Pin Trading Bingo

One thing I enjoy is having a little free fun while on vacation. Since I live not too far from Orlando, I visit the theme parks several times per year. I love to go to Disney World with my husband and friends and trade pins at the parks and the hotels.

Pin trading is absolutely free (though the pins you start with are at a cost) and is one of the delights of visiting the parks to me. Since I have several friends who also enjoy pin trading, I put together a friendly competition for us that you are also welcome to use. You could even use it by yourself, if your friends aren't traders, or you're making a solo adventure to the area.

Here are the rules:

1. Save the 3 images below to your cell phone.
2. Bring a set of 10 "trader" pins for each person who will be playing as well as a lanyard.*
3. Have each person pick a number between 1 and 30. Note: If you are playing with children who will need help with the game, have everyone pick a number in the same bracket (1-10 or 11-20 or 21-30) so you are all on the same card and don't have to keep switching between cards to assist them. 
4. To be fair, have someone else choose your number, since you have seen the cards. 
5. With your group, trade away any pins you have that meet your win criteria.
6. Trade pins all day at the parks, hotels, and gift shops! Keep any pins that you love. Track your collection at PinPics.
7. At the end of the day, compare what you have collected against your card and see if you have met your win-condition of all 5 pins. Whomever in your group has done so is the winner! Award a special prize - maybe pick out a pin for them from a shop, gift them with a new lanyard for next time, or the losers buy a round of cocoa for the winners. 

You may play as cut-throat or friendly as you choose. The rules are written in such a way as to be interpretive. For instance, when it says Chip & Dale, will you accept either character, or does it have to be the pair of them? Decide in advance, and cut the kids some slack. After all, it's just for fun.

Share your pictures, if you like. Who won?

*A note on traders & lanyards: You can purchase trading pins on eBay or Amazon for a fair price. You can also buy them at the parks or the Disney Store, but you will spend more this way. Lanyard can be purchased at the parks or Disney Store, or you can buy them where keys are made, such as the Home Depot or Lowe's. To be extra special, you can order custom lanyards from places like Lindsay's Lanyards, but these take a little extra time.

Autumn Hahn is a Licensed Mental Health Counselor and Certified Clinical Hypnotherapist practicing at Clear Mind Group in Weston, Florida. Call 954-612-9553 for a consultation. Follow Autumn on Twitter, Facebook, and Google+. Sign up for the e-newsletter HERE.

DIY Guess Who IRL Friends Edition

Finished makeover

A group of my friends does "board game nights" which is exactly what you think it is, but for up to 30 people. I decided to make a gift of the game Guess Who with the most common attendees as a gift for the hostess this year. I can tell you that it went over beautifully, beyond my expectations, and that it was played for several hours that night. Everyone was delighted to see themselves and their friends and which pictures I used.

If you'd like to make a Guess Who board such as this, here are the steps I took:

I bought a Guess who game from 1986 off of eBay. It has all the board pieces, all the pegs, and all but one of the guess cards. You might use one of the new ones that still in stores, but I don't think they look as nice. Cost: $26 after shipping, 30 minutes.

Look how Anglo it used to be!

It was a labor of love! Since this was a secret project (I'm not even posting this until after the gift has been given), I had to choose the persons to be featured and find photos of them myself. Facebook was an excellent resource. I used the Game Night group's members list to narrow the featured persons down to 24. This was no easy task as some people attend more often than others, some haven't come in awhile, but used to come often, some just started coming but are coming consistently. I hope no one is offended to have been excluded, but I had to use my best judgment. I went through the profile pictures of each of the 24 persons and looked for one that:  1) showed their face clearly 2) was not too close-up 3) was at least kind of flattering (I wouldn't want anyone embarrassed by the picture I chose, but I figured that if it was their profile picture at one point, it had to be a picture they liked of themselves), and 4) was interesting or humorous. Cost: 2 hours.

New and Improved Guess Who, IRL Friends Edition

Then came resizing the images. I have no skill in this area, so it took me much longer than it should have, poking around in Paint. The final images need to be 1 1/8" wide by 1 3/4" tall, including the name at the bottom. Move the resized images to layout on 3 images that are 4"6" so you can print them like proper photos. I used CVS to print them in seconds, but you might use your photo printer and skip that step. Make 4 copies of each; you only need 3 copies, but you're sure to make at least one error, so get an extra set. Cost: $6, 4 hours.

