Addiction may be stalking closer than you think…

15 July, 2012 by 1 Comment


I wanted to share this poem again today. This poem has been a very popular blog post for me, and I didn’t know who wrote it until today. From what I’ve found, a 21-year old woman wrote it by the name of Ashley Van Davis who lost her life to crystal meth. It was found in the top drawer of her dresser after she died.

She may have written it about crystal meth, but it applies to any addictive substance. Once your brain is altered toward addiction in any way, the addiction takes over.

God created our brains to handle whatever comes our way. It’s so complex only our almighty God could have only created it! Here’s a diagram that shows the parts of the brain most closely related to handling our feelings, emotions…portions of our brain that processes everything that happens to us. To see a description of each part of the brain click here. Even if you don’t understand any of the medical language, it’s worth a glance just to be awed by God’s creation. 



Anytime we put anything in our body that affects the way our brain works, God’s perfect system is altered. Unfortunately, in our society today with preservatives in food, prescription drugs, and all the chemicals in our beauty products, our bodies are struggling to process chemicals all the time. We are fighting an uphill battle as it is, so anything we put in our body that affects our brain causes the system to be off kilter. And if any of those substances are addictive, Satan gets a powerful strongholdthat’s hard to beat—a stronghold that is illustrated so well by Ashley’s poem: 

PILLS
I can destroy homes and tear families apart,
Take away your children, and that’s just the start.
I’m more costly than diamonds, more costly than gold;
The sorrow I bring is a sight to behold.

If you need me, remember, I’m easily found.
I live all around you, in schools and in town.
I live with the rich and I live with the poor.
I live down the street, and maybe next door.

My power is awesome. Try me, you’ll see.
But if you do, you may never break free.
Just try me once and I might let you go.
But try me twice, and I’ll own your soul.

When I possess you, you’ll steal and you’ll lie.
You do what you have to just to get high.
The crimes you’ll commit, for my narcotic charms
Will be worth the pleasure you’ll feel in your arms.

You’ll lie to your mother; you’ll steal from your dad
When you see their tears, you should feel sad.
But you’ll forget your morals and how you were raised,
I’ll be your conscience, I’ll teach you my ways.

I take kids from parents, and parents from kids,
I turn people from God, and isolate them from friends.
I’ll take everything from you, your looks and your pride,
I’ll be with you always, right by your side.

You’ll give up your family, your friends and your home,
You’ll lose all your money, and you’ll be alone.
I’ll take and take, till you have nothing to give.
When I’m finished with you you’ll be lucky to live.

If you try me be warned, this is no game.
If given the chance, I’ll drive you insane.
I’ll ravish your body; I’ll control your mind.
I’ll own you completely; your soul will be mine.

Nightmares I’ll give you while lying in bed.
Voices you’ll hear from inside your head.
The sweats, the shakes, and the visions you’ll see,
I want you to know, they’re all gifts from me.

When it’s too late, you’ll know in your heart,
You are all mine, and we shall not part.
You’ll regret that you tried me; they always do;
But you came to me, not I to you.

You knew this would happen. Many times you were told,
But you challenged my power, and chose to be bold.
You could have said no, and just walked away,
If you could live that day over, now what would you say?

I’ll be your master; you’ll be my slave,
I’ll even go with you, when you go to your grave.
Now that you’ve met me, what will you do?
Will you try me or not? It’s all up to you.
I can bring you more misery than words can tell.
Come take my hand, let me lead you to hell…

Ashley lost her life to addiction. She wrote this poem from her heart. Share this anywhere you can to make others aware of what addiction can do. Addiction is happening all around us, but it’s not a subject that likes to be exposed. Social stigma, fear, and rejection are all reasons people hide addiction. For many, once addiction has hold of it’s prey, it’s impossible to break free. The best way to fight addiction is to educate people and arm them with the tools they need to never be trapped by an addiction in the first place. 

Don’t let it happen to you, your best friend, your neighbor, your daughter, or your son…because chances are it’s stalking closer than you think. 
From my heart, 
Celeste



Filed Under: Brain Functions, Overcoming Addiction Tagged With: , , , ,

Tip to a Happier You in 2012~I’ve been kidnapped!

15 July, 2012 by Leave a Comment


Well, here it is Saturday evening, and I haven’t posted my {tip to a happier you} for today yet. But I have a good excuse:


I’ve been kidnapped and taken to Tree Hill, North Carolina! 

I’ve been shot in the chest, almost drowned, gotten arrested for beating up an abusive father, given birth early to twins that I wasn’t supposed to be able to get pregnant with only to have my husband forget and leave one of them in the car, been admitted to a mental health facility for blackout episodes because I forgot I had a son six years ago, and almost had a breakdown when my husband disappeared for a week and we didn’t know if he was dead or alive. Luckily, everything ended happily.
Miranda, my 18-year-old, had her wisdom teeth taken out this week. So I have played the roll of caregiver—which for Miranda means making her jello and spaghetti, escorting her plethora of friends in and out to see her, and sitting beside her to keep her company while watching the show of her choice—One Tree Hill.  

Miranda is one of those girls that loves for her friends to spend the night. I have always loved it that she wants them to come here, so we frequently allow them to.

This week, however, held one obstacle: our air conditioner upstairs is broken and must be replaced, so everyone is sleeping downstairs. Did this deter her friends from wanting to spend the night? Nope. So downstairs this week, I’ve had all three sofas made into beds, an extra twin mattress beside one of them, and a double air mattress beside another. Between kids coming and going, fixing meals for Miranda, for my family, and for any extras that may be here, and being kidnapped into the world of One Tree Hill I’m exhausted! I don’t think I’ve loaded and emptied the dishwasher this many times in years—all in the midst of giving birth early to the twins and escaping from the drug dealer kidnapper of course.


