
The Alexandria Papers Newsletter #72 | Dr. Alexandria Szeman 30 April 2023
How Mindfulness Affects the Brain and Body | PsychologyToday
Interview with neuroscientist David Vago.
6 Ways to Practice Mindful Eating | Mindful
Eating as mindfully as we do on retreat or in a mindfulness course is not realistic for many of us, especially with families, jobs, and the myriad distractions around us. This is not to mention that our friends, family, and colleagues might not have the patience to eat with us as we take five…
Migraine Brain Changes | Neuroscience News
For the first time, a new study has identified enlarged perivascular spaces in the brains of migraine sufferers. Results of the study will be presented next week at the annual meeting of the Radiological Society of North America (RSNA).
7 Consequences of Not Drinking Enough Water Throughout the Day | WellAndGood
I can’t help but wonder what our nomadic ancestors would think about us clutching water bottles 24/7. We do this despite the fact that our lives aren’t exactly physically grueling. It’s kinda funny if you think about it.
The Toxic Chaos of Gaslighting | Jennifer Kindera
The Toxic Chaos of Gaslighting The Brain, Heart-Safety and Recalibrating Emotional Response As someone who lives with complex PTSD, and has done a ton of work to cope within the parameters, I understand what happens in my brain when triggered; fight or flight response and the subsequent emotional…
How I Stopped Emotional Eating and Started Feeling Better About Life | TinyBuddha
“Don’t forget you’re human. It’s okay to have a meltdown, just don’t unpack and live there.” ~Unknown For the longest time, I wanted to lose weight. I wasn’t terribly overweight but it seemed to me that if I could just have the perfect body, life would be amazing.
Certified Trauma Specialist Program | Jennifer Kindera LLC
Registration is open for the summer/autumn cohort. If the first cohort fills, I will open up a second one. Please click on the Inquire button to schedule a call to get your questions answered! Are you in a profession where trauma sensitivity and responsiveness and foundational knowledge of Trauma…
RAINN Online Hotline
Do you need help dealing with sexual assault, rape, or incest? Call @RAINN ‘s Hotline 800.656.HOPE (4673) to talk to a trained staff member from a sexual assault service provider in your area. Don’t feel comfortable talking? Use chat/text instead.
13 Things That Can Cause Anxiety-And What You Can Do About Them | Health
Nervousness, panic, fear, sweating, and rapid heartbeat: can all be symptoms of anxiety. And in times of true danger, anxiety and its symptoms can be helpful. But sometimes, those feelings go into overdrive at the wrong time, and anxiety winds up interfering with daily life.
The Benefits of Minimalism: 7 Reasons to Declutter Your Life | TinyBuddha
“Have nothing in your house that you do not know to be useful or believe to be beautiful.” ~ William Morris Have you ever noticed that every time you move you need a bigger truck than the last time you moved?
20 Life-Changing Benefits of Reading Books
It’s no secret that reading books can be incredibly beneficial. Books can change lives, open minds, and teach new things. But many people don’t realize just how life-changing reading books can be. In this article, we will outline twenty benefits of reading books and show how reading can improve…
7 Books About the Scam of Wellness – Electric Literature | ElectricLiterature
It’s no coincidence that wellness has become a trillion-dollar industry at the same time that most people have been affected by failing public health systems and government agencies. Self-care has become a best-selling product, a buzzword that anyone can use to increase their bottom line.
25 of the Tastiest One-Pot Dinners for When You’re Craving Something Cozy | EatingWell
Make a cozy and delicious meal with these dinner recipes. These recipes call for just one pot or pan so you won’t have to worry about cleaning a ton of dishes. Dinners like Pork Chops with Creamy Mushroom Sauce and Pot Roast Soup are hearty, filling and the perfect option when you want something…
Here Are 43 Slow Cooker Recipes To Make Every Night This Month | Tasty
Imagine walking in your front door to the aroma of a home-cooked meal that’s ready to eat. Make these slow cooker recipes and you’ll be thanking yourself for nights to come. From hearty pot roast to warming soup, and even ribs, we’ve got dinner covered!
Homemade Sourdough Bread, Step by Step | Alexandra’s Kitchen
If you love fresh sourdough bread with a golden, crisp crust and a light, airy crumb, this recipe is for you. It’s one of the simplest homemade sourdough bread recipes, and one of the best, too. It requires only 25 minutes of hands-on work and no autolyse or preferment.
Holiday, a poem
“Day followed day, and this and that Seemed to be happening As always, but through it all Already loneliness was seeping.” ~ Anna Ahkmatova
Books by Alexandria Constantinova Szeman
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The Alexandria Papers Newsletter #71 | Dr. Alexandria Szeman 19 March 2023
Want to Stop Emotional Eating? Ask Yourself These 6 Questions | Sixty and Me
Have you ever thought about the tiny number of things over which we have actual control? There are so many things in life that go on regardless of us actually ‘doing’ anything to make them happen. Trees get leaves and plants grow. It rains. The earth turns on its axis.
