Blog
Sometimes when we’re caught in the grip of anxiety or panic we start to wonder if it will ever stop. And if we get sucked into the fear we can actually make it worse. Our beliefs about a situation can drastically change our experience of it.
Find out what Groundhog Day can teach us about stopping anxiety in this week’s vlog.
When we are stuck in the middle of a storm, whether it is literal of figurative, it sometimes seems like the rain will never stop and the clouds will never lift. For people with high-functioning depression, this is often the case.
If you are in the middle of riding out a storm, check on this week’s blog and find out why there is always hope, even in the midst of the darkest storms and what you can do to find hope again.
Gift-giving can actually create disconnection if we focus on the specific gifts/things we buy and skip over the human connection piece.
So, if you find yourself rushing around in a last-minute gift-buying frenzy, then check out this week's video for some tips on how to create genuine human connection and avoid loneliness and disconnection.
If you’ve ever caught yourself binge eating junk food, finished an entire pint of ice cream in one sitting, or eaten to the point of being over-full…then you might be stress eating or emotional eating.
In this week’s video I talk about some of the reasons we do this, what the health costs are, and how to stop getting stuck in this pattern!
If you’ve ever had the thought, “This isn’t the life I wanted! How did I get so far off track?!?!”, then this week’s video is for you. Learn the crucial mistake that most people make when setting goals for their life and how to avoid it.
In this video I talk about how to get your life back on track by recalibrating your compass so that you can set goals to create a life you actually look forward to!
Gratitude is often a buzzword that gets thrown around this time of year, with Thanksgiving quickly approaching…and for good reason. Research has shown a multitude of surprising benefits resulting from practicing gratitude on a more regular basis.
Optimism and resilience are learned behaviors that can greatly increase our quality of life. If you want to find out how you could make your life more joyful, check out this week’s video for a simple gratitude exercise that can offer positive benefits even 6 months later!
There are a lot of myths and misconceptions about what depression really looks like that keep many people from seeking the help that could get them feeling better again, or stop others from reaching out and offering much-needed support.
People with high-functioning depression often still go to work and soldier on through their lives, appearing as though things are fine, even though they suffer mightily. In this week’s blog I talk about some of the myths that stop us from reaching out for help before things get too bad.
Anxiety attacks suck. Maybe you’ve been there: the sweaty palms, difficulty breathing, the increasing sense that something terrible is about to happen… They’re anything but fun. Maybe it’s because of all the pressure you’re under at work, or that upcoming presentation you have to give, or the prospect of conflict with that person you just can’t face.
When you’re caught in the grip of an anxiety or panic attack, it seems like it will never end and nothing you do will make it stop. In this week’s blog I talk about some tips for surviving an anxiety attack and bringing yourself back down to Earth so that you can get on with your life.
When life gets us down it’s so easy to give into the negative spiral that leads to the couch, Netflix, chocolate, or our beds. It’s easier to focus on what’s not working and what we can’t do, rather than focusing on what we still CAN do. (You can thank our evolutionary negativity bias for that one).
But when we give in to our tendency to focus on what’s wrong, we miss all of the things that are still working, all of the avenues we still have available for digging out of whatever hole we might be in. In this week’s blog, I talk about how shifting our perspective can have huge benefits. And I’ve included an inspirational video of my wheelchair dog to show the possibilities when we choose not to give up.
There is a misconception floating around our society that people suffering from depression are just lazy or weak, and that if they tried harder, they could will themselves out of depression. This simply isn’t true. That’s not how depression works.
Yes, it is true that many people recover from depression without taking a medication. But that doesn’t mean that willpower alone is what got them there. Clinical depression is a problem with the neurochemistry of our brain not properly regulating our moods, and just willing yourself to feel better isn’t going to cut it.
But all is not lost. There are many things that do help with treating depression. In this week’s blog I discuss what depression is, what it is not, and some effective ways to treat it.
Do you ever have one of those days when you’re just in a crummy mood, for whatever reason, and you want to punch anyone who smiles at you and tells you to try and think of something you’re grateful for? I know I do. Research in recent years has touted the benefits of gratitude for both our physical and mental health. But sometimes you’re just not in the mood. So what do you do?
