If you suspect that you may have a mood disorder and you are wondering how to fight depression, where can you turn for help?  The first thing to do is to schedule an appointment with the family doctor for a complete physical.  This is important because there are many possible physical conditions that can generate the signs and symptoms of depression.  A strenuous learning curve for how to fight depression may not be necessary if the signs and symptoms of depression that you are experiencing are caused by a hormone deficiency, for example.

There are specific questions you need to ask your doctor.  QUESTION 1:  During the examination, say to the physician,  “I’m wondering if I have the symptoms of depression.  What do you think?”  This will ensure that part of the physician’s time will be spent having a simple discussion with you about what you are experiencing and discuss how to fight depression in a clear, straightforward manner.

It’s useful to understand a little about the purpose of lab work.  A standard part of an annual physical examination is to send a sample of your blood to the lab for various tests.   There are always scores of different tests that the doctor does NOT order the lab to do because of the added expense (for the insurance company or for you) and because many conditions represented by those added tests are relatively rare.

TIP: it’s best to ask the  question about depression near the beginning of the exam, especially before the doctor orders the routine lab tests. The reason for this is simple.  There are various conditions such a anemia or low thyroid that can produce depression symptoms.

Asking about depression near the beginning of the exam allows your doctor to order additional tests on the blood sample that is drawn from you. When you are thinking about how to fight depression, take one of the easier steps right away and ask for a photocopy of the actual numbers of your lab results.

Once it has been diagnosed, the challenge of how to fight depression becomes easier to map out.  This naturally leads to the next question to ask your doctor during your physical examination.  QUESTION 2:  Ask the doctor, “Do you know of a good psychologist or therapist that I could meet with for an evaluation?”   TIP:  although clinical depression is a medical condition, it can be caused by non medical factors that can easily escape the notice of someone lacking specialized training.

QUESTIONS 3:  Additionally, ask the doctor, “Can you explain which antidepressant medications seem to work the best for your patients?”  QUESTION 4:  “If medication is what your patients choose for how to fight depression, what have you found are the pros and cons of the main antidepressants?”  TIP:  ask this followup question, mentioning specific medications by name.  For example, “Can you explain to me the benefits and side-effects of Zoloft, Lexapro, and Cymbalta?

Mentioning the medications by name is important if you are in an HMO insurance plan because doctors are sometimes restricted from telling you about the more expensive medications unless you specifically ask. Also, keep in mind that when someone starts a course of treatment with medication, it will take some time (at least a few weeks) to start feeling the positive effects of the medication.

QUESTION 5:  Also ask, “Are you comfortable prescribing these medications?”  This is important because not all general practitioners have as much training as they would like in order to monitor medication for depression.

TIP:  Before you actually meet with your physician for the exam, make a short list of these questions and others.  Depression makes concentration and memory temporarily less reliable and more frustrating.  A simple list will ensure that you ask all the questions you had been thinking about beforehand.

A final question can be asked just before you leave.  QUESTION 6:  “Is there anything else you can tell me about how to fight depression?”  If you ask these six questions you will have made a good start in learning how to fight depression and as well as acting on what you have learned.  Also, additional tips on how to fight depression can be found at a more specialized website.

Three Options for How to Fight Depression

Once people realize they have a problem with depression they have three options. There is the medication option where the doctor writes a prescription for an antidepressant and sends you on your way. In this day of fast work, fast food and fast cures that just may fit your picture of  a solution for how to fight depression.   But it isn’t the best nor the safest way. Research has shown that people who use one of three types of psychotherapy alone or psychotherapy and medication are taking a route for how to fight depression that has much better results than those only using medication. Depression is caused from an alteration in brain chemistry. The question many people ask  is,” what caused the alteration?”   Theoretically the change could happen genetically, from a genetic predisposition or triggered by stress. Or it could be triggered by all three. At this time researchers have not been able to identify a specific gene for people to be depressed, although there are genetic predispositions that are triggered by stress. Also, from a statistical point of view, depression seems to run in families.

