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This article is aimed at helping people who are often in a state of depression. I have had many of periods in my life where I have found it difficult to carry on and where in truth I have wished that my life would just end.

Depression affects people in many different ways. From a personal note it affects my sleep patterns and makes the smallest things irritate me. I have even been sick in the morning after spending the night worrying about my present situation.

Most of the time I am not so much depressed at what is happening now but am fearing what might happen in the future. This fear may be about financial matters, a social occasion, health or about my family.

I had basically had enough of constantly being depressed, about being in fear of the future and needed to learn about how to control my depression.

After seeking inspiration from a variety of sources, I had what I hoped was enough ammunition to keep my fears and phobias at bay. I will at times have an off day where I feel quite low and this is where I use my new found knowledge.

How to control your depression

I am a very quiet person and I like to keep myself to myself. Some would say that I border on being a loner, which I would quite agree with. Too many people have hurt me throughout my life and to tell you the truth I prefer being on my own. I am not a peoples person.

I also like to keep my problems to myself. This was my biggest failure, what I needed to do was to talk through my problems and fears with somebody else, a member of my family for example.

This was not easy for me to do and it took a great deal of courage to talk to anybody about the areas of my life which made me feel depressed. I did however go down this route and it did have a positive effect. To talk about my problems was like taking a weight off my shoulders.

The person I confided in was my father. He listened and then came back with some superb advice and a couple of suggestions of what I could do.

This is my second piece of advice. We need to spend less time worrying and more time seeking solutions to our problems. We need to ask ourselves why we are depressed and what can help us to remedy our issues.

My father also stated that I should only do things and go to places that I wanted to. I have always found it hard to turn down invitations to for example a party and have found myself often somewhere that I do not in reality want to be.

He also told me about one of his friends. His name was Mike and he had just been diagnosed with cancer. The doctors had told Mike that he only has a maximum of six months to live and he is only fifty-nine. He asked me to imagine how he must be feeling.

I went home and thought about Mike, I was sure that he would love to swap shoes with me. It is not just about Mike, he has a wife and three children, what must they be going through. I started to appreciate my own health and that of my family a bit more.

By opening up and talking about why I was depressed was the best thing I ever did and is something I will continue to do. My dad certainly helped me to think in a more positive way.

This advice I am sure will not help every person who is depressed as depression is an illness. It has however helped me and I am hoping it will be of benefit to others.

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Songwriting is one part inspiration and one part perspiration. It doesn’t matter whether you have a lot of ideas and catchy phrases floating around in your head. Unless you get them down on paper, they won’t do you any good at all. I suggest you buy yourself a small pocket notebook and keep it with you at all times. That way you can easily jot down any creative thoughts you have during the day. This should provide you with plenty of material when trying to write a new song.

Developing your listening and observational skills is another important aspect of songwriting. The gold nuggets are out there, sometimes you just need to dig a little deeper in order to find them. They are lurking in the conversations you hear, the road signs you pass, the T.V. commercials you watch, the newspapers and magazine articles you read. John Lennon wrote the Beatle’s song, “Happiness Is A Warm Gun” after seeing a gun
magazine sitting on a coffee table with that headline written on it’s cover. Likewise, The first lines of Roger Miller’s song, “King of the Road”, were written after seeing the words: “Rooms To Let 50 Cents” and “Trailers For Sale Or Rent” on two separate road signs and then reversing them.

As you have probably noticed, people love to tell stories and talk about themselves. As a songwriter, you can use these tendencies to your advantage. Try putting yourself in someone else’s shoes when they’re talking to you. Listen for any repetitive statements they make. Take mental notes. What stands out? What do you remember most about the person? What impression are you left with? Write it down. Fictionalize, exaggerate or minimize the information to suit your lyric.

Real life stories offer great material too. Consider Bob Dylan’s song “Hurricane” for instance. It’s woven around the true life story of a black prize fighter by the name of Hurricane Carter. Carter was falsely accused and then sentenced to life imprisonment for a murder he did not commit. This event sparked a protest movement involving some celebrities who made several unsuccessful attempts to secure his release. Years later, when a major motion picture staring Denzel Washington was created about the story, Bob Dylan’s song “Hurricane” became a natural choice for the background theme.