When I was depressed, I often found myself watching television and getting wrapped up in others lives so I didn’t have to think about my own. But I would DVR them and only get to watch them when they aired on television. Now we have Netflix. You can sit and literally watch 84 episodes back to back—pausing for potty breaks of course. I suppose it’s a good thing we didn’t have Netflix when I was going through depression. Sitting absorbed in someone else’s life for hours at a time would have been just fine with me, but I think my family would have thrown me to the curb. 


After the hours of One Tree Hill this week, I prefer my life any day of the week, thank you very much. But only because God has blessed me with the ability to be happy again, and in the process, has taught me much about what’s important in life. 

So where’s the tip this week? I’ll let you figure it out. This week has left me with a disaster of a house, too much washing to be done, and sleep deprived from the One Tree Hill marathon. I sat down to write a few times only to hear, “MOM! Can you__________?” But I got to spend the week beside my soon-to-be-grown-up-and-gone Miranda. We made a memory.

Sometimes you just gotta do what you gotta do.

Even if it is watch a One Tree Hill marathon 😉
From my heart, 
Celeste
Filed Under: How to be Happy, Parenting Tips, Simplify Your Life, Tips to a Happier You Tagged With: , , ,

Make-a-change Monday~Marriage Menders

9 July, 2012 by 2 Comments



To keep your marriage brimming,
With love in the loving cup,
Whenever you’re wrong, admit it,
Whenever you’re right, shut up.
~Ogden Nash, Marriage Lines: Notes of a Student Husband

Such a simple poem, but so hard to do! No one can get under our skin quite like the one we live with every day, wake up with every morning, go to bed with every night, pay bills with…you know. And Satan loves to keep us too busy to really communicate, so things we thought we said, we might not have; things we do say may not come across the right way. Yep, that can be marriage sometimes.

Busy has been the state of our household this summer, so communication has suffered. It seems like sometimes it’s easier not to say anything at all than “start” something. We have found ourselves going to bed too late, getting up earlier than we’d like, with too much to do, and not enough time to do it in.

I think as couples we often forget we are a team—two individuals with the same goals in mind. Really! Don’t we forget sometimes that we both want to enjoy some fun; we both want the best for our kids; we both want to get the bills paid with a little money left over; we both want to go on a great summer vacation. Why is it so hard to remember we are working together toward the same goals?

I think it all comes down to the word “love.” 

If you look up the word “love” in the dictionary, here’s what you get:

***

love |ləv|noun1 an intense feeling of deep affection : babies fill parents with intense feelings of love | their love for their country.• a deep romantic or sexual attachment to someone : it was love at first sight | they were both in love with her | we were slowly falling in love.• ( Love) a personified figure of love, often represented as Cupid.• a great interest and pleasure in something : his love for football | we share a love of music.• affectionate greetings conveyed to someone on one’s behalf.• a formula for ending an affectionate letter : take care, lots of love, Judy.2 a person or thing that one loves : she was the love of his life 
***

Cupid? Really? 
Now here’s just a little the Bible says about love:

So A)”>we have come to know and to believe the love that God has for us. B)”>God is love, and C)”>whoever abides in love abides in God, and God abides in him.
 (1 John 4:16 ESV)


And then there’s the little matter of the greatest commandments: 

And you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.’ The second is this: D)”>‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ There is no other commandment E)”>greater than these.”
(Mark 12:30-31 ESV)

Now go back and read today’s prescription verses from what we know as the love chapter of the Bible. If God is love, we can substitute his name every time the word “love” appears: 

[God] is patient and kind; [God] does not envy or boast; [God] is not arrogant or rude; [God] does not insist on his own way; [God] is not irritable or resentful; [God] does not rejoice at wrongdoing, but rejoices with the truth. [God] bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. 

Kind of opens your eyes doesn’t it? If God is love, reading these verses in this way makes me realize how much he really must love us—his children. 

Now comes the hard part. If we are to love our neighbors (and our spouse) as ourselves as God commands us, and we are to love God with everything we have, should we not strive to put our own name as a substitution for the word “love?” Get your steel toed boots on people…this one hurts: 

_____________ is patient and kind;
______________does not envy or boast;
_______________is not arrogant or rude; 
_______________does not insist on his or her own way; 
_______________is not irritable or resentful; {OUCH!}
______________does not rejoice at wrongdoing, but rejoices with truth. 
_____________bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.

What easy marriages we would all have if we could fill in those blanks with our name! Unfortunately, we are human. But so was Jesus. I don’t believe God would express such a genuine love for us if we were not capable of it as well. Easy? No. Worth trying? YES!

Maybe for the {make-a-change} Monday, we could just take one blank at a time…

From my heart, 
Celeste

Filed Under: Make-a-change Mondays, Making Changes, Marriage Menders Tagged With: , , , ,

Tips to a Happier You in 2012~Made to Crave

7 July, 2012 by 6 Comments



Here are a few things I know about taste and mood: 

  • It makes us happy to eat something sweet…a comfort food.
  • If we eat a healthy diet, we feel better and are therefore happier.
  • A spoonful of sugar helps the medicine go down. 
  • We feel happier—more satisfied—when our stomachs are full. 
And last but not least…
  • Food is often about relationships. Relationships between us and God, us and friends, and us and our own soul.
There have been tons of studies done testing what we eat with how we feel. We all know that certain vitamins—like Omega-3 fatty acids for instance—feed our brains and increases our overall well-being. 

