Ironic Interventions in Exhaustion and Depression

Last night I wrote on Facebook an absolutely true situation that happens to me: "The best way to keep from falling asleep is to give up trying and go get ready for bed. Then...WIDE awake!"

It happens to me all the time. It could be that it takes me awhile and I am simply moving around. It may also be that I am acknowledging what my body is telling me. If there is something I absolutly have to get done, Ill take care of it and then get to bed. Otherwise, in spite of the temporary spurt of energy, go ahead to bed, especially if you know you really need it!

But if it is day time, and you have got to get yourself moving, a super easy thing to do is to drink a a tall glass of cold water straight down. (I takes keeping chilled water in the fridge, no ice, so you can down it.) I think quite often tiredness has to do with dehydration. The hardest part is to just remember this helps!

Other things that help with extreme fatigue, if I can make myself do them are taking a short walk and turning on some music that I normally love to dance to. Often just putting on Salsa music makes me actually get up and move around. Must be something to the idea of "getting the blood pumping."


These simply things often help also with depression. We here all the time about the mind-body connection, which makes me fee like I have to change my entire lifestyle,overwhelming when dealing with depression. But these few little tools can help in the short term.

In addition, specifically for depression, I notice at times that my visual focus has limited. Most obvious when driving, I may be looking straight ahead and not observing things all around me. Literal tunnel vision. By intentionally looking all around, it opens up not only the vision, but seems too loosen the hold of being overly internally focused that accompanies depression.

Try one of these. Let me know if they help. And share your quick and easy tools as well!

Heather J. Kirk
Art by Heather J. Kirk www.heather-kirk.pixels.com
Literature by Heather J. Kirk http://www.photographicartistry.citymax.com/Books.html

#depression #fatigue #exhaustion #rest #work #walk #water #dehydration #mentalhealth #physical #health

Sugar in my soda...

Sugar in my soda…

I have always been a Pepsi girl. First, Coke is too fizzy. I remember watching my niece blowing into the top of a Coke can while I was visiting my brother and family. I laughed when I realized she was imitating me! I habitually attempted to blow off some of the excess carbonation in order to tolerate it.

Next, Coca Cola (in the U.S) is too bitter. Yet I noticed that last June, at the all-inclusive resort my friend and I stayed at, that even though all they had was Coke (not Pepsi), I didn't mind it. I thought it was that it was 'on tap' and therefore not as fizzy, and that they always stuffed a few lime wedges in the glass, changing the flavor.

Everyday I carry a tray of cooking supplies (and sometimes a Coke)

from my room to the kitchen.

Though Pepsi is available here in grocery stores, it is rarely found in restaurants and colmados (corner stores). Yet I drink Coke readily - still blowing off the steam before drinking, but not finding the taste bitter. Why? Well, most sodas bottled in the Caribbean (this Coke bottled right here in Dominican Republic) are made with sugar. What's the big deal, you ask? Check your label. It will not say sugar but corn syrup.

Because of more and more negative reports about corn syrup, I had been bothered by my personal addiction to sweet, carbonated, cold caffeine.

Of course the sugar/corn syrup issue doesn't explain why I liked Pepsi. In the States it too is made with corn syrup. So it's a secret recipe issue.

Last year PepsiCo tested a "Pepsi Throwback" in a small test market to great results. The throwback aspect had to do with making it the "old fashioned way." Any guesses? Yep. Sugar! I waited and waited and waited for them to release it nationwide - excited that sugar could somehow be justified in my mind as healthy! (Okay, healthier...)

It showed up in my Walgreens store the day before I moved to the Dominican Republic. No problem, the Pepsi here is made with sugar also.

A few interesting links on the case against corn syrup:

The Death of High Fructose Corn Syrup, http://healthfreedoms.org/2010/04/19/the-death-of-high-fructose-corn-syrup/

A sweet problem: Princeton researchers find that high-fructose corn syrup prompts considerably more weight gain; http://healthfreedoms.org/2010/03/26/a-sweet-problem-princeton-researchers-find-that-high-fructose-corn-syrup-prompts-considerably-more-weight-gain/

Study Finds High-Fructose Corn Syrup Contains Mercury; http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/01/26/AR2009012601831.html


Heather J. Kirk, Photographer, Author, Graphic Designer
"We...a spirit seeking harmony for a world that's out of sync" - purchase an e-book at: photographicartistry.citymax.com/Books
Find her art at: Fine Art America
and HeatherJKirk.com

As Citizens of the Human Race We Must find Ways to Help Haiti: An Open Letter to My Nieces

I am so proud of you girls, the Kirk Family and John Hay Elementary School for not only wanting to help out victims of the earthquake in Haiti, but actually finding a way to help. Millions watch the news, feel so badly about it hundreds of thousands of dead, injured, and homeless Haitians, but don't know what they can do to help. But it is part of being a citizen of this world and the human race to make an effort and find a way to make a difference!

