By Karen Carnabucci, LCSW, TEP

"I can’t sleep. How do I get to sleep without medication?"

This common question is asked regularly, and I can tell you there are lots of people who are sleepless here, there and everywhere.

Deciding to find sleep without medication -- which many people find has limitations anyway -- means some effort and experimentation on your part. There are actually lots of choices, but you will have to decide which ones you are willing to try.

You'll have to make an investment in this process. You may need to consider new ideas, ones that may be unfamiliar to you or ones that you have dismissed in the past.

Prepare for bed with nighttime rituals. You will want your bedtime rituals to be comforting and able to slow you into dream time. Calming music, turning down the lights, taking a warm bath or shower, enjoying an inspirational reading, prayer or other simple practices will help you relax.

By Karen Carnabucci, LCSW, TEP

Thanksgiving is more than a day on the calendar. It is a spiritual practice that challenges us to look for the good in the days, indeed the moments, of our lives.  In times of trouble, this practice of finding moments of gratitude seems extra challenging. For many people, these times are fearful, scary and uncertain.
 
The question is:  Can we still find gratitude?
 
Ironically, these are the very times where finding and acknowledging gratitude is necessary for our health and well being.
 
Gratitude gives us the energy to live, thrive and love. It is not so much an action that promotes complacency – although it could if we take the narrow view of it. Rather, gratitude is an action stimulates us to find the good wherever we are and gives us the motivation to share the good in our world.
 
There are many ideas about how to promote gratitude and I’ve written about some of them through the years – keeping a gratitude journal or a gratitude box, for example.

By Karen Carnabucci, LCSW, TEP
 
Waking up this morning, just two days into the post-election experience, we find great pain, fear, anger and disappointment in our country and in our world.
 
The bullying, blame and intimidation that was displayed so frequently on the Republican campaign stage has terrified many people who fear that it will  grow.
 
This is not idle speculation or theory. It already has been happening.
 
We’re hearing and reading reports of cruel incidents that are happening in schools, businesses and on the streets by people who are  emboldened -- in the last few days, people in our country have been screamed at, cursed at, called names, derided, mocked, grabbed by the breasts and threatened on social media.
 
Here are a few of the reports. Caution – before you click, know that many of their stories are ugly and nasty, so know that you have to choice to click away if they are too triggering for you.

By Karen Carnabucci, LCSW, TEP
 
There is no doubt that the 2016 election has provoked a great deal of anxiety.  Everywhere. With everyone.
 
My clients tell me that tension has been growing within families and rattled friendships when there is a difference in support with one candidate or the other. Turmoil has been present in the work place, in neighborhoods and within people’s hearts as they worry about the results of Tuesday’s election and what will happen to our country during the next four years.
 
Whether people hide their anxiety under the thick shell of anger – or just admit that they are really, really nervous about the outcome of the election, the anxiety has been brewing for months.  Now, just a day before Election Day, the anxiety is being served up full strength.
 
Which brings us to the question:  What do we do on Election Day?
 
People have been thinking about this already, and they aren’t waiting for Nov. 8 to start.