In response to my post,  Crafts Good for Mental Health, one of my readers shared her  experiences with mixed media art in her struggle with multiple sclerosis. 

“Crafting and art has kept me sane,” she said, in spite of her left hand sometimes experiencing pain. 

I’d imagine her crafting also keeps her hands more agile, even though she does have some pain.  I know this was true of my grandmother.

Nanny’s hands were curled and crippled with arthritis in her later years.  However, she insisted on keeping them busy with snapping beans, shucking peas, mending clothes, stitching quilts, making doll clothes, and crocheting rag rugs.  I recall sitting beside her learning these tasks and recall her misshapen hands busy as she told me stories.

Image: sxc.hu

My daughter, who found quilting a stress reliever during her husband’s illness, experienced a serious illness herself last year.  As she recovered, but still was weak, she found inspiration through her quilt art and her quilting friends.

How have crafts inspired and aided you?

 Many crafters, quilters and fabric artists find their activities good for their mental health and alleviating depression.  Perhaps you’re going through a stressful time in your life.  Why not concentrate on your creative activities?

Image:sxc.hu

 In addition to giving you something to concentrate on when your thoughts could delve into darkness, crafts and related arts may bring you together with others in your field.  This helps you find new directions and boost your spirits. 

 I’ve found working with my hands a great diversion over the years.  The actual task of quilting, scrapbooking, crocheting and other crafts is relaxing.  Often you can take your work with you.

 My daughter began her serious venture into quiltmaking when her husband was seriously ill.  The small hand projects were easy to tote along to hospitals and waiting rooms.

 If you can begin to earn income through your crafts to help with the family budget during times of budget crunches, this also helps alleviate the stress of life.

How have arts and crafts helped you through tough times?

Accordingly to Travel Weekly (the newspaper of the travel industry), occupancy rates at Mexico hotels dropped to 24% after the Swine Flu (officially called the H1N1 virus) outbreak.  That represents a drop in over 50% from the same week in 2008.

My experience in Cancun earlier in the week was consistent with these numbers, so it wouldn’t surprise me to see the occupancy rate plunge even lower.

High schools were reopening the day after I left, and the lower schools were scheduled to reopen next week.  The city seems to be getting a handle on things, and slowly starting to return to everyday life.

Sadly, the echo effect that the swine flu will have on the Mexican economy will last long past the reopening of the schools.

If you’d like to hear more of my thoughts about traveling to Mexico, especially my recent experience in Cancun, I was interviewed by Addison Schonland, from the IAG Group (an aviation consulting firm) and you can listen to the IAG podcast.

Photo credit:  personal collection

Another form of parenting consists of caring for one’s parents or elderly relatives. You’ve gone from being parented to parenting that older person.   Most caregivers go into this stage of life without adequate preparation or support.

Finding caregiver support groups in your area, or online, can be a challenge.  Here are a few suggestions.

Check out the following places in your community to see if they have a support group or know of any:

• Home health agencies
• Senior Center
• Local Hospital
• Local Nursing homes
• State Alzheimer’s Association
• State Department of the Elderly or Family Services
• Others caring for elderly parents or spouses

If there is nothing in your community, the groups meet when you’re at work, or you live too far from an organized community, you might want to check out online support groups.  Also, by reading blogs about Alzheimer’s caregiving and leaving comments that the blogger and other readers might answer, you’ll feel more connected with the caregiver community and not so alone.

What suggestions do you have? Are there particular caregiver groups/organizations you find particularly helpful.

I found something interesting today on AOL Health about diet and health. It seems that some of that healthful eating we do can actually be detrimental to our bladder health. Who knew? Well, after reading this we both will. 

The following evidence is known as “anecdotal” which means it will affect some people, but not others, according to Kelly O’Connor, R.D., L.D.N.

Citrus fruits, tomatoes, while full of healthy vitamin C are also full of acid. This can irritate conditions such as urinary incontinence and over-active bladder. Spicy foods can do the same thing, so watch the jalapenos.

Water is good because it flushes bacteria out of your system. Alkaline foods like pears or bananas are goodbecause the balance an overly acidic system. Broccoli is good and is considered a cancer-fighter. Other members of the cruciferous family including brussel sprouts, cabbage, kale, and cauliflower may help, too. Eat ‘em up. Good stuff.

