Journaling Works

From Dr. Mercola:

Writing (Journaling) About Stress Helps Asthma, Arthritis

Writing about stressful life events helped reduce symptoms of asthma and rheumatoid arthritis in patients with these chronic illnesses. The effects of the writing exercise were still evident four months later and resulted in clinically meaningful improvements in patient symptoms.
The new findings add to a growing body of evidence linking mental health to physical well-being. Although researchers are not sure how this technique -- called "expressive writing" -- can lead to improvements in health, they speculate that it may help people better cope with stress, which can take a deleterious toll on health.
On average, asthma patients who wrote about their most stressful life event showed a 19% improvement in a specific measure of lung function, while control asthma patients showed no change, the researchers report. Rheumatoid arthritis patients were found to have a 28% reduction in symptoms, whereas control arthritis patients did not improve.
Ventilation of negative emotion, even just to an unknown reader, seems to have helped these patients acknowledge, bear, and put into perspective their distress. In this and a growing number of studies, it is not simply mind over matter, but is it clear that mind matters.
The Journal of the American Medical Association April 14, 1999;281:1304-1309, 1328-1329
Dr. Mercola's Comment:
I suspect that if the authors of this study were to have provided similar outcome evidence about a new drug, it likely would be in widespread use within a short time. This is a very powerful discipline. I have been journaling for the last fourteen years as a form of spiritual discipline. It is the rare morning where I am not able to journal. It has been an enormous benefit in my life.
For those interested in following a spiritual approach, many find the formula ACTS (Adoration (praise and worshiping God), Confession (reflection on your fewer than perfect actions), Thanksgiving (gratitude for all your blessings), and finally Supplication (Prayer requests). It is a strategy that has helped many through both good times and bad.

Rambling

My blogger is not posting pictures properly. That's the reason for the lack of color lately.

So I will just ramble about what I've been up to. Virgil and Josiah have been camping out of town working on his sister's house all summer, in between concrete jobs. I helped them a little one day this week, picking up the concrete and throwing it into the Bobcat to be dumped into the dumptruck. I've been doing some fall housecleaning in preparation for back to work at the after school. Back to work also includes doing some shopping for the after school. I love that part of my job. I've also been spending some much-deserved time with my daughter and grandchildren.

Yesterday we went shopping for their school clothes. They're starting preschool at a Christian School. It's hard to believe Kylie will soon be 4 years old. She helped pick out a cute little blue dress, tried it on, and danced like a princess in front of the mirror in the dressing room while Luke looked under all the doors for his Mommy (he'll be two years old in December).

We walked down to the creek while Amber got her hair done. They had to plow through the mud to get to the creek, because the water was low. They didn't like the squishy mud between their toes, so we just rinsed off and put our shoes back on.

Kylie has lots of questions. She's into science right now. We had discussions about plant and animal life, and she was full of "why?"'s. Why does the snail leave a sticky track across the sidewalk? Why don't you like to eat the nuts off the ash tree? Why does the sidewalk stick up and crack beside the big maple tree?
All the while, Luke was picking up sticks, hitting the sidewalk with them, making friends at each house, climbing all the steps, and going up and down all the ramps.

They sure do entertain whoever they're with. Too bad they're not closer so they can entertain me more.

Conjoined Twins Operation

Here's a neat link to the journal of the separations of the Herrin conjoined twins:

http://www.herrintwins.com/

Simple Life

I’ve decided it is definitely time to simplify my life. At my age (undisclosed), if I haven’t used it in 10 years, I probably will never use it again. Therefore, I am downsizing my cabinet supplies to make things easier to find, clean, store, and use. It is simply not necessary to keep 3 cans of half-used bathroom spray when I haven’t used it in 10 years (or more). I do, however, have an extra cabinet in the garage where I may store things I rarely use just in case I decide later that I do need them. After all, we live 30 minutes from the nearest town, and sometimes needs arise.

All my life, I have hoarded things, not willing to give them up if they still have a useful life. Now, however, I find the desire to hoard abating. In its place is a desire to live simply, peacefully, on less, doing less, having less, saving less—a restful feeling. I hope it stays.

The Day After

I admit, Virgil and Josiah picked up a vegetarian pizza on the way home from geting the Barley Max and the movie. We pigged out while we watched Sandlot 2. We also had watermelon, bananas and walnuts. Oh, yeah, Virgil got lots of nuts and olive oil at the store, too.

I'm hobbling around some this morning, my leg is a little stiff, and my arms a little sore, but other than that, I'm ok after the accident with the tool cabinet.

I put olive oil on the scratch on my leg, hoping to help with the scarring. It's healing up nicely.

This morning we all got up about 6am. Virgil has his first day on the substitute school bus driving job this morning. I helped him juice carrots while Josi watched Sandlot 2 again, with headphones to cut down in the noise department. Virgil just took some bananas, an orange, and an apple to snack on, since he plans to be home by noon. He has to be at the doctor by 10am for some blood work. He thinks his thyroid medicine needs cut again because he's been having headaches. I think it might be the salt. He eats a lot of chips and dip. However, the last time he was having headaches, he did need his medication cut in half.

Virgil was diagnosed with hypothyroidism about 12 years ago when he gained 20 lbs within a month. He initially refused to be medicated because of his adversion to going back to his old drug-addicted lifestyle (he used to be an alchoholic and pot-head--that's another story). He tried to manage his illness by nutrition. We went on the Hallelujah Diet (hacres.com) 6 years ago, and he used lots of exercise, running 3 miles a day, 300 situps a day. However, 3 years ago he was forced to go on sick leave because his blood pressure was so low. His heart rate was consistently 40 bpm, and he had lost most of his hair all over his body, along with slurred speech, and falling spells. When he went on medication, his TSH levels stabilized. Now, however, they are rising again, indicating that the thyroid is beginning to function again. He has already had to cut his medication. He is very encouraged and gives God the glory.

Anyway, after the movie, Josiah went to sleep in the recliner, I worked on Virgil's outline, and had a breakfast of watermelon, bananas, and walnuts. After checking my mail and the news, I started on this blog. I'm having a snack of cantelope.