Have you ever had a dream and partway through you realized you were dreaming? Well, there's an entire community centered around recreating that, lucid dreaming: a dream in which the dreamer is conscious and aware of his/her surroundings.
It's no simple task, by any means. There are several core techniques, and dozens, if not hundreds of individual "spin-off" methods. Now, I'm not here to explain to you exactly how to lucid dream. There are plenty of easy to find online resources, such as Dream Views, but I've been trying off and on to lucid dream for a few years, and while I haven't put the dedication in to have much results, the effort I put into it, and the things I did while practicing, have helped.
Much of lucid dreaming is increasing one's awareness, meditating, and paying attention to one's dreams. Binaural beats and brainwave entrainment are also used to create brainwaves beneficial to lucid dreaming. The dreams themselves a great experience, and one that can be particularly therapeutic to an individual with Aspergers.
Anyone who hasn't heard of lucid dreaming: I urge you to look into it; if you don't succeed, the steps towards your goal can only help.
Saturday, August 3
Monday, July 29
Banishing minor depression
The way I see it, depression can manifest in many different ways, some of which can be rather subtle. It's possible to be depressed but also able to do everything you would normally do.
Feeling that way is miserable; it sucks all the joy out of you, but it isn't enough to be totally debilitating. Only enough to keep you from enjoying anything you do.
Fortunately, I find that it's not too hard to get rid of. The trick is to do something productive or helpful. Personally, writing something for my blog does a lot to shake my bad mood, and I've also done volunteer work that gave me a sense of purpose and worth.
Depression has a tendency to focus one's thoughts on him or herself, which inevitably leads to feelings of helplessness, worthlessness, or isolation. Don't let yourself believe that! Any act of benevolence, or good deed is worth a huge amount. Even something as minor as complimenting someone you know can greatly impact their lives.
Whenever you feel helpless, remember this: there are many stories floating around the internet of a suicidal person, preparing to end their lives, who meets a friendly stranger and changes their mind. Just imagine if you're small effort saves a life. You might never even know, so don't give up hope!
This is Jordan from teenaspergers.blogspot.com signing off!
Feeling that way is miserable; it sucks all the joy out of you, but it isn't enough to be totally debilitating. Only enough to keep you from enjoying anything you do.
Fortunately, I find that it's not too hard to get rid of. The trick is to do something productive or helpful. Personally, writing something for my blog does a lot to shake my bad mood, and I've also done volunteer work that gave me a sense of purpose and worth.
Depression has a tendency to focus one's thoughts on him or herself, which inevitably leads to feelings of helplessness, worthlessness, or isolation. Don't let yourself believe that! Any act of benevolence, or good deed is worth a huge amount. Even something as minor as complimenting someone you know can greatly impact their lives.
Whenever you feel helpless, remember this: there are many stories floating around the internet of a suicidal person, preparing to end their lives, who meets a friendly stranger and changes their mind. Just imagine if you're small effort saves a life. You might never even know, so don't give up hope!
This is Jordan from teenaspergers.blogspot.com signing off!
Sunday, July 28
Go move!
Depression is a deceptively debilitating ailment; although it seems to be a minor issue, it's anything but insignificant. Unfortunately, it's also one of the more difficult aspects of Aspergers to conquer.
The bright side of it is that it's incredibly simple to start treating.
The "secret" doesn't lie in complicated techniques; the secret, is moving. Simple physical motion is the fundamental base for dealing with depression.
The hard part, I can personally attest to, is finding motivation to actually get up.
Recently, I was in a depressed mood. It wasn't extremely horrible, but it was enough to ensure I couldn't enjoy anything I was doing. At first, I was too absorbed by my emotions to really deal with them, but after some time, I got hungry and was forced into cooking a meal. It helped a lot.
The biggest single thing is this: no matter how helpless you feel because of depression, even a simple change of immediate surroundings can give you an edge in coping.
This is Jordan fromteenaspergers.blogspot.com signing off.
The bright side of it is that it's incredibly simple to start treating.
The "secret" doesn't lie in complicated techniques; the secret, is moving. Simple physical motion is the fundamental base for dealing with depression.
The hard part, I can personally attest to, is finding motivation to actually get up.
Recently, I was in a depressed mood. It wasn't extremely horrible, but it was enough to ensure I couldn't enjoy anything I was doing. At first, I was too absorbed by my emotions to really deal with them, but after some time, I got hungry and was forced into cooking a meal. It helped a lot.
The biggest single thing is this: no matter how helpless you feel because of depression, even a simple change of immediate surroundings can give you an edge in coping.