Food is obviously an important topic to God, as the Bible is full of references to food. Many major events in the Bible took place around food. 

But the food—and the choice of food— was used as a gateway to Christ. Whether it was sacrifice, celebration, or miracle, the food was all about Christ. His body is the bread.

I’ll be honest. This is a tough topic for me. In research, depending on the exact point you search for, there are arguments in every direction. For more information about the arguing voices in my head, check out my post Acceptance in Christ—which honestly is not the best title considering it deals mostly with food. But oh well. 

One of the books I’ve read this year is Made to Crave, which is honestly the most unusual—but also the most enlightening—book about diets. Mostly because it is and is not a diet book. I’m afraid you will just have to read to see what I mean. But there’s one thing I learned (well, confirmed my thought anyway):

We crave whatever is a part of our life—what we do, who we see, what we eat, what we drink, etc. 

    • If we watch pornography, we want to watch more.
    • If we drink alcohol—or Mountain Dew—we want to drink more.
    • If we use drugs, we want them more (And I’m a witness to that one!) 

The neat thing is, though, that the flip side of this is true as well.

    • If we read about God, we want to know more.
    • If we become a volunteer, we want to volunteer more.
    • If we begin tithing, we want to tithe more. 
I’ll share a secret here. I almost didn’t write a blog post today. Not because I didn’t want to, it’s just that time got away from me this week and I found myself beginning this post at midnight last night. Only to hear David say, “What the heck are you doing on your computer NOW?” He really gets tired of seeing me on my computer. 

Well, he hurt my feelings. And as all great women do, I pouted. Most of the day today. Didn’t get anything accomplished. You know the video that surface a few months ago about the father putting a bullet in his daughter’s laptop? I think that’s what David would like to do to mine sometimes. 

But I realized something really important about myself today. I was made to write. It is one of God’s purposes for me. You may get this post a day late, and it may mean only a little to a very few people. But God compels me to write, so it must be for something! I just have to find more time alone. Hmmm….

Okay, back to topic. 

Our taste buds can deceive us. What we think makes us happy, may be only temporary. Since I’ve cut back on sugar, I don’t crave it nearly like I used to. And since I’ve been blogging and writing for God, I crave it more and more. As Lysa Terkeurst says, “We were made to crave.” 



We just have to begin putting away the bad, and starting on the good. 

“Whether we’re on the path toward victory or defeat is determined by the very next choice we make. Not the choices from yesterday. Not the choices five minutes ago.” ~Lysa Terkeurst

We must retrain our taste buds—whether it’s the ones in our mouth or those on our heart—to crave good. 

Especially to crave God.
From my heart,
Celeste

P.S. If you want to know more about the foods and vitamins that can physically enhance your mood, click here for the link to my Delicious stack, Diet for Depression.
Filed Under: Eating to Live, God's Pharmacy, Living with Purpose, Making Changes, Tips to a Happier You Tagged With: , , , , ,

The Great Depression, the Road to Freedom

4 July, 2012 by Leave a Comment

I’ve often said that anyone who has not experienced true depression cannot really understand it. 

About four years ago, while still in the midst of my depression, someone recommended The Shack by William P. Young. As soon as I realized the youngest daughter in the story disappears, I put down the book. Marlee was five at the time and it was more than I could bear to read. But since God lifted my depression, I picked it back up and finished it. I’m so glad I did.

As I describe my years of depression as The Great Depression, this author refers to it as The Great Sadness. When I try to describe the way depression feels, I suppose the pharmacist comes out in me, because I always describe it as “all of the nerve endings in my body were heavy and weighing me down.” I think William Young’s description in The Shack is more understandable: 

“Emotions are the colors of the soul; they are spectacular and incredible. When you don’t feel, the world becomes dull and colorless. Just think how The Great Sadness reduced the range of color in your life down to monotones and flat grays and blacks. “


The dictionary defines “dark” as the absence of light. Depression is darkness. God tells us in John 12:46 that he has come into the world as a light, so that NO ONE has to live in darkness. 

When Isaac Newton was dabbling in his many scientific experiments, he used a prism to see what exactly made up the color “white.” What he found was that white light is the effect of combining the visible colors of light in certain proportions. In other words, white is the combination of all the colors of the rainbow. 



God came as the light. He also gave us a promise when he created the rainbow. 

I think being raised with religion all around me, I took the light for granted. I couldn’t see the colors in the relationship. As a friend of mine explained it well, those were my “ivory tower” days. I lived in the white tower but I couldn’t see the colors that it contained. 

During my depression, a black tunnel lay before me. Now I see that Jesus was my “light at the end of the tunnel.” Now that I have experienced darkness—the absence of light—colors have a whole new meaning for me. 

My Great Depression led me to freedom. It painfully guided me to the color that Jesus provides in my relationship with Him. My world is no longer shades of gray. Whether you feel like depression is an obstacle for or not, Jesus can make your life into the most beautiful rainbow you’ve ever seen. 

Jesus is the light. Seek Him. Read about Him. Talk to Him. Have faith in Him. 

Religion will always let you down. A relationship with Him will never let you down. 

From my heart,
Celeste
Filed Under: Beating Depression, Brain Functions, Freedom in Christ, Your Relationship with God Tagged With: , , , , , ,

Make a change monday~nitrates

2 July, 2012 by Leave a Comment

Oh how I wish I could find more time to write. My brain seems to overflow with ideas, none of which come to fruition on paper. And today’s topic—I’ll be honest—is not terribly exciting, but is very important. One that I’ve done more than my share of research on over the years.

