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managing emotions

Taking Time for a Mental Health Check-In

Taking Time for a Mental Health Check-In

Taking the time to check in with yourself is a very important routine to establish. Oftentimes, these check ins are completed for physical health; between routine doctor and dentist visits, recognizing when an illness or aches and pains begin. When a headache or fever begins, most will take medication to assist in feeling better. While it is important to pay attention to your physical health, it is also important to focus on your mental well-being. Sometimes you may be experiencing stress, sadness, or anger without either realizing it or taking the time to take care of yourself in those moments.

I.M.P.R.O.V.E.: A DBT-based Skill for Emotion Regulation

I.M.P.R.O.V.E.: A DBT-based Skill for Emotion Regulation

Dialectical behavioral therapy (DBT) is based on a dialectical module which helps one to find the middle path or gray thinking with cognition and behaviors. When you think in a "all or nothing" way, you take on unnecessary stress and tension in life. DBT helps you think in terms of "all or at least something".

The Importance of Managing Emotions

The Importance of Managing Emotions

Thinking about expressing emotions to others can bring up feelings of uncertainty and fear. Many of our behaviors, both conscious and unconscious are learned early in life. Thus, if emotions associated with these behaviors were not validated growing up, it can feel overwhelming to try and share them as adults. Additionally, witnessing behaviors and behavioral patterns from important figures in our lives conditions us to develop beliefs about our emotions. For many of us we may have grown up in homes where no one discussed their feelings or in a home where certain feelings were linked to being “bad” or “good”. This can lead to difficulties in understanding how to regulate your emotional experiences. No matter what you may or may not have learned, it’s important to understand your feelings and emotions, including how they manifest in your body. Here are a few things that are important to keep in mind when we think of emotions.

Being Grateful While Experiencing Other Feelings: It's Okay to Feel

Being Grateful While Experiencing Other Feelings: It's Okay to Feel

Research reports that when you practice gratitude you can in fact reduce depression and anxiety by keeping positive thoughts in mind. We all can remember being told to be grateful from early on in our childhood whether it was for receiving a gift or praise of some kind. Unfortunately, these types of statements, though well-intended, often limit emotional space. We start to believe it is not okay to feel angry, sad, or disappointed when there is so much we should be grateful for. We all have developed internal beliefs, over time, that can become harmful if we do not tackle them. So how do you reframe your thoughts about gratitude, you need to identify how they developed in the first place.

Letting Go: An Introduction to Radical Acceptance

Letting Go: An Introduction to Radical Acceptance

Marsha Linehan highlights that pain cannot be avoided, it is part of life. Radical acceptance is a beneficial tool that leads us away from suffering to freedom and calmness, enabling us to make choices without negative emotions leading those choices.

3 Tips To Get Rid Of Excessive Guilt

3 Tips To Get Rid Of Excessive Guilt

Guilt presents itself when we act in a manner that clashes with what our values are. It can be caused by something as simple as telling a lie, to something as serious as committing fraud.