Mindfulness

How to Survive Holiday Family-Time WITHOUT Losing Your Mind

How to Survive Holiday Family-Time WITHOUT Losing Your Mind

Lots of people don’t feel like they fit in with their family, feel misunderstood, or don’t subscribe to the beliefs that the rest of their family does and as a result end up dreading the holidays with their family.

If that’s something you struggle with, then this video is for you. Learn some concrete tips for surviving holidays with the family WITHOUT losing your mind!

How to Help Your Sensitive Teen Manage Back-to-School Stress

How to Help Your Sensitive Teen Manage Back-to-School Stress

Back-to-School can be a stressful time for teens, especially if they are highly sensitive. In this week’s video, find out if your teen has the trait of high sensitivity and what the number one thing is that you can do as a parent to help them manage the stress of back-to-school time.

Will My Anxiety Ever Stop? What to Do When You're Cycling Like Groundhog Day

Will My Anxiety Ever Stop? What to Do When You're Cycling Like Groundhog Day

Sometimes when we’re caught in the grip of anxiety or panic we start to wonder if it will ever stop. And if we get sucked into the fear we can actually make it worse. Our beliefs about a situation can drastically change our experience of it.

Find out what Groundhog Day can teach us about stopping anxiety in this week’s vlog.

New Year's Resolutions: The Secret to Creating Change that Sticks!

New Year's Resolutions: The Secret to Creating Change that Sticks!

If you want your New Year's resolutions to stick this year, check out this weeks' video to find out the secret to creating lasting change in your life.

I'm going to talk about the biggest factor that most people forget to consider when planning their resolutions, and techniques for overcoming this factor.

How to Create Connection During the Holidays (Hint: It's not about the gifts!)

How to Create Connection During the Holidays (Hint: It's not about the gifts!)

Gift-giving can actually create disconnection if we focus on the specific gifts/things we buy and skip over the human connection piece.

 So, if you find yourself rushing around in a last-minute gift-buying frenzy, then check out this week's video for some tips on how to create genuine human connection and avoid loneliness and disconnection. 

How to Stop Stress Eating / Emotional Eating / Overeating During the Holidays

How to Stop Stress Eating / Emotional Eating / Overeating During the Holidays

If you’ve ever caught yourself binge eating junk food, finished an entire pint of ice cream in one sitting, or eaten to the point of being over-full…then you might be stress eating or emotional eating.

In this week’s video I talk about some of the reasons we do this, what the health costs are, and how to stop getting stuck in this pattern!

Create the Life You Want - Don't Make This Crucial Mistake!

Create the Life You Want - Don't Make This Crucial Mistake!

If you’ve ever had the thought, “This isn’t the life I wanted! How did I get so far off track?!?!”, then this week’s video is for you. Learn the crucial mistake that most people make when setting goals for their life and how to avoid it.

In this video I talk about how to get your life back on track by recalibrating your compass so that you can set goals to create a life you actually look forward to!

Surprising Reasons You Might Want to Practice Gratitude Year Round

Surprising Reasons You Might Want to Practice Gratitude Year Round

Gratitude is often a buzzword that gets thrown around this time of year, with Thanksgiving quickly approaching…and for good reason. Research has shown a multitude of surprising benefits resulting from practicing gratitude on a more regular basis.

Optimism and resilience are learned behaviors that can greatly increase our quality of life. If you want to find out how you could make your life more joyful, check out this week’s video for a simple gratitude exercise that can offer positive benefits even 6 months later!

How to Survive an Anxiety Attack

How to Survive an Anxiety Attack

Anxiety attacks suck. Maybe you’ve been there: the sweaty palms, difficulty breathing, the increasing sense that something terrible is about to happen… They’re anything but fun. Maybe it’s because of all the pressure you’re under at work, or that upcoming presentation you have to give, or the prospect of conflict with that person you just can’t face.

When you’re caught in the grip of an anxiety or panic attack, it seems like it will never end and nothing you do will make it stop. In this week’s blog I talk about some tips for surviving an anxiety attack and bringing yourself back down to Earth so that you can get on with your life.

Depression is Not a Lack of Willpower

Depression is Not a Lack of Willpower

There is a misconception floating around our society that people suffering from depression are just lazy or weak, and that if they tried harder, they could will themselves out of depression. This simply isn’t true. That’s not how depression works.

Yes, it is true that many people recover from depression without taking a medication. But that doesn’t mean that willpower alone is what got them there. Clinical depression is a problem with the neurochemistry of our brain not properly regulating our moods, and just willing yourself to feel better isn’t going to cut it.

But all is not lost. There are many things that do help with treating depression. In this week’s blog I discuss what depression is, what it is not, and some effective ways to treat it.

Stress or Anxiety - What's the Difference?

Stress or Anxiety - What's the Difference?

In today's busy modern world, it is not uncommon to hear someone talk about how stressed or anxious they feel. We often use the terms interchangeably, but they are not actually the same thing. Why does it matter you ask? Stop being the grammar police, you say!

