Now, this all defers with people depending on what they enjoy doing. I myself enjoy playing video games or card games... games in general. When I feel stressed or just want to get my mind off everything and have run out of new anime episodes, I honestly go back to my roots and think of one of my favorite past-times -- Yu-Gi-Oh.

The game has definitely evolved so much and no longer need to purchase cards in order to have a quick game. Everything can be done online, just like everything else with our quickly advancing era, providing us more convenient ways to essentially do everything at our fingertips. For those that plays the card game Yu-Gi-Oh and doesn't know about the website "Dueling Network (DN)" -- YOU'RE MISSING OUT! DN gives you access to the game's database of all the cards and easily lets you play the game with other users to test the deck before purchasing it. Now, I won't go into detail on how it works, but I can honestly say that I myself go on it once in a while in order to get my mind off stressful things before I overwhelm myself.

Don't get me wrong, the game DOES become ridiculous with the handful of bored immature kids here and there who are just looking for trouble, but when dodging those "trolls", the game becomes fun -- especially when you're winning ;) haha! Come on, who doesn't LOVE winning?

Playing a game in general distracts you from everything stressful and gives you a quick entertaining relief. It's a mixture of strategy (to get your mind off things) and social interaction (whether it's with other users or the game itself when playing an RPG game).

Try it sometime! Play a game! If you want to try Dueling Network, feel free to click the link below:
http://www.duelingnetwork.com/
Feel free to add me as a friend sometime and catch me online! I never usually turn down a game unless I'm busy doing something! ^_^
User: audreytan


Have fun and relax!
-A.T.

Have you ever experienced that feeling of uselessness, being easily agitated by your surroundings, taunted by the feeling of guilt, which haunts you and forbids you to rest at night? And then before you know it, you are trapped in this merciless nightmare, which you wish you were never born into. If you have, you might want to visit your family physician for a depression screening in your immediate future.

Major depression occurs amongst every one of all ages, but what differs the symptoms and effects between a teenager and an adult? In my own personal opinion along with some research guidance that I was able to pick up, it seems that teenagers tend to be more drastic and aggressive with depression while adults are rather passive, making it more difficult to identify. The key distinguisher of the 2 identities being: that of what goes on in the mind, aka your brain. In a teens mind, it’s less developed, and less experienced, causing the teenager to become more dependent to his or her surroundings when encountered with such a problem. This causes the teen to become more aggressive to his/her surroundings, which could lead to drastic measures such as:

• ·      Self-mutilation
• ·      Violence/hostility caused by agitation
• ·      Withdrawal from friends and family
• ·      Suicide

And why are such measures taken when encountered with depression you ask? The prime answer to this riddle is attention. The attention one seeks during depression can be seen like the nicotine for smokers, it’s a temporary solution. It reinforces the victim’s self-worth in his/her world. Teenagers are not like adults, they can’t seek for help themselves and their minds are more fragile. So I strongly advise that if you are an adolescent in your life, remember that you are not alone in this world and that everyone has their own unique worth in our lives. 

- K.P

When you are depressed sometimes you can not express the you way feel. Sometimes you do not know how to act or what your next step in life should be. Most people do not even know they are depressed. Depression can be unexplained.

And a way to explain these feelings is music.

Music makes us feel certain things that simple words could not. Music is universal and can form as a solution between language barriers. It is even used in movies to set a certain emotion in a scene. A simple lullaby can ease a crying baby.

Isn't music a powerful influence?

It is proven that music therapy in which people learn how to play an instrument show fewer symptoms of depression. Let's face it most do not want counselling and find the time in session ineffective, to each his (or her) own. Music therapy has a certain something that allows people to express themselves and interact in a non - verbal way in situations when they can not find the words to describe their inner experiences. In the most simplest terms, music lets people express words that can not. So go out there learn how to play the drums (take your pick), we promise you it will help in some way or form.

Not only playing, but listening to your favorite tunes as little as once a week can help reduce depressive symptoms. Music can sometimes play as a distraction, it makes you focus on the rhythm or lyric instead of the negative thoughts in your head. Music boosts the level of the hormone dopamine, which gets you excited and motivated. Lastly, music makes you feel understood, listening to a certain "sad" song can help you feel that you are not alone and help you feel a sense of relation to another person.