Words tend to create their own rhythmical pattern according to how they are placed within a sentence or phrase. So, after you’ve collected some good ideas in your songwriting notebook, try to use the material to create a “hook” for your song. Be willing to experiment with different ways of saying something. Listen to the melodic structure as you speak. Take note of where your voice rises and falls. Try singing what you hear. Sing the lyric high, low, fast, and slow. Try it with a country twang, or a bluesy feel. All these things can help spark the intuitive side of your brain.

Even after you’ve tried all these methods however, many songwriters will tell you their best songs come when they aren’t even trying! Now why do you suppose that is? I believe it has something to do with being relaxed and open enough to receive what your subconcious mind has to offer. All your past feelings and experiences are stored in there somewhere. But these resources are often blocked from your conscious mind as a result of tension and stress. And it is commonly understoodthat when a person’s songwriting efforts become strictly mechanical, the results will be generally poor.To prevent this from happening to you, go for a walk, listen to music, or do something else you enjoy for a while. Taking a break can work wonders to refresh your creative spirit!

Becoming a good songwriter will require time, dedication and effort on your part. Learning to listen to others, follow your intuition, and being open to trial and error are some of the things you can do to cultivate your skills. But many gifted songwriters give up as soon as they encounter difficulties. They become discouraged when they hit a mental road block and feel their creative juices have stopped flowing. While other, less talented individuals, go on to have successful songwritng careers simply because they learn to persevere. Do you see problems as stumbling blocks or stepping stones? How you respond to obstacles will make all the difference in becoming the songwriter you dream to be.

FREE Reprint Rights - You may publish this article in your e-zine or on your web site as long as you include the following information:

Kathy Unruh is a singer/songwriter and webmaster of ABC Learn Guitar. She has been writing songs and providing guitar lessons to students of all ages for over 20 years. For free guitar lessons, plus tips and resources on songwriting, recording and creating a music career, please visit: http://www.abclearnguitar.com

Trust is the basis of all human relationships. Trust can be thought of as a tool that can measure the positive and negative nature of a relationship. The more positive one feels about others in the group, the more likely they are to share feelings, thoughts, ideas and suggestions. Those persons who cannot trust others in the group at even a basis level will have great difficulty functioning in the group.

Trusting the Facilitator and other group members with their fears, dreams, and feelings is not easy to do and should be understood as such. Just as when we were infants, our trust in others builds as we learn through experience that others will be accepting of us. The more we are exposed to positive trust experiences, the more trust in others will develop.

Therefore, it is incumbent upon the Facilitator to encourage an environment of trust at all sessions. If the trust bond cannot be developed or is abused in any way, the group will dissolve itself. Participants absolutely must feel that all their feelings and thoughts are accepted non-judgmentally.

The building of a trusting attitude goes hand-in-hand with the development of positive self-esteem, a key goal in grief management groups.

Imagine a young woman on a tropical beach dressed in heavy winter clothing. As the sun comes up in the morning, she begins to get warm and takes off her muffler and gloves and feels better. The sun continues to shine and the young lady sheds more of her heavy clothing. Each time she gets rid of a layer of protective clothing, she feels more comfortable, more in tune with her environment. If the weather changes and it gets cold again, the woman can put on a layer of clothing for protections.

So it is when we learn to trust others with our pains, our fears, and our sense of helplessness. There is a period of time in every group when each member begins to peel off layers of protection in response to the growing warm feelings in the group. But, as each participant shed his or her ego protective coats they become more vulnerable to hurt or betrayal. facilitators must be aware of this and put forth every effort to not tolerate abuse of any kind to exist within the group..

I have found that in most grief groups there are periods of pulling away and periods of growing closer within the group. Capitalizing on these moments is essential for helping members learn about themselves, particularly in those areas where they appear to be most sensitive. Feelings of insecurity often indicate areas of our personal lives in which trust has been betrayed or about which we feel negatively. Taking the risk to trust sharing feelings about painful issues is often scary, but with big risks come big gains.