Cut out the images and adhere to the face cards in the game, aligning the top edge, and to the guess cards covering the existing image as completely as possible. I used scrapbook photo adhesive squares that I already owned. Cost: 1.5 hours.

As an extra precaution to make sure they last a good long time, take all of the cards to Kinkos and get them laminated. My Kinkos took about a day to turn this around, and they would not photocopy a single card so I could replace the one that was missing because of copyright issues, so I chose to just leave one person out; I assume no one will notice, but if they do, that's the reason. Cut the cards out yourself. The cost for cutting is well more than the cost of laminating and isn't worth the expense, in my opinion. Cost: $52, 2 hours.

Place them in their respective boards and provide a copy of the instructions, or make your own.

Total hours spent: 10
Total cost spent: $84

If you make one, please show me in the comments with a link/image! 

Here's how to make one for Doctor Who by @KarenKavett, which inspired this project from the very beginning!

Here's one for Harry Potter using the newer style boards.

If you Google "Guess Who custom" you'll find templates and tutorials for the newer style boards, but I prefer the older style.

*Guess Who is owned by Milton Bradley and this version is not for sale, but is a vanity project for personal use only. No profit is made or attempted based on the original work, retained under copyright, of Milton Bradley.

Autumn Hahn is a Licensed Mental Health Counselor and Certified Clinical Hypnotherapist practicing at Clear Mind Group in Weston, Florida. Call 954-612-9553 for a consultation. Follow Autumn on Twitter, Facebook, and Google+. Sign up for the e-newsletter HERE.

Pink Elephant - Guest Blog by Julie Davis

It's not that bad.

I'm busy.

S/he'll handle it.

It'll go away.

It's not my problem.

I can't do anything about it.

 

What's that thing in the middle of your life that you keep tripping over but refuse to deal with?

 

This week, I invite you to face it...

 

...from afar: Observe and collect data.  What is the pink elephant? When/where/how does it get in the way? What is your contribution for it being there? What would today be like if it disappeared? How do you get rid of it? Do you want to?

 

...up close: Bring it up to others who are tripping over it, too (whether they know it or not). "Hey, I think there is a pink elephant in the room that I/we keep tripping over and I'd like to talk about that, is this a good time?" If met with defensiveness, avoidance or confusion, you are talking to a pink elephant (not useful) and might need to move to the next step.

 

...head on: "I respect your interest in living with a pink elephant in the room. I'm not interested in that, however, and will be [over there]. If you are interested in having a collaborative discussion on how to remove and live without this pink elephant let me know. Otherwise, I'll be [over there].

 

Julie

 

Ps. If you are buried up to the eyeballs in pink dung, please call for help to get shoveled out FIRST.

Julie Davis, LMFT
Licensed Marriage Family Therapist Certified Rapid Resolution Therapist 704-807-1101, appointments available in California, New York, & North Carolina eMail, Website, Subscribe to weekly article

Autumn Hahn is a Licensed Mental Health Counselor and Certified Clinical Hypnotherapist practicing at Clear Mind Group in Weston, Florida. Call 954-612-9553 for a consultation. Follow Autumn on Twitter, Facebook, and Google+. Sign up for the e-newsletter HERE.

Playlist of Songs for Two Rooms and a Boom

As you may or may not know, in addition to owning Clear Mind Group, I also co-own the board game production company Butter Knife Concepts (Facebook, Twitter). As such, today's blog is about board games.

Two Rooms and a Boom is a party game for 6-30 persons (15-20 is ideal, in my opinion). Each round is timed. You can download their official timers HERE, but I thought a playlist may be more fun. I don't think the rounds need to be exactly as in the instructions, so an extra few seconds for your favorite songs won't make a bit of difference.

Here's a huge list with many genres including "boom" that my group started when we played this game last time. Did I miss anything, or did you find a broken link? Please leave it in the comments.

Disclaimer: Official links were used whenever they could be found. Many songs contain graphic language.

