My friends, family, and former colleagues often ask me whether or not I miss flying. It’s been a year since I handed in my resignation letter and decided to divorce from a 12-year career. I’m incredibly fortunate to have had the time to decompress following all the political upheaval I was caught up in Hong Kong. When people ask me if I miss it, my honest … Continue reading Why I Miss My Job but Don’t Regret Leaving It
That’s right- my life goal is to live like a goat. Why? The answer is in a song. Continue reading Life Goal: Live Like A Goat
No one talks about the benefits of depression, do they? No one talks about how depression might happen for a good reason. Most people assume it’s nothing but a bad thing. A product of low courage. A cancer of the mind. And perhaps it is? When you examine depression on paper, it’s difficult to argue otherwise. I mean, I hardly need to outline the costs … Continue reading The Surprising Benefits of Depression
I had a friend who claimed she was clairvoyant. Let’s just say for the sake of this post that she was, because I’m on my way to making a point and you don’t have to have an ability to see the future to know that. And I’d say from my experience that my friend had a gift of extraordinary perception. She saw things differently than … Continue reading The Cat Conundrum
When I finally picked up the phone and made the call, I got an answering machine. I waited for the beep, and said something that included the phrase “I need some help”. It was early spring, about 17 years ago. Continue reading My Session With Depression
After I wrote the post about my mother, The Choices We Make: My Mom The Spy, my friend Eric was over at my house and read it, so my seven-year-old daughter wanted to a turn to read it. She said liked the part “Instead of secret meetings at night, she was called to hold our hair when we threw up and calm our fears when … Continue reading Can I Tell You a Secret?
Yep- I smashed it. But don’t look at me like that! C’mon, don’t tell me you’ve never thought about doing it. Continue reading I Smashed My Computer And I’m Glad About It
I’m going to stick my neck out today. I’m going to talk about something I’ve been avoiding for certain political and professional reasons for some time now. A topic that is close to my heart. As it turns out, aircrew are extremely reluctant to talk about mental health. On the rare occasions I’ve brought it up, I’ve seen Captains visibly squirm in their seats. They … Continue reading The Elephant in the Cockpit
The Cost of Consciousness Neuroticism is the trait associated with negative emotions. It can be broken down into the following two aspects: Volatility and Withdrawal. Those high in withdrawal may be described as anxious, self-conscious, depressive and easily overwhelmed. Whereas those high in volatility may be described as touchy, irritable and unstable. In contrast, those low in both may be described as calm, happy, easy-going … Continue reading Neuroticism: The Cost of Consciousness
Please note this is a partnered post and may contain affiliate links. Maintaining great mental health in the modern day is becoming more and more difficult. There are so many things that can cause extreme stress and anxiety, and it’s far too easy to get swept into the tide of chaos and confusion. Thankfully, it’s more than possible to escape the mental anguish in order … Continue reading Maintaining The Best Mental Health: A Simple Guide
In aviation we have a term called AOG that means Aircraft on Ground. It refers to a plane that can’t fly because of a technical issue. We might also say a pilot is grounded because of a disciplinary issue, or that passengers are grounded because of weather. In all cases, the term indicates an inability to fly. We might also use examples in real life. … Continue reading Grounded
By Ellen Jayne | You were having a great week, but something along the way changed. Your entire mood shifted which affected your attitude the rest of the day, and you’re not sure why. Chances are, you’re mentally drained, and you’re doing it to yourself. Continue reading How to Stop Self-Sabotaging
By Ellen Jayne | We can’t control countless components of life, but we’d be childish to let the chunks we can change cascade through the cracks. So, where do we start? At the beginning. Continue reading Mastering Your Morning Momentum
Provided by Scherezade Ozwulo from Scherezade’s Labyrinth *trigger warning: mental health will be discussed not as judgment against the sufferer but as observation of the caretaker* Last night was rough. Really rough; so rough in fact that I still feel it the next day as I’m writing this post. Actually, last night as I was enduring, I was writing it in my head My job was to sit. … Continue reading Empathic Cross Wires During A Manic State
Is there a connection between the two? I was actually amazed once I started to observe and analyze what happens when people cuss (me included). In my culture, people tend to judge the ones who cuss as being rude or uneducated. However, it has nothing to do with that. Yes, an educated person will keep an eye on his/her surroundings and he/she will cuss only … Continue reading Cussing and Mental Health
It’s Driving Us Nuts There’s your brain, 👆 blasted to nuts. Thoughts are thoughts. No more, but thoughts. And above all, they are not yours! We take every thought with a straight face. It is the main cause of our mental imbalance. An imbalance that we can’t see, but is there. It has become very common and thus, considered to be normal. But it is not. Imagine this … Continue reading We’re Taking Our Thoughts WAY Too Seriously
Being intelligently unstoppable Not to be able to stop thinking is an affliction, but we don’t realize this because almost everybody is suffering from it. — Eckhart Tolle (The thing in the image couldn’t be a Porsche, sorry ’bout that!) 1st law of motion? Does anyone recall that law? I apologize to you for bringing Physics here. But trust me, it’s beyond doubts relevant here. My first law … Continue reading A Porsche With Brakes
Do Exams are injurious to people’s mental health ? Continue reading || Question of the Day || (No. 189)
Which one is worse? Does it have something to do with the level of control over the trigger (or the perception over that control)? How do these two influence each other? There are probably many factors that need to be taken into consideration for this topic and I’m sure I’ll miss a few, but let’s take this from an overall choice (if we … Continue reading Physical Pain vs Mental Pain
A while back I’ve approached the addictions topic, but not from a pathological point of view. It seems that the decision to include this video game addiction in their diseases classification (ICD), World Health Organization (WHO) provoked lots of discussions. According to WHO, the behavior of playing video games can be defined as a “disease” if it comes with the following three characteristics: … Continue reading Video games addiction