This is Jordan fromteenaspergers.blogspot.com signing off.
Upcoming Changes
It's been a while since the last time I posted, and to be honest, I've been rather lax with posting, which is not something I'm particularly happy about. I'm planning to devote more of my time to this project.
When I started with this blog I had the intention of writing - primarily - articles that focused on larg and complex issues. Guides or tutorials, if you will. That didn't work out very well for me. I found, after some time of writing in that style, that many paragraph "essays" are difficult to write quality content for, and that a lot of my best ideas can't be expanded into hundreds of words.
In the future I will be focusing more on consistent, shorter pieces, rather than large ones infrequently, and addition to this, I'm going to be adding content on more than simply ways of coping with Aspergers. That general idea is still what makes this blog what it is, but I believe the site will benefit from a larger variety of content.
When I started with this blog I had the intention of writing - primarily - articles that focused on larg and complex issues. Guides or tutorials, if you will. That didn't work out very well for me. I found, after some time of writing in that style, that many paragraph "essays" are difficult to write quality content for, and that a lot of my best ideas can't be expanded into hundreds of words.
In the future I will be focusing more on consistent, shorter pieces, rather than large ones infrequently, and addition to this, I'm going to be adding content on more than simply ways of coping with Aspergers. That general idea is still what makes this blog what it is, but I believe the site will benefit from a larger variety of content.
Tuesday, February 5
Why do people judge others?!
Damn it! I will never understand why some people are so brutish to each other. I mean, don't people respect other members of humanity? I was talking with a friend today, and that person was telling me how their church judged and shunned them for something that they did. While I get that churches do this type of thing, and maybe I shouldn't be bothered by it, It's depressing. I believe that you come to trust the church you go to and you should be able to trust the people in it.
It really does bother me though; I can relate to similar judgement from my old church. When my parents got divorced, there was a massive amount of accusation and strife going around - some true, some false - but the issue became inflamed; while I was not responsible for anything my parents did, I felt like my life and my personal issues were being put on display for everyone to see. It was like people were surveying me to decide if they should side with me, or if they should distance themselves from me.
Really, the thing that bothers me isn't judgement - the world contently judges, condemns, and tears into people; that's how life is - what really upsets me is how my and my friend's privacy were disrespected! I have a right to privacy in my life.
Me and my friend both lost out on opportunities because of the blindness of people we should have been able to trust. My friend was literally disallowed to participate in church-related activities and while I wasn't hurt that much, I couldn't stand staying, and I had to leave the church.
What I do is between me and anyone it affects - not anyone who fancies themselves qualified to judge!
There's no point to this post, I suppose. I mean, maybe that's life, or maybe it's an example of extreme ignorance, but I don't feel qualified to judge. Please leave comments of your opinions; all I can say is that it sucks.
It really does bother me though; I can relate to similar judgement from my old church. When my parents got divorced, there was a massive amount of accusation and strife going around - some true, some false - but the issue became inflamed; while I was not responsible for anything my parents did, I felt like my life and my personal issues were being put on display for everyone to see. It was like people were surveying me to decide if they should side with me, or if they should distance themselves from me.
Really, the thing that bothers me isn't judgement - the world contently judges, condemns, and tears into people; that's how life is - what really upsets me is how my and my friend's privacy were disrespected! I have a right to privacy in my life.
Me and my friend both lost out on opportunities because of the blindness of people we should have been able to trust. My friend was literally disallowed to participate in church-related activities and while I wasn't hurt that much, I couldn't stand staying, and I had to leave the church.
What I do is between me and anyone it affects - not anyone who fancies themselves qualified to judge!
There's no point to this post, I suppose. I mean, maybe that's life, or maybe it's an example of extreme ignorance, but I don't feel qualified to judge. Please leave comments of your opinions; all I can say is that it sucks.
Monday, February 4
Getting up early
While it's potentially tricky to manage, getting up early can also be fantastic! Personally, I hate mornings (see: four letter words), but I still try to get up early anyway.
I have to leave by 6:30 AM at the earliest, and 7 at the latest, though I attempt to haul my butt out of bed by 4 or 4:30. This ends up giving me around 3 hours of time for getting ready, and relaxing before I have to leave.
Being up before everyone else gives me some peace and quite that I really don't get at any other point once my day begins. Once I start getting ready, I have chores, school, homework, cooking, personal projects, and stuff to do for the rest of the day...
Which is all well and good, but it's also a pretty great feeling to have an hour or two before I have to do anything! And honestly, playing Minecraft and/or watch Star Trek once I'm ready to leave is awesome.