Yogurt with acidophilus helps to fight toxins in the bladder and look for plain rather than flavored, because sugar is no hero to your bladder. It promotes the growth of bacteris and can lead to urinary tract infections. Artificial sweeteners aren’t a good substitute, because they are like acidic or spicy foods, they can increase the symptoms of overactive bladder.

Cranberry juice. Everyone knows this one, right? But just how does Cranberry promote better urinary tract health?  It’s the hippuric acid, which keeps bacteria off of the walls of the urethra.

Coffee, alcohol, and cigarettes. None of these are good. The coffee and alcohol act as a diuretic, flushing out the good stuff. Smoking cigarettes increases your risk of bladder cancer - it doubles it. If you smoke, please quit.

For more information, please click here to read the entire article.

Image credit: All Posters.com

Laughter is good for us, whether we’re in business or not.  However, at Woman on Business, I found an interesting post, Laughter is Serious Business by Chrysty Beverley Fortner.

Image: sxc.hu

Chrysty tells us that if you make her laugh, she’ll do business with you. So perhaps this is a good tip to keep in mind if you’re in a craft (or any other) business.  She also mentions how laughter is good for health, stress relief and your life in general.

I know when my mother had Alzheimer’s, laughter helped my husband, Mother and me get through this difficult time.  When Mother commented, “We don’t laugh enough,” I realized that, even though this was a serious illness, we needed to take time for humor.

How are you incorporating laughter into your life and business?

Let me know if , when you take Chrysty’s advice and laugh with your customers, you have more success.

What is usually thought to be a funny quirk in some dogs — chasing their own tail — is now being thought to have a more serious link.

Researchers are discovering that tail chasing might be a sign of high cholesterol, which adds one more symptom to a list of behavioral issues that they already feel can be attributed to high cholesterol in humans, such as panic attacks and OCD.

They tested 30 dogs — 15 who chased their tails and 15 who didn’t — to come up with their data. The tail chasers had higher HDL and LDL cholesterol numbers. As for why it happens, the researchers say:

“The reason could be that high cholesterol levels glob up cell membranes at the microscopic level, affecting the flow of brain hormones such as serotonin that are involved in mood and behavior.”

Physical trauma to the dog is also thought to contribute to the quirk, and bull terrier and German shepherd breeds are more likely to do it.

[source; image: flickr]

There are some items in health news that continually flip flop. Eggs are good for you. Then they are bad. Carbs are the enemy. Then… not so much.

Another flip flopping subject is vitamins. My doctors over the years have suggested that I take them, and after breaking my ankle one year I finally did. I drink milk, and try and eat healthy foods, but still, I take vitamins for that “extra protection.”

However, a new study by the Women’s Health Initiative “tracked multivitamin use by 161,000 older women over an eight-year period to see if the vitamins might reduce their risk for heart disease and certain cancers. In the end, the researchers found no such benefit from the vitamins.”

So what’s a girl to do? I know there are a lot of women that will continue taking vitamins regardless of this study, but is it worth it? What do you think?

Image from Morguefile.

The Discovery Training is more physical than I expected.

I’m in the best shape of my whole entire life.

And yet . . .

The peeing my pants in public is just too much.

Stupid post-birth incontinence.

I finally went to my room for the Diva Cup. It helped.

Today I ordered the bizarro Berman Center Isis Beginner Pelvic Kegel Trainer Muscle Exerciser.

I saw it on Oprah.com during the Best Life Web Cast with sex therapist Laura Berman.

Evidently my vajayjay needs her very own workout - with weights. It’d be humiliating if it weren’t so hilarious.

In a few weeks, she says I’ll be strong enough to graduate to this bad boy:

Man, I really wish I could post on Blog Fabulous today. But, I’m swamped giving away a bunch of prizes elsewhere.

I do have this to say. Fruit makes me gassy and bloaty. Had to stop at the health food store for some enzymes to handle my new eating habits.

I love taking Mondays off my workout routine instead of Sundays. I always have time on Sundays and too much work on Mondays.

Also I’m learning to understand the value of outsourcing.

Photo credit: Newly redesigned and relaunched The Girl Revolution