How to Help Someone Struggling with Their Mental Health

It’s tough to watch a loved one struggle with mental illness and know how to best be supportive. Oftentimes we might find ourselves avoiding the situation because we’re not sure what to say or do. We might feel fear about saying the wrong thing and therefore say nothing.

Getting Out of Our Heads and Into the Moment

Sometimes it is the full moon, the kids, work, being cooped up,
Listening to the news, or just operator mental error, but whatever
it is, the survival charade of intellectualizing, analyzing, aka being
in our heads too much, is what most people say drives them nuts
more than anything.

How to Crush Your New Year’s Resolutions

You may have noticed that the majority of people lose steam with their resolutions for the New Year. About 80% of Americans fail in these goals by the second week of February. There’s no bottled motivation to buy but here are some ideas that can bolster you in making the changes you want to make really stick.

How to Work with Summer Triggers: Stay Safe and Sober

How To Work With Summer Triggers: Stay Safe and Sober

Summer is now in full effect. As the beginning of the season coincided with the lifting of lockdown restrictions, everyone is scrambling to catch as much fun in the sun as they can.

Trust: Of Self and Others

Honesty, truth, trust . . . These traits all come together in us in some way. Like pieces in a puzzle, they link together creating an image of who we are and how we view the people and events around us. As children, if we were, for instance, frightened by loud arguments but told by … Read more

Survival Charades and How They Interfere with Authenticity

“We have to dare to be ourselves, however frightening or strange that self may prove to be.” ~ May Sarton Addiction, depression, and anxiety are both cause and effect of inauthentic living, as are all sorts of survival charades. According to The Integrity Recovery Workbook (IRW, D. Blackwood, 2014) many people have developed false selves … Read more

Thoughts on Acceptance and ‘Imperfection’

What is perfection? And who obtains it? And who would want to obtain perfection in a world of imperfections? The self-critical voice that points out each ‘failure’ or fault in a being creates anxiety (through worrying about how not to fail or make a mistake) and depression (through the ‘awareness’ of inevitable failures and faults ... Read more