I see a therapist to help me achieve specific goals in my life. I am past the point in therapy where I want to talk about my daddy issues; I don’t need insight into my illness, I have it seeping out of my pores. What I need now are results. I know what’s broken; I am looking for tried and true approaches for achieving a higher level of function. I need to replace old coping mechanisms, or areas of my life where I have no coping mechanisms at all, with ideas and practices that work. I need an action plan!

» Continue reading “Turning Thought into Practice”

“Happiness is about making right choices. Depression comes from making the wrong choices. We only need to change our consciousness.”

via Get rid of depressive tendencies | Tickled By Life.

I came across this link as part of a professional group to which I  belong online. Someone posted it as a “great article” but imagine my horror when I actually read the article.

» Continue reading “Dangerous Advice Regarding Depression”

Don’t Neglect Your Body as You Develop Your Mind.

I was talking to my husband late last night about the things that are preying on my mind these days. He leaves for a contract job 1000 miles away from us next week and I am hunkered down trying to ride out the emotional turbulence leading up to his departure: all of the last minute home improvements, the disorganized clutter involved with finding passports, social security cards, etc., the cleaning and packing.

» Continue reading “The Mind-Body Connection”

When I was in elementary school, I had a falling out with my circle of friends. It is a scene I have since seen played out on many different stages with many different girls in very similar circumstances. The social hierarchy of young people is unstable and unforgiving. My circumstances seemed particularly harsh and I would be dishonest if I didn’t confess that the effects of the treatment I received at the hands of my former friends didn’t leave me traumatized.

» Continue reading “Looking for Injury: A Self-Centered Perspective”

Does Getting Angry Make You Angrier? : NPR.

I must admit, I have noticed this kindling effect. If I nip my angry response in the bud, I am far more likely to calm down in a reasonable amount of time and objectively respond in an appropriate way to the trigger. If I give in to the angry response, it is much more difficult to regain composure and I may spend the rest of the day stewing in my own juices.

» Continue reading “Question of the Day”

Are you defined by what you lack or by what you have?

In an economy that continues it’s journey up Shit’s Creek with no paddle in sight; in a country that values consumerism and capitalism as fundamental pillars of society; among people who define success according to wealth and status, it’s no wonder a lot of people are depressed. We often define ourselves, or allow others to define us, by the things we lack. We often take what we have for granted.

» Continue reading “Question of the Day”

My husband has a really bad habit of buying something because it’s a good deal, even if it’s not exactly what he wants. He then spends an exorbitant amount of time and money trying to make it into whatever it was he really, truly wanted. The problem with this scenario is that it always ends up costing more than if he’d just bought what he wanted, and leaves him disillusioned and resentful.

» Continue reading “Get What You Want!”

“Optimists live longer, healthier lives than pessimists, U.S. researchers said on Thursday in a study that may give pessimists one more reason to grumble.” I told you so!

http://www.reuters.com/article/healthNews/idUSTRE5247NO20090305?rpc=59

» Continue reading “Pollyanna and the Road to Immortality”

The other day I read an observation about how adults teach ourselves that our bedrooms and beds should only be for sleeping, but then we turn our childrens’ bedrooms into playrooms and wonder why they fight sleep. Personally, I don’t know that I have ever personally had a problem with my boys sleeping in their rooms after playing in them, but I have historically had problems with insomnia that were exacerbated by treating my room as an office or student lounge and not a bedroom.

» Continue reading “Bedroom or playroom?”

It’s a Tibetan saying. I thought it was doubly apt as the Dalai Lama is set to celebrate 50 years of exile from Tibet and the people of Tibet labor under oppressive restrictions on basic freedoms that we take for granted. But, I also found other meanings to it; I am sure that I could find a million ways to apply this saying to my life. Today, this one application trumped: I wanted to apply this idea of compassion to myself and others who tend to view themselves or others with a critical, skewed, even pessimistic perspective.

» Continue reading ““Who looks not with compassion sees not what the eyes of compassion see. “”