I watched a documentary recently that talked about how your name can effects your future. As you can guess it didnt play a huge impact, but rather it was more as to where you grew up. We have many people come into equine courses and horse therapy who not only struggle with an addiction, but also heavy depression. Much of their depression comes from money problems. This article below is just a couple of the many factors that studies have found that go into rich and poor and how it effects their depression. Check it out...

"Depression in Urban Vs. Rural Areas

According to a 1999 National Health Survey:

  • The prevalence of major depression was significantly higher among rural (6.11%) than among urban (5.16%) populations (p = 0.0171). Among rural residents, the prevalence of depression did not vary significantly with race/ethnicity.
  • The increased prevalence of depression among rural individuals does not appear to be a result of rural residence itself, as place of residence was not significant in multivariate analyses that controlled for other characteristics of the individual. Rather, the rural population contains a higher proportion of persons whose characteristics, such as poor health, place them at high risk for depression.


Genetic Risk Factors for Depression

Statistics show that the children of parents who suffer from depression are more likely to develop the disorder themselves. A person has a 27% chance of inheriting a mood disorder from one parent, and this chance doubles if both parents are affected. Studies of the occurrence of depression in twins show a 70 percent chance for both identical twins to suffer from depression, which is twice the rate of occurrence in fraternal twins."

Source and Whole Article: http://psychcentral.com/blog/archives/2011/03/10/are-rich-people-more-depressed-than-poor-and-other-depression-factoids/


Pegasus is an organization that brings recovery through Horse Therapy and Equine Courses to help people achieve an addiction cure! Visit PegasusEct.com for more information! :) 


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Monday, March 14, 2011

Horse Depression

Horses can get depressed too. In the thread below you can read about a story of a Border Collie who died and a horse that got depressed. Horses are very perceptive animals who experience pain, happiness, and other emotions just like humans. Horses in horse therapy or equine courses are even more perceptive and can sense when humans are experiencing the same pain they know or other hidden emotions. 

Sad_horse

Heres the thread...

Thread: http://forum.horsetopia.com/general-horse-advice/131398-depressed-horse.html

Pegasus is an organization that brings recovery through Horse Therapy and Equine Courses to help people achieve an addiction cure! Visit PegasusEct.com for more information! :) 

 

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Thursday, March 10, 2011

Drug Use Higher Than Expected

"First, the good news, such as it is: The number of Americans using cocaine while at work has declined sharply in the past couple of years, falling 29% between 2008 and 2009 alone, to about .29% of the population.

Now, the more disquieting news: Since the federal government tightened testing requirements last October, drug testing of employees like pilots, airplane mechanics, and train operators has revealed that twice as many employees as previously believed are using heroin and the use of prescription painkillers on the job is soaring.

To be sure, the percentage of heroin users is tiny -- .04% from January to June 2010 -- but that is nonetheless a 20% jump from the .0008% positive rate revealed by the old testing methods, which used urine samples. The new technique relies instead on oral fluid, a much more efficient means of finding the heroin marker, known as 6-acetylmorphine.
"It's still a low incidence rate," says Dr. Barry Sample, who runs the employer drug testing business at Quest Diagnostics, which based its findings on the results of more than 350,000 random drug tests. "Even so, you don't want to see anyone in a public safety role test positive.

"We're also seeing dramatic increases in on-the-job use of prescription opiates like oxycodone and oxymorphone," sold under the brand names Vicodin and Oxycontin, among others, he says. Results from more than 5.5 million tests showed an 18% jump in opiate positives between 2008 and 2009, and a rise of over 40% since 2005.
Post-accident employee drug tests are four times as likely to show employee use of opiates than pre-employment drug screening (3.7% post-accident versus .78% pre-employment, in the case of hydrocodone), suggesting that the substances have played a role in workplace accidents.
What's causing workers to come to work impaired?


"Stress in the workplace, which can play a role in increased substance use, has amplified in recent years due to job insecurity and a trend toward working longer hours," says a report from the federal Substance Abuse and Mental Heath Services Administration.

The agency says that, of the 20.3 million adults in the U.S. classified as having substance use disorders in 2008 -- the latest year for which figures are available --15.8 million were employed either full or part-time.
To combat the problem, most employers offer employee assistance programs (EAPs), including drug and alcohol counseling. There's just one problem: Even employees who want to get help "are often reluctant because of fears that the counseling is not really confidential," notes Ruth Donahue, a benefits specialist in the Chicago office of human resources consultants The Segal Company.

"That's a particular concern in safety-sensitive jobs, where people know that even an inkling of a substance-abuse problem is grounds for immediate dismissal," Donahue says.