Here is a "Feel Good" playlist for all of you beautiful people to help you on this journey.

1. The Naked and The Famous - Young Blood 
2. Sam Roberts - Where Have All The Good People Gone?
3. Bruno Mars - The Lazy Song
4. Vampire Weekend - M79
5. Michael Franti - (Say Hey) I Love You
6. Coldplay - Hurts Like Heaven 
7. MGMT - Time To Pretend 
8. Dana Fuchs and Jim Sturgess - All You Need Is Love (The Beatles are absolutely magnificent and nothing can beat the original, but you can focus on the lyrics more in this)
9. Ingrid Michaelson - Everybody
10. Ellie Goulding - Human 
11. Metric - Stadium Love 
12. Hall & Oates - You Make My Dreams
13. Brett Dennen - Blessed 
14. Foster The People - Waste 
15. Matt and Kim - Daylight 
16. Wolfmother - Vagabond 
17. Of Monster and Men - Little Talks 
18. The Lumineers - Ho Hey 
19. Maroon 5 - Sunday Morning 
20. Imagine Dragons - It's Time

WHERE WORDS FAIL, MUSIC SPEAKS 

Do you have a certain song that brightens your mood? Can you play an instrument of some kind? Do you think it helps in some type of way? 

Let us know what you think or feel on the comment section below! :) 

- E.N. 

Many individuals come across hard times during their state of depression and are unable to handle everything that's happening around them. Here are 5 simple ways in order to help get you through your hardest days.

Step 1: Maintaining your current relationships

• When people get depressed they get the feel to isolate themselves from others in order to think things over or to just get some alone time that they feel they need. As you strive to complete your daily tasks you should always encourage yourself to be socially connected with your friends and family. By doing this it allows you to receive the support and courage you may need to help get you through the day

Step 2: Enjoy the little things

• When you are currently depressed it is often that you start losing trust in your own efforts. You can learn to take action by developing trust in your instincts. Now this factor can play a crucial role even in the smallest choices you make such as deciding on which chocolate bar to buy. Always try to encourage yourself to trust your judgments in order to help prevent yourself from second guessing the decisions you make.

Step 3: Set your phone aside

• A common symptom of depression is the lack of concentration. If you are constantly receiving phone calls, e-mails or notifications, it may interrupt your course of thinking, diverting you from the more important tasks you should try to be focusing on. If this is challenging for you, try to put your phone  own and check less often, even if you receive a phone call its okay to allow them to go to voice-mail. Try to put your phone aside several times throughout the day in order to focus on the important tasks on hand.

Step 4: Live in the present

• Regretting what you did yesterday or what may happen tomorrow may overwhelm your train of thought. Both of these habits can cause you to lack full attention when you may need it the most. Give your full attention to what you are doing in the present moment. When you wake up in the morning get a look outside your window, or grab the newspaper, to avoid worrying about work/school or any other aspects that might have you worried.

Step 5: Avoid feeding your depression

• Although this step is vague, it is an important step to work on overcoming your state of depression. Feeding your depression creates a snowball effect, which means as you keep on feeding your depression it only get bigger and bigger just like if you were to feed a couple of birds in the morning, each day a couple more birds are likely to show up. Learn to identify the negative thoughts and worries that may be causing your depression so you can place positive and more realistic thoughts ahead of them.           

Being able to find the support you need plays a huge role in the road to recovery. Doing it on your own leads to hardships that one may not be able to overcome when fighting through depression solo, although with that, reaching out for help may be one of the reasons to why you are stuck. With isolating yourself from support, you feel lonelier and much more alone rather than breaking through to recovery. Being able to maintain your close relationships and keep active in social activities are certainly important in order to better yourself.

As overpowering as it is to give up rather than attempting to reach out to close family members and friends, you must remind yourself that this is only the depression talking and that these people are the ones who care about you and only want to help.

