Understanding and Taking Control of Your High Blood Pressure

By Priyanka Anand

From PHN Issue 31, Winter 2017

Most people have heard of high blood pressure, also known as hypertension. Maybe the doctor has told you that you have high blood pressure. About 30 percent of adults in the United States have high blood pressure. Continue reading “Understanding and Taking Control of Your High Blood Pressure”

Some of the World’s Greatest Minds Are in Prison

by Bobby Bostic

From PHN Issue 29, Summer 2016

Prison is a place where you can find scholars of every kind. The system can lock up a person’s body, but they can’t incarcerate our minds. Right here, we have some of the world’s greatest minds. We have scientists, mathematicians, and preachers. In fact, many of you have excelled in the most difficult of all politics—prison politics. These politics can get really messy. But people in here network to make things happen on scales great and small. We must continue to apply ourselves and not settle for a label that society has placed on us. Continue reading “Some of the World’s Greatest Minds Are in Prison”

Writing to Heal

By Lucy Gleysteen

From PHN Issue 29, Summer 2016

Painful emotions can sometimes feel unmanageable. If you are feeling an emotional crisis and don’t have someone to reach out to, you may want to shift your emotional state to something that feels more tolerable. Writing can act as one of the building blocks towards creating a degree of emotional safety for yourself. Continue reading “Writing to Heal”

Finding Solace

By Thomas Michael Simmons, IPE

From PHN Issue 29, Summer 2016

Grief is a normal and natural experience that often involves powerful feelings—a reaction to significant emotional loss. Traumas such as catastrophic illness, job loss, divorce, abuse, harassment, amputation, injury, rape, and death of a loved one can trigger a process that brings intense anguish. Despite its inevitability, most are unprepared for its roller coaster ride of shock, anxiety, isolation, numbness, confusion, depression, anger, sadness, irritability, and sense of emptiness. Concentration is lost, eating and sleeping patterns shot. A world once familiar is now foreign and hostile to us. Yet, tomorrow still comes. Continue reading “Finding Solace”

Surviving Your Stay in Solitary Confinement

By Russell Auguillard

From PHN Issue 29, Summer 2016

My days consist of reading, exercising, writing, studying criminal and civil law, working on my case, studying medical periodicals as well as other studies, and watching television programs. With these particular routines, I manage to basically keep myself occupied. Yes, of course, doing the same thing all the time has a tendency to get boring. But when it comes to that point, you can do the same thing but switch it up. Continue reading “Surviving Your Stay in Solitary Confinement”

Mental Health Journaling

by Anonymous

From PHN Issue 28, Spring 2016

There are many ways to keep a journal. Because your journal is your own, you can set the guidelines of what it will be. You can use a blank notebook for your journal, or you can keep some blank pages together. Whatever way you choose to keep your own journal is the right way to do it. Continue reading “Mental Health Journaling”

Burpees: An Exercise for Stamina

by Corey Crawford

From PHN Issue 27, Winter 2016

One thing we have more of inside than out is time. We need to use it wisely; exercising is one way to do that.

Exercise gets the blood circulating, which in turn spreads oxygen to the body’s cells, keeping them fresh and healthy. Continue reading “Burpees: An Exercise for Stamina”

Getting from Monday to Tuesday: Coping with Long-term Incarceration

By Patrice L. Daniels

From PHN Issue 25, Summer 2015

Knowledge of Self: A better understanding of who I am (and am not) has given me a sense of security and confidence when facing whatever life throws at me—as well as whatever I decide to embark upon. Continue reading “Getting from Monday to Tuesday: Coping with Long-term Incarceration”