The Girl and her Book

In a little boat
with waves all around
sits a small girl and a book.

The waves toss and turn
and the boat's mightily thrown
but she doesn't even blink an eye.

The book tells her stories
of princesses and fairies
fine princes and stallions white.

The boat throws her over
and she sinks into the sea
holding tight to the book
that keeps her safe.

She drowns
and the mermaids
carry her to a castle
and her body is laid
to rest.

-- Marie Tai

Sometimes life is so terrible that we must escape in order to cope. For instance, in Pan's Labryinth, the little girl's imaginary world runs parallel to the more bloody, dark, and violent reality of war and her mother's death. While her imaginary world could be equally dark and menacing, it gave meaning and explanation to many of the unimaginable terrors occurring in her real life.

The past few weeks, I have buried myself in books. I read all eight of the Sookie Stackhouse books, and burnt through Lisa See's Snow Flower and the Secret Fan (which I totally recommend that you read). I found a safe place in these stories. Everything in them happened to somebody else, whether good or bad. I was just a spectator. At the same time, I identified with some of the characters and tried to make sense of my life through trying to understand these fictional people and circumstances. V. didn't think that doing this would be much good for me, and I can't explain how it helped me, but it did. I'm rather sad that I ran out of Sookie Stackhouse books to read. Perhaps it's like the end of a movie when your popcorn bucket is empty and you have to get up and return to real life.

Enter New Life

Tick tock, tick tock...
EXPLOSION!
(and that was the end of the story.)

It seems every newspaper speaks of sure doom-
If not recession depression, then flu.
What happened to happy news?
Baby pandas and flowers,
Spring, gardening, and food.

Instead, single people cannot find love.
Instead, young people cause harm.

Predators come in the depths of the night
to prey on your twelve year old child.

A man says the church should spread more news of hope.
That preachers have let masses down.

And all around me, doom, doom, doom!
(BOOM!)

The downward spiral ends in a twist.
The people return to the earth.

And I in my garden, dig up dark earth
and plant seeds I'll save on the morrow
Adding sky water, and adding sky light
to grow a life brand new.

--Marie Tai

This poem, for me, is about the tension that is building up everywhere around me. At some point, I think it will be too much. I know already, for a lot of people, the stress of everything going on is really too much to bear. So there is an explosion in this poem, a breaking point of sorts that releases the tension and repetition. And when that happens, everything becomes simpler. People return to their roots and find joy in things like playing in the dirt and growing things, and they forget how traumatized they once were.

Foods For Your Mood

Feeling cranky, tired, or downright depressed? Want to do something about it? You know how they say don't turn to food at this time? Well, they're wrong. You gotta eat, so why not eat the right things. Here a few eating tips you might want to take note of:

Eating Tips
The key is to stabilize your blood sugars and level out your mood.

Eat every 4 to 5 hours. Eating consistently throughout the day gives your brain and body an even flow of fuel to do their jobs. This helps to prevent fluctuations in your blood sugar levels so that you can avoid the afternoon blahs.

Avoid Sugar Swings. Concentrated sources of sugar like soda, candy, fruit juice, jam and syrup can create big spikes and consequent dips in your blood sugar levels, leaving you cranky and tired. Even foods like white bread, crackers, bagels and rice can do the same thing because they are metabolized into sugar very quickly.

Choose to eat high-quality carbohydrates like veggies, fruit, beans, peas, lentils, brown and wild rice, and oatmeal instead. You'll feel full for longer and you won't experience the sugar (and thus mood) swings.

Add Soluble Fibre. Foods rich in soluble fibre slow down the absorption of sugar into your blood stream and thus reduce your sugar swings. Foods like oats, brown rice, barley, apples, pears, strawberries, oranges, sweet potatoes (I love sweet potatoes!), carrots, peas, and beans are great choices.

Eat Protein With Every Meal And Snack. Adding protein to your meals will slow the absorption of carbs into the blood. This will help leave you feeling upbeat and productive for hours after eating (Amen to that!). Smart protein choices include poultry, seafood and fish, veal, pork tenderloin, tofu, eggs and low-fat yogurt.

Foods That Make You Feel Better
There are three kinds of nutrients that help improve your mood.
Omega-3 fats
Omega-3 fatty acids are found in your brain at higher levels than any other part of the body, so it makes sense to give your brain more of what it needs to function properly. Don't starve your brain! Research has found that omega-3 fats are important in mood lifting and alleviating depression.

Foods rich in omega-3 fats include oily fish like salmon, mackerel and sardines, ground flaxseeds, canola oil, walnuts and omega-3 fortified eggs.

Folic acid and B12
These two B vitamins are important for mood. Studies have shown that low blood levels of these vitamins are sometimes related to depression. This may be because these vitamins are used by the body to create seratonin, which is one of the key neurotransmitters in the brain that normalize mood.

Foods rich in folate include fortified whole-grain breakfast cereals, lentils, black-eyed peas, soybeans, oatmeal, mustard greens, beets, broccoli, sunflower seeds, wheat germ and oranges.

Foods rich in vitamin B12 include shellfish like clams, oysters, and crab, wild salmon, fortified whole-grain breakfast cereal, lean beef, cottage cheese, lowfat yogurt, milk and eggs.

Vitamin D
Vitamin D is important for relieving mood disorders because it increases serotonin, the mood stabilizing neurotransmitter. Vitamin D is also important for helping reduce the effects of seasonal affective disorder, better known as the winter blues.

Foods rich in vitamin D: fish with bones, fat free and lowfat milk, fortified soy milk, and egg yolks. Milk also contains the amino acid tryptophan which is important for producing serotonin, and calcium which is known to calm nerves when feedling stressed or anxious.

(Your skin also makes vitamin D when exposed to sunlight, so a brisk walk outside can also help your mood. )

Drink Lots of Water. Dying in the desert is a sucky feeling. Don't put your body throught that. Drink lots of water throughout the day so that your body can do it's job properly.

Food To Eat More Of
To sum it up, when you're stressed and depressed, eat more vegetables, fruit, and oil-rich fish. Also drink lots of water! Eight-eight percent of the people who tried this reported fewer mood swings, fewer panic attacks and anxiety, or less depression. These are pretty good statistics for such easy things to eat more of. Nuts, like brazil nuts, are also good for your mood.

Foods To Avoid
Some foods are notorious for stressing you out. These include sugar, caffeine, alcohol, and chocolate. Try to keep these to a minimum.

Coffee. One cup of coffee can pick you up in the morning, but more and your mood is at risk.

Chocolate. If you're going to have chocolate, choose dark. You'll get the polyphenols which improve cognitive function, but less sugar which is ideal.

Alcohol. Alcohol is bad for your mood because it is a depressant. It shoots excess sugar into your blood stream to give you an initial high, but then your blood sugar drops dramatically creating feelings of anxiety, hopelessness or sadness.

In small quantities, alcohol can have calming, sedative effects. One glass of red wine with dinner, for example, can be soothing after a hard day at work. The problem with using alcohol to help you sleep is that you'll wake up rapidly once the alcohol converts to sugar in the body. This sleep disruption can contribute to feeling tired, anxious, and depressed.

Other Things To Fix Your Mood? Exercise. Go for that walk that you so desperately need and get some fresh air and sunlight. You'll feel much better afterwards. Working out in the gym is great too because your body will create more feel-good chemicals in your brain so you'll be more alert and happy.

Sources
MSNBC.com
WebMD.com
ABCNews.com
CBSNews.com