Daily Solutions # 3

Do You Have a Hard Time Falling Asleep?

Solution: Concentrate on Your Breathing

Forget the gadgets and prescription medications. Most acute sleeping disorders are a result of not being able to 'turn our brains off' (kids, relationship, bills, mortgage...etc). So, by concentrating on your breathing when you have your eyes closed, you will go into the meditation stage, and thus, in a more relaxed stage needed to fall asleep.
 If done correctly, when concentrating on your breathing, it is impossible to think about anything else.  

It will take a several tries. Commit yourself. It will work.

One more day until the start of my month-long challenge to overcome my TV/Online TV addiction.
You could come up with your own 30 Day Challenge, and let me know about your progress on my blog or via twitter @solutionaddict.

Don't undermine the power of support!

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Daily Solutions #2

Did you know that over-analyzing increases anxiety and leads to negative thoughts?

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Solution: Journaling.

By writing down your thoughts, you allow for a more logical analysis.
For a more productive journaling, write down your thoughts, read it over and try to justify the thought. This way, you are more likely to determine if what you are feeling is based on a logical occurrence, or a product of over-analyzing.

Daily Solutions #1:

You Snooze, You Lose

Want to wake up more alert in the morning?

Get rid of the Snooze option on your alarm clock. Studies show that you tend to be more alert if you wake up with the initial alarm.
Want a challenge? How about placing your alarm clock away from arm's reach.

February= OverComing TV Addiction

So, apparently the first step to recovery is acceptance. Here, I am suppose to admit to the various addiction that I think I have. Who am I kidding; I don't 'think' I'm addicted, I 'know' I am.Here it is:

I am addicted to watching TV shows online. It seems mediocre, but it is by far one of the most disabling addiction I have. First of all, it is easily accessible, always available and there is always a new show or episode that I could convince myself to watch.

My addiction to watching TV shows started during last summer when I developed an acute anxiety disorder. Watching shows became a way that I escaped my highly anxious reality. Watching shows like Californication, Weeds, and MadMen for hours upon hours, considering many of the so-called good shows had been on air for several seasons meant sleepless night and drowsy days of watching exhilarating TV shows. I eagerly played the next episode when the current one was done because I just couldn't wait to find out what happens next.

Once I finished watching the 'good' shows, I discovered my anxiety became much worse, now that I didn't know what else to watch. So, I settled for anything semi-decent with some what of a story line to keep me busy. Now almost 8 month into this, I have been late to complete my Master's thesis, apply for internship and job postings related to my field, my anxiety disorder has gradually become chronic and I find myself surfing for new episodes of anything, in order to distract myself from doing what I should be doing.

Hopefully, with the start of this blog my TV addiction will come to the end.
Everyday, until the end of the month, I am going to write about over coming one of my addictions.
It will work. I know it will.

Addict:
addict |ˈadikt|
noun
a person who is addicted to a particular substance, typically an illegal drug : a former heroin addict.

WRONG!

http://www.hcpro.com

In today's world, we are all addicts. No, we are not all addicted to substances, although unfortunately some people are. But, we are all still addicts. Phone, TV, Internet, Video Games, Movies, Shopping, Gossiping, Self Sabotage, Food and so much more.

It seems that the more we advance (and I use that term very loosely) technologically, we seem to increase our ability to become addicted to multiple numbing mechanism, as a way to escape or actually connect to another reality.

Why speak in a distance phenomenon, when I could very easily use myself as an example. Despite being relatively young (mid 20s), with a pretty impressive resume and educational background, I  easily consider myself an addict. I cannot blame any of my addictions on my childhood or upbringing- I actually grow up in a very stable household-, nor can I blame it on being bullied at school, or being fired from a job. I cannot pin point an exact occurrence that has led me to this moment, and I certainly will not hold another individual responsible for my issues.

Accepting that I have an issue did not happen overnight, rather I have only started accepting that I have a problem after realizing the extend to which my addictions control my daily activities and dictate my life.

So, now that I know I have a problem, I have decided to create a blog in order to track my progress, while I tackle one addiction at a time.