The notion that seeking help from an EAP is risky is an unfortunate misperception: EAPs are designed to be truly confidential and are usually managed by outside providers who reveal nothing to employers.
"Even the billing, unlike medical-insurance claims, is completely anonymous," says Donahue. "Employers need to convince people of that. They're doing a better job of it recently, but we still have a long way to go.""

Source: http://management.fortune.cnn.com/20...an-we-thought
/

Pegasus is an organization that brings recovery through Horse Therapy and Equine Courses to help people achieve an addiction cure! Visit PegasusEct.com for more information! :) 

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Sunday, March 6, 2011

Two Ideas to Increase Joy in a Relationship!

Joy is one thing that can become an addiction cure, along with horse therapy. In this article you will find two way that increase joy in a relationship!...

"1. Do a joy audit.

Ask yourself ”How much time are we devoting to doing things that we enjoy as a couple?”

Consider a further question. “How enjoyable are we making time together when the activity we need to do isn’t essentially fun?” For instance, you can easily turn “have-to” activities such as cleaning, cooking or running errands into enjoyable shared time, Heitler says.

Also, how much do you enjoy talking to each other? “In general, people enjoy talking together when there’s two things: positivity and new information or ideas,” Heitler says. For instance, she says that positive words like “Yes, I agree,” “That’s an interesting idea,” “I appreciate that,” and “I’m so glad” “create a positive and joyful tone.”

Heitler adds, “What suck the juice out of a relationship are words like ‘but,’ ‘don’t’ and ‘not.  These negative words work like subtraction signs.

“They subtract out the positivity in a conversation. And they subtract out the enjoyment that can come from learning new ideas and information from each other.”

2. Design a joy plan.

As a couple, consider, “How might we add more fun to our daily, weekly, monthly or yearly routines?” Carving out time with your loved one doesn’t have to be complicated or an expensive experience.

For instance, Heitler and her family had a foreign exchange student living with them years ago. After dinner, he would sit down in the family room as if he expected the family to gather. So the family added this together time into their routine. They’d hang out, play board and card games, laugh and tell stories before eventually turning on the TV or focusing on personal projects.

Also, ask yourselves, “What could we do a little differently that could make routine activities more fun?” Heitler says. For instance, when you’re cleaning in the kitchen, turn on music or take this time to share what happened during your day.

What makes working together enjoyable with your partner “is the attitude you bring to the activity, plus your attitude toward each other.” So depending on your attitude, “Doing some of these normal daily routine activities as a team can bring forth surprising amounts of joy and affection,” Heitler says.

When it comes to talking with each other, “instead of disagreeing disagreeably by pointing out what’s wrong in what your partner says, listen to find something that you can agree with,” Heitler says.

For example, let’s say that your partner suggests bungee jumping for a new kind of fun and you’re thinking, “No way!” Rather than shooting him or her down, you might say, “Yes, that would be new, different and exciting.” Then you can add, “and at the same time, I had a friend who got injured so I’m scared about that happening.”

The key to “disagreeing agreeably is to agree and then add,” says Heitler. “That way instead of negating your partner’s idea, you’re agreeing with at least some aspect of it before adding your ‘and at the same time’ concerns.”

When partners do this, she explains, “Both perspectives stay on the table. Conversations are more fun when both of you feel like what you say is getting heard.”

Pegasus is an organization that brings recovery through Horse Therapy and Equine Courses to help people achieve an addiction cure! Visit PegasusEct.com for more information! :) 

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Tuesday, March 1, 2011

Teens with Self-Harm Videos :(

I read an article today, which I was going to post, but it wasnt completely relavent to horse therapy, and two I didn't want people to get the wrong idea. 

Basically what the article talked about was teens posting self-harm videos on youtube. This automatically seems like a bad thing from the word "self-harm", but apparently there have been good results. In the article researchers started to notice that the teens, after posting a video, would get messages and comments back from other teens as support. Or the alternative would happen. A teen would be looking for other self-harm videos on youtube and once they found them it compelled them to stop harming themselves. 

Very interesting. Honestly I think a little bit of horse therapy or some equine courses would go much further in these cases, but I'm suprised that, that little community is doing well helping eachother recovery from whatever it is they suffer! :)

If you want to read more you can check out the article...

http://psychcentral.com/blog/archives/2011/02/22/teens-share-self-injury-vide...

 

Pegasus is an organization that brings recovery through Horse Therapy and Equine Courses to help people achieve an addiction cure! Visit PegasusEct.com for more information! :) 

Please support us by "Liking" our page at...Horse Therapy