How to Stop Being Resigned to an Uninspired Life

As you look back on your life today what would you change? Anything? Everything? Have you lived a passionate adventure or have you been stuck on the birth-school-work-death treadmill?
Many of us have made choices in our lives that have compromised who we are. We do things that are out of integrity from our souls to look good, to make money, to please the boss or out of fear of what the neighbors might think. That's a funny one because everyone is running around worried about what others think when in reality they're all running around only thinking about themselves. No one is very interested in your life besides you so you may as well do what makes you happy, not what you think will make others happy.
After 20, 30, 40 or more years of selling ourselves short many of us get resigned to working, complaining, breathing and taking up space until we die. We forget that though the spark of our souls may be buried within us, we still have the power to dig up the junk on top of it and let it run free again.
Each moment is a new opportunity with new choices. You created your life and you have the power to decreate the parts of it that aren't serving you now. You can start by sitting still and listening to your inner voice for a change. This voice is your soul. It's the 5 year old in all of us who remembers what weeks, months and years in a row of freedom and joy felt like. It's our higher selves, God, the Universe or whatever you call the Great Spirit of Mystery that connects all conscious beings.
If you like to chant or sing you can chant or sing for a few minutes before getting still. Somehow this seems to call to our spirits and bring them out of hiding. Then just be still. I mean really still. And just feel the essence of who you are coming forward in the cells of your being. You may see or hear ideas. You may not. Either way, you're making time to listen and feel your spirit. For many of us this siple act is revolutionary.
The reason we end up with lives that feel meaningless, unfulfilled, or without purpose is because we stopped listening to ,and feeling, who we really are. Instead we've built routines of rushing to work, working, coming home to the TV, video games, books, magazines, sports, phone calls, making dinner, etc. All of these outer activities fill our time by distracting us from listening to our spirits. From connecting to our souls. From remembering what inspires us and how to be courageous enough to express it in the world.
You have probably read the infamous poem by Marianne Williamson and attributed to Nelson Mandela that beautifully describes how we must shine our lights brightly. Many of us don't even know what our lights look like after years of ignoring them.
We all know that we weren't put on earth just to make money and raise a family to keep the species going. We all have our own individual callings, but we have to listen to them and choose to be bold and courageous enough to take action based on them.
Fulfilling your spirits desires and expressing your soul is your purpose in life. Everyone is here to serve in some way. What's yours? Get clear on it and make it happen. No one can or will do it for you.
No matter how connected or disconnected you feel from your light right now, you can merge deeper with it and express it's unique brightness through how you live your life.
We live in a topsy turvey time where it appears that violence, destruction, selfishness, abuse of power, corruption and fear dominate. They only have power because we allow it. The way to stop allowing it is to start being true to ourselves and to practice love, joy and creation in each moment. There are no victims, only volunteers who give their power away.
You can choose to exit the treadmill of worry, fear, smallness and doubt until death. You can choose to enter your path of listening to your spirit and only taking actions that bring you love, joy and expresion of your soul. You can create your inspired life ...you just have to choose it. For all of our sakes, do it now, won't you?

Lack Of Light, Seasonal Depression – What’s The Link

People troubled by depression usually experience their dark moods in an on-again, off-again fashion. In that respect, seasonal affective disorder (SAD) differs only in that the oscillations follow a seasonal schedule, with the depression usually starting in the fall and lasting through the spring. Lack of light is often blamed for SAD, but just how darker days cause depression in SAD sufferers is still in question, reports the January 2008 issue of the Harvard Health Letter.
Experts debate whether it has been proved that lack of sunlight in winter triggers SAD, but there’s certainly circumstantial evidence to support the connection. How might lack of light cause depression? The Harvard Health Letter discusses three theories:
1. The root cause may be insensitivity to light. Most of us go through winter on a relatively even keel because exposure to indoor lighting helps offset the lack of natural light, but indoor light may be too weak for SAD sufferers.
2. There are neural pathways from the eyes’ retinas to parts of the brain that help put many of our physiological processes on a 24-hour cycle. Lack of light may put people with SAD out of phase with their biological clocks: awake and active when their internal timers want them snug in bed.
3. A lack of light, or insensitivity to it, may disrupt brain processes influenced by serotonin and dopamine, brain chemicals that play a role in mood.
Light therapy, which involves sitting in front of a bright light for a short time each day, helps some people who suffer from SAD. But antidepressant medications may work just as well, says the Harvard Health Letter.
Also in this issue:
– Treating the common cold
– Illegal use of human growth hormone
– Types of vitamin E
– Treating Bell’s palsy
– Low-carb diet and mood
– By the way, doctor: Warfarin after illness