Additionally, getting up early acts as a safety net so that If I happen to oversleep, I'm not immediately late for school; When I do manage to get up right away though, there's plenty of time to prepare for the day, which is pretty sweet since it means I don't have to stress about anything in the morning.
I really do recommend trying it out if your schedule allows it. At worst, you'll find you can't manage it, and at best you'll have much more relaxing and enjoyable mornings.
This is Jordan from teenaspergers.blogspot.com signing off!
Sunday, February 3
Help People
Do things to help people!
Volunteer, donate your time or your money, but be active in making the world a better place. Decrease world suck! Why?
Well, because the world needs it, but also because by helping people you increase your self-esteem and people love that!
People genuinely love other people who are confident and have high self-esteem. I can vouch for that. Someone who is so self-conscious that they don't do anything isn't someone I want to spend my time with, but people who are confident in themselves on the other hand... those are people who I try to get to know.
Helping people is a great way to improve self-esteem. I mean, you don't even have to do anything all that major. Just by doing little things you can make a difference, and that matters.
I did some volunteering with a local institution to help people with disabilities, and it made me feel so good to have been able to help people.
Really, if you're interested in bettering yourself, this is something you need to do. You can also do stuff online too. Sign up for forums or online volunteering projects, but do something!
This is Jordan from teenaspergers.blogspot.com signing off!
Volunteer, donate your time or your money, but be active in making the world a better place. Decrease world suck! Why?
Well, because the world needs it, but also because by helping people you increase your self-esteem and people love that!
People genuinely love other people who are confident and have high self-esteem. I can vouch for that. Someone who is so self-conscious that they don't do anything isn't someone I want to spend my time with, but people who are confident in themselves on the other hand... those are people who I try to get to know.
Helping people is a great way to improve self-esteem. I mean, you don't even have to do anything all that major. Just by doing little things you can make a difference, and that matters.
I did some volunteering with a local institution to help people with disabilities, and it made me feel so good to have been able to help people.
Really, if you're interested in bettering yourself, this is something you need to do. You can also do stuff online too. Sign up for forums or online volunteering projects, but do something!
This is Jordan from teenaspergers.blogspot.com signing off!
Go be social!
Get out there and talk to people! Make friends, be social. I know it's hard - I struggle with it myself. I get incredibly anxious when I talk to people I don't know very well, or when I try to do things with people, but trust me, it's worth it.
I do want to say though, that as anxious as I get when being social, succeeding in that area is very rewarding. Being lonely sucks, and the only way to stop being lonely is to take steps in making friends. Here are some things that I remember when I'm being social:
1 - Things are not inherently awkward!
Even if somethings feels uncomfortable, chances are you can change that. Whether it's your fault or not, being confident, even if it's not much can really help. If you have some sort of relationship with the people you're talking to, they're not going to just write you off. You're someone they know! They'll give you a chance if you ask for one. And if you don't know them, chances are that even if you screw-up somehow, it won't matter.
2 - Don't make things into a big deal.
Suppose someone you know invites you over, but they stutter or they say something weird? Would you judge them and make fun of them? No? Well then why would they, if the roles were reversed? Unless they're the kind of people who are shallow enough to get caught up on something like that, there's nothing you have to worry about. If they are people like that, then missing out on a friendship with them isn't worth very much. Realize that people are not hunting for ways to hurt you and go with the flow. If you don't get hung up on something, chances are, they won't either.
3 - Take small steps if you have to, but take those steps!
Practice makes perfect. I know that's cliche, but it's true. And not just because you get better at. By taking steps to be social, you desensitize yourself to the ordeal of making friends. By taking small steps you also ease into being closer friends with people.
4 - Compliments.
It's always a good idea to toss around a few compliments! People like people who like them - I think I heard that somewhere. If you want people to like you (and isn't that the point of being social?) then show some interest in their lives and interests, but keep in mind, you don't have to be terribly deep with your compliments - do you like their t-shirt? Something they said? Something they did? Just make sure you sincerely believe in what you're saying and you'll be good.
5 - Expand your horizons.
Being a varied person is wonderful when making friends. It lets you relate to more people in more ways, and it causes people to respect you more because you have broad interests. Whether they're interested in the same things as you are, they'll appreciate that you have the drive to explore new things.
6 - Don't limit yourself to "being yourself".
Be the best person you can be, don't stick with what you already are. Unless you've spent years shaping your personality and physique to be stellar (and even if you have) there's going to be room to improve yourself. Be the kind of person people like spending time with. Now, don't try to please everyone, but be a genuinely high-quality person and people will respond to that.