The truth is that it matters because the path to relief is different depending on whether you are suffering from stress or anxiety. To learn more, check out this week’s blog to find out the key differences and how to relieve symptoms of each.

Screw Gratitude! What to Do When You're Not In The Mood.

Screw Gratitude!  What to Do When You're Not In The Mood.

Do you ever have one of those days when you’re just in a crummy mood, for whatever reason, and you want to punch anyone who smiles at you and tells you to try and think of something you’re grateful for? I know I do. Research in recent years has touted the benefits of gratitude for both our physical and mental health. But sometimes you’re just not in the mood. So what do you do?

In this week’s blog I offer an alternative strategy for shifting out of a bad mood when you just can’t muster the energy for gratitude.

How to Handle BIG Emotions

How to Handle BIG Emotions

Have you ever caught yourself feeling really worried, scared, angry or upset about something? When we get sucked into those big emotions, they call that getting "hooked" by our emotions. And sometimes when we’re hooked, we end up saying or doing something that we later regret because we are coming from a place of reactivity.

If this has ever happened to you, check out this week’s vlog for a great mindfulness technique that can help you get unhooked so that you can look at the situation calmly and make an intentional choice about how to handle it.

What to Do When the What-If's Crawl Inside Your Ear

What to Do When the What-If's Crawl Inside Your Ear

Do you tend to be one of those people who has a hard time sleeping or concentrating because of all the different things that they're worried about? One of my favorite childhood authors, Shel Silverstein described this phenomenon perfectly in his poem about Whatifs crawling inside a young boy’s ear. But the problem is that these what-ifs follow us into adulthood and make it difficult to relax or enjoy what we’re doing because we’re so busy worrying about other things.

In this week's video I will teach you how to handle the What-if's when they crawl inside your ear, so that you are able to sleep or to concentrate or be present and spend time with loved ones when you want to.

3 Tips for Taming Your Inner Critic

3 Tips for Taming Your Inner Critic

Everyone has an inner critic that sits on our shoulder heckling us like Statler and Waldorf (the two old guys in the balcony from the Muppets). In a strange sort of way, it’s just trying to protect us or perhaps to motivate us to do better. But the critic often turns out to have the opposite effect. If we take that critic too seriously, we can end up feeling down and demotivated.

In this week's vlog I talk about 3 tips for taming your inner critic before it gets out of hand.  So, if you have a strong inner critic, try these simple tips to ease the critic’s grip so you can get back to feeling confident and capable again.

How To Manage Stress Calmly Without Making Things Worse

How To Manage Stress Calmly Without Making Things Worse

If you are a human being living on this Earth then you know that avoiding stress completely isn't a realistic goal.  But what we can do is make sure that we get through it with as little pain and suffering as possible.  In this week's vlog, I'm going to talk to you about how to handle stress calmly without making things worse, so that you can spend your time and energy doing what you really love, rather than wasting it on worrying or stressing! 

So, if you tend to be one of those people like me who has a very busy mind that runs around like Chicken Little screaming that the sky is falling, then this video will show you how to face stressful events in your life more calmly without all the fuss.

Increase Your Happiness By Letting Go of Judgments

Increase Your Happiness By Letting Go of Judgments

Sometimes our brain’s ability to make snap judgments is incredibly useful for our survival, not to mention our ability to navigate our day without dedicating endless hours to evaluating every situation before making a well-informed decision. But sometimes our tendency to hold onto judgments can trap us and leave us feeling miserable and focusing on the negative.

Learn how to increase your happiness by letting go of judgments and accepting what is actually happening using these 3 simple tips.

Denying Your Authentic Self Might Be Making You Anxious or Depressed

Denying Your Authentic Self Might Be Making You Anxious or Depressed

There are many factors that contribute to someone's experience of anxiety and/or depression.  But sometimes the disconnect between what we think we should do and what we actually want to do can add an unnecessary strain on our systems that results in increased anxiety, and if left unattended, can eventually lead to depression.  

Find out how the disconnect between your Authentic Self and your Social Self might be sabotaging your happiness.

A True Story: 5 Myths About Mental Health That Get in the Way of Happiness

A True Story: 5 Myths About Mental Health That Get in the Way of Happiness

Think you know what someone looks like when they have a mental health condition? Think again! There are a lot of myths and misconceptions about mental health conditions and what they really look like. In honor of Mental Health Awareness Month, I'm going to share some true stories with you to illustrate what struggling with mental health really looks like, what gets in the way of asking for much-needed help, and how treatment can really make a difference.

Discover the 5 myths about mental health that might be getting in the way of your happiness or the happiness of someone you love.

How Checking Out Hurts Us & What to Do Instead

How Checking Out Hurts Us & What to Do Instead

We all have the desire to check out sometimes: watch a couple shows, scroll through our Facebook feed, forget about whatever is stressing us out for a while. This is a completely normal urge. But if we’re not aware of why and when it’s happening, then it might be doing more harm than good.

Next time you feel like checking out, try checking in with yourself instead using these three simple questions.