How to Fight Depression:  How Important is it for a Person to Know Specific Causes?

While it is interesting to know why your depressed it doesn’t necessarily change the treatment plan for how to fight depression.  Depression is a chemical change in the brain regardless of what caused the change.

Treat the Signs and Symptoms of Depression or the Underlying Condition?

This being the case, medication without any other treatment can give a person relief from the signs and symptoms of depression, but leave them empty-handed when it comes to a method for how to fight depression as an underlying condition.  One of three different types of psychotherapy supply many of the answers to patients questions and concerns about their problems.

Three Main Approaches for How to Fight Depression

There are three specific psychotherapeutic approaches to treating depression. Many times people consider psychotherapy as a talking cure (Sigmund Freud) when in fact it is a way to figure out what ails you and to find better ways of coping with the stress. In these different types of psychotherapy your words and feelings play a central role. The job of the therapist is to support and professionally guide you through the process. You will examine your thoughts, feelings and actions and then determine how well they have worked in the past and how to change the ones that have been non-productive.

It is important to work with a therapist who you can trust enough to be open and honest. You may have to shop around a bit before settling with someone but this is important since keeping your thoughts and feelings to yourself can deepen your depression. Although there are three different types of psychotherapy most therapists are versed in all three. This knowledge can help you to pick from various tools for how to fight depression that may work for your individual situation. Of course the explanations are a bit simplistic but they help you to understand the basic premise behind each approach.

CBT:  Talking to Yourself Is How to Fight Depression

In Cognitive-Behavioral Therapy (CBT) the basic idea is that thoughts, feelings and behaviors are all interconnected so that if you make a change in one area it will affect others. For instance, if you make a change in the way you feel about something then they way that you act and your thoughts will also change. If your depression is making you feel worthless then you and the therapist will explore the specific, unrealistic beliefs you have about yourself and the world that make you feel worthless. Then you’d choose alternative behaviors until the system you are stuck in breaks down and your symptoms fade.

How to Fight Depression?  Some Say, “Interpersonal Therapy is the Way to Go”

Therapists who believe that Interpersonal Therapy is the key weapon for how to fight depression assume that the most difficult aspect of depression is how it affects your relationships with others. This type of therapeutic approach is effective with people who have had unresolved grief of the loss of a loved one or significant conflicts within relationships. The therapist and the patient focus on the relationship to identify personal needs that are going unmet and find ways to meet them by ending negative relationships and building social skills.

Using Brief Psychodynamic Therapy for How to Fight Depression

This approach for how to fight depression involves  uncovering an event in your life that triggers core conflicts. These events may no longer play and active role in your conscious memory or thoughts. For instance an individual may be feeling overwhelmed by a situation as an adult that isn’t in proportion to the event but may have been appropriate in a similar situation when they were much younger. The aim is to help the person make a connection between the past and the present and work through the feelings associated with the past events.

So, once informed, choose a method for how to fight depression in a systematic way.  It’s important that you feel the treatment you are receiving is relevant and helpful to your individual situation and to have a voice in the approach you are using. However, since there are three types of psychotherapy that lend themselves very nicely to the treatment of depression you should have no trouble picking a therapeutic approach that works for you.

If fighting anxiety attacks could be compared to planting a garden of relaxation, then fighting depression is about keeping weeds from choking the garden.  One of the important tasks in learning how to fight depression is to learn how clinical depression operates.  While there are many types and varieties of depression,  they all fall into one of two large categories.  The first kind of depression is what most people mean when they say something like, “I was so depressed yesterday…I got stopped for speeding.”  Feeling sad or blue is a normal part of life.  It is also normal to bounce back relatively quickly.  The second type of depression is a medical condition because the brain actually undergoes a change in which it loses the ability to bounce back quickly.  This is sometimes referred to as clinical depression or major depressive disorder.  If you are reading this and wonder how to fight depression, you are most likely concerned about the second type.  It’s important to be clear about which kind of depression you are targeting.  In this article the word depression refers to the various types of depression that fall into the second large category.