Your willingness to give out of your own piggy banks and to participate in a Read-a thon at your school that will support Project Hope is a kindness that will save lives and heal hearts.

Though I cannot help with money right now, I can help with encouragement, and I also can tell my own story.

When I decided threemonths ago, and bought my airplane ticket, to move to the Dominican Republic, I would never have guessed the timing of it. That I would be in the air with Haitians returning to their homeland in a desperate search for their missing family members; or with medical personel and rescue workers willing to risk their own lives and health to help others thery probably could not even communicate with;, and with journalists jsut as crucial to the rescue, by turning the world's eye and heart to the bottomless human pain and need - and thereby the conduits of releif.

But a week prior to my departure I knew the lieklihood was great . Even that I might be asked to give up my seat to one of them (but I was not).

Someone from the the Dominican Republic whom I met through Linked In - an on-line business networking site - told me he was buying a round trip bus ticket for a Haitian woman who he buys fruit from every day. He wanted to send some medical supplies with her and asked me if I would like to contribute, but it turned out she would not be able to take very much.

Still, it gave me the idea to go through my closet and collect any extra supplies I may have. I found two bottles of Colloidal Silver, which is a natural antibiotic, as well as aspirin and Neosporyn, etc. I also bought lots of gauze and two huge boxes of gloves (that almost put my suitcases over the weight limit!). Mom brought some things also, and we decided to just "look for people" to give them to, as random as that sounds.

My good friend from the Dominican Republic who is a taxi driver/tour guide has been running groups to and from Haiti every day, working so much that I have only seen him once for an hour. It is clear how what he sees day after day (the destruction, illness and the many bodies) weighs heavily on his spirit. And yet without him and many others like him, the arrival of workers and supplies would be even less than currently reaches the field. Still, I was not able to send supplies with him as I had hoped.

The second day in the Jaragua Hotel in Santo Domingo a man, seeing the seldom American face, walked up to mom and introduced himself, saying he was a part of a group of Vietnam Vets going into Haiti to provide medical help. After mom told me, it became my mission to find them again and pass on our supplies. A day and half later, we decided to gather it all up (a few bags and boxes) and walk through the hotel until we found them (again, a bit random). We found them in one of the restaurants, finishing dinner and ready to go to bed, as they would be leaving at 3 am.

They turned out to be a part of a larger group called HEART 9/11, various people who came together as a part of the World Trade Center Search and Rescue Team (as well as 9 months of follow up assistance there). The members have worked together since, with different volunteer teams going all over the nation and the world, wherever disaster assistance is needed. We were quickly introduced to the organization's founder and the team-leader of the Haiti Mission - William Keegan.
A bit about him that I just now found on their website www.heart911.org:
"A highly decorated Lieutenant in the Special Operations Division (S.O.D.) and a 20-year veteran of the Port Authority Police Department, Bill Keegan was Night Operations Commander of the WTC Rescue/Recovery Teams, and awarded the highest medal for the WTC 9/11 assault. His other awards include the 1993 WTC Bombing Medal of Valor for his rescue of school children trapped in a stalled elevator; the Hanratty Medal of Valor, over fifty police duty medals and is certified at the 400 level of the Incident Command System. Mr. Keegan is also a member of the NYPD and New Jersey Honor Legions."

I thought his name sounded familiar. He was so humble and kind. Expressing gratitude for every little thing. I wanted to make sure they had medical personnel as a part of the team, to properly administer the colloidal silver - which they did. The website says they just received $7.5 million from the Jeffries Group, yet he patiently and and graciously accepted my little bags and boxes, along with my suggestions on how to use three bottles of colloidal silver both topically and internally.

Oh, yes, the third bottle came as a personal donation by from the receptionist at a natural health practitioner's office across from my chiropractor's office. She was happy and releived to have some way to help!

I just want to tell you again how proud I am of you. Read lots and keep your minds and hearts open to others in need.

Love, Aunt Heather

Heather J. Kirk, Photographer, Author, Graphic Designer
"We...a spirit seeking harmony for a world that's out of sync" - purchase an e-book at: photographicartistry.citymax.com/Books
Find her art at: Fine Art America.com and Search Heather Kirk
and HeatherJKirk.com