Finding a prescription verse for today’s topic was a little tough. I don’t think the Bible actually addresses putting preservatives in our food. I could go back to Genesis 1:29 that I’ve used before about food that God gave us on the earth. I’m not about to jump into the whole clean and unclean meat thing. That’s a theologian’s battle, not mine. So I realize I took this verse out of context, but I thought the whole mutilate the flesh part fit. So cut me a little slack on the verse today 😉

Preservatives in meat. Have you ever really thought about what we eat when we fix a ham sandwich? Okay, we know it comes from a pig, but how old is the meat we are eating? How long did it take to get from the you-know-where to the grocery store? We are essentially eating old, rotten pig. Yuck! And it’s not just pork; it’s all meat products.

Well, the food and drug administration so generously allows the luncheon meat manufacturers to use sodium nitrate/nitrite in our meat so it stays “pretty in pink” until it makes it to our town, our grocery store, and finally, our refrigerator.

I could write a long sciency bunch of gooble-gobble about how sodium nitrate and nitrite convert to nitrosamines in your stomach depending on the pH of the juices there, and how certain levels of nitrosamines are actually fatal but the FDA makes sure we don’t get too much, and how the levels we are exposed to cause esophageal cancer, pancreatic cancer, thyroid disease, leukemia, colorectal cancer, heart disease, and diabetes just to name a few.

But I won’t.

I’ll just give you the link to my delicious stack that contains more information that you could ever want to know.

Obviously, today’s {make-a-change} Monday tip is to avoid luncheon meats that contain these preservatives. Applegate Farms (they have a great turkey bacon) is one of my favorite manufacturers of healthy alternatives, but here are a few more:


  • Coleman’s
  • Trader Joe’s
  • Berkshire
  • Niman Ranch
  • Boar’s Head All Natural
  • Hormel Natural Choice 
  • Grateful Harvest




Just read your labels. Trader Joe’s even has a hot dog that is made from chicken and it taste’s great! Don’t even get me started on regular hot dogs. Spend a little time educating yourself about labels from the articles in my delicious stack or do some research on your own. You know me; I’m all about little changes at a time. And this little change could prevent a big, scary change in your future! 

From my heart, 

Celeste


Filed Under: Eating to Live, Make-a-change Mondays Tagged With: , , , ,

Tips to a Happier You in 2012~The Power of Touch

30 June, 2012 by 1 Comment

I’m back to my posts on how we can use the five senses God gave us to fight depression and made us happier. Today it’s the power of touch. 

The touch of Jesus is illustrated through story after story in the Bible. 

  • The story from the prescriptions verse above where he touched the leper and healed him.
  • The story of Peter when he stepped out of the boat to walk on water. When he took his eyes off Jesus, he began to sink. But when Jesus took his hand, they walked across together. 
  • The story illustrated in Matthew 28 where Jesus touches the eyes of the blind man and restores his sight.
  • The story in Mark chapter 7 where Jesus healed the man who was deaf and dumb through touching his ears and his tongue. 
  • The story in Luke chapter 8 where the woman touched the hem of Jesus’s garment and was healed. 
Jesus healed all of these people through his touch. But was it really his touch that did the healing? God sent Jesus to earth in human form. He was not an angel or a spirit or a deity when he was on earth. He was human. So how did his touch heal so many? 

I believe it was the faith behind his touch. Because Jesus was the Son of God, people had faith in his touch. It was really a no-brainer if you ask me. But now let me tell you another story…

I have a friend, Patty Mason, who suffered severe depression—nearly to the point of suicide, back in mid-1990. She has suffered a difficult childhood and put all of her happiness in her own husband and children. But something was always missing. She could never fully leave her past behind and depression overcame her. In the shower one morning—the morning that she told God she’d had it…she was going to end her life—God impressed upon her to go to her MOPS (Moms of Preschoolers) group that day. So she went. 

After listening to a speaker who just happened to be speaking on depression, she stayed a little late to chat with the speaker. Before she knew it, she was pouring out her heart to this woman she didn’t even know, sobbing uncontrollably in front of other women, who were no doubt staring in disbelief. 

After intently listening, this woman reached out to console Patty, touching her left arm. In that exact instant, the depression disappeared. 

And never had the guts to return. 

Did this woman heal her? No. Did Jesus heal in the Bible? I don’t think so. God worked through them—through the power and faith of their touch—to heal. 

Now I realize the trinity puts a whole other spin on the situation, but Jesus was in human form when he lived here on earth. I don’t presently recall any stories in the Bible that Jesus’s touch did not heal, but I bet there were some people touched by Jesus who were not healed, because they did not believe. 

Researchers have spent much time, effort, and money learning how human touch affects human emotion. You can see some of the articles in my research in my delicious stack, but I can tell you all the literature show a direct proportion between hugs and happiness.

Have you ever seen someone on the street with a sign that says “Free Hugs?” In most cases it’s not some nutcase trying to get close to you. There is a movement going on to increase happiness and love through the power of hugs. 


Besides just observation, Dr. Tiffany Field of the Touch Research Institute (you know it must be important if it has it’s own institute) says the following: 

The benefits of touch seem to stem largely from its ability to reduce levels of cortisol, a stress hormone manufactured by the adrenal glands. This was measured in two dozen studies. She said that touching with moderate-pressure (a firm handshake) stimulates activity in the vagus nerve, one of the 12 cranial nerves in the brain, which in turn slows the heart and decreases the production of stress hormones including cortisol (remember, that’s the fight or flight hormone I’ve discussed in other {tips to a happier you} posts).  

