cheerupsapphics-blog

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UNDERSTANDING

types of anxiety disorders // what is panic disorder? // panic disorder & agoraphobia // tips to cope with a panic attack // 3 ways to help someone having a panic attack // 4 things you shouldn’t say to someone having a panic attack // what is obsessive compulsive disorder? // more on ocd // coping with ocd // living with someone who has ocd // what is post-traumatic stress disorder? // coping with ptsd // 10 tips for understanding someone with ptsd //what is social anxiety disorder? // coping with social anxiety disorder // how worrying affects the body

CALMING DOWN

wikihow // helpful tips // 3 practices to calm an anxious mind // how-to guide // creating your mind palace // 3 breathing exercises // 6 breathing exercises // yoga bunny // meditation for beginners // about meditation // yoga with connie bowman // 20 minute yoga routine // yoga to make you happy // guided meditation 

MASTERPOSTS

back to school // helpful websites // happy things // feel good things // college survival // a lil bit of everything // a really big masterpost // music masterpost // diy home spa // coping skills & distractions // for bad days // bad day remedies

BLOGS

yogaholics // killyouranxiety // thatanxietyblog // lets-beat-mental-illness // recoverykitty // yogis-yoginis // healthylifestylechoice // happier-soon // rising.co.vu // catfromhell // you-can-just-breathe (trigger warning: autoplay) // recovery-in-pink // forescent // recoverytree

MUSIC

note to self. // good feelings // coffee shop acoustic // bubble baths, coffee and hardback books // rad covers // a little bit of everything // good morning // breathe // acoustic // conquer school // wheels on the road // choose happy // coffee shop tunes // my faves // good vibes // late winter nights // lovely quiet // overwhelmed // tonight you’re perfect // random [feel]goodies // rewind // crawling back to you // sleepy tunes 

RELAXING NOISES

soundsleeping // noisli // naturesoundsfor.me // ambient-mixer // calmsound // calm.com // mynoise.net // rainymood // coffitivity // soundrown

OTHER

make a grounding box // top 10 essential oils to relieve anxiety // personal care products from walgreens // aromatherapy // 19 natural remedies for anxiety // lots and lots of sweaters // stuffed animals // books (free) // used books for 1 cent // electric blankets // soft pillows

#anxiety #mental health #resources

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Good things to list

#art #positivity

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*****I spelled Pavor Nocturnus wrong, oops.*****

A night terror, sleep terror or pavor nocturnus is a parasomnia or sleep disorder, causing feelings of terror or dread, and typically occurs during the first hours of stage 3-4 non-rapid eye movement (NREM) sleep. Night terrors tend to happen during periods of arousal from delta sleep, also known as slow-wave sleep. During the first half of a sleep cycle, delta sleep occurs most often, which indicates that people with more delta sleep activity are more prone to night terrors. However, they can also occur during daytime naps.

Anxiety related:

Self-Soothing Techniques

Self-Calming Techniques

Generalized Anxiety Disorder: Tips to Self Soothe

Anxiety BC: How to do Progressive Muscle

anxietycoach.com: The Key to Overcoming Panic Attacks

Psychology Today: 5 Quick Tips to Reduce Stress and Stop Anxiety

Psych Central: Top 10 Lesser-Known Self-Help Strategies for Anxiety

about health: Ways of Coping With Anxiety

PTSD related:

help with PTSD stress

self care/ self soothing techniques for PTSD

Coping with stress using self soothing methods for PTSD

Autogenic relaxation:

howard community college: autogenic relaxation

autogenic relaxation: podcast

Autogenic Relaxation: free relaxation scripts

Guided Imagery/ Visualization: 

Health Promotion and Wellness: Guided Imagery Exercises

Guided Imagery Audio Library

Sample Guided Imagery and Meditations from Dr. Miller

Imagery International: Podcasts

White Noise and Ambient Sound:

soundrown

Coffitivity

Rainy Mood

myNoise™.net

Calmsound

Ambient-Mixer

nature sounds for . me

Sound Sleeping: Relaxing Music and Sleep Aids

Progressive relaxation:

Progressive Muscle Relaxation

Progressive Muscle Relaxation

Progressive Muscle Relaxation Script

Inner Health Studio: Free Relaxation Scripts

Anxiety BC: How to do Progressive Muscle Relaxation

Dartmouth: Relaxation Downloads

Counseling and Psychological Services: Relaxation Recordings

Isochronic Tones/ Binaural Beats:

Iso-Tones.com: Recreational Tones

Sound Cloud: Sleep Aid High-Tech Meditation (Delta Relaxation Isochronic Tones)

Improve Your Brain Power and Mental Well-Being With Isochronic Tones

Audio Enlightenment: Binaural Beats-Isochronic Tones Relaxation

Deep Relaxation: Binaural Beats and Isochronic Tones

Deep Sleep: Sleep Music Binaural Beats and Lullabies

Sleep Sanctuary: Binaural Beat Suite

Create a playlist of music that relaxes you.  Keep your music player on your night stand so that it is available when you wake up.

