music, therapy, and me

I had an insomnia night last night. Now, usually I am a good sleeper. In the past couple of years, my sleep schedule has been shifting, mainly due to hot flashes, but I usually sleep for a long time, then get up to use the bathroom and cool down, and then I fall back to sleep. Last night was one of my rare exceptions. Last night, I slept from about 8:30 until 10:30. I woke up and went to use the bathroom and that was it! My body no longer wanted me to actually sleep, even though I was tired as all get out. I think I dozed a bit between 2 and 3:47, but I am not sure. My eyes were gritty and wanted to close, but my mind was alert and ready to go. I avoided my usual inability to think around 4am on these days somehow, and I am still pretty alert. I know that I will be crashing this afternoon after things are done in my music therapy clinic. I may just plan on reading my current music therapy book and working on my visual aid system for the prep time that I have on Monday afternoons. I nee...

I am currently in the throes of my summer situation - asthma. For some reason, during the summer months, my breathing gets all screwed up. It's a combination of the heat, the humidity (oh, the humidity), the pollen, and it knocks me out! Add in a tendency to avoid the sunshine and WHAM! It all adds up to my summer slump. I'm having to lug my nebulizer and my additional breathing medications to work with me. It is difficult to do much singing at the moment with my tight lungs and increasingly sore throat. I am on so many medications, at the moment, that I probably cure asthma of bystanders just by walking past them. This is no fun. So, what does a busy music therapist do when in the throes of a long-lasting asthma attack? Change things a bit. Sing as long as I can sing (when the coughing starts, it's time to stop singing and focus on breathing). Use the coping skills that we are teaching our students (especially the deep breathing - by focusing, I can usually calm ...