I always thought I wouldn’t have sleeping problems. Usually, I’ve slept for 7 - 8 hours every day, waking up and not feeling any lack of sleep. But that has changed in the last few weeks. It was midnight or past midnight and I couldn’t get to sleep, so I was thinking a lot in my bed or rewinding old memories. Anyway, when I finally could visit the sandman, it was like 1 am or something. All cool, but in the morning I was waking at 6.30 AM!!

Five and a half hours, that’s really not enough. Through the day I was being in a trance-like state, not beeing fully aware of myself. My mood was shitty too. So I’ve decided to do something about it. I’ve read that it’s good to sleep in a FULLY DARK room, so no light can come in and disturb your sleeping. This was a problem in my room, because the windows curtains are not fully covering the windows, so light can come in in the early morning and trigger my waking up center in the brain. That’s why I’ve bought a SLEEPING GLASSES (I’m not sure if that’s the correct word for it, but I guess you know what I mean). My sleeping improved and I could also fall a sleep in the afternoon for a couple of hours.

Next thing I did was not drinking too much water (or other liquids) before getting to bed. Sometimes I just wake up in the middle of the night because I have to take a leak. So, no more water drinking after 9 PM! After some research, I’ve also found out that you shouldn’t exercise a lot before sleeping (because a high heart rate won’t let you sleep) and you shouldn’t watch horror flicks.

Ok, let’s recap what helps if you’re not getting enough sleep:

• make sure no light comes into your room
• get sleeping glasses for total darkness
• do not exercise a lot before getting to bed
• don’t do anything that upsets you before getting to bed (like watching a horror movie or playing an exciting video game)

These simple steps should improve your sleep. They did mine. I would like to hear from you about your sleeping problems and sollutons too. Just drop me a comment here. Thanks.

Depressed mood
Well, this one is obvious. The feeling of hopelessnes, saddnes, being discouraged or feeling empty. Yes, these thing occured to me in the past.

Loss of interest or pleasure
When you’re unable to experience pleasure. Nothings seems to interest you anymore, for example your former hobbies like skiing, watching movies or going out with your friends and having fun. Also the lost of sexual desires are one of those symptoms.

Appetite or weight changes
When you gain weight or lose weight fast. For example more than 5% up or down in a month. Guess I don’t have such kind of issues, been steady at my weight.

Sleep changes
Insomnia or oversleeping (also known as hypersomnia). Now that happens for me a lot lately. I wake up in the morning at 6 am, but I work at home so that wouldn’t be neccessary. But it happens and I therefore lack of sleep the whole day, feeling without energy.

Fatigue or loss of energy
Physically drained. Even small tasks are exhausting. Can’t do things as quickly as you used to.

Self-loathing
Strong feelings of worthlessness or guilt. Harsh criticism of perceived faults and mistakes.

Concentration problems
Inability to focus. Difficulty making decisions. Can’t “think straight.” Memory problems.

Irritability
Grouchy, easily annoyed, and frustrated by little things. Angry outbursts.

Aches and pains
Depression can cause or exacerbate many physical symptoms, including headaches, backaches, diarrhea or constipation, abdominal pain, and aching joints.

It’s obvious that if you have one or two of these symptoms, you’re not depressed. Just in a bad mood or having a bad week. But if you have more than 80% of these, I guess it’s time to start working on yourself to get better. Exercise, better eating habbits and social contacts! Plus lots of sun.

1. No more Cable/satellite TV bills
   You could say that the financial part of quitting tv isn’t the most important, but it can save you some bucks which could be spent anywhere else more wisely. I’m not sure what your monthly bill for cable is, but it should be around 50 - 60$. So that about 600$ per year. So if you start today, you can get yourself a cool vacation with your family or friends in just two years. Plus add the electricity bill to that and it you can add another 100$ in two years.
2. Better dining habbits
   We often eat in front of the television which is a poor way of dining. First, you don’t see what you’re eating and don’t realise when you eat too much. Combine fat foods with sitting on the sofa while watching tv and you will get fat soon.
3. Social skills improvement
   This is also an important benefit when you quit watching the tv. You have time to do other things, like talking to a friend on the phone or going out on a drink. You can also finish stuff you didn’t do, like cook a good meal, clean your room or read a book to the end. Anything you’ll do that involves human contact rather than just waching people on tv will improve your social skills thus give you a better felling when in a company of other people.
4. Get rid of feelings of guilt
   Television programs often create a glamorous image of a life that is far outside the financial capabilities of most people watching. When viewers watch such programs then reflect on their lives, it creates a set of negative feelings. For me, the most prevalent feeling is guilt - I can’t give my family this stuff, I would think. Thus, my sense of self-worth would go down.