Keep a journal by your bed.  When you wake up, write down everything you remember about the nightmare.  This will help to focus you on a task and distract you, plus you may start to notice trends.  Writing things down can be highly therapeutic.

Try taking melatonin before bed, as it can help you to relax and sleep better. Benzos (such as diazepam) used at bedtime can  reduce night terrors.  Prazosin, a blood pressure medication, has also shown promise in PTSD sufferers.  If you have an as-needed anxiety medication, keep it on the night stand.  Consider talking to your doctor about these options.

St. John’s Wort may help if taken before bed, but please talk to your doctor / pharmacist before trying this technique as it can have reactions with medications.

As with most sleep disorders, try to keep a regular sleep-wake cycle. Get up at the same time every day, go to sleep at the same time every night.  Having a routine before bed is important as well, as it prepares your brain for sleep.  

Reserve your bed for sleep only: no watching TV, texting, or using your laptop.Regular exercise reduces stress and releases endorphins, and can reduce your night terrors.

#night terror #mental health #resources

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Grounding 101 (I hope this helps someone)

What is grounding for??

Extreme emotional distress

Dealing with triggers & emotions ~ rage, dissociation, substance cravings, self harm impulses, emotional pain.

Tips for beginning ~

It can be used any time, any place, anywhere…..

No talking about negative feelings or journal writing (you want to move away from troublesome thoughts - not towards them!)

Stay neutral - avoid judgements of good/bad (if, if you are not noticing the walls, simply note that “the walls are blue” NOT “the walls are blue and I hate blue!”

Focus on the present NOT the past/future.

3 ways of grounding

Mental Grounding

Physical Grounding

Soothing

Mental Grounding

Describe your environment in detail (either out-loud or silently to yourself.) Use all your senses (eg. The walls are white, the chairs are orange - there is the smell of grass in the air, I feel warm.) Describe objects - textures, colors, smells, shapes, numbers, temperature. 

Play a categories game with yourself: list types of things ~ dogs, movies, books, actors, cars, or pick a letter - all movies that begin with “G” (Gone with the wind, Gone in 60 seconds, ect.)

Describe an activity in great detail (eg. A recipe - first boil the spaghetti, then I make the sauce - I add basil, and oregano, I peel the tomatoes and chop them, ect…) 

Say a safety statement: “My name is _____; I am safe right now. I am in the present, not in the past. I am located in ______; the date is _______.

Count to 10 or recite the alphabet s..l..o..w..l..y..

Physical Grounding

Run warm or cool water over your hands.

Grab tightly onto the chair, as hard as you can.

Touch various objects around you (pen, keys, chair, ect.) Notice textures, temperatures, weight, ect.

Dig your heels into the floor.

Carry an object around in your pocket (a rock, or a penny) that you can touch when you feel triggered.

Jump up and down

Stretch

Clench and release your fists

Walk slowly, noticing each step - say "left, right” as you step down.

Eat something and describe the flavors in detail

Focus on your breathing

Soothing Grounding

Say kind statements as if you were talking to a small child

Think of favorites

Picture the people that you care about

Remember the words of an inspiring quote or song

Say a coping statement (This too shall pass.)

Plan a safe treat for yourself (candy, a special dinner, a warm bath)

This of things that you are looking forward to in the next week.

What if grounding does not work?

Practice as often as possible

Try grounding for a looooooong time (20-30 mins)

Start grounding early in a negative mood cycle

Make an index card of effective grounding techniques

Meditative tape or CD

DON’T GIVE UP

#grounding #resources #mental health

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Resources for bi people of faith!

So! Before we start, let me just say that these recommendations come from someone who is Roman Catholic & wrote her BA thesis about (Sunni) Islamic approaches to a queer-positive understanding of marriage. So these are obviously the positions I know a little more about, while for the others, I’m relying almost entirely on recommendations of other people. I have looked at all the sites, but may well have overlooked issues, whether I know more about the faith or not. So please, if anything on here is bothering you, let me know and I’ll adjust the recommendations!

