Helping You Help Yourself #28

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Facing Monday and the rest of the week after the shooting this weekend is at best daunting for us all. Here’s a guide on coping with the trauma of a disaster or other large-scale traumatic event, and how to tell whether you should seek further help in addressing it. The Trevor Lifeline is 866-488-7386 (for the text line, text TREVOR to 1-202-304-1200) and the Trans Lifeline is (877) 565-8860 if you’re in crisis or need to talk to someone right now.

Many of us were reminded of the value and urgency of donating blood this weekend — here’s a tool that helps you locate your nearest blood bank quickly and easily.

Some tips on exploring sound meditation.

For many of us, A-Camp is a time for new adventures, making spur-of-the-moment decisions in the spirit of openness. My adventure this year was fully sitting on a pine bench just covered in tree sap, and making a pair of pants unwearable. Once I got home, I tried washing and drying them, but much of the tree sap was still there and now it had been adhered there by my dryer. After some research, I decided my best option was to try rubbing alcohol, and reader: it worked like a charm. I dabbed it on the sappy spots, which almost entirely dissolved, and then dissolved the rest of the way in the second wash. It didn’t even affect the (maroon) color! What a triumph.

A guide to performing CPR on your cat or dog.

How to forget things.

Some hot tips for a cool grilling weekend: get your grill clean and ready to cook, use this visual guide to charcoal grilling anything, and keep these DIY bug repellents around so you don’t get bitten while you’re bbq-ing.

What a dermatologist says you should do to treat that sunburn.

A video that explains how to deal with rejection and loss.

The concept of a “cuddle alarm.”

Working on overcoming perfectionism.

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Rachel

Originally from Boston, MA, Rachel now lives in the Midwest. Topics dear to her heart include bisexuality, The X-Files and tacos. Her favorite Ciara video is probably "Ride," but if you're only going to watch one, she recommends "Like A Boy." You can follow her on twitter and instagram.

Rachel has written 1141 articles for us.

4 Comments

  1. i’ll never forget blaming the tree sap on 3 (yes three) of my shorts on someone’s gum. thank you for this tip

  2. I’ve got a blood donation scheduled for Thursday. Every time you donate blood you save 3 lives.

  3. Ohh I thought that thing on sound meditation was going to be about singing cause that’s a thing I do to clear my mind and center myself. But I don’t usually have lyrics I just extend random consonant and vowel sounds. Don’t have a name for it, was maybe hap hoping that would be one.
    Sometimes when I do it with the names of runes there’s a name for that, but I do the wordless more often.

    But that’s cool six seconds of a gong’s bong simmers down the mind and says, “Listen, O’ grey matter staph thinkin. It’s okay put the thoughts downnnn, just listen to the sounddd.”

    It could be a song…

    Listen to the song of a gong bong
    Put the thoughts down
    Listen to the sound
    An’ put the thoughts down
    Listen to the sound
    Put the the thoughts down

    …this is so silly, but I regret it not.

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