Friday, August 18, 2017

Drawings by Nuria RiazaNuria Riaza (born in Albacete, Spain...





















Drawings by Nuria Riaza

Nuria Riaza (born in Albacete, Spain 1990) describes herself as a collector of memories and absurd objects that she keeps in a little tin box. Nuria specialized with a blue ballpoint pen, often mixed with embroidery. See more of artist work at her website.


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posted by Margaret  

Drawings by Nuria RiazaNuria Riaza (born in Albacete, Spain... crss





















Drawings by Nuria Riaza

Nuria Riaza (born in Albacete, Spain 1990) describes herself as a collector of memories and absurd objects that she keeps in a little tin box. Nuria specialized with a blue ballpoint pen, often mixed with embroidery. See more of artist work at her website.


Stay current with Cross Connect Magazine on Twitter and Facebook.

posted by Margaret  

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billelis + Mandala + New work online. Link in... crss



billelis

+ Mandala +
New work online. Link in bio.

.Website

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#billelis #3Dart #illustration #sculpture  #artwork #contemporaryart #modernart #mandala #darkart  #artinspires  #instagram #illustrator   #ornate #3D  #gold  #inked #art #darkart #skullart #symmetry #photoshop #artoftattoo #wacom #geometric #instaart #artgram #tattoo #tattooart #adobe via Instagram http://ift.tt/2qkz4AY

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billelis + Mandala + New work online. Link in...



billelis

+ Mandala +
New work online. Link in bio.

.Website

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#billelis #3Dart #illustration #sculpture  #artwork #contemporaryart #modernart #mandala #darkart  #artinspires  #instagram #illustrator   #ornate #3D  #gold  #inked #art #darkart #skullart #symmetry #photoshop #artoftattoo #wacom #geometric #instaart #artgram #tattoo #tattooart #adobe via Instagram http://ift.tt/2qkz4AY

Hell’s Café (L’enfer), established in Paris durnig the XIX...









Hell’s Café (L’enfer), established in Paris durnig the XIX century

Anxiety Symptoms That Many People Overlook

“Anxious” is a word with two faces. Sometimes it means eager excitement. “I’m anxious to see you!” we say, as we get off the phone with a friend who’s coming to visit. The other side of “anxious” is a bit darker: “I’m anxious about that test,” we say, when we’re worried about the results. We call the second meaning “anxiety,” and most of us experience it from time to time.

In common usage, both meanings of “anxious” describe our responses to fleeting, time-limited events. But anxiety can also have a much more powerful grip on many of us. Without the right kind of attention, it can rule our lives.

I’m a psychotherapist in private practice north of Boston, Massachusetts, and I’ve worked with many clients who have anxiety. In this, the first of two articles on a psychotherapist’s views on anxiety, I’ll describe what anxiety is and how you can tell whether you or someone close to you is suffering from it. In Part II, I’ll go into its causes and treatments, as well as the best ways to help heal from anxiety disorders.

Anxiety is more common than people think

More people in the United States have anxiety disorders than any other mental illness. Anxiety affects more than 40 million adult Americans and about one in eight children. Some experts put the estimate much higher, because many people don’t know they have anxiety, are diagnosed incorrectly, or don’t seek help for it.

In my psychotherapy practice, nearly all my clients have some form of anxiety. Sometimes it’s the main reason they came to therapy, and sometimes it’s an underlying issue that shows up after we’ve handled the immediate reason they came for help.

Only about one-third of people who have anxiety disorders seek treatment.

Many anxious people know they have anxiety, but many more do not. They think catastrophizing, expecting the worst, worrying about what people think of them, or staying up late at night worrying about just about everything is normal.

It feels normal because that’s what they’ve been used to most of their lives – but it doesn’t have to be. Most people with an anxiety disorder can overcome it with treatment, support, and self-help strategies.

The difference between feeling worried and having anxiety

An anxiety disorder is different from feeling worried or being afraid. Worries about new or uncertain situations are normal, and feeling afraid in potentially dangerous situations is not only normal, but can sometimes save your life. Worrying about how you will perform on an exam might motivate you to study harder. Worrying about an erratic driver in front of you might help you drive more defensively. Feeling fearful about driving on a winding road in a storm might get you to wait for safer weather conditions.

Also, not everybody who worries a lot has an anxiety disorder. You might feel anxious because of too much work, too much stress, too little sleep, too much coffee, or low blood sugar.

The biggest distinction between normal worry or fear and anxiety disorders is that anxiety disorders involve some form of chronic anxiety, and the anxiety interferes with normal functioning.

7 specific anxiety disorders

There are several kinds of anxiety disorders, and they each look and feel different from one another. One person might have intense panic, another might avoid social situations, another might be unreasonably frightened by dogs, and someone else might worry about nearly everything.