Migraines Not Going Away? How to Break Out of a Rut | Migraine Again
Maybe you’ve taken your meds, rested in a dark room, loaded up on water … and you’re still stuck with a migraine attack that’s not going away. It’s so frustrating! We’ve been there. Migraine is a finicky disease.
6 Self-Care Tips for Sexual Assault Survivors | Teen Vogue
This method really helps me – I open the notes section of my phone and let out whatever I might be feeling on the screen. A trigger can come from seeing a person who looks like your abuser or even the same car they drove.
Do you need help dealing with
sexual assault,
rape, or incest? Call
@RAINN ‘s Hotline 800.656.HOPE (4673) to talk to a trained staff member from a sexual assault service provider in your area. Don’t feel comfortable talking? Use chat/text instead.
A Gentle Practice to Wind Down Before Bed | Mindful
Hi, I’m Sara Ivanhoe-yoga director at the University of Southern California where I teach a five-week course on sleep. What I’m going to be teaching you now is a short sequence of gentle movements and breathing techniques to help you wind down at the end of the day and prepare for sleep.
How to Live as a Minimalist: A Beginner’s Guide | The Simplicity Habit
A guest post by Melanie Manard of The Conscious Insider The word minimalism first appeared in the art world of the 60s to describe the work of artist Donald Judd. Nowadays, it’s used to define both design concepts and lifestyle precepts. Minimalism is about recentering on what’s essential in our…
Valentine’s Day’s connection with love was probably invented by Chaucer and other 14th-century poets | The Conversation
As an undergraduate, on a tour of Europe, I happened to step into the church where Saint Valentine’s head was kept. The tour guide told us a (likely fictitious) story about Saint Valentine performing forbidden marriages for persecuted Christians under the Roman emperor Claudius Gothicus (possibly…
I used to hate audiobooks, and now I’m a diehard Audible user | Tom’s Guide
(Image credit: Shutterstock) Friends, readers, fellow book lovers – hear me out. I come not to bury books, but to praise them. As a lifelong reader, I’ve happily spent more than I should on books I’ll never get around to actually finishing. Creating stacks for shelf upon shelf of tomes I pretend…
17 Tasty Meals You Can Make in One Pan | Food and Wine
These one-pan recipes include roast chicken with butternut squash and an easy sheet-pan pizza. Plus more one-pan meals.
Basic Sourdough Bread | King Arthur Baking
Recipes Bread Sandwich bread This tangy, soft sandwich loaf recipe was originally developed for the bread machine; we’ve tweaked it here for those of you without a machine. See our recipe for Bread Machine Sourdough Bread for the original, machine-baked version.
They lied when they said I killed my mother, but that didn’t stop Betty from leaving me and taking the kids. She even flipped me off after she slammed the car door. Yeah, like I believed they were my kids in the first place.
Books by Alexandria Constantinova Szeman
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The Alexandria Papers Newsletter #70 | Dr. Alexandria Szeman 12 March 2023
Why Your Best Thoughts Happen in the Shower or When Walking | Psychology Today
Seemingly mindless activities are mindful experiences that put us in the moment and can lead to the state called “flow.” Ceasing from deliberate thought can yield unexpected insights from ideas incubating in the subconscious background. Solitary activities let us disconnect from the outside world….
Why You Might Want to Give Green Light Therapy a Go for Migraine | Migraine Again
Are you looking for a non-medicinal approach to easing your migraine attacks? There are plenty of natural remedies out there, and one of the newest might be worth a go: green light therapy, a noninvasive therapy that has shown promise for helping those with migraine as well as other conditions,…
Trauma distorts our sense of time and self. A new therapy might help | Science News
Trish Tran narrates her life in staccato notes. “I remember carrying my little sister on my back because she’s too tired and walking through the huge sunflower fields … and me feeling so tired I didn’t think I could walk another step.”
RAINN Online Hotline
Do you need help dealing with sexual assault, rape, or incest? Call @RAINN ‘s Hotline 800.656.HOPE (4673) to talk to a trained staff member from a sexual assault service provider in your area. Don’t feel comfortable talking? Use chat/text instead.
3 Hidden Stressors That Are Sabotaging Your Mental Health | Oprah Daily
Outsmart them with these easy habit adjustments.
Decluttering When You Don’t Have Time: 4 Tips to Make Progress Today | The Simplicity Habit
Use these tips for decluttering when you don’t have time to sneak in decluttering tasks to start making progress immediately. Do you feel totally overwhelmed by the sheer amount of clutter in your house – but don’t have the time to truly tackle your mess?