This begins with learning to recognize the signs and symptoms of depression.  There are two important questions to ask.  First, what are the signs and symptoms of depression?  Second, when do the signs and symptoms of depression become a clinical condition that needs medical treatment and/or therapy?

Another task in learning how to fight depression is to learn each of the signs and symptoms of depression and to understand what they mean.  The official list (DSM-IV) identifies 9 symptoms.  The first five are the obvious physical signs and symptoms of depression:  (1) Significant change in weight not due to dieting (weight gain or loss of more than 5% of body weight in a month); (2) Sleep problems nearly every day (excessive sleeping or insomnia); (3) Agitation (irritable attitude and physical tension) or marked slowing of one’s thoughts and actions (e.g., much more difficulty getting started on something than usual); (4) Fatigue or loss of energy every day; (5) Diminished ability to think or concentrate or indecisiveness, nearly every day.

The 2nd group of signs and symptoms of depression have more to do with a person’s subjective experience.  They are: (6) Feelings of worthlessness or excessive (or inappropriate) guilt nearly every day; (7) Sad mood most of the day, nearly every day; (8) Noticeable loss of interest or pleasure in nearly all activities most of every day.  This set of symptoms poses the frustrating challenge of how to fight depression when it is something so vague as a mood and difficult to measure.

The third group is really just one symptom in a class of it’s own:  frequent or recurring thoughts about suicide or death.  If that symptom is present it should be evaluated by a professional.  It takes special training to evaluate the level of risk that suicidal thoughts pose to a particular individual.

Additionally, it’s good to learn something about the severity level or intensity of depression.  This can be a bit tricky because the severity level (mild, moderate, severe) doesn’t always follow the level of unhappiness that a person is or is not experiencing.  In other words a “mild” clinical depression can have enough effect on a man to impact his marriage to the point of divorce, even though he never experiences the more debilitating signs and symptoms of depression.  It requires a particular type of training to accurately assess a man or a woman’s depression as severe, moderate, or mild.  Also, the options for treatment are often very different for each severity level.

While there is much to learn about how to fight depression, knowing these few basic facts can be a good start.  It can help you know which questions to ask.  It can help provide a framework for thinking about what to do next.  When in doubt, it’s good to consult with someone who knows how to spot which species of depression are strong enough to sabotage your efforts at self help for panic attacks.

When do the signs and symptoms of depression become a medical condition that needs treatment?  For the signs and symptoms of depression to have clinical significance these two important criteria must both be true:

1. The signs and symptoms of depression last for several days (at least 2 weeks)
2. Depression symptoms become disruptive to major areas of a person’s life;  and depression symptons negatively and noticeably impact relationships, work, or school

Major Depressive Disorder,  is usually defined as a combination of any five of the following signs and symptoms of depression that persist for more than 2 weeks:

1. Sad mood most of the day, nearly every day
2. Noticeable loss of interest or pleasure in nearly all activities most of every day
3. Significant change in weight not due to dieting (weight gain or loss of more than 5% of body weight in a month)
4. Sleep problems nearly every day (excessive sleeping or insomnia)
5. Agitation (irritable attitude and physical tension) or marked slowing of one’s thoughts and actions (e.g., much more difficulty getting started on something than usual)
6. Fatigue or loss of energy every day
7. Feelings of worthlessness or excessive (or inappropriate) guilt nearly every day
8. Diminished ability to think or concentrate or indecisiveness, nearly every day
9. Recurrent thoughts of death (not just fear of dying), recurring thoughts about suicide, or a suicidal gesture (deliberate carelessness in dangerous situations) or an attempt, or specific plans.