Other studies published from the Touch Research Institute, published in peer-reviewed journals, demonstrate that touch contributes to…


  • Decreased pain. Children with mild to moderate juvenile rheumatoid arthritis who were given messages by their parents 15 minutes per day for one month experienced less anxiety and lower cortisol levels. Over a 30-day period, parents, kids, and their physicians reported less pain overall in the children.  
  • Enhanced immune function. In studies, women with breast cancer and HIV patients showed a measurable increase in natural killer cells—part of a line of defense in the immune system against virus-infected cells and cancer cells—after massage. They also experienced less anxiety and depression. 
  • Happier, healthier babies. Preemies who were touched more while in the NICU gained more weight.
  • Less labor pain. Women in labor who received a backrub the first 15 minutes of every hour of labor reported less pain and made fewer requests for pain medications. Their labor was also shorter, on average.
  • Enhanced alertness and performance. Following massage, adults completed math problems in significantly less time and with fewer errors.   


Okay, enough of the sciency stuff. I think you’re getting my point.  

When we were in Chicago last week meeting the head honchos of the home health franchise we are looking into, there was a very unique impression made on me by Shelley, the president/CEO of the company. After our initial dinner meeting—which consisted of ten couples and a few executives—she bid us good-bye with a hug…each and every one of us. I’m guessing that as a CEO of a successful company, she knows the value of a hug. 

If God worked through the touch of his son Jesus, he can work through our touch. After all, we are his children too! 

From my heart, 
Celeste
Filed Under: Beating Depression, Brain Functions, How to be Happy, Living in Faith, Living with Purpose, Miracles Do Happen, Tips to a Happier You Tagged With: , , , , , ,

Make-a-change Monday~Count Your Blessings

25 June, 2012 by Leave a Comment


I’m beginning to think I’ve never placed enough value on actually counting my blessings. I know I’m blessed. I’ve had a very comfortable life overall—yes I struggled for those awful seven years, but I now see that as a blessing too! It’s the small blessings in the every day that I take for granted. 

The prescription verse today tells us whatever is good and perfect comes down to us from God our Father. I’ve had some gentle reminders lately that counting blessings is important—not something we should neglect or take for granted. 

  • A few months ago I read One Thousand Gifts by Ann Voskamp. It immediately became a best seller.
  • Our church recently sang a remake of the old hymn, “Count Your Blessings.” Haven’t heard that song in years. 
  • In my research for my {Tips to a Happier You} Saturday posts, I’ve seen over and over again how important it is to actually write down your blessings—the exercise of writing down things you’re thankful for has been proven to actually help with depression.

I created a “One Thousand Blessings in 2012” page here on my blog that I’ve added to throughout the year, but I’m just on number 200. Not because I’m not thankful, but when you go to write down those little blessings, it’s really hard to think of them…without repeating the same ones over and over that is.


So my {make-a-change} Monday challenge for you—and me—is to write down three blessings every day. Just three things, big or small, that you were thankful for that day. 

Sounds easy, right?

If you’d like, hop on over to my One Thousand Blessings page, scroll all the way to the bottom, and put your blessings in the comment section each day. We can help each other realize the God-given blessings all around us!

I believe there’s more to recognizing our blessings that meets the eye 😉

From my heart,
Celeste
Filed Under: Beating Depression, How to be Happy, Make-a-change Mondays, Making Changes Tagged With: , , ,

Tips to a Happier You in 2012~Happiness by Choice

23 June, 2012 by Leave a Comment


David and I have been in Chicago this week at a training seminar for a home health care franchise we are purchasing in South Carolina. My brain is drained and we’ve had very little sleep. As I was in the seminar this morning, I was thinking, “When am I going to get my blog post done for tomorrow?” (You know the perfectionist in me can’t leave you without a {tips to a happier you} post for Saturday). 
As we were looking at their websites and blogs, I ran across this slideshow they posted and decided it would be perfect for your happy tip this week. 

If you read the prescription verse above and think, “What does that verse have to do with happiness?”, let me tell you: People who have suffered and overcome struggles in life have gained wisdom. Whether it’s addiction, depression, bankruptcy, loss, whatever…they have learned from the experience. 

When I was battling with depression and addiction, I wish I had been more willing to seek advice from others who had overcome. Instead, I stayed home in my pajamas and shut myself off from anyone and everyone. I didn’t want the difficulty of relationships and I certainly didn’t want to deal with the masks and pleasantries required for social     interaction. 

Maybe that’s why I had to suffer as long as I did. 

Maybe I’d have been ready for God to use me sooner if I’d been willing to learn from others. 

Maybe everything had to happen exactly as it did for me to learn how God wanted to use me to teach what I had to learn the hard way. 

Anyway, enjoy the slideshow below. Many of my Saturday tips I’ve shared thus far are included in the slideshow, so hopefully it will give you an overview of what happy looks like. 

I realize that depression is not a choice, but I believe happiness can be. Remember, it’s all about small steps—changing your thoughts a little at a time. 
Happiness by choice

View more presentations from hosanna



From my heart, 


Celeste
Filed Under: How to be Happy, Tips to a Happier You Tagged With:

Speaking her love language

21 June, 2012 by Leave a Comment


I am so blessed to have great kids—all three of them. But I often have people ask, “What in the world did you do to have such a great teenager?” She has her values in place, she is a leader rather than a follower, and she loves Jesus. Now is she a slob? Yes. Do I have to stay on her all the time to get her chores done? Yes. Could she screw up at any given moment? Yes. But in the grand scope of things, I’ll take it. 

We give her boundaries. We keep tabs on her. We know where she is most all the time. We set rules she must follow, and there is a punishment when she doesn’t. And she loves us, not in spite of these things, but because of them. She knows, without a doubt, that she is loved to the moon and back, and knows that’s why we parent the way we do. 

