Many of us can acknowledge the value and importance of self-worth. Higher our self-esteem, we feel better about ourselves and are more resilient. When your self-esteem is higher, you are also less vulnerable to anxiety and stress. Even though it is great to have higher self-esteem, improving our self-esteem is no easy task.
An individual’s attachment style is their way to relate to other people. According to attachment theory, developed by a psychologist and psychiatrist in the 1950s, attachment style is developed in early childhood in response to their relationship with their caregiver(s). Our adult attachment style has been shown to mirror the early relationship we had with that caregiver. Attachment styles include the way we emotionally respond to others. The four adult attachment styles are: secure, anxious, avoidant, and fearful-avoidant (disorganized).
Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT) involves using your Thoughts to help manage your Emotions which in turn affect the way you either impulsively react or appropriately respond to a crisis or any situation. This is considered a CBT triangle- Thoughts, Feelings, and Actions. Depression may be described as feelings of "emptiness", "hopelessness", or "sadness". There are many different experiences of depression as there is uniqueness in people. Be aware of the following symptoms of Depression. Depression can show up as bodily and physical symptoms ( aches and pains that don't respond to traditional medical treatments); exhaustion; overeating or having 5 percent weight loss without intending to do so; excessive sleeping or unable to sleep enough; feeling more fidgety. Psychological symptoms include feelings of hopelessness and emptiness, maybe even anxiety. Suicidal ideations are not unusual. Social symptoms involve loss of interest in usual activities and avoiding others.
Dialectical Behavioral Therapy (DBT) is seeing both sides or in shades of grey in a situation rather than from an all-or-nothing perspective. One of the bases of DBT is using positive distraction strategies. The following are some ideas to manage Anxiety with positive distraction to get your mind focused on something other than what is bothering you.
Experiencing and working through difficulties with mental health is not a linear process, rather it is common to experience both ups and downs. Despite the hard work that can be done to control mental health symptoms, there is always a chance that symptoms can reoccur in the future, this is something that is considered a mental health relapse. Having a mental health relapse can feel discouraging, but fear not, this is common and something that you can prepare for.
The act of journaling has many known benefits for cognition and overall mental health. Journaling helps to reduce stress, set goals, increase overall mood, cope with daily problems, reflect, and increase your memory. While journaling does have these benefits, a lot of times it is hard to know where to start when beginning this process. You may be wondering, what do I write about? While there are no set requirements for journaling because it is an avenue of personal expression and reflection, but seemingly this process can still present as intimidating.
Intimacy is a cornerstone of any close relationship. This intimacy can come from many different parts of a relationship and look very different from one another, but they all have one thing in common; trust and vulnerability. Whether this relationship is between you and your parents, best friend, or romantic partner, if it is a close relationship then they know the real you and you trust them not to hurt you with that information. It is here that we let our walls down that would otherwise be up with other people. Having your walls down is the vulnerable state that makes these relationships so strong and meaningful. There are many myths and misconceptions about intimacy that regularly affects the quality of a relationship.
Humans are among a very small percentage of creatures that have the documented capacity to imagine vivid and complex ideas. We can engage in fun fantasies like driving our dream car, traveling to exotic locations, and finding our true love in the most romantic way. We can also imagine worst-case scenarios like our heaviest concerns for the day coming to pass, imagining coming face to face with a specific phobia, or picturing exactly how that argument with your partner will play out later.
Do you ever find yourself lying in bed for hours on end, staring at the ceiling, and not being able to fall asleep? Finding yourself to be tossing and turning, watching the time pass by? Now think about how you feel the next day: groggy? Grumpy? Finding it difficult to concentrate or motivate yourself? Maintaining a good sleep schedule is beneficial for both physical and mental health. Adults between the ages of 18- 64 require 7-9 hours of sleep per night for sufficient sleep and energy, yet research shows that approximately 35.2% of American adults do not get enough sleep (Suni, 2021). If you find yourself in this percentage, it is important to begin to practice good sleep hygiene.
After a stressful day it can be difficult to turn off our negative thoughts and feelings. It can be easy to bring stress home after a long day at work, an argument with a friend, or whatever it may be that brought you down. It is important to take care of yourself after a stressful day by checking in with yourself and allowing a mental reset. Taking a mental reset can help in better managing your stress and not allowing it to continue the remainder of the day into the next. The following are ten tips and strategies you can use to help unwind after a stressful day:
Imagine this, you have to do some form of public speaking, or you are driving and the car in front of you stops short, or you are out for a walk and a strange animal jumps out in front of you. What would you do? Flight or fight are the body’s natural way to response to stressful, scary, or dangerous situations. After extensive data collection, researchers now acknowledge that there are other automatic responses in addition to flight or fight and they are freeze and fawn.
This may seem like a silly title. How can a person do anything but value that which they identify as valuable to them? It is true that many people make time and commit energy to the things they hold in the highest regard such as family, relationships, success, education, etc. However, like so many things, this can become an unconscious endeavor and your values can easily fall away from your focus as you find yourself building different routines. If one is neglecting their values, they may be unconsciously reinforcing depression, anxiety, grief, or anger. So how do we interact with our values in such a way that our lives feel meaningful and our goals are effectively achieved?
In a relationship, whether this is a romantic relationship or another close relationship, there are a few things we, as humans, typically respond to more desirably. There are also things to which we tend to respond undesirably. Some examples of things that we respond more desirably to would include: validation, communication, loyalty, and trust. Consequently, the absence of some of or all these things can lead to what John Gottman and Nan Silver (The Seven Principles for Making Marriage Work, 1999) referred to as the “Four Horseman of the Apocalypse” for a relationship. These “four horsemen” include criticism, contempt, defensiveness, and stonewalling. One of the most destructive of these is Contempt.
We hear the term self-care often. With many stressors in our personal lives and around the world, impacting all of us, the idea of self-care is even more prominent as the world changes and shifts. You have probably heard about many strategies to cope, such as: taking a walk, taking a nap, writing down positive thoughts and others. Let’s explore additional self-care strategies you might try.
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".
Have you been feeling exhausted most days? Even when you’ve gotten enough sleep? This is because sleep and rest are different, and it is common to confuse the two. You suffer from a rest deficit if you don’t consider the other forms of needed rest. Rest should result in feeling restored and energized. Let's explore the different forms of rest that you might try.
When you show affection to your significant other, do you know if it's the way that they like to receive it? Love can get lost in translation when two people have different types of love languages. The five love languages are different ways of expressing and receiving love. The concept of love languages was developed by Gary Chapman, Ph.D., in his book The 5 Love Languages: The Secret to Love That Lasts, where he describes these styles of communicating love.
New Years resolutions are part of celebrating the new years for some people. Making a list of goals and a plan to start on the 1st or the first Monday after the New Years is the usual norm. Rather than making a list of new goals this year, how about trying a different way to contemplate your goals and having a way to gauge your goals?
