Attack!
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Mental illness is a mob within the mind. An entity ruled by emotion. It cannot be reasoned with. The mob must be broken, piece by piece, until the mass splits apart under the weight of it’s own irrationality.
Read MoreStepping up with Sigma Chi
The Mammalian Dive Reflex
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This tool is a new addition to my kit. I’m taking advantage of a reflex, common in all humans and easily triggered, to reduce my blood pressure and heart rate without the need for conscious thought.
Read MoreTuesdays in the Toolkit
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Mirror Therapy is a potent, introspective tool. I like to have a mirror directly in front of me, and one off to the side. This allows me to speak to myself, and also catch side glances of my reactions along my periphery. The first time I tried this, I spoke to myself from two drastically different perspectives - the depressed me, and the “normal” me.
Read MoreMondays with Marcus
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The more I study mental illness and the structure of the brain, the more I am enticed about how the mind thinks. I know from experience that I can train my mind to recognize distorted thoughts, and take action to think differently, but I have been unable to discern a guiding framework. I have many tools, but where is my toolbox?
Read MoreHow to Talk to (your family member, friend, coworker)
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Imagine if I lose a leg, and my friend kicks my stump in the middle of a conversation. I would be indignant, and he would no longer be my friend. My friends, family, and coworkers do not know if some off-hand comment will kick my invisible stump. We tiptoe around mental illness because we do not know if what we say will cause more damage. That is the unique dilemma of mental illness compared to physical illness.
Read MorePause Points
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These are moments where you can take a breath and take stock of your situation. In games, these are built into the experience - timeouts, quarter breaks, halftime, weather delays. Pause points exist in daily life, but it takes work to identify ones that are meaningful to you.
Read MoreHow to Give Your Phone a Lobotomy
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The smartphone is the fire of our generation, but if we do not set some limits; we will inevitably burn ourselves.
Read MoreSelf-Care After Traveling
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Travel used to be a big deal. We must remember that while we live in a more technologically advanced society; our bodies have yet to adapt to what is commonplace for most people in developed nations.
Read MoreClear the Fog of War
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Mondays and Thursdays are my best days, but Tuesdays afternoons and Saturday evenings are difficult for me.
February and March are when I feel the very best, but I tend to slip into a mild depression at the end of the lacrosse season in May.
I am more productive in the summer, but I am usually affected by Seasonal Affective Disorder, SAD, in the late fall.
How do I know all this? I tracked my mood twice a day for two years with an app, iMoodJournal. Every week, I reviewed the data and noted low and high days. Then I recalled what happened on those days, and, very slowly, the bigger picture revealed itself to me.
Before I tracked my mood, I assumed that my depressive episodes were sporadic and random. Because of that, I further assumed that they were beyond my control. I felt trapped in a mental “fog of war,” a term that means, “uncertainty regarding one's own capability, adversary capability, and adversary intent during an engagement, operation, or campaign.”
“Can anyone see the enemy?”
It is terrifying, stumbling around in the dark; knowing an enemy lurks nearby. It is even more terrifying when the enemy is your own mind.
After my hospitalization in the fall of 2016, I decided to map my mind as well as I could. iMoodJournal and PocketCBT were tools I used to spy on my internal enemy that was intent on doing me harm.
By identifying the times when depression or anxiety were most likely to launch an assault; I had time to dig a mental foxhole.
I could gather supplies and call in reinforcements. All of this gave me the mental ability to say to my depression and anxiety:
“Come Get some!”
I do not win every battle, but I no longer feel like I’m losing the war. There is immense psychological relief that comes from preparation. Whether that is rehearsing a presentation, doing breathing exercises, or telling your friends, “It’s almost winter, I may need you on some bad days,” you bolster your defenses.
While we cannot control our circumstances, we can control our reaction to them. If we have a good idea of when circumstances will change, we can be prepared and be even more in control of ourselves.
Reminders for Better Living
/When a general returned to Rome following a victorious campaign, he paraded through the city with great pomp and circumstance.
It was customary for a slave gladiator, known as an Auriga, to whisper in the general’s ear: “Memento homo”.
Remember, you are but a man.
I suppose the modern-day corollary would be for the Golden State Warriors to hire someone to whisper in Steph Curry’s ear, “You are only a man,” while he hoists the NBA championship trophy.
It is a sobering statement in moments of victory. A reminder that we all came from dust, and to the dust we shall return. Our victories, our accolades, our possessions - nothing we do or accumulate will follow us in death, and pride, as Proverbs tells us, "goes before destruction, and a haughty spirit before a fall." While celebrating an accomplishment, it is of immense value to remember that a recent victory does not mean victory in perpetuity.
Today, though, it is fortunately impossible to forcibly compel a fellow human to give you reminders, and it is cumbersome to hire a person to stand next to you all day. However, we have devices that are always nearby and frequently checked. They can be used to remind us to think differently, to consider our choices, and to help us live the life we most want to live.
I like the quote, “Confine Yourself to the Present” by Roman Emperor Marcus Aurelius. I have it as the first section of my work binder, incorporated into my computer wallpaper, and my good friend Kevin Forrester even turned the quote into a work of art!
Having a reminder that I see multiple times a day, helps me combat my brain’s default mode of negative thinking. I can easily slip into a poor frame of mind, and it takes vigilance to keep my mind in an attitude that helps me live my life in my way.
Whether our devices are slaves to us, or are we slaves to our devices, is a question I will tackle in a different article. For now, I like taking a quote from 1,800 years ago and welding it with 21st century technology to keep me focused in a meaningful way.
If you would like a simple, and stoic wallpaper reminder for your computer or mobile device; you can download mine below.
Mobile Wallpaper
Desktop Wallpaper