If a person is having thoughts about death that keep returning, this is almost certainly an indicator of clinical depression, whether or not the person can recognize any other signs and symptoms of depression.

With clinical depression, “our brain starts working in a different way and gets stuck in a mode that displays the signs and symptoms of depression,” says Dr. Greg Hamlin who addresses this topic in more depth.

Natural Skin Care for Anti Aging

It seems like every day there’s a new product on to market to help turn back time. Truthfully, no matter what any company tells you, there’s no such thing as a fountain of youth, but there are steps you can take to make yourself look and feel younger without surgery or expensive treatments or products. A well balanced, nutrient rich diet is the best way to keep yourself looking young. A lot if skin aging is caused by free radicals. They are damaging chemicals from the air we breathe, the food we eat, and our environment in general.

Just like free radicals can hurt us, antioxidants can combat free radicals. Antioxidants like vitamins A, E, and C are found in many fruits and vegetables. Try eating a variety of vegetables along with a diet rich in protein, whole grains, and low-fat dairy products. Just like some foods can help you look younger, other foods and bad habits can speed up the clock.

Natural Skin Care for Beauty

To stay looking your best, don’t smoke and limit your consumption of alcohol and caffeine. You should also try to eat fresh (preferably raw) foods daily and avoid a lot of processed foods and preservatives. Another skin ager is sugar – soft, sticky and deadly – it is not awful for your health in general it’s extremely ageing to your skin. Avoid or reduce sugar as much as possible from your diet and you will see a difference in your skin. Dry skin, acne, and other skin issues can all make you look older as well, and they can all be helped by drinking plenty of water and eating right. To supplement your healthy skin diet you can try a few natural products to maximize the effects.

Natural Skin Care Home Remedies

Try these at-home ideas that keep you looking young and vibrant:

• To help reduce your wrinkles, mash up a ripe banana, apply to your face and allow to sit for about 15 minutes before rinsing.
• Use lemon juice to remove age spots. Just apply daily to gradually lighten them away. If lemon juice is too harsh for your skin, mix it into your daily moisturizer to see results while keeping your skin soft and smooth. *
• To reduce eye puffiness, grate a small potato and mix with a small amount of chilled apple sauce. Place on eyes and cover with a moist towel for 5 to 10 minutes.
• Gently exfoliate your skin daily to help the cells renew themselves and keep the skin looking youthful. Simply use a little natural uncooked oatmeal mixed with a teaspoon of honey and gently rub on your face. Rinse off with cool water. Your skin will look vibrant and soft.
• Use natural vitamin E oil on your face at night. Simply rub on a very thin layer in the areas most prone to wrinkles and let absorb into your skin overnight. In the morning try the exfoliating scrub mentioned above and you’re set to go. While nothing can stop the clock altogether, healthy, youthful skin is achievable and these easy steps will help you get started.

Anger, moodiness and arguments happen in all marital relationships. Every couple has arguments and disagreements. Every couple gets angry now and then – sometimes with each other, sometimes with circumstances of life. When anger is due to hypoglycemic symptoms, then eating a snack becomes more important than marriage councelling. Everyone gets moody now and then and may snap at their loved ones.

But what about when anger or marital arguments boil over into something far more serious?  Uncontrollable anger could be a result of hypoglycemic symptoms and if you or your spouse suffers from bouts of uncontrollable anger, or your arguments get out of hand, it’s possible that hypoglycemic symptoms are messing with your relationship.

Hypoglycemia is a condition where the brain isn’t getting enough of its main food – glucose. Glucose is a sugar that’s produced by the liver and is delivered in steady doses to the brain. This enables the brain to function correctly and to oversee the functions of all of your body’s systems. When the brain isn’t getting enough glucose, it can’t handle its many functions well, and you begin to notice hypoglycemic symptoms. They are:

• Dizziness
• Sweating
• Headache
• Hunger
• Shakiness
• Irritability
• Paleness
• Moodiness
• Clumsiness
• Confusion or lack of concentration
• Tingling around the mouth

You’ll notice that irritability and moodiness are two of the hypoglycemic symptoms on the list. If you add a pounding headache and confusion to the mix, you have the perfect breeding ground for anger. Because the brain is already not functioning well, it doesn’t have the capacity to regulate moods and reactions as well as it would if it were getting enough glucose.