All anxiety disorders share a persistent fear or worry in situations where most people would not be afraid. Specific anxiety disorders have other, specific symptoms.

1. Social Phobia

People with social phobias are afraid of embarrassment or judgement in social situations and may blush, feel tongue-tied, go blank, have rapid heart rate, or show other signs of anxiety in those situations. They will avoid social situations whenever possible.

2. Special Phobias

People with special phobias might be unreasonably afraid of animals such as dogs or spiders, natural events like storms or lightning, heights, open spaces, enclosed spaces, and other parts of the normal world. They may go to extremes to avoid these things.

3. Generalized Anxiety Disorder

Symptoms of Generalized Anxiety Disorder (GAD) can include feeling nervous most of the time, a sense of impending doom, feeling helpless, rapid breathing, increased heart rate, sweating, trembling, a queasy feeling, and tension in the neck, shoulders, or both.

4. Acute Stress Disorder and Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD)

Both of these anxiety disorders sometimes occur after people have witnessed or experienced a physical threat. Symptoms include disturbing memories, flashbacks of the event, trouble sleeping or concentrating, and feeling either tense or numb. Acute Stress Disorder symptoms begin within a month of the traumatic event, while PTSD symptoms typically begin later. Symptoms can last for many years without treatment.

5. Panic Disorder

People with panic disorder have unexpected, severe anxiety attacks during which they are afraid they might die, pass out, or that they are suffocating. They often avoid places where panic attacks occur, which can lead to agoraphobia.

6. Hypochondria

People with hypochondria (now called Illness Anxiety Disorder) worry about having illnesses they probably don’t have. They catastrophize minor or imagined symptoms into a worst-case scenario. For example, they may be convinced that a headache means they have a fatal brain tumor.

7. Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder (OCD)

Sufferers may check obsessively, count when counting is unnecessary, and in general do ritualized behaviors. They feel unbearably anxious if they do not perform these rituals.

The most common anxiety disorders, in approximately this order, are: Social Phobia, Specific Phobias, Generalized Anxiety Disorder, Acute and Post-Traumatic Stress Disorders, Panic Disorder, Hypochondria, and Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder

In my practice, I most often encounter Generalized Anxiety Disorder and PTSD, though I have also had many clients with Panic Disorder, Hypochondria, Social Anxiety Disorder, and Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder. Sometimes, people come in with more than one anxiety disorder. Hypochondria and Generalized Anxiety Disorder, for example, often show up in the same person, as do Social Anxiety Disorder and perfectionism which, though not an “official” anxiety disorder, contributes greatly to most forms of anxiety.

Signs of anxiety disorders

If you identify with any of the following symptoms, you might be dealing with an anxiety disorder.

  • You’re almost always worried or on edge.
  • You have irrational fears that you just can’t shake.
  • You’re often afraid that bad things will happen if you don’t do things in a particular way.
  • You avoid everyday situations or activities because they make you anxious.
  • You have sudden, unpredictable attacks of heart-pounding panic.
  • You almost always expect the worst.
  • You have trouble getting to sleep or staying asleep.
  • Your muscles almost always feel tense.
  • You often feel overwhelmed.
  • You expect more from yourself than most people do
  • You tend to focus on your health and personal problems more than other things in your life.
  • Your anxiety interferes with work, school, or family life.
  • You have one or more of the following physical symptoms: pounding heart, sweating when you’re not exercising or in a warm place, headaches, frequent upset stomach or diarrhea, dizziness, shortness of breath, shaking or trembling.

Some anxiety disorders are harder to spot

In my experience with psychotherapy clients, PTSD is usually the most difficult to spot because its symptoms don’t always cleanly match the standard definition. PTSD can look like depression, several other forms of anxiety disorder, ADHD, or a combination of mental illnesses.

An example: I once worked with a client who seemed to cycle through several anxiety disorders within a few months. She first displayed typical signs of panic disorder, and we quickly worked through them. But then OCD symptoms appeared. Again, we worked through them in what seemed like record time. Irrational fears and intrusive, disturbing thoughts soon followed.

It was a few months before we understood that what she was actually suffering from was the aftermath of childhood trauma. She had what I now think of as free-floating anxiety – a form of anxiety that unconsciously attaches itself to other anxiety syndromes. A clue to understanding how to help her was that she had majored in psychology and knew about various mental illnesses. Her half-remembered knowledge of common anxiety disorders gave her free-floating anxiety a place to focus. Working through the trauma helped her resolve all her anxiety symptoms.

Stay tuned!