As adults, we learn to trust through observation, experience and self-awareness. Each group member earns each other’s trust by exhibiting trust worthy behaviors and communications. We help participants to understand that two people can experience a death of a loved one in much the same way and yet have very different responses. In order for trust to grow, these different perspectives must be acknowledged and accepted even if not understood. It is the Facilitators duty to ensure that this happen.

All human beings tend to trust the people with whom we feel secure. When we know we can be ourselves and say what we really think and feel without repercussions our trust builds. A requirement to walk on eggs is a metaphor for the fragility of that security. If a griever feels insecure in being able to express him or herself or feel that there are some things he/she cannot say in the group for fear of attack or repercussions, he or she will shut down and probably not be back to the group.

It takes time to develop trust in others, especially for people who have been hurt by the loss of their loved ones. When group members can trust the Facilitator to protect them from hurt or ridicule from others in the group, they will share and be open to grow beyond the limitations imposed by their loss. They will let their guard down and open their hearts to group bonding and healing.

This trust and mutual vulnerability forms the very foundation of grief management groups.

Rev. Saundra L. Washington, D.D., is an ordained clergywoman, veteran social worker, and Founder of AMEN Ministries. http://www.clergyservices4u.org. She is also the author of two coffee table books: Room Beneath the Snow: Poems that Preach and Negative Disturbances: Homilies that Teach. Her new book, Out of Deep Waters: My Grief Management Workbook, will be available in July.

What leads to disappointing experiences in your life? Probably when things didn’t work out the way you wanted them to. Since the sixties we know already that we are our own creators. If we are - why doesn’t all our creations manifest? How come there is still a tremendous amount of suffering in the world? How is it possible that people can’t get rid of illness and diseases. Why would someone create a divorce or a bankruptcy or just being depressed?

Questions most of us have asked more than once…I guess.

Just look in your favorite bookstore and see how many books are written about topics similar to ‘how to get rich quick’, ‘getting things done my way’ and ‘you can do it’. I have even seen a bookstore that covers nothing else than self improvement books!

Can quantum physics shine some light on this precious topic?

Let start with the premise that we have free will. If we have free will then we can manifest whatever we want. It would only be limited by our own thoughts, beliefs, and concepts.

If you would make a broad study on how successful people are with their manifestations, you may find out that people tend to rate their successes by more than 50% and their failures by less than 50%. Now, if you take in consideration that most people are more identified with their successes then with their failures, the reality of the outcome is probably close to 50/50. That seems almost random to me!

On a personal level, we can almost say instantly why some things worked out and others did not. We are pretty good in ‘making up’ reasons for the outcome of our actions.

Now, what if I am telling you that the reasons you made up are just illusions!

If you investigate deep enough you will never know why things work out or not. Reasons lead to your own concepts about the world. If you go far enough backward you end up with blaming the ‘Big Bang’ for the ultimate reason. You think this is exaggerated - try it!

However, we like illusions so much that we believe in them as they satisfy our minds.

What Exactly Happens on a Quantum Level?

Fascinating studies have been conducted by Benjamin Libet. Libet’s experiments reveal a substantial delay - the “mind time” - before any awareness affects how we view our mental activities. The conclusion of his work is that unconscious processes initiate our conscious experiences. Freely voluntary acts are found to be initiated unconsciously before an awareness of wanting to act - a discovery with profound ramifications for our understanding of free will.

You may want to read this last paragraph again…

I like the example of how Fred Alan Wolf explains this study further. Just imagine, you are sitting on top of an elephant. The elephant is your subconscious and you are sitting on top (that’s your ego). Now, you want the elephant to go left? You touch the left ear and the elephant goes left. It would be great if it works like this every time… but it doesn’t. Sometimes, the elephant just goes in the other direction and thats what we call a failure!

Welcome to the World of Illusion!

In reality your subconscious is constantly collapsing wave functions. Waves are simply random possibilities of what can happen. The moment a wave is collapsed, it is no longer a wave, it then becomes a particle. Particles are what we call reality in space & time. This is the famous wave particle problem that gave most scientists grey hairs.