Antidepressants Appear to Impact Driving Safety

A study just released at the annual convention of the American Psychological Association suggests that people taking prescription antidepressants appear to drive worse than people who aren’t taking such drugs, and that depressed people on antidepressants have even more trouble concentrating and reacting behind the wheel.
University of North Dakota psychologists recruited 60 people to participate in a driving simulation in which participants had to make a series of common driving decisions, such as reacting to brake lights, stop signs or traffic signals while being distracted by speed limit signs, pylons, animals, other cars, helicopters or bicyclists. The simulation tested steering, concentration and scanning. Thirty-one of the participants were taking at least one type of antidepressant while 29 control group members were taking no medications with the exception of oral contraceptives in some cases.
The group taking antidepressants was further divided into those who scored higher and lower on a test of depression. The group taking antidepressants who reported a high number of symptoms of depression performed significantly worse than the control group on several of the driving performance tasks. Those who did not report depression scored in the normal range.
This research is important in light of the rapid increase in the number of Americans taking antidepressants. Americans’ use of antidepressant drugs such as Prozac, Paxil or Zoloft, nearly tripled in a decade, according to the 2004 Health United States report, issued by the National Center for Health Statistics. Among women, one in 10 takes an antidepressant drug, according to the government.
It is important to note that while the results of herbal supplements were not tested on the same simulations, herbal products such as St. Johns Wort or Rhodiola rosea may be a safer alternative. Rhodiola is one of the fastest growing categories in the herbal dietary supplement category for depression; the herb is noted to increase cognition and mental acuity, which should make drivers more aware of safe driving practices.

Depression Sufferers More Likely To Develop Alzheimer’s Disease

People who suffer from depression have increased risk for developing Alzheimer’s disease later in life.
Two similar studies conducted by Dutch and US researchers to uncover the link between depression and Alzheimer’s disease. It is clear that there is a link between the conditions, but researches don’t give explanations on how the conditions are connected.
One of hypothesis was that depression damages cells of two parts of brain – hippocampus and amygdale – the damage later leads to Alzheimer’s disease. However, another research reported that there is no significant difference in brain areas of those with depression and those who never developed the condition.
Another hypothesis is that depression is not a factor causing Alzheimer’s disease later in life. It may be just an early sign warning about dementia development. Depression may be associated with changes taking place in brain and reducing neural reserve. Reduced neural reserve decreases brain’s ability to tolerate condition associated with Alzheimer’s.
Dutch researchers examined 486 people, 33 of whom developed Alzheimer’s disease. Those who suffered from depression before ages of 60 where 4 times more at risk for developing Alzheimer’s later in life.
US researchers fro Rush University examined 900 people during 13 years, 190 of these people developed Alzheimer’s disease within the study period. Those suffering from depression were found to be more likely to develop Alzheimer’s disease, just like the patients in Dutch study. However, those with depression history did not show significant depressive symptoms during early Alzheimer’s stages.
More research needs to be done to clarify the link between depression and Alzheimer’s disease. It’s now a question if depression leads to Alzheimer’s disease, or there is a reason causing both conditions – one earlier and the other one later in life.

Dim Lights At Night linked to Depression

Many people may leave the TV on at night or some sort of dim light thinking it is harmless. A new study
on hamsters is saying that it is possible that this kind of exposure to a dim light at night could create changes in the brain that lead to mental health concerns such as depression.
"People might want to try to avoid falling asleep with their TVs on all night," said Tracy Bedrosian, a doctoral student in neuroscience at Ohio State University. "They might want to try to minimize light exposure during the night,"
Bedrosian and colleagues placed hamsters in two different settings that involved light. In one setting hamsters were exposed to 16 hours of daylight and eight hours of complete darkness each day. In the other, the animals experienced 16 hours of daylight, but at nighttime, a dim light was kept on, about the intensity of a TV screen lighting up a dark room.
What the researchers discovered was that after eight weeks the researchers would evaluated behaviors that would suggest they were depressed. For example, they looked to see whether the hamsters still engaged in activities they normally enjoy, such as drinking sugar water.
Hamsters in both groups were given a choice between drinking tap water or sugar water. The hamsters exposed to light at night drank similar amounts of tap and sugar water — they'd lost their preference for the sweet treat.
"That suggests to us that they are not getting the same pleasurable and rewarding feeling from drinking their sugar water, and that it may be interpreted as a depression-like response," Bedrosian said.
The hamsters exposed to night light had a reduced number of so-called dendritic spines on the surface of cells in this region. Dendritic spines are hair-like protrusions that brain cells use to communicate with one another.
The findings agree with studies on humans that have found the hippocampus to be involved in depression. A patient with major depression has a smaller hippocampus, Bedrosian said.
The brain changes in the hamsters might arise from fluctuations in the production of the hormone melatonin, Bedrosian said. Melatonin signals to the body that it's nighttime, but a light at night dampens its production. The hormone has been shown to have some antidepressant effects, and so a decrease in melatonin might spur depression symptoms, Bedrosian said.
This study adds to previous findings connecting exposure to light during sleep and depressive behavior. One study found that mice exposed to bright lights at night tend to become depressed and to gain weight.
The findings suggest that light at night creates a disruption of the body's natural sleep cycle, and that this disruption can have significant effects on mental health.