Even more importantly, if you have further recommendations, add them! Either reblog or (if you want to make sure all our followers can see them on our blog) drop us a line in our ask box & I’ll add them!

General

bisexual-community has a great archive on being bi and religous, check out their bi people of faith and bisexual people of faith tags!

Bisexual People of Faith is a lovely facebook group where you can find a very diverse collection of spiritual art, testimonies from people talking about their bisexuality & faith, and links to articles around MOGAI stuff & religion.

Bisexuality: Making the Invisible Visible in Faith Communities

Blessed Bi Spirit: Bisexual People of Faith

Islam

LGBT Muslims has stories, and news about queer Muslims - to be honest, I haven’t looked into the site in detail, but the people they cite on their “ideas” page and the Organizations they link to seem okay, so I’ll link to it here. Please let me know if you know of any reason the page should not be recommended.

I am not haraam is a tumblr I highly recommend following, they publish testimonies from queer Muslims and have a resource page of their own.

This Queer Muslim Masterpost lists way more than I ever could (including links for ace and bi peeps!).

Bisexual Muslims email discussion group

Queer Muslims tumblr

Imaan is a UK organization dedicated to queer Muslims, they have a FAQ section, several support groups, and even a little webshop.

The Muslim Alliance for Sexual and Gender Diversity (MASGD) organizes retreats for queer Muslims.

The book “Islam and Homosexuality” by Scott Siraj al-Haqq Kugle offers a very detailed, very interesting exploration of why the Qur’an can be seen as validating both gay and trans identities. Unfortunately, the author is rather biphobic in his introduction, so I wouldn’t 100% endorse him as a person, but the book itself is still interesting and, as far as I recall, the biphobia isn’t very apparent in the actual chapters.

khalvatdaranjuman is a tumblr run by a bi activist, Islamic scholar and Sufi (update:  Ibrahim Abdurrahman Farajajé passed away February 2016, but his blog remains online)

LGBT Muslim FAQ by @homojabi, including answers to some common religious justifications for homo- and transphobia, as well as resources for converts/reverts 

Christianity

Welcoming Resources has some really nice prayers and such. Their webiste also has a section called “Find a welcoming congregation”, which seems to have quite a few locations in the United States, not so much for the rest of the world, but for all our US followers, that might be useful! Their subpages for Christian LGBT+ Orgs and Multi-Faith Orgs are also very detailed (although I feel like the name of the second one is slightly misleading, as far as I can see it’s non-Christian single-faith organizations. Very detailed though, much longer than I can probably make this, so check it out!)

Believe Out Loud has a lot of articles and testimonies on being bi and Christian.

Hope Remains offers some fascinating word-by-word interpretations of bible verses commonly used against same-sex attractions and relationships.

The Gay Christian Network has info material, including a “Church Toolkit”, and organizes a conference for, well, gay (and other queer) Chrisitians. They also have a musical on being gay and Christian which I intend to see asap, because queer musicals are the best and Straight to Heaven is a great title.

Would Jesus discriminate?

elielcruzwrites about Bisexuality, Christianity and Feminism, among other things.

Judaism

Keshet has queer Torah interpretations, articles on same-gender marriage, resources for trans people, and trainings for institutions that want to be more queer-inclusive.

TransTorah is pretty much what the name suggests.

JQ international has, among other things, materials on Queer Jewish role models and a subpage where you can find welcoming congregations.

JQY offers support to queer Orthodox Jews (they also have a Facebook page)

For Jewish peeps looking for some validation through fluffy fictional representation: shiraglassman writes wonderful novels about a Jewish lesbian queen and her Jewish bisexual girlfriend. There is also plenty of other great Jewish and/or queer characters, including one other bi character, though I can never remember if he’s Jewish as well.

Other faiths

The Gay Buddhist Fellowship is, unfortunately, only for “gay men”, but I would assume that this at least includes other men who are attracted to men.

Gay & Lesbian Vaishnava Association 

(This list is far from complete. I know that I must have forgotten a ton of stuff & there is even more out there that I don’t know about, but since I don’t know when I’ll get around to adding more and doing more research, I’m posting now & will keep updating this post, as well as our resource page, as I go.)

