Thursday October 23, 2025 | Stress Triggers: "What are your main sources of stress? What triggers your stress?

I can think of several sources.  Yep, you guessed the one sittin' up on teams right now. yup. Jason!  Also, the news and the weather.  I try to limit watching the news and weather-related news unless it is important, and, plus, President Trump is doing crazy things.  I really don't want to know what the news/weather what other people are doing.  I know it would trigger me. Everything triggers me.   I have this dream that I would wake up one morning and turn on the news, and WORLD PEACE would break out.  Actually, every year on Christmas Eve, I would go out and look up at the stars and think I want world peace.  Well, if I keep going out and looking up at the stars and wishing for world peace, maybe this time it will happen.   Well, what I really want to say is I was bullied from elementary to junior high and high school. I know what it is like for people to bully others.  I don't remember people calling me names in elementary school, but I did have a bodyguard. She is my friend on Facebook and my childhood best friend.  That is two people, by the way. Two bodyguards.  I am really grateful for all the times that they protected me throughout grade school or up until I went into the hospital in Galveston.  I knew what was going on. From the moment that my childhood doctor said "she has selective mutism".  I can swear that I did not know what selective mutism was, neither did any of my doctors back then.  I know what led this on, but I decided to look up selective mutism on Wikipedia back in 2012.  I told my mom that selective mutism is a severe anxiety disorder. You know what she told me?  You don't have anxiety.  Or more specifically, you don't have that.  That really angered me, but I believed her.  And now I have other anxiety disorders, such as panic disorder.  This is why I am taking Hydroxyzine as needed.   

Thursday October 23, 2025 | Physical Awareness: "Write about all the places that you can currently feel tension in your body. Write about all the areas that feel relaxed.

Physical Awareness: Write about all the places that you can currently feel tension in your body. Write about all the areas that feel relaxed.

I feel tension in my shoulders for sure.  I also feel tension in my lower back and hips.  People keep telling me it's either old age or my weight, and that I need to lose weight. It's something more.  I do believe that it is anxiety that is making my shoulders, lower back, and hips feel tense.  I do stretches every day, and then I have to start over the next day again doing my stretches.  My favorite yoga pose is the pigeon pose.  It is an intense hip stretch and the splits.  Another good hip stretch is to lie down on your back, either on the floor or your bed, and bring your knees to your chest. Oh, that is an awesome stretch!