Negative Emotions

Negative emotions aren’t pleasant, but they're not bad. Anger, sadness, fear—these are all healthy normal emotions to experience. It’s when we believe them to be bad, something to be avoided at all costs, that these negative emotions become harmful. When anger is suppressed and turns to rage, it can tear a person’s life apart. When …

Observe

Acceptance is not apathy. It does not mean you’re giving in, giving up, or bowing down. It’s choosing peace for yourself over control.  When we’ve conditioned ourselves to reacting, though, acceptance can feel a lot like bending our will. We react when something isn’t going our way, and we’re trying to control the outcome. But, …

Choose Your Focus

When we believe our suffering is something happening to us, we’re living a victim mentality. Things, of course, happen to us that are beyond our control, but what we have power over is our response. It’s the difference between the man wrongfully jailed who becomes bitter, living a life of crime and feeling justified due …

Create a Personal Mantra

You want a change. Life, however, will not stop being difficult just because you are ready to move on and be whole. Your triggers will not disappear with the snap of your fingers. The people who’ve hurt you, the circumstances that cause you anxiety or depression, they will not change just because you want them …

Listen To Your Body

There isn’t an American alive today whose life hasn’t been touched by machines. And while technology advances our society, pushing human ingenuity to heights never before dreamed of, our immersion into life with machines cripples us as much as it aids us.  Think about how much we are surrounded every day by machines that turn …

You Are Not Alone

The road to recovery can feel lonely. Here you are in therapy, avoiding triggers, your mind is probably consumed all day, every day with just trying to get through the day. Meanwhile your friends and family are going about their lives like nothing’s changed. Because for them, nothing has. All the change is occurring with …

Learn To Laugh

Laughter is the best medicine. Cliché but true.  Recovery is a serious time with a bundle of deep emotions rising to the surface. You’re probably dealing with anxiety or depression or both. You’re figuring out your negative beliefs and where they came from. You’re struggling and stumbling just to get through the day. And it …

Mindful Minutes

The saying goes, “you can’t teach an old dog new tricks,” but it’s time we threw that out with the trash and a whole lot of other limiting beliefs holding us back. It is true that the older we get and the more conditioned we are to react to life in our negative way, the …

Super Simple Grounding Techniques

Meditation is a daily practice, that when done while calm will help in the long term with anxiety and depression. But, at the beginning of the road, when moving from one minute to the next, short term solutions to difficult emotions are necessary.  When the anxiety begins to spiral, sitting with your eyes closed trying …

Choose To Embrace

Acceptance becomes easier with time and practice. But, how do you practice acceptance? Through meditation. And in meditation, choosing not to change your situation.  Sit with your eyes closed—or open and softly fix your gaze on a spot in front of you—and become aware of your breathing. Take a few deep belly breaths and remind …