How the Victorians Created the Modern English Novel | Literary Hub
Over 120 years since the Victorian era ended, its literature continues to have huge staying power in the collective imagination of the English-speaking world. We all have a clear idea of what “Dickensian” London looks like. We know what it means to be a Scrooge, or to be a bit Jekyll and Hyde.
9 Books That Rethink Our Narratives About Health and Healing | Electric Literature
In their Grammy-winning comeback song “Not Ready to Make Nice,” the (formerly Dixie) Chicks sing, “They say time heals everything but I’m still waiting.” The lyrics claim power in not healing, in refusing to shut up and let it go when those in power continue to benefit from that very expectation.
Bread Folklore: Medicine, Divination Tool, and Love Magnet! | Icy Sedgwick
You wouldn’t think something as humble as bread would have so much folklore attached to it. Yet many of us encounter bread folklore when we’re young. I’m sure we’ve all heard the old wives’ tale that eating your bread crusts would make your hair curly.
Sourdough Ears 101 | Sourdough Brandon
This post may contain affiliate links for products and ingredients I use and recommend. For more information, see my disclosures here. One of the most popular sourdough baking topics I’ve been asked to write a guide about is how to get sourdough ears.
Naked, with Glasses (the story)
This is how the plan to kill your husband could begin. You come home early from work. You have a headache. A terrible headache. The worst headache of your life. You have this grant proposal to write. It’s not finished, and it was due yesterday.
Books by Alexandria Constantinova Szeman
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Filed under Baking, Books, chronic pain, Cooking, Health and Wellness, hemiplegic migraines, Meditation and MIndfulness, Mental Health, migraine, Migraine with Aura, Migraine Without Aura, migraines, Newsletters, PTSD, Sexual Abuse, Sexual Violence, The Alexandria Papers Newsletter, Trauma
Tagged as books, bread folklore, decluttering, electric literature, english novel, Icy Sedgwick, literary hub, mental health, migraine, migraine again, mindfulness, minimalism, oprah daily, rainn, rainn online hotline, science news, sexual abuse, sourdough brandon, sourdough ears, the simplicity habit, trauma, victorians

The Alexandria Papers Newsletter #69 | Dr. Alexandria Szeman 5 March 2023
Study Finds You Can Treat Chronic Pain With Mindfulness Instead of Addictive Opioids | Everyday Health
In a series of novel studies led by Eric Garland, PhD, director of the Center on Mindfulness and Integrative Health Intervention Development at the University of Utah in Salt Lake City, researchers have found that mindfulness training can reduce chronic p
Self-Care Practices for People with Migraine | Migraine Again
During recent years, “self-care” has become quite a buzzword that you’ve likely seen hashtagged all over social media. But how can those of us with migraine put self-care into practice? A good place to start is by viewing it as a two-pronged approach: using strategies acutely during an attack, and…
Grieving With Migraines and Other Chronic Illnesses | Psychology Today
Migraines and other chronic illnesses share grief stages and a tendency toward depression. Understanding the fluidity of these stages may help us better cope. Eventually, many of us reach some sort of acceptance or resignation that migraine is and will be a part of our lives.
7 Self-Care Strategies To Help Manage Trauma, According To Experts | Bustle
The effects of trauma can be complex and far-reaching, and no two responses to trauma are exactly alike. According to the American Psychological Association (APA), trauma is generally defined as an overwhelming, life-altering experience that can cause ongoing pain and distress, and sometimes…
Do you need help dealing with
sexual assault,
rape, or incest? Call
@RAINN ‘s Hotline 800.656.HOPE (4673) to talk to a trained staff member from a sexual assault service provider in your area. Don’t feel comfortable talking? Use chat/text instead.
How to Cope with Anxiety: 13 Simple Tips | Healthline
If you deal with anxiety, there are strategies you can use to avoid feeling consumed by it. Here are some quick solutions to help you address the situation immediately, as well as long-term methods to combat a recurring issue. Know that feeling of your heart beating faster in response to a…
The 5 Best Books Trauma Therapists Recommend | Forward Counseling of the Mid South
A great way to heal from traumatic experiences outside of the therapy room is to educate yourself and learn from leading researchers and clinicians who are dedicated to providing the best information about the psychological effects of trauma and the methods that have helped others heal. You are not…
51 Easy Crock Pot Recipes Perfect For Busy Evenings, 2023 Edition | Brit & Co
There’s nothing like the slow cooker to make dinner easy , but on weekdays, it can still be rough to get a tasty home-cooked meal on the table. Happily, with minimal prep time required, these easy crock pot recipes make cooking dinner on busy nights practically effortless.