2 minutes

Sophisticated Boom Boom - The Shangrilas - 2:10

Boom - Reggaetron Explosion - 2:13

Boom - Flight of the Conchords - 2:14 

Boom Boom - Yardbirds - 2:24

Johnny's Got a Boom Boom - Imelda May - 2:38 

Boom in it - Afro Classics - 2:40

Boom Boom - John Lee Hooker - 2:40

Chicka Boom - Guy Mitchell - 2:45

Sh Boom Sh Boom - The Crew Cuts - 2:49

Tick Tick Boom - The Hives - 2:52

Boom Clap - Charli XCX - 2:57

Boom Tune - Baby Cham - 2:59

3 minutes

Sonic Boom Boy - Westworld - 3:00

Boom - System of a Down - 3:01

Boom - P.O.D. - 3:09

Boom - Simple Plan - 3:10

Bum Bum - Kat Deluna - 3:10

Blame it on the Boom Boom - Black Stone Cherry - 3:10

Boom - Anjulie - 3:13

Boom - P.O.D., The Crystal Method Remix Instrumental - 3:15

Boom! - The Roots - 3:16

Boom Boom Boom Boom! - Vengaboys - 3:23

Here Comes The Boom - DMX - 3:23

Boom Boom Boom - Outthere Brothers - 3:24 

Boom - Maia Hirasawa - 3:24

Boom Biddy Bye Bye - Cypress Hill, ft. The Fugees - 3:24

Boom - Lil' Wayne - 3:25

Boom Boom Pow - Black Eyed Peas - 3:29 

Boom Shakalaka - Alchemist Project - 3:30

Cars That Go Boom - L'Trimm - 3:31

Boom Boom Bang - Kesha, ft. Busbee - 3:32

Boom! Shake the Room - DJ Jeff & the Fresh Prince - 3:35

Boom - 2 Live Crew - 3:35

Like Boom - Vita Chambers - 3:38

Say Boom - Jose Am & Victor Magan - 3:40

Boom Bap - KRS One - 3:40

My Heart Goes Boom - French Affair - 3:42

Boom Shack-a-lack - Apache Indian - 3:45 

Planet Boom - Motley Crue - 3:50

Boombastic - Shaggy - 3:54

Here Comes the Boom - Nelly - 3:55

4 minutes

Boom Boom - General Degree - 4:02

Boom I Got Your Boyfriend - Danny D & DJ Wiz - 4;02

Boom Boom - Baby Cham, ft. Rhianna - 4:11

Boing Boom Tschak - Kraftwerk - 4:11

Boom - Mario & Juvenile - 4:12

And My Beat Goes Boom - Egyptian Lover - 4:12

Boom! There She Was - Scritti Politti - 4:12

Boom! - Lazy Rich & Lizzie Curious (Freakhouse Remix) - 4:15

Boom Boom - James - 4:15

Boom I Got Your Boyfriend - MC Luscious - 4:16

Boom! It's On - Yin Yang Twins - 4:22

Boom Sumting - DJ Vadim ft. Demoliton Man - 4:27

Boom Boom Mancini - Warren Zevon - 4:28

Boom I Fucked Your Boyfriend - 20 Fingers - 4:31

Boom - Royce Da 5'9" - 4:39

Beep Beep Boom - Banger Brothers & Melakai (DJ Gollum Club Remix) - 4:46

Feel the Boom - Kirk - 4:51

Boom Wah Dis - Burro Banton - 4:55

5 minutes

Boom Boom (Out Go the Lights) - Pat Travers Band - 5:05

Boom Chicka Boom - The Learning Station - 5:09

Boom Boom in the Zoom Zoom Room - Blondie - 5:14

Boom - Snoop Dogg ft. T. Pain - 5:25

Boom I Got Your Boyfriend - MC Luscious (Club Mix) - 5:58

6 minutes

Louder than Boom - DJ Tiesto (Tyrane Remix) - 6:19

Boom! - Lazy Rich & Lizzie Curious - 6:26

Boom Boom - Richard Dinsdale (Original Dub Mix) - 6:50

Blocking Pain

Pain is a message.

Some messages can be responded to so that pain is alleviated. For instance, if you are sitting for too long in one position, you may get pain in the neck or back. Standing and stretching may eliminate this pain.

Some messages cannot be responded to at that time to alleviate the pain. For instance, chronic pain from an injury or pain after a surgery may simply need to give you the message of pain, but there is nothing to be done about that pain.

In both cases, the pain is a message. If you can respond in a way that will fix the pain, do so. If you cannot respond in a way that will fix the pain, the message can be dismissed. I can teach you several techniques to accomplish this.

Some items that induce pain are by choice and simply need to be endured. For instance, getting a tattoo or having allergy testing. These pains can also be dismissed as there is nothing you are willing to do that will cause the pain to end at that time.

Be rid of pain in the body in all three circumstances through a combination of techniques that will teach your mind how to respond, give you the message, and allow you to dismiss it. Call for an appointment at 954-612-9553.