As you can see, there are many benefits of quitting tv. But you might ask, what to do in your free time when not watching TV? Well you could start an exercise plan to improve your health and fitness. You could also take evening classes, read a good book, socialise with your friends or get a new hobby. The options are limitless!

• stimulation of your heart, muscles and loungs
• releasing endorphines to your brain (natural happy makers!)
• laughter can also ease digestion and stimulate circulation, which helps reduce some of the physical symptoms of stress.

Long-term effects of laughing will improve your immune system, making your more prepared to fight disseases or serious illnesses such as HIV or CANCER. Researchers have also find out that laughing will produce natural pain-killers in your body which will help you to relieve pain. But the most important effect for those with depression issues is personal satisfaction. Difficult situations will become easy, you will experience greater job satisfaction and feelings of personal acomplishments.

Now let’s go to the part where I’m talking about how to get a laugh instantly. Almost all of us like comedies. Remember one of your comedy series that you like the most. For example Seinfeld, King of Queens, SouthPark or anythig that you love! Now go to YouTube.com and type the title of your favourite comedy show in their search box. I’ll be using “Seinfeld” as on of my top funny tv shows. Here’s what I got:

Now tell me that isn’t funny like hell But if you don’t like the Seinfeld style of comedy, there’s plenty of other funny stuff on YouTube or other video sites.  Have a nice day!

Anyway, I started to research a little bit more about this topic and found out interesting stuff. Here are a few examples of how we repress our emotions:

• Ignoring our feelings
• Pretending something hasn’t happened
• Overeating
• Eating foods loaded with sugar and fat
• Excessive drinking of alcohol
• Excessive use of recreational drugs
• Using prescription drugs such as tranquilizers or Prozac
• Exercising compulsively
• Any type of compulsive behavior
• Excessive sex with or without a partner
• Always keeping busy so you can’t feel
• Constant intellectualizing and analyzing
• Excessive reading or TV
• Working Excessively
• Keeping conversations superficial
• Burying angry emotions under the mask of peace and love

Let’s be honest here. I’m sure noone could say that he or she hasn’t experienced any of these points. It’s perfectly normal to have some of the symptoms. It’s bad when you do all of these things. And here are some symptoms of repressed emotions:

• Fatigue
• Depression without an apparent cause
• Speaking of issues/interests rather than personal matters and feelings
• Pretending something doesn’t matter when inside it does matter
• Rarely talking about your feelings
• Blowing up over minor incidents
• Walking around with a knot in your stomach or tightness in your throat
• Feeling your anger not at the time something happens but a few days later
• In relationships, focusing discussions on children/ money rather than talking about yourselves
• Difficulty talking about yourself
• Troubled personal relationships with family, friends, acquaintances
• A lack of ambition or motivation
• Lethargic – who cares - attitude
• Difficulty accepting yourself and others
• Laughing on the outside while crying on the inside

Emotions repressed for the long-term can cause serious illness including cancer, arthritis, chronic fatigue, and many other major health problems.

So, here’s the tip of the iceberg. These point should give us a lot to talk about. I might talk about every of these point in the near future. More research on this field is definitely needed by my side and also I need to study them in practice with myself. Should be really helpful.

Two days after that, I’ve started to run. There’s a nice forest not far away from here and I ran there before but not regulary. This time it should be different. I tried to do jogging or running for 3 times per week. I remember the first two weeks I had some pain in my leg muscles, but that went away after 3 weeks or so. It’s perhaps because I didn’t warm up enough before every run.

Anyway, I tried to jogg three to four times per week on a regular basis. And that was 3 months ago and I’m still doing it! Not only am I in better physical shape (those lil’ fat bumps around the belly dissapeared), but I also feel better each time I run. And my soccer improved too. I can now run for 1.5 hours without beeing out of breath.

That’s why I highly recommend that you go out and start jogging, running or whatever. Could also be biking, swimming, walking. Just go out, don’t be in your room the whole day!

Then I go and ask the other friend who I’ve talked yesterday and she asked me if I would like to go to the pool with her. But I declined because of the “sleepy” girl. Well, I asked her if she allready had plans for today and she tells me that she’s going with her father. Bad luck!

So I started to think - this is one of those days when nothing goes the way you planned it. I’ve called a third friend of mine too and she said she’s not really into swimming today because of the powerfull sunshine or something. Yeah, guess what - I was pissed!

And if something similar happens to you, don’t worry - it will be better the next day or the day after. Sometimes you just can’t change your destiny. Hell, maybe it’s the best this way. Who knows what could happen today - maybe I would be hit by a car or don’t know why if I went to the pool. So relax, go out on the sun for a lil’ while and do some self improvement for today.