More than anything, though, she is the girl she is because of her daddy. A daughter must have the love of her father. David has put her on a pedestal since the day she was born; she will accept no less from anyone she dates. 

We practice the Five Love Languages with our children…as best as we can, anyway. Every child has his “emotional tank” filled in a certain way. The five “love languages” include:
  • Physical touch
  • Words of affirmation
  • Time
  • Gifts
  • Acts of service
Miranda’s is definitely time. She loves to spend time with us. When we speak that love language to her, everyone wins!


I don’t know any other teenage girl that would actually like her daddy to go back to college so he could be her room mate! And that’s from her mouth, not mine. 

On Father’s day this year, we made David a card thanking him for speaking love languages to his family. Truly, it is just a tiny glimpse into the dedicated father that he is. We are blessed. 
What is your child’s love language? 


From my heart, 
Celeste


Filed Under: Parenting Tips Tagged With: ,

Make-a-change Monday~Freedom to Fly

18 June, 2012 by 1 Comment



I’ve written a few blog posts recently about freedom. With Memorial Day just behind us and July 4th ahead, we see much in the news about the freedom of our country. I’m thankful every day for the soldiers who fight for our country’s freedom. But for each of us personally, what good is the freedom of our country if we aren’t free within ourselves? 

Freedom is a big word. 


Personal freedom is like a hot air balloon. There are so many factors that affect whether or not it will be able to fly…. or be free. 


Some factors cannot be controlled. Wind and precipitation for instance. Then there are other factors which can be controlled, and are actually used by the balloonist to keep the balloon from flying—tethers and sandbags.  


Satan uses as many circumstances as he can to keep us from freedom. We many not be able to control the state of the economy, war among nations, poverty, or natural disasters, but we can control the sandbags and tethers in our lives. 


Let me rephrase…with Christ, we can control the sandbags and tethers in our lives. 




What are our sandbags and tethers?

  • Addiction—To television, pills, work, sex, pornography, food, etc.
  • Animosity—Holding a grudge against someone
  • Greed—Constantly feeling the need to hold on to your possessions
  • Worry—About the future, the economy, your children, poverty, war, etc.
  • Abuse—Verbally or physically by someone close to you
  • Pride—Defining success by your own understanding and accomplishments
These are all burdens we bear unnecessarily. Just as the balloonist might feel safer and more in control with a few sandbags in the basket, we get comfortable with things in our life that keep us from true freedom. 

I held tightly to my sandbags for seven years…some of them most of my life. Pride, addiction, and worry were the tools that Satan used to keep me from freedom. 

You know that verse in the Bible that says everything is permissible but not everything is beneficial? Read this translation from The Message:

Just because something is technically legal doesn’t mean
that it’s spiritually appropriate. If I went around doing whatever
I thought I could get away with, I’d be a slave to my whims. 
(1 Corinthians 6:12 MSG)

There is no freedom without boundaries. God gives us some boundaries in scripture. Some are created simply by the law of our land. Most boundaries, however, are left up to us. 

When I was battling addiction and depression, I was a complete prisoner to my medication. Whenever we would plan to go out of town, I panicked when I thought there was a possibility I could run out. One year we planned a family vacation to Park City, Utah to go skiing, and all I could think about was, “What if I run out of medication?” Sad.

I was a prisoner. 

My {make-a-change} Monday challenge today is to identify the things in your life that keep you from complete freedom. What are your sandbags? Pick one, and see how you can change it this week. It may be as simple as keeping the television off for a week; it may be as hard as seeking help to get out of an abusive situation. It may just be looking inside your heart and finding forgiveness for someone who has hurt you. 

I promise God can handle whatever sandbag you’re trying to throw out of the basket. He has it under control. We can fight for control, knowing we will eventually lose, or we can let him have it and begin to live a life of freedom in Christ. 
Be still, and know that I am God. 
(Psalm 46:10 ESV)



Throw off those sandbags and fly! 

From my heart, 
Celeste
Filed Under: Freedom in Christ, Make-a-change Mondays, Making Changes Tagged With: , , , , , , , ,

Tips to a Happier You in 2012~Choosing to See Truth

16 June, 2012 by 1 Comment



As a pharmacist who became the patient for seven years, I gained quite the understanding on depression. If you’ve never experienced it, I’m rejoicing with you! It’s not a place you want to go. If you have experienced it…well, I’m right there with you. 


In the gloomy pit of despair and hopelessness that is depression, desperation is born. The desire to be out of that pit is overwhelming. We will do anything to get out. 


Prozac, one of the most prescribed medications for depression, was approved by the FDA just as I began practicing. It was the first antidepressant in its class of serotonin reuptake inhibitors. That particular class has grown drastically over the last twenty-two years and has actually spun off into a new class—serotonin-norepinephrine reuptake inhibitors. For a list of the serotonin reuptake inhibitors, click here. For a list of serotonin-norepinephrine reuptake inhibitors, click here.


During my first fourteen years as a pharmacist, I couldn’t begin to tell you how many Prozac, Zoloft, and Paxil prescriptions I filled. I never understood the desperation behind those prescriptions. In the last few years, Cymbalta—one of the newer antidepressants—has gained popularity. Drug companies in the U.S. have invested millions in research, marketing, and advertising making antidepressants the most prescribed class of drugs in our country. 


A 2007 article at CNN Health, “CDC: Antidepressants most prescribed drugs in U.S.,” says the following: 

According to a government study, antidepressants have become the most commonly prescribed drugs in the United States. They’re prescribed more than drugs to treat high blood pressure, high cholesterol, asthma, or headaches. CNN’s Elizabeth Cohen discusses the CDC study on antidepressants.