The amount of randomness is determined by your concepts. The concepts are setting the borders of your play field. Are you playing with one dice? Then the number can only be between 1 and 6. Are you playing on a larger scale with two dices then the number can be between 36 possibilities.

Here is a more practical example. You want a new car, it should be red, under $20,000 including a 6 year guarantee. These are the concepts and the possibilities you make up with your mind (ego). However, there are additional concepts in your subconscious. For example, your neighbor drives a new Mercedes and somehow that information sinks deep in your subconscious. Your subconscious has also stored the experience of all the other cars you previously owned. You see that the possibilities of what can manifest in reality is getting more complex.

Back to our example and what happens on a quantum level. The elephant gives you a ‘telepathic’ sign that it wants to go left. Because of that ‘you decide’ that you want to go left and therefore tap the left ear… VWOLA! The elephant goes left.

So where does this all leaves us with our free will?

It is very simple, but also very challenging to put this knowledge into our ‘daily’ lives. Quantum physics and science finally proves what most religious people since hundreds of years have already told us. The ego is an illusion and only through practicing silence can you expand beyond the daily illusions and experience where your true power is and comes from.

Speaking of power - this is unlimited power versus force, which you need constantly to keep the illusion of your ego alive. That’s why a lot of people are constantly in stress and have no energy.

At one point in your life you are faced with an experience over which you have no control. Maybe an accident, a disease or a bankruptcy. You can resist this experience or you can surrender to it. Resisting means denying your own creation. Surrendering means you are finally listening to your true self instead of some beliefs or concepts you have adapted from society or someone else.

At this point, decide if you want to ‘improve’ your ego or if you want to connect with your true power. From my experience this is the only decision you can make and the only instance were you have free will.

Quantum physics is… in its core foundation… so simple that even most scientist cannot grasp its implications yet (myself included).

Seasonal Affective Disorder or SAD is a kind of depression caused by the effect of the change of seasons as early as August or September in men and women and may be recognized by things as simple as eating or sleeping more during winter than the rest of the year.

The National Institute of Health realized about this disorder during the 1970s although it has existed for centuries. This entity realized about SAD after have asked people if they noticed they were eating and sleeping more over winter.

Experts and new research discovered that the best way to fight this disorder is to add cognitive behavior therapy or “talk therapy” to the mix of using anti-depressant drugs and light therapy, the traditional approaches to treat SAD.

SAD symptoms are not only winter blues and subtle changes in eating and sleeping but also cravings for sweets and starches, fatigue, irritability, social withdrawal and depression, changes which disappear during spring and summer.

Although there are many theories about SAD, experts highlight that production of melatonin, a sleep hormone related to depression, may increase over winter. Meanwhile, the amount of serotonin, which is a brain chemical triggered by sunlight, is thought to increase with the lack of sunlight.

As there is evidence that light intensity and temperature also may play a role in developing SAD the related depression can vary. It is also known that the percentage of people with affective disorder increases with increasing latitude, as shorter days seem to trigger symptoms.

There exist several ways to treat SAD and experts think that the first approach should be light therapy. But patients with seasonal depression may respond better to treatment when the therapy is combined with medication.

Article written by Hector Milla, editor of :: DepressionsTreatments.com :: visit for Depression Treatments Information at www.depressionstreatments.com , at Depression Therapy Treatment at www.depressionstreatments.com/1/depression-therapy-treatment.html . Thanks for using this article in your website or ezine keeping a live link.

Sometimes, depression can affect your memory. It may make it hard for you to remember tasks or things that you need to do. Or, as you move from one task to another, certain details of the task before might become fuzzy.

The easy advice is to make a list. Write down all of your tasks, and any details that you need to remember for each one. That way, you can be sure that any important parts of your to-do list are accounted for. You might want to put this list somewhere prominent, where you will be directing most of your attention. It doesn’t make sense to put the list on your refrigerator if you will be out of the kitchen all day. The most obvious place to put the list would be on your computer monitor. Since most of us work on the computer all day, that will give you a pretty constant view of the list.

