Prioritizing Self-Care
Finding balance between exertion and relaxation, work and play, is good for your health. And the good news is that there are lots of ways to bring balance and more self-care into your life if you make it a priority.
Personal Growth
Empowering people to make strengthening choices
Managing Anxiety: My Personal Story of Coping With Stress
People are experiencing higher levels of anxiety, in our society today, than ever before. So I want to offer you a powerful process for managing anxiety by sharing a personal story from early in my career. A Daunting Request I had just graduated from the University of Minnesota with my Ph.D. in counseling psychology and […]
Want to Feel Better? Face Your Negative Feelings
We want to run from our negative feelings and yet by facing them, we grow in resilience and emotional intelligence.
Small and Simple Decisions that Make a Big Difference
It is a Saturday evening around 5:30 and I’m facing a decision. It’s not a life-changing decision but rather a little decision about how I’ll handle the evening. Relatively minor, in the big scheme of things, but one which has consequences. I feel pretty lousy. Although normally healthy, I’ve been assaulted by cold and flu-like […]
Slower is Faster-My New Year’s Mantra
Looking back It’s hard to believe it’s the end of another year. Time seems to fly by so quickly. And so I’m looking back, thinking about where I’ve been, what I’ve experienced and accomplished this past year and anticipating a new year. What will this new year bring? (Frankly, some of it is totally outside […]
A Story of Gratitude
In my studies of gratitude, I came across a beautiful story of gratitude told by Maureen Deuterma. It offers a perspective of what matter most. Email from a Friend I received an email from a friend of mine today sharing the good news that he had been promoted to vice president in a prestigious company. […]
How to Change Your Mental State
I remember a Peanuts cartoon from years back. Here’s Charlie Brown, shoulders slumped, head down and arms at his side as Lucy approached. He says to Lucy, “This is my depressed stance. When you’re depressed it makes a lot of difference in how you stand. The worst thing you can do is straighten up and […]
The Goal of Managing Stress—Accessing Your Wise Mind
I my last article I talked about how our brains and bodies respond to stress. Today I want to explore the goal of stress management which is achieving an optimal state of arousal in the middle of a threat. As you can see from this diagram, the mind can be in optimal arousal (necessary to […]
