I’ll start with a question: What is it that determines if a person will be “successful” or not at a difficult task? Take a second and think about how you would answer that question. For many years my answer might have been “innate ability,” “willpower,” or some combination of the two. Recently, however, I […]
I have had several conversations lately with people regarding noticing feeling more reactive and sensing that others seem to feel or appear more reactive as well. What I mean by this is responding more emotionally or intensely to a stimuli than what one might assume would be the usual response. Often, it is a fight […]
I think it’s safe to say that most of us are addicted to our phones and more specifically, social media. “The average person spends over 3 hours on their phone each day, including approximately 2 and a half hours on social media. While it may seem like a harmless pastime, research shows that doing anything […]
Preteens and social media- Woof. This is a big topic. If you are feeling lost about how to approach this and what boundaries to set, know that you are not alone! This is the most common point of tension that I see between preteens and their parents and is genuinely very difficult to navigate. So […]
Over-Generalizations Over-generalizations are one type of cognitive distortion that can impact mental health and well-being. What are they? Over-generalizations are, in essence, making assumptions about something that we do not really have enough evidence or knowledge about. Often it is a sweeping statement about things that might not be fair to assume (Martin, R., 2019). […]
With music being as popular as it is for a source of regulating or supporting us in coping through emotions, I wanted to highlight a few ways that it can be helpful for us. Often we can feel the difference that playing a song has on us, such as giving us a release of emotion […]
When was the last time you told a friend how much you appreciated them? …A child what you enjoy about spending time with them? …Or what you admire about your partner? Our words are powerful! We know how good it feels to hear something positive about ourselves, yet so often we forget or do not […]
In our series of cognitive distortions, sublimation is one type of distortion that at first appearance does not seem like a negative ‘distortion’. Sublimation is, in essence, turning something that is perceived as a weakness or inappropriate to the society/culture, into something that is good and acceptable. It is adaptable as somewhat of a strength, […]
We are starting a blog series that talks about defense mechanisms, or the ways in which we try to protect ourselves from fear or pain. However, before we dive into the different defense mechanisms, it is important to look at how we get there in the first place. This is where the nervous system comes […]
Balance. I Googled the definition and one variation I really liked, according to The Free Dictionary (2022) describes balance as, “A harmonious or satisfying arrangement or proportion of parts or elements, as in a design.” Sometimes when I hear people and even myself describing being better balanced, it almost feels like a task to add to the list of things we could be doing better, which sounds […]