You can see how hypoglycemic symptoms may lead to an angry outburst. Over-the-top anger is bad in any situation and can cause damage well beyond just the immediate outburst. In a marriage, if there are severe outbursts of anger and arguments, the outcome could be damage that is simply not repairable.

It’s important to be checked for hypoglycemia if angry outbursts are common. If the diagnosis is positive, treatment is fairly straightforward and fairly easy. Watching for hypoglycemic symptoms is your first step to ending anger and marital arguments that are just too much to take. Ask for a glucose tolerance test if there is suspicion that you or your partner are suffering from hypoglycemic symptoms.

Even if hypoglycemia is diagnosed and treated, you’ll still have times of irritation and some arguments – this is normal in any marriage. But if you treat the hypoglycemia carefully, you’ll find that the worst of the anger and arguments subside, as do the other hypoglycemic symptoms, leading to a happier, healthier life for everyone.

Know Your Blind Spots

Adult children of alcoholic parents are wise to figure out their own blind spots when they become parents themselves. Although you grew up in a home with one or both of your parents being alcoholics, you want to be certain that you provide a better atmosphere for your own children to grow and thrive in. Adult children of alcoholic parents share certain blind spots while parenting their own children. You know the pain of growing up in an alcoholic home and you know the ways you learned to cope with growing up in that situation. You may have become a miniature adult, a caretaker, and a super responsible little person.  Adult children of alcoholic parents often play the role of the “parentified child.”

Or you might have become the troublemaker or clown to compensate. Maybe you were the peacemaker or the one who never made a fuss and just went along with the program. You may have suffered – not only mental and emotional abuse – but also possibly physical or sexual abuse. You might have felt the disappointment of lies and broken promises or been scared of abandonment. You may have avoided getting too close to anyone for fear that they would go away or neglect you. As tough as it was to grow up like this, you know that’s not the way you want your own children to live. Good for you! You’ve committed to giving your kids a better, healthier, happier life. In that case, it’s important for you to seek out alcoholic help for families and to know where your blind spots might be. What might be your stumbling blocks to giving your kids the best life possible? Adult children of alcoholic parents may find it difficult to break their childhood patterns of coping with life. This is something that you’ll need to pay close attention to when dealing with your own children. Adult children of alcoholic parents carry a heavier load as moms and dads, but they can also discover that they have a lot of support in striving to create a better home atmosphere. You need to look at your current patterns of behavior. If you were the clown or the troublemaker, are you still carrying around those characteristics, and if so, are they causing problems?

Mark the Clown

Little Mark as a 4th grader learned to be a clown to diffuse Dad’s anger when he was about to explode. Mark also learned to be hyper alert to changes in Dad’s facial expressions so that he would know when to start entertaining his Dad. People like Mark as adult children of alcoholic parents often find that their coping mechanisms become obsolete or downright dysfunctional when they trying to navigate parenting themselves. A clown can be fun to be around, but are you also irresponsible? A troublemaker who hasn’t learned to stay out of trouble may be leading a life of legal troubles – not a good example to set for your kids, and certainly not nice for them if they can’t see you because you’re incarcerated.

If you’re a perfectionist as a result of being the responsible “parent” in your childhood home, are you demanding too much from your little ones, who are still learning about life through play and fun? Or have you become an adult doormat who just goes along with the program because you don’t want to make waves? None of these methods are terribly healthy for you or your children. Certainly a dose of humor, responsibility and ability to go with the flow is important for everyone. Even raising Cain once in awhile is probably something that everyone does, even the most emotionally healthy people, now and then.