In this article, we’ve looked at how worrying and fear are different from anxiety disorders and have identified the main symptoms of common anxiety disorders. In Part II of this two-part series, we’ll go into the causes of anxiety disorders, their treatments, and some self-help practices people with anxiety disorders and their loved ones can do.

The post Anxiety Symptoms That Many People Overlook appeared first on Lifehack.



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10 Best Pillows To Choose For A Good Night Sleep

Stress is an ever-present part of modern life. Getting a good night of sleep is more important than ever. If you get the recommended 8 hours of sleep per night, then you spend roughly 33% of your lifetime slumbering. When we aren’t able to get enough sleep, it affects how our bodies and minds work. Taking the opportunity to get enough rest is one of the best gifts that you can give to yourself.

You can’t underestimate the power of having an excellent pillow. Just like you wouldn’t want to spend your work day walking in shoes that don’t fit properly, you won’t want to spend nap time on a lumpy and uncomfortable pillow.

Just think about the structure of your neck for a moment. Your cervical spine is comprised of the most delicate and most mobile vertebrae along your spinal cord. The structure allows us to turn and tilt our heads, but those tiny bones are also prone to injury and misalignment. If you’ve ever “slept funny” or strained your neck, you know how miserable it can be.

Now imagine the angle of your neck when you sleep. If you’re using a standard pillow, chances are that your neck sits at an awkward angle during sleep–possibly for several hours at a time. A recent study demonstrated that of orthopedic, contoured memory foam pillows, and down pillows, those stuffed with goose-down were the least-supportive.[1]

The perfect pillow will look different for every person depending on their sleeping position.[2] Ultimately, the pillow that supports the natural curves of your spine will serve you best. I know it can seem like a lot to take in, but any old pillow simply won’t do when your spinal health is on the line. Luckily, Lifehack has rounded up our top ten favorite pillows to help you get a good night of sleep.

The 10 best pillows for getting a good night of sleep and waking up refreshed

1.Snuggle-Pedic Ultra-Luxury Bamboo Shredded Memory Foam Pillow Combination With Adjustable Fit and Zipper Removable Kool-Flow Micro-Vented Cover

If the thought of having a pillow stuffed with goose down makes you sneeze, then the Snuggle-Pedic would be a good choice for you. This pillow is made of a mixture of two types of shredded memory foam, which makes its lightweight and soft without all the feathers.

Regardless of your preferred sleeping position, the Snuggle-Pedic is designed to conform to your shape to give you excellent spinal support. The Micro-vented Bamboo keeps your head cool by allowing air to flow through the pillow. The breathability combined with the orthopedic support make this a solid option for everyone.

Best pillow for: side, back, and stomach sleepers, people with allergies, pregnant women, people who tend to overheat while they sleep

Snuggle-Pedic Ultra-Luxury Bamboo Shredded Memory Foam Pillow Combination With Adjustable Fit and Zipper Removable Kool-Flow Micro-Vented Cover, $49.99

2.Sleep Innovations Cool Contour Memory Foam Pillow with Soft Microfiber Cover

Back and side-sleepers, this one is for you. The contoured shape of this memory foam pillow offers your neck the support it needs. The microfiber cover keeps you cool so that you’ll spend less time chasing the cool side of the pillow and more time in dreamland.

Best pillow for: side and back sleepers, people who overheat while sleeping

Sleep Innovations Cool Contour Memory Foam Pillow with Soft Microfiber Cover, $40.08

3. My Pillow Premium Series Bed Pillow

As its name suggests, the MyPillow is all about you. You choose from one of four loft levels based upon your size and whether you are a stomach, back, or side-sleeper. One of the most frustrating things about standard pillows is that they tend to go flat. The special interlocking fill in the MyPillow maintains its shape throughout the night.

This pillow also holds up to machine washing and drying, which makes it easy to clean. Easy care and a product tailored to fit your needs make the MyPillow experience worthwhile.

Best pillow for: stomach, back, and side sleepers, machine washing, users who need a customized experience

My Pillow Premium Series Bed Pillow, Standard/Queen Size, White Level, $79.95

4. Coop Home Goods – PREMIUM Adjustable Loft – Shredded Hypoallergenic Certipur Memory Foam Pillow

We don’t need the same pillow every night. Depending on what you do during the day, you may feel that you need to increase or decrease the padding in your pillow. Coop’s Certipur Memory Foam pillow is designed to allow you to add or remove stuffing at your leisure.

If you change your sleep position often, you can make this pillow work for you. The bamboo-derived cover is breathable so that you can stay cool as you rest. Hypoallergenic and dust-mite resistant materials make this an excellent pillow for the allergy-prone as well as those who just want an orthopedically-sound experience.