- mod platypus

#bi #lgbt #religion #religious #resources

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3 kisses and 1 attempt

#art #wlw #sapphic #lgbt

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Lesbians and ice cream

#art #sapphic #wlw #lesbian #lgbt

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HOW TO BE HAPPIER

an updated version of this post appears in my book THINGS ARE WHAT YOU MAKE OF THEM! 13 full-color chapters of illustrated essays like this for creative people of all kinds. you can get it here for $10.

#art #positivity

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7.15.15 // 3.25 am - journal Don’t mitigate yourself for anyone. 

#art #positivity

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I will make it out of this alive.   (stayhomeclub.com)

My photo.

#positivity

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is that normal that I respond to not-so-severe-bad-experiences as if they were really traumatic? i mean i was emotionally abused by an adult woman I dated when I was 14 but it all was online and only lasted for around two months and I feel like I have no business feeling so horrible about it and thinking so much about it and being so hurt and changed by it and being such a wreck because of it when it’s been over two years since that all

i’m not sure whether it’s normal as in more common but it happens to me too - stuff that wasn’t quite that severe has me heavily traumatized for ages. i think it’s impossible to rationally lower down the amount of trauma + side effects one goes through depending on how actually severe the traumatizing situation / relationship is - but for me it does help to put things in perspective. as in, did this really ruin my life? is this the end of it all? how much time out of my life did this relationship take away from me? but mostly - is there any possible way for me to make this better? i mean realizing one’s own source of trauma wasn’t the end-it-all situation can help - but i think it’s all mostly about actually getting the help one needs + helping oneself.

if you feel like you need any other resources for trauma recovery that i could help provide you with - i’m not a professional tho, but years of recovery did provide me with lots of resources! just message again and i’ll try! wishing you the best 💖

#anonymous #answered asks #mod sol

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I just followed but I love your blog, keep doing great❣️

thanks a lot for this message!! 💖

#anonymous #answered asks #not advice #mod sol

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can i ask a question? i’m a girl who’s been identifying as pan for a while now, but i’ve started to realize i haven’t met any girls or seen female celebrities that i’m attracted to. it makes me scared that the identity that makes me so happy is all fake. can you give me any advice, please?

i’m sorry things have been confusing lately - i get the feeling of kind of realizing you’re not straight but not being quite so certain because you don’t really feel attracted to actual women you know/have heard of.

i think the best thing is to first give yourself time to figure it all out. if you feel like actually getting to know any other wlw - then do so! apps + maybe lgbt clubs / meetings in your area? but if you don’t feel like actually doing so, that doesn’t necessarily mean that you’re not attracted to girls at all - to me reading fiction + non-fiction + mostly consuming lots of wlw media has also helped a lot with coming to terms to my own identity + livelihood as a lesbian.

hope that helped! also when i said you could get to know other wlw - i didn’t mean it as just for dating. making friends can be so amazing + esp friends who get you! wishing you the best 💖

#anonymous #answered asks #mod sol

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Brown Girls (2017) — Trailer

A new web series by Fatimah Asghar that follows Leila, a South Asian-American writer just now owning her queerness and her best friend Patricia, a sex-positive Black-American musician who is struggling to commit to anything: job, art and relationships. While the two women come from completely different backgrounds, their friendship is ultimately what they lean on to get through the messiness of their mid-twenties.

Written by Fatimah Asghar Directed by Sam Bailey Cinematography by Hannah Welever Trailer Song by Jamila Woods and Lisa Mishra, Produced by Dee Lilly: soundcloud.com/jamilawoods/brown-girls-theme

browngirlswebseries.com

Coming Spring 2017

#brown girls #webseries #wlw #sapphic #lgbt #woc #poc #sapphic woc #representation

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#resources #latinx #trans #lgbt

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Lesbian Poet Trading Cards, available from Headmistress Press.

Featuring: Naomi Replansky, Lesléa Newman, Amy Lowell, Lynn Strongin, Janice Gould, G.L. Morrison, Charlotte Mew, Shelly L. Hall, Eloise Klein Healy, Judy Grahn, Audre Lorde, Minnie Bruce Pratt, Constance Merritt, Wu Tsao, Sor Juana Ines de la Cruz, Eileen Myles, Robin Becker, and Renée Vivien.

#herstory #poetry #lesbian #wlw #sapphic #lgbt

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The Blacker the Berry the Sweeter the Dyke, Black Lesbian Caucus, 1973

#photography #herstory #black lesbian #black women #poc #woc #sapphic woc #black #lesbian #wlw #sapphic #lgbt