I do want to say though, that as anxious as I get when being social, succeeding in that area is very rewarding. Being lonely sucks, and the only way to stop being lonely is to take steps in making friends. Here are some things that I remember when I'm being social:
1 - Things are not inherently awkward!
Even if somethings feels uncomfortable, chances are you can change that. Whether it's your fault or not, being confident, even if it's not much can really help. If you have some sort of relationship with the people you're talking to, they're not going to just write you off. You're someone they know! They'll give you a chance if you ask for one. And if you don't know them, chances are that even if you screw-up somehow, it won't matter.
2 - Don't make things into a big deal.
Suppose someone you know invites you over, but they stutter or they say something weird? Would you judge them and make fun of them? No? Well then why would they, if the roles were reversed? Unless they're the kind of people who are shallow enough to get caught up on something like that, there's nothing you have to worry about. If they are people like that, then missing out on a friendship with them isn't worth very much. Realize that people are not hunting for ways to hurt you and go with the flow. If you don't get hung up on something, chances are, they won't either.
3 - Take small steps if you have to, but take those steps!
Practice makes perfect. I know that's cliche, but it's true. And not just because you get better at. By taking steps to be social, you desensitize yourself to the ordeal of making friends. By taking small steps you also ease into being closer friends with people.
4 - Compliments.
It's always a good idea to toss around a few compliments! People like people who like them - I think I heard that somewhere. If you want people to like you (and isn't that the point of being social?) then show some interest in their lives and interests, but keep in mind, you don't have to be terribly deep with your compliments - do you like their t-shirt? Something they said? Something they did? Just make sure you sincerely believe in what you're saying and you'll be good.
5 - Expand your horizons.
Being a varied person is wonderful when making friends. It lets you relate to more people in more ways, and it causes people to respect you more because you have broad interests. Whether they're interested in the same things as you are, they'll appreciate that you have the drive to explore new things.
6 - Don't limit yourself to "being yourself".
Be the best person you can be, don't stick with what you already are. Unless you've spent years shaping your personality and physique to be stellar (and even if you have) there's going to be room to improve yourself. Be the kind of person people like spending time with. Now, don't try to please everyone, but be a genuinely high-quality person and people will respond to that.
Saturday, February 2
High-Top Sneakers
Here's a tip I found after years of rage every time I went shoe shopping; look for high-top sneakers. Oh my god, this helped me so much! I apologize if this tip doesn't help, but it literally revolutionized my experience when shopping for shoes and I think everyone should at least know about it. Try it and see if it works for you - either way, let me know in the comments how it went.
This is Jordan from teenaspergers.blogspot.com signing off!
This is Jordan from teenaspergers.blogspot.com signing off!
Weight LIfting
Weight Lifting:
I'm no body builder, but I can tell you that exercise is really an awesome thing. I know that some people like running and sports and the like, but personally, I can't stand those things. They're exhausting, difficult, take lots of time and effort. To me, they're also rather boring. However, I find that lifting wights is a great form of exercise that's easier and more enjoyable than cardio. It helps reduce appetite, increases energy levels, and - but wait, I'm sure you're not here to read about that stuff. So, yeah, here's how it's applicable to Autism.
In essence, lifting weights reduces stress, and therefore reduces frustration. Moreover, this type of exercise helps to increase awareness and tolerance. It's hard to be annoyed with someone when you're all chilled out from lifting! Physical activity releases endorphin and dopamine in the brain which in turn cause relaxation.
There's not much to it as this article isn't meant as a tutorial on how to lift, but weight lifting is really awesome at reducing stress and frustration.
This is Jordan from teenaspergers.blogspot.com signing off!
I'm no body builder, but I can tell you that exercise is really an awesome thing. I know that some people like running and sports and the like, but personally, I can't stand those things. They're exhausting, difficult, take lots of time and effort. To me, they're also rather boring. However, I find that lifting wights is a great form of exercise that's easier and more enjoyable than cardio. It helps reduce appetite, increases energy levels, and - but wait, I'm sure you're not here to read about that stuff. So, yeah, here's how it's applicable to Autism.
In essence, lifting weights reduces stress, and therefore reduces frustration. Moreover, this type of exercise helps to increase awareness and tolerance. It's hard to be annoyed with someone when you're all chilled out from lifting! Physical activity releases endorphin and dopamine in the brain which in turn cause relaxation.
There's not much to it as this article isn't meant as a tutorial on how to lift, but weight lifting is really awesome at reducing stress and frustration.
This is Jordan from teenaspergers.blogspot.com signing off!
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