I personally like the one, “Make Someone’s Day“. I try and make a friendly, uplifting comment to someone every day.
Perhaps you are lacking sleep (“Get some zzz’s“). Maybe you just need to make some space with their “Get Outside” suggestion. Perhaps you are B-vitamin deficient.
Try one different suggestion each day for 10 days and see how you feel.
Sir Ken Robinson talks about schools killing creativity in this Ted.com video:
Below is an excerpt from this talk. You can listen to this particular section of the video at 15:00. I highly recommend the entire video if you have some time.
"I'm doing a new book at the moment called Epiphany which is based on a series of interviews with people about how they discovered their talent. I'm fascinated by how people got to be there. It's really prompted by a conversation I had with a wonderful woman who maybe most people have never heard of, she's called Gillian Lynne, have you heard of her? Some have. She's a choreographer and everybody knows her work. She did Cats, and Phantom of the Opera, she's wonderful. I used to be on the board of the Royal Ballet, in England, as you can see, and Gillian and I had lunch one day and I said Gillian, how'd you get to be a dancer? And she said it was interesting, when she was at school, she was really hopeless. And the school, in the 30s, wrote her parents and said, "We think Gillian has a learning disorder." She couldn't concentrate, she was fidgeting. I think now they'd say she had ADHD. Wouldn't you? But this was the 1930s and ADHD hadn't been invented at this point. It wasn't an available condition. People weren't aware they could have that.
Anyway she went to see this specialist, in this oak-paneled room, and she was there with her mother and she was led and sat on a chair at the end, and she sat on her hands for 20 minutes while this doctor talked to her mother about all the problems Gillian was having at school. And at the end of it -- because she was disturbing people, her homework was always late, and so on, little kid of 8 -- in the end, the doctor went and sat next to Gillian and said, "Gillian I've listened to all these things that your mother's told me, and I need to speak to her privately." He said, "Wait here, we'll be back, we won't be very long," and they went and left her.
But as they went out the room, he turned on the radio that was sitting on his desk, and when they got out the room, he said to her mother, "Just stand and watch her." And the minute they left the room, she said, she was on her feet, moving to the music. And they watched for a few minutes and he turned to her mother and said, "Mrs. Lynne, Gillian isn't sick; she's a dancer. Take her to a dance school."
I said, "What happened?"
She said, "She did. I can't tell you how wonderful it was. We walked in this room and it was full of people like me, people who couldn't sit still. People who had to move to think." Who had to move to think. They did ballet, they did tap, they did jazz, they did modern, they did contemporary. She was eventually auditioned for the Royal Ballet School, she became a soloist, she had a wonderful career at the Royal Ballet, she eventually graduated from the Royal Ballet School and founded her own company, the Gillian Lynne Dance Company, and met Andrew Lloyd Weber.
She's been responsible for some of the most successful musical theater productions in history, she's given pleasure to millions, and she's a multimillionaire.
Somebody else might have put her on medication and told her to calm down."
The US Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA) website states: “Ritalin is …structurally and pharmacologically similar to amphetamines and cocaine and has the same dependency profile of cocaine and other stimulants.”
Even the milder side effects of ADHD drug treatment include such problems as behavior disturbances, psychotic episodes, anxiety, restlessness, agitation, amnesia, confusion, lack of emotion and hostility.
ADHD child behavior is also often misdiagnosed. Child and teen labeling of ADHD often preclude a proper medical exam with an accurate diagnosis. Ensure that a prescribed medication is not just masking a symptom or symptoms. It is better to find the real cause of the symptoms by finding the underlying problem or you could make the situation worse.
“You must be the change you want to see in the world.”
~Mahatma Gandhi
As you read about psychiatric abuses, over-medication and other issues in this and other websites, you might wonder what you can do about it. Below is a list which is by no means a complete list of what you can do.
– if you don’t like a prescription drug ad in a magazine, email the publisher or mail a letter and tell them what you think
– ask for a second opinion if you disagree with your doctor’s diagnosis and/or ask for more tests
– get ALL the information if you are given a prescription – find out what a drug’s side effects are and if there are alternatives
– as a parent, volunteer to help in class
– volunteer as a big brother or sister
– take a long walk before you decide anything
– start a blog
Say something. Ask questions. Knowledge will arm you with choices.
Doctors should give you information about a treatment’s side effects and if there are alternatives. This is done in order for you to decide whether or not you wish to undergo such treatment. This process of understanding the risks and benefits of treatment is known as informed consent. It is based on the moral and legal premise of patient autonomy. This is the right of patients to make decisions about their medical care without their health care provider trying to influence their decision. Patient autonomy does allow for health care providers to educate the patient but does not allow the health care provider to make the decision for the patient. You as the patient have the right to make decisions about your own health and medical conditions.