Autumn Hahn is a Licensed Mental Health Counselor and Certified Clinical Hypnotherapist practicing at Clear Mind Group in Weston, Florida. Call 954-612-9553 for a consultation. Follow Autumn on Twitter, Facebook, and Google+. Sign up for the e-newsletter HERE.

This Year - guest blog by Julie Davis, MFT

This week, I invite you to appreciate YOU - not from the ego ("Look at me! Look at how great I am!"), but from your heart: "I worked hard this year, at times when I didn't want to and in ways that were scary and confusing and painful."

Think about all the times you wanted to quit - on yourself, others, God - but didn't. Sure there were times you did quit, but take some time to reflect on how, when, where, why you hung in there and took the harder path this year - towards relationship rather than task accomplishment, towards faith rather than fear, towards acceptance rather than judgment.

Instead of focusing on what didn't/isn't working in your life, unwrap the gift of compassion for yourself and reflect on the courage it took to admit and work on your shortcomings this year. If this is hard for you, I invite you to put down the whip, pick up a colorful crayon and complete the following:

This year, I learned...

...I have courage to__________________________________________________ .

...I have strength to__________________________________________________ .

...I have wisdom to__________________________________________________ .

...I have faith to_____________________________________________________ .

...I have support to__________________________________________________ .

Julie Davis
704-807-1101
Certified Rapid Resolution Therapist
Licensed Marriage Family Therapist (CA & NC)
www.juliedavismft.com julie@juliedavismft.com 

Autumn Hahn is a Licensed Mental Health Counselor and Certified Clinical Hypnotherapist practicing at Clear Mind Group in Weston, Florida. Call 954-612-9553 for a consultation. Follow Autumn on Twitter, Facebook, and Google+. Sign up for the e-newsletter HERE.

Prescription for a Healthy Happy Life - Guest Blog by Tomiko Fraser Hines

Drink more water. Or start drinking water. Yes, YOU.

Eat healthier. Be mindful of what you're eating. With each bite think "Is this helping or hurting?"

Exercise several times a week. Find something that you love doing that keeps you moving and GET UP AND DO IT.

Get more sleep. Turn off the computer and television and take your tired ass to bed. You know you need it.

Brush and floss your teeth twice daily. We all forget about the flossing. Let's commit to remembering.

Get annual check ups (including dental and GYN if applicable). Ask questions. Take great care of and be informed about your body temple and what it needs to function properly.

Get yearly mammograms and prostate exams (if applicable). Yes, I am talking to YOU.

Powerfully and authentically express your creativity. Whatever that is, give it permission to run free. Bottled up creativity is truly a slow death.

Forgive yourself and others. Harboring unforgiving thoughts is like giving yourself poison every day. Stop that.

Love, love and love some more. It's needed from you and for you.

Play more. Dance more. Sing more.

Surround yourself with people who recognize and appreciate your SHINE. And be that for others.

Be an example of what's possible when you really give it your all. Someone needs to see it.

Stop people pleasing. NOW. They should love you for who you are, not for what you will do for them.

Communicate with others the way you want them to communicate with you or your children (if you have them).

Accept yourself as you are as you work to better yourself. There is NOTHING wrong with you. You're already a diamond. You may just need some polishing is all.

Tell your loved ones how much you appreciate them often. Don't assume that they know. Extra credit for asking them to do the same for you.

Raise your children to love themselves and to embrace the differences in others. We CAN heal this world of ours.

Connect with nature often. Fall into its healing embrace whenever you can.

Declare your goals out loud as if they are already so (I AM..., I HAVE...). Bonus points for doing so in front of folks who will support your vision and lovingly hold you accountable.

Treat yourself kindly. Be gentle, encouraging and loving with YOU.

Live powerfully self-defined. It's YOUR life and you get to choose how it plays out. No seriously, how life affects you is YOUR choice.

*So now that you know you can stop pretending that you don't.

READY! SET! GO LIVE POWERFULLY!

Reposted in its entirety with permission from the author, Tomiko Fraser Hines. Read more of her works at her Website or on Facebook. 

Autumn Hahn is a Licensed Mental Health Counselor and Certified Clinical Hypnotherapist practicing at Clear Mind Group in Weston, Florida. Call 954-612-9553 for a consultation. Follow Autumn on Twitter, Facebook, and Google+. Sign up for the e-newsletter HERE.