In this week’s blog I offer an alternative strategy for shifting out of a bad mood when you just can’t muster the energy for gratitude.
We all have moments in our life when we lose hope, when change seems impossible and we just want to pull the covers over our head and go back to sleep. We ask ourselves if the pain we are in will ever get better.
The truth is…probably not, unless we choose to do something about it. In this week’s blog I talk about some proven strategies to try that will help you heal if you are in a dark place.
We so often go above and beyond when it comes to other people, but forego our own needs until they get so loud we can't ignore them anymore. For many of us, if we treated our vehicles with the same philosophy we treat ourselves, we'd end up broken down on the side of the road in need of a tow truck. Why do we do this? Because terms like "self-care" are often equated with selfishness or self-indulgence.
But what if I told you that's not what self-care is at all? This week's vlog talks about how prioritizing yourself is actually an act of service, no only for yourself, but also for everyone else who depends on you. And it will help you stay in it for the long haul, rather than ending up a hot mess on the side of the road.
We are often hard on ourselves anytime some trait or aspect of our being (either physical or psychological) falls outside of the norm or the societal ideal. Maybe we are not skinny enough (for girls), or muscular enough (for guys), or outgoing enough, or positive/upbeat enough, or mentally tough enough. We label the non-conforming part of us as “bad” or “broken”, and consequently try to fix it. But what if it doesn’t need fixing?
In this week’s blog I discuss how we often mis-label certain traits as “bad” or “broken” and then make ourselves even more miserable when we try to fix something that doesn’t need fixing.
Have you ever caught yourself feeling really worried, scared, angry or upset about something? When we get sucked into those big emotions, they call that getting "hooked" by our emotions. And sometimes when we’re hooked, we end up saying or doing something that we later regret because we are coming from a place of reactivity.
If this has ever happened to you, check out this week’s vlog for a great mindfulness technique that can help you get unhooked so that you can look at the situation calmly and make an intentional choice about how to handle it.
Everyone has an inner critic that sits on our shoulder heckling us like Statler and Waldorf (the two old guys in the balcony from the Muppets). In a strange sort of way, it’s just trying to protect us or perhaps to motivate us to do better. But the critic often turns out to have the opposite effect. If we take that critic too seriously, we can end up feeling down and demotivated.
In this week's vlog I talk about 3 tips for taming your inner critic before it gets out of hand. So, if you have a strong inner critic, try these simple tips to ease the critic’s grip so you can get back to feeling confident and capable again.
Sometimes our brain’s ability to make snap judgments is incredibly useful for our survival, not to mention our ability to navigate our day without dedicating endless hours to evaluating every situation before making a well-informed decision. But sometimes our tendency to hold onto judgments can trap us and leave us feeling miserable and focusing on the negative.
Learn how to increase your happiness by letting go of judgments and accepting what is actually happening using these 3 simple tips.
There are many factors that contribute to someone's experience of anxiety and/or depression. But sometimes the disconnect between what we think we should do and what we actually want to do can add an unnecessary strain on our systems that results in increased anxiety, and if left unattended, can eventually lead to depression.
Find out how the disconnect between your Authentic Self and your Social Self might be sabotaging your happiness.
Think you know what someone looks like when they have a mental health condition? Think again! There are a lot of myths and misconceptions about mental health conditions and what they really look like. In honor of Mental Health Awareness Month, I'm going to share some true stories with you to illustrate what struggling with mental health really looks like, what gets in the way of asking for much-needed help, and how treatment can really make a difference.
Discover the 5 myths about mental health that might be getting in the way of your happiness or the happiness of someone you love.
We all have the desire to check out sometimes: watch a couple shows, scroll through our Facebook feed, forget about whatever is stressing us out for a while. This is a completely normal urge. But if we’re not aware of why and when it’s happening, then it might be doing more harm than good.
Next time you feel like checking out, try checking in with yourself instead using these three simple questions.
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