In its study, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention looked at 2.4 billion drugs prescribed in visits to doctors and hospitals in 2005. Of those, 118 million were for antidepressants.

A 2011 article at Harvard Health Solutions, “Astounding increase in antidepressant use by Americans,” gave the following statistics: 

  • According to a report by the National Center for Health Statistics (NCHS), the rate of antidepressant use in this country among teens and adults (people ages 12 and older) increased by almost 400% between 1988–1994 and 2005–2008.
  • 23% of women in their 40s and 50s take antidepressants, a higher percentage than any other group (by age or sex)
  • Women are 2½ times more likely to be taking an antidepressant than men (click here to read a May 2011 article in the Harvard Mental Health Letter about women and depression)
  • 14% of non-Hispanic white people take antidepressants compared with just 4% of non-Hispanic blacks and 3% of Mexican Americans
  • Less than a third of Americans who are taking a single antidepressants (as opposed to two or more) have seen a mental health professional in the past year
  • Antidepressant use does not vary by income status
Are you getting the picture? 

During my seven years as a patient, I was desperately searching for a cure for my depression (among other things). I tried a few of the antidepressants, none of which helped my depression. Cymbalta, in particular, caused so many side effects and drug interactions, I think it made me more depressed. And when I decided to go off of it, I had to wean very slowly to avoid withdrawals (nausea, vomiting, and diarrhea) from this drug that we are told is not addictive. 

Okay. I’ve said all that to say this: 

We’ve got to stop trying to take the easy way out of everything. 

God created our brain—every little complex, intricate detail—to deal with sadness and depression. He also gave us our eyes—the sense of sight.  

In an article at Mood-Factory on the power of color, Susan Minamyer tells us this: 

Bright colors, such as yellow, reflect more light and stimulate the eyes. Yellow is the color that the eye processes first, and is the most luminous and visible color in the spectrum. 

And what color did God decide for the sun? 

I don’t believe that to be a coincidence. 

Seasonal Affective Disorder gives us further proof of this. It’s a kind of depression that occurs a certain time of the year, usually in the winter months. There is even a special type of light you can buy that mimics sunlight. And yes, I have one of those too. 

Now I’m not totally against antidepressants. I do believe in some cases they are necessary. 
But in the United States, we want immediate gratification. Consider this excerpt from the CNN Health article quoted above: 
Dr. Ronald Dworkin tells the story of a woman who didn’t like the way her husband was handling the family finances. She wanted to start keeping the books herself but didn’t want to insult her husband.
The doctor suggested she try an antidepressant to make herself feel better.
She got the antidepressant, and she did feel better, said Dr. Dworkin, a Maryland anesthesiologist and senior fellow at Washington’s Hudson Institute, who told the story in his book “Artificial Unhappiness: The Dark Side of the New Happy Class.” But in the meantime, Dworkin says, the woman’s husband led the family into financial ruin.

 

“Doctors are now medicating unhappiness,” said Dworkin. “Too many people take drugs when they really need to be making changes in their lives.”

We have a choice.  

We choose what we see. 

Your eye is a lamp that provides light for you body. 
When your eye is good, your body is filled with light.

We choose to see things that make us happy. We choose to see light or dark. We choose to see truth. 
Thy word is a lamp unto my feet 
and a light unto my path. 
(Psalm 119:105 KJV)

Doctors see only a sliver of our lives, yet we expect them to fix us. It’s not their fault, really.  With advertising and the Internet, we typically walk into their office knowing what we want. As patients, we need to look deeper. 

What are you choosing to see?

From my heart, 
Celeste
For more information, check out my delicious stacks: “Antidepressants” and “What you see is what you get.”

If this post was of particular interest to you, check out an older post, “America on Drugs.”
Filed Under: Beating Depression, Brain Functions, Chronic Illness, Managing Prescription Drugs, Tips to a Happier You Tagged With: , , , , , , , , ,

Make-a-change Monday~Prayer & Circumstance

11 June, 2012 by Leave a Comment



Have you ever heard God speak? 


If God called you on the phone, would you recognize his voice? 


I remember as a teenager trying to figure out if God was telling me to do something, or if it was just made up in my head. It can be very confusing to know God’s voice as opposed to the “voices in your head” if you don’t talk to him—and listen to him—enough. 


Many people ask, “Why pray if God already know what’s going to happen?” Here’s the answer: 


Prayer doesn’t change God, it changes us. 

When we seek God’s help through conversations with him and through specific requests, and he answers us, our faith is increased. If we never ask, however, and he gives us whatever we need, our faith is not changed. We chalk it up to circumstance. 

Let me give you two examples. 

Me? A Speaker? 

I went to a speaker’s conference in October of last year. Everyone tells me that with the type of book I’m writing, I need to be a speaker as well. If you know me at all, you know I hate speaking in front of a group of people. One of the things I liked about being a pharmacist is that I didn’t have to sell myself. I stood behind the tall counter and people came to me…one at a time. But I felt like God was nudging me in that direction, so I went.

After the conference, all of the other speakers got their one-sheets ready to be put in a database of speakers to be “on the market.” But not me. I obeyed God and went to the conference, but specifically told God afterwards that if he wanted me to speak at an event, he was going to have to “drop it in my lap.”

Four months later, I was on my way to church with my family and I pulled my phone from my purse and put it in my lap. I turned it on to see if I had any Words with Friends moves, and I saw I had a new text: 

Now how was that for an answered prayer? Even though it wasn’t quite the answer I was hoping for, I certainly couldn’t deny that God had heard exactly what I said and responded in such a way I knew it was him. 


