If you have experienced a fall-time dip in mood, be it the winter blues or SAD, you are likely aware that when a decrease in motivation and loss of interest in typically pleasurable activities takes hold, it can be much more difficult to reengage with the things that make you happy or bring you meaning. “Getting ahead” of seasonal depressive symptoms does not necessarily mean preventing them. This blog post, written by Kat Filipov, LGPC, located in Baltimore, Maryland, explores the symptoms of SAD and winter blues, how to distinguish them and ways to get ahead of seasonal depressive symptoms.
{{ Yawning }} every creature that has a spine YAWNS
Yawning is a built-in repair circuit which triggers the Parasympathetic Nervous System, which calms everything down in your body.
We most associate yawning with boredom or being sleepy, but new research suggests it can be good for your health - by cooling down your brain.
Yawning is particularly useful when your body is stressed, injured, or ill. If you’ve got a headache, try yawn “surfing”– where you literally try to yawn over and over–in most situations, your headache will ease up.
Scientists at Princeton University found a big yawn can regulate the temperature of the brain and prevent over-heating. Stress activates the sympathetic nervous system, which increase blood pressure. Yawning activates the parasympathetic nervous system, which attenuates the sympathetic nervous system, reduces stress, and lowers the risk for high blood pressure.
Because #yawning disturbs your current sympathetic tone and forces the parasympathetic nervous system to act in order to restore your body to a resting state because yawning discharges STRESS from the body.
Feeling stressed or drained? Make an effort to yawn as a self-care strategy to help your blood pressure!
Be well and #bmore #aware, #Baltimore!
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