Reasons to why it's hard to approach people for help:

• You may feel ashamed or embarrassed to talk about it
• Too exhausted to talk about it
• Feel guilty for neglecting the relationship
• Feel that you will be a burden to them
• Don't think anyone will understand how you feel

Whether you relate to one or more of those reasons to why you don't want to approach someone, you mind remind yourself that they love and care about you. They want you to feel better and get better as much as you do.

Here's what you should consider doing:

• Give your trusted family members and friends a chance to help. Try sharing with them with how you feel and what you are going through and in return, ask them for help and support -- trust in them. These people in your life will help get you through your tough times and help motivate you by encouraging you to do better day by day because they know you best.
• Try and attend social activities. Even though you're not in the mood or feel that you would much rather be at home in your bedroom laying in bed, being around people actually helps lift your mood. Whether it's a networking event or even as small as a coffee shop, there are many ways to just establish some sort of way to engage in small conversation to keep your mind off everything as well.
• Join a support group for depression. There are always places within your community that offers sessions with a group of people with the same problem. With a support group, you will be able to discuss your feelings with others who are also going through the same things you may be going through, which in a way can reduce your sense of isolation. With that, you can also encourage others, give and receive advice on how to cope through your own experiences.

You see, the mentality of "no one can help me", "I don't need anyone", or "I don't need friends to help me if I can't help myself" is certainly not true. Try stepping outside your negative shell and approach someone to normalize yourself.
 -A.T.

People have various methods of fighting their own battle in terms of dealing with depression. From my own experience of dealing with depression in the past personally I find changing your daily routine has many beneficial aspects. People like routine because it makes them comfortable and easily to manage their busy every day schedule. However, falling into routines has been proven to one of the many leads of depression. Therefore, doing things spontaneously at times encourage excitement and thrill of unexpected outcomes. During my time of depression, I’ve found a love to Pilates. Different from Yoga, Pilates require persistence to practice consistently it helps build strengths, flexibly, and improving balance over time.  I’ve become obsessed with Pilates and wanting to go everyday. The real issue is that coordinating my exercising time with school and a job on the side was ridiculously hard. But then a friend of mine introduced me to Blogilates. Sounds pretty odd at first but Blogilates is actually known to the yoga/Pilates community for quite sometime now.

Blogilates YouTube channel grew by popularity since 2009. Hosted by Cassey Ho, a bubbly gym enthusiast who loves to show her viewers different methods of exercising (especially Pilates) and healthy eating. Cassey’s Youtube channel now has more than 300,000 subscribers worldwide and her website has all the information about healthy eating/living from a-z, includes recipes, videos, tips, etc…

This blog posting sums up that even with a busy schedule, there are ways to get fit right at home in your own comfort. As mentioned many times in this blog before exercising and healthy eating is a great way to boost self esteem, improves mood, and combat health issues. I believe that with willingness and determination anyone can overcome difficult obstacles in life.  

Make sure to check out Blogilates YouTube channel and website (Blogilates)

Also try this out!

- K.P

Though a healthy diet or certain foods may not ease depression, a healthy diet may help a body perform at a level it needs to be at in order to help fight depression. Here are some healthy tips to consider:

1. Eat Protein Rich Foods.
Foods that are rich in protein such as chicken, turkey and tuna are rich in Tyrosine, an amino acid that helps boost chemical levels in the brain. This allows an individual to gain alertness making it easier for the individuals mind to concentrate. You should include protein rich foods in your diet when you feel the desire that you need to concentrate.

2. Nuts and Seeds
Almonds, peanuts, cashews and pumpkin seeds are good examples of nuts and seeds you should include in your diet when your feeling depressed. Now you may ask yourself why nuts or seeds? Well the answer is Magnesium. Magnesium influences serotonin a "feel good" brain chemical while also affects your overall energy production.

3. Salmon
Out of the many fish out there that provide omega-3 fatty acids, Salmon contain high concentration levels of omega-3's. these healthy fats aid your mood and memory, and researchers suggest that these nutrients can help lift mood, alleviate mild depression and improve memory. Oily fish like salmon also contain vitamin B12,  which also help produce serotonin.

These are just a few foods from a vast variety you may come across to help cure depression. Try to avoid binge eating, or snacking on sweets as these don't actually stimulate the body to overcome depression.
- B.D