Mental Health and Mood Support Archives

June 30, 2025June 30, 2025

It’s Surprisingly Nice To Hear You: The Impact of Communication Media on Social Connection and Wellbeing

By Donnie Yance

“I Fear the Day That Technology Will Surpass Our Human Interaction” -Albert Einstein

“We communicate by the tone of our voice, with our eyes, with our body language, with our hands. The influx of our voice. There are so many things that we use to communicate,” notes communication researcher Amit Kumar. This multifaceted nature of human interaction becomes critically important when examining how different communication media affect our social connections and overall well being.

Technology can connect us to the world, but can disconnect us from each other,

Cell phones can have a negative impact on close relationships, closeness, connection, and conversation quality.¹

Believe it or not, I still used a flip phone until about a year ago, when it finally broke. Now I use my son’s hand-me-down iPhone. I’ve deliberately kept it disconnected from my computer and haven’t set up email on it. Since I spend countless hours on my computer each day, I’ve made a conscious decision that when I step away from my desk, I want to be truly free from the digital world.

April 6, 2023April 13, 2023

In Death and Grief We Find Love

Reflections for Easter, Passover, and Spring

By Donnie Yance

Just before Christmas, I lost my youngest sister Gi Gi, to a sudden accident. She was in a coma for several weeks prior to her transition. As my sister hovered between life and death, I found myself in a deep state of grief and reflection. A reflection on birth, life, death, and the embracing of the great mystery. I choose to call the great mystery Love, or, better stated, Agape Love.

October 21, 2022October 21, 2022

Whole Grain Bread: Why You Should Make Your Own

Whole-grain bread is delicious. It’s also very healthy. In fact, whole-grain bread is so good for you that I encourage you to learn to make your own. As I’ll explain below, there are several compelling reasons to make your own whole-grain bread.

You might be surprised to read this recommendation, especially if you’ve been avoiding grains. But I spend hours every day reading the most updated scientific literature about health. So I can tell you with confidence that the current fad pushing people to eat a high-fat no-grain diet is not backed by tradition, culture, or science.

July 12, 2021March 8, 2022

Antidepressants May Be No More Effective Than Placebo: But What About St. John’s Wort and Other Herbal Medicines?

“When going thru hell, keep going.” Winston Churchill

Depression is one of the most common mental illnesses and can affect anyone at any age. Characterized by anhedonia (the inability to feel pleasure), despair, and pessimism, depression has high morbidity and recurrence.^[1] Overall, more than 50% of the general population in middle- and high-income countries will suffer from at least one mental disorder at some point in their lives. This is obviously a major public health problem with significant consequences for society.^[2] We need clear guidelines as to what does and doesn’t work for treating depression.

December 21, 2020March 14, 2022

Winter Solstice Reflections on Silence

As I sit in reflection in the very heart of the darkest time, the shortest day of the year, I am more aware than ever of the importance of silence, the silence that surrounds us as the world quiets, and the silence we find within ourselves when we stop and listen.

When I am silent, I hear my true self and access the depths of my soul. When I am silent, I hear with a caring heart. Silence teaches us to know reality by respecting it where words have defiled it. In silent reflection, I am able to abandon myself to the will of the Divine One. If our life is poured out in useless words, we will never hear anything because we have said everything before we had anything meaningful to say.

June 10, 2020March 22, 2022

The Courage to Step into the Great Outdoors

“Live in the sunshine, swim the sea, drink the wild air” ~Ralph Waldo Emerson

There are plenty of good reasons to be outdoors this summer, and now we can add ‘safe haven’ to the list. As we all know, strict isolation strategies have been employed since mid-March to curb the spread of the pandemic. The resulting isolation, combined with fear of contagion and misinformation overload (“infodemic”) is creating a great deal of confusion and stress.[1]

There is no question that reducing the contact rate of latent individuals, and interventions such as quarantine and isolation, can effectively reduce the potential peak number of infections and delay the time of peak infection. However, as much as I believe this to be true as it applies to being indoors, I question whether being outdoors—even in groups—poses much risk at all. While there is still so much we don’t know about the virus transmission, we have yet to see proof or a strong likelihood that the outdoors poses a significant risk. In fact, research suggests it may be safer compared to indoors.