Another method is to set an alarm on your cell phone. Set it to remind you to do certain tasks at certain times. There are computer programs that will do the same thing. By using technology, you will be able to have reminders pop up to tell you when something needs to be done. You don’t have to remember to call home if the computer alarm can go off to remind you instead.

You can read more about depression at http://www.curemydepression.com

Landlords and rehabbers take notice - you may soon be focused on the new concepts of “Virtual Real Estate Investing“. Everything from using the internet as an avenue to make more money in real estate to online games such as SecondLife seem to be included in the popular definition of this term.

In order to figure out the truth of the matter, I sought out Bryan Ellis, whose experience in the fledgling industry is truly impressive.

Ellis says he adopted the term “virtual real estate investing” sometime before Y2K after he realized that making money online is conceptually very similar to making money with physical real estate.

Bryan Ellis cites the similar strategies one can employe to make money from “virtual property” and “physical property” as a primary parallel of the two markets. He points out that control of a domain name or even a specific web page is much like controlling a real estate property ” those assets can be monetized in similar ways: By selling them for a profit, by leasing them, by offering advertising, etc.

I must admit: Its easy to see the parallels. For example, if you’re the owner of a desirable property, its desirability is (in a business context) largely due to its being in a location that is of interest to others. Similarly, ownership of a desirable domain name is valuable for the same reasons. So it doesn’t matter if you own physical real estate or virtual real estate - you’ll likely use similar strategies to turn them into money in your pocket.

In our next installment of this series on virtual real estate investing, Bryan Ellis will share the internet analogies to the physical concept of real estate development.

What is fear?

When we were studying emotional imbalances in school, my professor, said fear is an acronym called F.E.A.R. It means a False Estimation Appearing as Real.

We project into the environment our feeling of insecurity and see in it dangers to our well-being. Yet the reality out there has too many variables for us to predict it. Thus, all our anticipations are based on our insecurity, rather than a sudden clairvoyance.

With the proper mindset, determination, and will power, you can conquer your fear.

Everyone has some sort of fear. It is brought about by past traumas, the influence of other fearful people, and our own critical and hypersensitive view of things.

Although, fear is only in our mind, it does appear real to us. How do we break free from it? How long must you remain a hostage to it?

Is there a practical way to release it?

There is a single practical–and unpleasant step–you can take with any fear–and that is to face it.

Again, you have two choices, here.

You can run a mental simulation of the fearful event in your mind until it no longer has any charge. In these simulations, see yourself handling the fear with a sense of courage.

For example, if you have a fear of spiders, you can imagine that you have many friendly spiders as your pets, or that you rescue spiders from getting drowned in rain gutters, etc. In other words, you take on a very positive picture.

Or, you can also actually go through the event physically, and see how your fears are, in fact, in your mind, and not out there.

For example, if you are afraid of public speaking, you can arrange to join a speaker’s club and work it out in a public setting.

This is how you face your fears head-on and eliminate them.

Your fears can also be more subtle and pervasive.

What about something more subtle?

You may, for example, want to become a published writer, but you don’t know if you can handle the pressure or the rejection from editors, and so on.

Again, doing it, either mentally or even physically will show you that most editors are actually very human; and, in fact, many will even help you to improve your writing skills.

What else?

Tap your whole mind.

In my experience, whenever I’m really determined to do something, my superconscious mind kicks in. I experience a flow of synchronicity that opens a way where before no way existed.

With the proper mindset, literally anything is possible. Faith in your abilities, in your subconscious intelligence, and in the manifestation of amazing coincidences will see you through anything.

Face your fears.

That’s the cure.

It’s simple and it’s uncomfortable, but it works.

Using visualization and/or action can eliminate any fear.

What about getting help?

In addition, you don’t have to do it alone. There are many skilled therapists who can help you work through your fears.

In fact, I have found phobias can easily be eliminated with the proper techniques.

Acne is a common problem that many teenagers face. It can be very embarrassing and soul destroying for many teenagers who are at a very delicate and self-concious age in their lives. With the many pressures that they face, teenage acne can be an added problem that interferes with a young person’s self esteem and confidence. For some of us, acne was not much of a concern throughout our youth and we do not understand the trials and tribulations that young sufferers go through. My sister did suffer and had to use acne treatment as a teenager.