It Helped You Cope Then;  It’s Dysfunctional Now

Your blind spot might come from still being that person that you were as a child of an alcoholic household. That worked for you then, but now, as a parent, it might be more detrimental than anything. If you are an adult child of an alcoholic and you have children yourself, don’t be afraid to get help. Because there are so many adult children of alcoholic parents, it’s usually possible to find resources and help. Making use of help for adult children of alcoholic parents is an important step in recovery in creating a healthy, happy home. Your family is depending on you to do what you can to help yourself deal with your childhood in a way that makes you into a happier, healthier person – for your sake and your family’s.

Many people try self help for panic attacks and don’t get very far. The reason is that they try to run before they can walk. If you can’t use self help anxiety control methods on mild anxiety, how do you suppose you will be successful with self help for panic attacks which involve the most extreme forms of anxiety.

There are numerous methods involved in the reduction of mild anxiety. For this article, I shall look at the simpler ones. Yoga, Tai Chi and sport may not be something you are accustomed to doing each day. Other than exercise and hitting the pharmaceutical cupboard, there are even simpler remedies to relieve mild anxiety. Here is a checklist of items to action each day.

Tips for Reducing Mild Anxiety to Prepare for Self Help for Panic Attacks

1.  Early to bed, early to rise. The expression fits well into a balanced day though its more about the controlled sleeping patterns. It’s not a good thing to have only a few hours of sleep each night. Have a good night’s sleep; 7 hours each night fits well into a mild anxiety relieving pattern.

2.  Don’t drink vast amounts of caffeine as this disrupts your daily balance. If you are prone to drinking too much caffeine, try cutting down and fit some decaffeinated coffee and tea into your day. Yes, caffeine gives you a burst of energy to enable you to feel more alert but the effect is short. This is especially true with self help for panic attacks. Caffeine increases anxiety.

3.  Eat lots of fruit, get the needed daily vitamins. Apples and bananas are very healthy supplements as part of your daily food intake. Bananas are not fattening and apples help the immune system. Don’t eat too much processed food; concentrate on drinking and eating the required vitamins.

4.  Exercise can help particularly because you need to be well-rested for the rigors of self help for panic attacks. It’s important to get sleep and 1 hour of cardio-vascular exercise per day will help improve your sleep, making you stronger for self help for panic attacks.

5.  Salt raises your blood pressure, so keep an eye on salty foods being consumed. Higher blood pressure will contribute to your mild anxiety levels and is a killer.

6.  Look back over the past week at the positive aspects that made you feel good. Did something occur that attracted an experience of joy and laughter? Send some time focusing on that moment as it will allow you to attract good feelings into your mind and smother any negative impact from the day.

7.  If you must reach for pharmaceuticals, try some antioxidants. Speak to your local pharmacist initially about remedies to relieve mild anxiety. There are various remedies that protect you from heart disease and lower your blood pressure.

Enforce these remedies to relieve mild anxiety each day to keep a healthy body and mind. Set a time that is convenient to perform the tasks, and stick to a schedule that works around your other daily commitments.

Self help for panic attacks starts with basic health practices and anxiety control techniques and then adding to those skill incrementally.

Women love to be cherished. The song says that diamonds are a girl’s best friend, but I say that her best friend is her husband. For those men out there who want to show their wives how they feel, here are seven free ways that won’t cost you anywhere near the price of a diamond that doesn’t really show her how you feel anyway.