Best pillow for: all sleep positions, allergy sufferers, people who need to adjust their pillows often, people who need tend to overheat while sleeping

Coop Home Goods – PREMIUM Adjustable Loft – Shredded Hypoallergenic Certipur Memory Foam Pillow with washable removable cooling bamboo derived rayon cover, $79.95

5. Buckwheat Pillow – Zen Chi Organic Buckwheat Pillow Queen Size (20″ X 30″)- 100 Percent Cotton Cover with Organic Buckwheat Hulls

For readers who would like to step away from the synthetic memory foam options, the Zen Chi Buckwheat Pillow can provide all the same benefits minus the chemicals. Buckwheat hulls are a natural product that not only conform to the shape of your spine, but also keep you cool.

Using buckwheat hulls for mats and pillows has been a practice for centuries–think of this filler as the original memory foam.

Best pillow for: environmentally conscious consumers, people who overheat during sleep, all sleeping positions

Buckwheat Pillow – Zen Chi Organic Buckwheat Pillow Queen Size (20″ X 30″)- 100 Percent Cotton Cover with Organic Buckwheat Hulls, $39.95

6.Cooling Gel Memory Foam Pillow

In case you haven’t noticed, staying cool is critical to falling into a relaxing sleep. The Cooling Gel Memory Foam Pillow is (as you’d expect) made of 60D memory foam with a gel layer to channel heat away from you.

The curved shape of this pillow makes it an excellent choice for side and back sleepers. The foam offers your neck the support it needs so that you can wake up feeling rested and refreshed. The hypoallergenic and dust mite resistant materials keep you from having the allergic response you might have to other materials.

Best pillow for: side and back sleepers, allergy sufferers, people who overheat during sleep, people with chronic neck and back pain

Cooling Gel Memory Foam Pillow, $29.83

7. BioPEDIC Ultra-Fresh Anti-Odor Standard size Pillow

The BioPEDIC Ultra-Fresh is a fresh take on a standard pillow. The exterior is 100% cotton, which wicks moisture away from you. The polyester interior is hypoallergenic and anti-microbial.

If you need to wash your pillow often due to allergies, the BioPEDIC is a great choice.

Best pillow for: allergy sufferers, machine washing

BioPEDIC Ultra-Fresh Anti-Odor Standard size Pillow (pack of 4), $39.99

8. Mediflow Original Waterbase Pillow

In a Johns Hopkins University study, this pillow was the top scorer in all five categories tested, including relief of neck pain and perception of sleep quality.

The Mediflow pillow’s design is unique in that it takes your standard polyester-fiber filled pillow and improves on it by adding a water pouch. You can adjust the internal water base to give the pillow more or less firmness depending on your sleeping position and preferences. If you prefer the sleeping experience of a standard pillow over a contoured memory foam pillow, this will give you the familiarity of the old standby with a little extra oomph.

Best pillow for: a customizable experience, neck pain

Mediflow Original Waterbase Pillow, $49.97

9. Royal Hotel’s Down Pillow – 500 Thread Count Cotton

Nothing says luxury like these 500 thread count down pillows from Royal Hotel. This pillow is the middle ground between too-soft down and too-firm memory foam. Royal Hotel uses a combination of bacteria-free down and small feathers to achieve that firmer-than-regular-down feel. If you love the pillows you sleep on at fancy hotels, you’ll enjoy these.

Although you can’t toss these into the washing machine, you can throw them in the dryer to fluff them.

Best pillow for: people who need a pillow softer than memory foam but firmer than regular down

Royal Hotel’s Down Pillow – 500 Thread Count Cotton, $159.99

10. Z by MALOUF 100% Natural Talalay Latex Zoned Pillow

I will admit that when I heard that these were made of Latex, I was a bit wary about how comfortable they could be. The latex material in these pillows, which contains no synthetic additives, comes from the sap of sustainable rubber trees which undergoes a process to give it a consistency similar to foam.

The natural latex interior never needs to be fluffed, doesn’t retain moisture, and it’s dust mite resistant. The shape of this pillow is best for back and side sleepers, but it may prove too firm for stomach-sleepers. The bamboo covering is soft and breathable so that you can stay cool throughout the night.

Best pillow for: back and side sleepers, environmentally conscious consumers, people prone to overheating during sleep

Z by MALOUF 100% Natural Talalay Latex Zoned Pillow, $139.99

Featured photo credit: Petr Kratochvil / Public Domain Pictures via publicdomainpictures.net

Reference

[1] Spine Health: Pillow Support and Comfort
[2] Clearwater Chiropractic: How a Pillow Plays an Important Role During Your Sleep

The post 10 Best Pillows To Choose For A Good Night Sleep appeared first on Lifehack.



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