I was one of the lucky, clear-skinned teenage girls in my school. I never had to use any acne medication or topical acne treatment. I did get the occasional pimple and strangely, I always had the pimples right before a special event. The blemish usually appeared right on the center of my nose or right in the middle of my forehead. The blemish would appear, right on cue, on the morning of a special event. For those suffering from teenage acne and acne breakouts then it was even worse as the anxiety before an important event was bound to herald a breakout right at the worst time.

My acne cursed sister had a breakout right before the Junior Miss Pageant and I think that this may have contributed to her not making the final ten when I did. It may have been the fact that she was five-two, a little plump and a little clumsy, but she likes to think that the acne was the cause of the Junior Miss elimination. Looking back now, it is fair to assume, that the breakout occurred because she was under stress. The blemish disappeared shortly after the pageant was over and finished for that year.

My sister didn’t appear to be the least bit nervous before her prom, but suddenly, there it was. She had an acne breakout on the eve of the prom. Covering it up with makeup only made it worse. She tried not to let the breakout spoil her night, but of course it did, although she had a good sense of humor about it. She did put her gown back on a week later to get pictures taken and I dressed up to have pictures taken with her. It’s only us who know that the date on the photographs is not the real prom date! Acne or no acne, she still had a great time. I realise how lucky I was not suffering from teenage acne.

Today, my sister finds herself in a new situation when it comes to unsightly acne blemishes. She, and I, are approaching middle age and use moisturizer. We are a long way past the teenage acne years. What she is finding is that her skin tends to be a bit oily and she is having mild acne breakouts after moisturizing her face. She is very irritated that she needs to combat wrinkles and acne at the same time. It is a pity that anti wrinkles cream and acne products aren’t combined. One of the things to look forward to as you get older is the absence of acne. I guess she still have a lot of growing up to do.

Bruce Walls is a writer and webmaster at http://www.a1-acne.com

Acne begins in puberty, but it does not always end there. Every teenager, if examined closely enough will show some of the effects of acne with some being mild, others more severe. The major hormone causing changes in teenagers is androgen. Under its influence, the sebaceous glands produce more and more sebum (oil). This leads, then, to oily skin and a change in skin flora. There is an increase in the bacteria that cause acne as well as a type of fungus. All these contribute to the development of blockages at the oil gland openings known as comedones. Such blockages cause blackheads and whiteheads - and acne when there is infection of the skin’s pores.

Acne should not be viewed as something that comes with puberty. It has lasting effects on the skin, like scarring, and should be treated. A gentle skin cleansing without using cleansers that over-dry skin should be established. Addition to that a supplement such as Acuzine should be taken to have a fast and effective acne cure inside out.

In adults, acne could be a carryover from adolescence, occupational (exposure to chemicals or other skin irritants in the workplace), drug induced (some medications exacerbate acne) or cosmetic acne. There are also other factors that may contribute to acne besides family history such as frequent use of thick make-up, frequent activities under hot and humid conditions and contact with oily substances.

There is nothing much that we can do about genetics but surely we can do something about lifestyle factors to prevent acne. Using thick, oily creams also may lead to breakouts too. People with acne should use products that are formulated for people with oily skin.

Stress is another common aggravating factor for acne. Lack of sleep is a form of stress in itself too. And for women, the menstrual cycle can trigger off acne too. But whatever your stage in life with acne, if the acne cream or lotion show no sign of clearing up, then get Acuzine. Acuzine is rate no.1 acne treatment product with guaranteed results. It works for adults or teenagers suffering from facial or body acne. This is a natural acne treatment formula with no side effect and highly recommended by dermatologists. Fast and effective acne cure from inside out.

Treating acne at the start of the problem is easier than dealing with the scars.

Rian is a health conscious guy who always update himself with the latest health news and love sharing with others.To learn more on Acuzine visit http://www.magicapsule.com or go direct to http://www.acuzine.com/?aid=699840&cid=zmljyk