From the Vatican.

For a significant period of my life I practiced Catholicism, and although I am not as devout at the moment, I must say that I still have a soft spot for the Catholic tradition; the solemnness, the expressions of the human imagination that can be seen in the artworks that adorn grand church buildings, the music, the liturgy etc.

Today, being a Sunday, I enjoin Catholics to be accepting of differing beliefs and other Christian sects . I also thought this might help muster such courage ; a notable quote from the Pontiff.

 

 

Thanks for stopping by The Link.

Clare.

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The Human Spirit.

 

Thanks for stopping by The Liink.

Clare.

Eating Anxiety.

 

In my last post (here: https://theliink.wordpress.com/2017/10/16/your-food-your-mind/#more-1263), I talked about the role food plays in managing anxiety and promised to provide guidelines on the art of eating for those who experienced anxiety ….. and here it is! I hope y’all find them useful.

CAUTION:

These are mere guidelines. So, be sure to discard any point that doesn’t hold true for you. Never… ever exchange your experiences for some else’s. That being said; enjoy!

Your Food…..Your Mind.

I have always known I had an edgy personality, but in 2016 my psychiatrist also diagnosed ‘depression’ and suggested that I underwent an electro convulsive therapy (ECT) but I decided to use my background in Biochemistry and Nutrition to cater for me, because ……… I just love natural remedies.

One of the ways I had devised was to be vigilant about what I put into this beautiful machine I call my body. This art of vigilance have led me to this conclusion ‘what and how you eat is ameliorative not only for your physical but also your mental health’.

Sex In The Church…

As a Corp member, I was the secretary of an association known as National Association of Catholic Corp Members and although I had my own living arrangements, I loved to visit the communal lodge on weekends, feast days or holidays. On such times, we had “holy” fun; outdoor games, see movies, clean churches or perform any other act of public service.

During one of such visits, we decided to see a movie titled The Story of Saint Rita of Cascia. We all watched in silence until Saint Rita decided to have sex with her husband; all hell broke loose and suddenly there were uproars ‘ Hmm………… even Saint Rita aaaaaa !’ . I didn’t really make much of those words until recently.

Love

For some reason, strangers seem comfortable letting me in on their lives. Recently, a co-worker, let’s call him Otto, stopped me in my tracks; he was worried sick about his relationship with his girlfriend, Hauwa and apparently needed my help to reach closure.

Otto was a tall bloke — about 6’4 feet — and could be spotted easily in an average crowd but this was about all I knew about him …… we barely exchanged as much as a ‘hello’ with each other.

Then suddenly, he decides I could be his shrink or a counselor and I played ball: I listened. ‘He and Hauwa have been an item for quite some time and he loved her. But recently, they’ve gotten into more fights than he’d love to bear. In fact, recently, she had attacked him while he slept and haven’t been respectful to his mother either’. Obviously, he was in a dilemma and I felt his pain.

A Stigma on the Mentally Ill is an Affront to Humanity…….

In over a quarter century of my existence, I have lived with mental illness. I’ve had mainly neurosis and its symptoms; anxiety, hypochondria, mood swings. However, in a country like Nigeria, you’d look like an alien if you skipped work because you were crippled by anxiety – only physical cases seem to be of any consequence.

Plus, you’d do yourself a disfavor if you told your employer you suffered any form of mental illness because for some reason almost everybody thinks mental illness means, dirty, running around naked on the streets but this is far from the truth.