1. Make dinner for her. There are plenty of women who work, chauffeur the children, and still make it home in time to prepare a hot dinner. Take the responsibility off of her hands at least one night a week if you can. This may take a bit of planning, but it will be well worth it, trust me. Even if she gets home before you do, offer to take over and finish the meal. As a treat, feed the kids first and save two plates for a romantic dinner after the kids are bathed and tucked in bed.
2. Run a hot bath. Remember hot baths? They are those warm, sudsy experiences we used to have time for before the kids came along. When the kids are ready for a little play with dad or after they are in bed for the night, run a bath for your wife so that she gets a much deserved break from her day. The waters will soak away the cares of the day and leave her ready to change from worker bee and mom to wife. Add a glass of wine and the bath will be perfect.
3. Place notes in unexpected places. Men are not adept at this, so it will come as a complete surprise. Put a special love note in her underwear drawer or write it in the steam on the bathroom mirror. There are a ton of places you can drop little notes of love and appreciation for your wife.
4. Give her a nude massage and don’t allow it to become sexual for a full hour.  Just say, “I love you” with your hands.  No talking.  Stay on task.  Keep her guessing about what you are going to do next.
5. Call her throughout the day. She won’t be expecting sweet nothings to be whispered in her ear during the day. Tell her you love her and wanted to make sure she was alright.
6. Give her a back massage. Picking up toys, cooking, driving, and the like take its toll on the back. Playtime in the tub with the kids is a back breaker, too. Use a warming massage gel to cut the pain as you soothe away the aches and pains with your manly touch.
7. Get involved in an activity that she likes. Women like when men show genuine interest in them. This includes their activities. You don’t have to join a knitting circle or sewing group, but attend a meeting to show your support and love. Ask her to explain what she does in her cooking class. Cooking together can be fun and quite romantic when done at home.
8. Pick up after yourself. I pick up socks and shoes on a daily basis. I’ve usually tripped over the shoes first, though. Women are wired to be caregivers. Lighten her load by putting your own things away. She can spend more time focusing on you when she doesn’t have to pick up after you.

Love doesn’t require a big production or lots of dough. If you keep it simple, she’ll still get the message – you love and appreciate her very much.

Sometimes we have trouble carving out fifteen minutes for any more activities, so six minute intervals will be right up your alley. But, beware – these six minutes can be tantalizing enough to keep you tied up for many minutes more. That being said, use caution when deciding on the time of your romantic overtures.

Our daily schedules are so jam packed with activities that we hardly have time for ourselves let alone our partner. Romance often ends up on the back burner. Here are some quick romantic ideas that anyone can do to keep in touch with their mate.

Six Minute Sizzle Tips:

• Start early in the morning. Take a shower together. At worst, you conserve water by turning it on only once that morning. At best, well, I think you know where I’m going. A shower together is a great way to say good morning.
• Shave your man’s five o’clock shadow. This takes a lot of trust and a steady hand. Men like it when we take charge once in a while so give him the shave of his life.
• After a hard day at work, we all have a bit of tension in our joints. Sit your partner down and give them a neck massage. Remember this is no ordinary neck massage though. Be sure to take advantage of the entire six minutes.  If you have trouble getting your mind to stop thinking about your To Do list, then just think of all the time your saving for the future that end up being spent arranging a babysitter and juggling dinner so that you can go to marriage councelling.
• Start by unbuttoning a shirt or blouse for your love and easing it off of their shoulders. Use a warm lotion or gel to work out the kinks in the muscles. Try alternating deep muscle massage with gentler strokes to loosen them up.
• In our homes, we often pass each other without a word. Many couples live in the same house but act like nothing more than roommates, sometimes worse – strangers. The next time you pass him or her in the hall, give them a big surprise. Pin them against the wall and shower them with kisses for six minutes. Hopefully, by the end of the six minutes they will join in the fun. Six minutes can turn into sex minutes.
• Aphrodisiacs are supposed to make us feel in a romantic mood. Serve up a before bed snack of chocolate covered strawberries and other fruit. Add a bit of bubbly for even more romance.

Marriage councelling can take a lot of time, not to mention the money.  These romantic ideas don’t take a lot of time, but the effects will last beyond the moment. They add a bit of spontaneity which is missing in the busy lives of most couples. Take back your romance SEX SIX minutes at a time.