Her Ship Came In. 


My very oldest friend Jacqueline (not in age but in how long I’ve known her) was having a financial crisis a few weeks ago. It was Friday and her family had $30 to make it on until Tuesday. Pretty tough for a family of four, and that included the weekend. She and her husband have both gone back to school for the last few years, and have really struggled financially, saving and getting by the best they could. She was really at her wit’s end at this point, and prayed, “Okay God, it’s time for my ship to come in.”

Now back up a few months for an important detail: Jacqueline’s husband opened something in the mail that had to do with her mom’s estate. He handed her the letter and told her it looked fairly important. She responded by sending them a copy of the death certificate and the other information they needed to settle the issue. 

On this gloomy Friday afternoon, as she was wondering how in the world her family would make it on this $30, she went to the mailbox. In it was an envelope, with the return address simply as “SHIP.” Not thinking too much about it, she opened it to find a check for $10,000.

How’s that for an answered prayer?  

It turns out that the unresolved issue from her mom’s estate was money that had not been claimed, and the company who was now handling that went by the name, or acronym, “SHIP.” 

Jacqueline prayed that prayer on that Friday when she was in a bind. God orchestrated the $10,000 check several months before. That check was coming. God knew she would need it. But when she prayed and her “SHIP” came in, her faith grew by leaps and bounds! 



It’s so easy to recognize God’s voice—even when it’s not audible—when we talk to him enough to recognize when he answers. 


So here’s my {make-a-change} Monday challenge for you: Pray specific prayers. Pray believing that God can and will answer your prayers. It may not be an immediate answer, and the answer may not be what you want to hear. But he will answer, and when he does, your faith will skyrocket. 


From my heart, 
Celeste

P.S. I did speak at the event for Mauldin First Baptist. I was a nervous wreck at first, but God calmed my nerves as all of the women there were so sweet and receptive to what I said. It was a great first speaking event. 🙂

Filed Under: Living in Faith, Living with Purpose, Make-a-change Mondays, Miracles Do Happen, The Power of Prayer, Your Relationship with God Tagged With: , , ,

Tips to a Happer You in 2012~When life gives you lemons, sniff them!

9 June, 2012 by 56 Comments


“Smell is a potent wizard that transports you across thousands of miles 
and all the years you have lived.” – Helen Keller





God gave us five senses—hearing, sight, taste, touch, and smell. All of these senses send direct messages to our brains. Consider the information given by the Social Issues Research Center on the subject of fragrance and emotion: 


The association of fragrance and emotion is not an invention of poets or perfume-makers. Our olfactory receptors are directly connected to the limbic system, the most ancient and primitive part of the brain, which is thought to be the seat of emotion. Smell sensations are relayed to the cortex, where ‘cognitive’ recognition occurs, only after the deepest parts of our brains have been stimulated. Thus, by the time we correctly name a particular scent as, for example, ‘vanilla’ , the scent has already activated the limbic system, triggering more deep-seated emotional responses.

There are many references to perfumes and essential oils in the Bible. Events of sacrifice and worship most always involved essential oils. Frankincense and myrrh were two of the three gifts brought to Baby Jesus when he was born. God uses our sense of smell to make connections in our brain. 

The nose knows. Scents take us back in time to our memories that were associated with that scent. We also associate scents with certain events. 

  • Coffee = Morning
  • Fir = Christmas
  • Coconut=The Beach
  • Lemon=Clean

Studies on the effect of scents on mood show the following examples:

  • Natural plant odors make people calmer, more alert, and in better moods than those in an odor-free environment. 
  • Orange, lavender, coffee, and licorice increase attention span.
  • The smell of cleaning supplies makes people more generous. 
Aromatherapy is the practice of using natural oils to enhance psychological and physical well-being. 

We have a very personal relationship with our sniffers. What smells good to me might smell terrible to someone else. Many people love the smell of vanilla. I hate it. I used to battle with migraine headaches pretty frequently and used a heating pad on the back of my neck sometimes for relief. This particular heating pad was one that you microwave and it was vanilla scented. The heating pad never did help with my headaches; now when I smell vanilla, it gives me a headache! 

Now I realize that sticking a great smelling candle in your kitchen won’t cure depression. But it’s a small step. We can use the senses that God gave us—our sense of smell in this case—to make our environment a happier one. The little things add up to big things. 

If you are a regular reader, you know I post regularly on Saturdays and Mondays little tips and ideas to make your life happier and maybe a little easier. No single tip or change you make will be a cure-all. It’s all about small steps. I can’t tell you how many times I have cleaned all of the junk food out of the pantry, determined that my family will eat healthy, only to end up replacing most of it within a few days because everyone is fussing. As humans, we resist change, but change is necessary to grow. We must take one step at a time and repeat, repeat, repeat. We are creatures of habit and must turn these small things into habits before we move on the next one. In a year’s time, these small changes will equal big results. 

So my little {tip to a happier you} today is to think about smells you associate with good things and try to incorporate them into your life. Then go back and check out the other {tips to a happier you} and {make-a-change} Mondays I have give you this year. Have you implemented any of these? Have they stuck? Have they made a difference? I hope so. 

Life certainly isn’t easy; you never know when your coming up to the next big hill. Any small thing we can incorporate into our lives can make a difference. 

So when life gives you lemons, sniff them! 




From my heart, 



Celeste

For more information on how scent affects your mood, check out my delicious stack of article here. 



Filed Under: Beating Depression, Brain Functions, Making Changes, Tips to a Happier You Tagged With: , , , , ,