The Easiest Loaf of Bread You’ll Ever Bake | King Arthur Baking
Recipes Bread Crusty bread With just five everyday ingredients, simple instructions, and no advanced baking techniques, this recipe for European-style crusty bread is a great introduction to yeast baking. It truly is “the easiest loaf of bread you’ll ever bake” – thanks in large part to the…
His real name was Daniel David Davison III, but nobody called him that except Sister St. James and the principal every time he got sent to her office for disrupting class. He used to make fun of his own name all the time, saying, “3-D. I’m 3-D,” erupting into uncontrollable laughter.
Books by Alexandria Constantinova Szeman
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Filed under Baking, Books, chronic pain, Chronic Pain Treatment, Cooking, Health and Wellness, hemiplegic migraines, Meditation and MIndfulness, Memoir, Mental Health, migraine, migraine self-care, Migraine with Aura, Migraine Without Aura, migraines, One-Dish Meals, PTSD, Recipes, Sexual Abuse, Sexual Violence, The Alexandria Papers Newsletter
Tagged as anxiety, books for trauma, bread, crockpot recipes, crockpot soup and stew recipes, glue-boy, King Arthur Baking, King Arthur Flour, meditation for chronic pain, memoir, mental health, migraine, migraine and anxiety, migraine and chonic illness, migraine and depression, migraine self-care, migraines, mindfulness for chronic pain, rainn, rainn online hotline, trauma self-care

The Alexandria Papers Newsletter #68 | Dr. Alexandria Szeman 26 February 2023
Stuck in a Rut? Here’s How Mindfulness Can Help | Mindful
When the same old same old isn’t serving us as well as it used to, our mindfulness practice can broaden our perspective and help us see different pathways that may have been there all along. I was driving through Ohio with a colleague when the GPS informed us that we were facing an hour-long delay…
What Are Signs and Symptoms of Migraine? | Migraine Again
Migraine is associated with a surprising array of symptoms that can vary from person to person or attack to attack. In fact, while some refer to migraine as a migraine headache, a headache is only one of several symptoms people experience.
Chronic Pain Checklist: 9 Places to Look for Affordable, Effective, Low-Risk Treatments | Everyday Health
Many Americans live with pain. Indeed, according to a February 2022 article in the journal Pain , 50.2 million people in the United States reported experiencing pain on most days or every day. If you’re one of them, you know the many struggles of coping with persistent pain.
14 Self-Care Tips for Sexual Assault Survivors Suffering from PTSD | brighthorizonsne.org
For those suffering from acute or long-term post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and depression, there are often times when these become so overwhelming that it can be difficult to even accomplish the basic functions of daily living.
Do you need help dealing with
sexual assault,
rape, or incest? Call
@RAINN ‘s Hotline 800.656.HOPE (4673) to talk to a trained staff member from a sexual assault service provider in your area. Don’t feel comfortable talking? Use chat/text instead.
Mental health: it’s not always good to talk | The Conversation
Few of us would question the need to break the silence around mental illness. Countless campaigns have drilled into us that such silence is harmful and that we should try to break it wherever we find it. Britain Get Talking is one such campaign.
The Best Books of 2023 So Far (Updated February 2023) | People
It’s been decades since 17-year-old Thalia Keith was murdered at Granby, her New Hampshire boarding school. The man convicted of the crime- Granby’s athletic director-remains in prison. But when Thalia’s former classmate Bodie Kane returns to teach there in 2018, she and her students take a…
Small-Batch Cheesy Focaccia | King Arthur Flour
Recipes Bread Flatbread Focaccia has many admirable qualities – the golden crust; the olive oil aroma; the tender, fluffy interior! – but a short shelf life. It’s best enjoyed the same day it’s made. That’s where this small cheesy focaccia comes to the rescue.
Auggie Vernon and the Eclipse (a poem)
He has everything he needs set up in the back yard: two triangular UPS shipping tubes held together by duct tape in the middle, with a pin-pricked piece of foil on one end and a piece of white paper on the other end of the box, but he’s not interested in the eclipse itself
Books by Alexandria Constantinova Szeman
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Filed under Baking, Books, Childhood Sexual Abuse, chronic pain, Chronic Pain Treatment, Health and Wellness, hemiplegic migraines, Meditation and MIndfulness, Mental Health, migraine, Migraine with Aura, Migraine Without Aura, migraines, Newsletters, PTSD, Sexual Abuse, Small Business, The Alexandria Papers Newsletter, Trauma
Tagged as cheesy focaccia, chronic pain, cptsd, King Arthur Baking, King Arthur Flour, meditation, mental health, migraine, mindfulness, PTSD, rainn, rainn online hotline