Grounding Techniques to Practice When You’re Anxious in Public

Anxiety can creep in at the most inconvenient times—like when you’re in class, when you’re out with friends or when you’re out and about in any public space. Anxiety can barge into your mind, seize the direction of your thoughts, and transport you far away from the present in an anxious tailspin. This disruption of your thoughts can pull you away from enjoying the present moment or even being able to concentrate on the task at hand. If you find yourself struggling with anxious thoughts, try practicing these grounding techniques to bring your attention back to the present…

How to Practice Gratitude

Are you interested in practicing gratitude? Have you heard about the benefits of doing so, but you’re not sure where to start? Let’s talk about gratitude. Gratitude is actively noticing and appreciating aspects of your life that you are thankful for. It’s sometimes like second nature to focus on the negative. When you think about the negative, it’s easy to forget about the things that you’re grateful for. So how can you overcome that tendency and shift your focus to one of gratitude? Here are some tips to increase gratefulness in your life…

Recharge Your Emotional Batteries This Summer

Are you feeling burnt out? Are your emotional batteries running on empty? This summer is the perfect opportunity for you to take time for yourself and recharge your emotional batteries. After long days of fulfilling all of life’s responsibilities, it’s easy to forget to care for yourself. However self-care is a key part of healthy living. Making time for the things that you enjoy on a routine basis, even if it’s only for a few minutes each day, will help you to feel better. Here are some tips to get yourself feeling 100% charged again…

How to Cultivate Your Attention with Mindfulness

Every moment of every day, you’ll find a number of things fighting for your attention at once. Whether it’s your phone going off with another notification, your children asking for you, or your co-worker sending you a question via email, it’s understandably tough to stay on task. With so many distractions, your attention is often split between multiple things at once. When your attention is divided, you’re not as focused in the moment. How can you focus on what’s right in front of you, avoid distractions, and actually get things done? Try using mindfulness to cultivate your attention and enhance your experiences. Let’s explore how to go about this…

Practicing Conscious Parenting

Parenting has its ups and downs. When your children are getting along and they’re in good moods, it’s wonderful. But when one child is misbehaving, or another child’s behavior is out of control, you may naturally feel frustrated, concerned, and unsure of how to respond. While there isn’t a one-size-fits-all approach to parenting, there are ways to reduce stress and help your children grow. One option is conscious parenting. Conscious parenting is a mindful, parent-focused approach. The central idea is that in order to help your children, you must first help yourself. Let’s learn more about how to be a conscious parent…

Focus on your Mental Health AND Have Fun this Summer

Is it tough for you to balance having a good time and prioritizing your mental health? Does one have to come at the expense of another? The short answer is no: you can keep yourself busy with plenty of enjoyable experiences while making time for taking care of your health. Here is the key to keeping your focus on both: having fun is a part of self-care. It can become an integral part of prioritizing your mental health. If you need some inspiration to find your positive summer mental health vibes, here are some tips…

The Dark Side of Perfectionism

Often times, perfectionism is romanticized by our society. People are praised for being particular, hyper-detail-oriented, and exceptionally thorough in school, at home, or at the office, etc. While goal-setting and having high standards is beneficial in most settings, there can also be a dark side to perfectionism. Perfectionism can have a negative effect on people’s mental health in a variety of ways. Consider the following reasons as to why striving to be perfect can become dangerous…

Reducing Work Stress with DBT

Has your work been stressing you out lately? Do the demands of your job cause you to feel exhausted by the end of the day? If you’re looking for relief from work stress, DBT skills can help! Learning how to manage stress associated with work will not only improve your work environment, it will also enhance your quality of life overall. Start with these three DBT skills to cope with the intensity of your work…

How DBT Skills will Help your Teen

How will you know if Dialectical Behavior Therapy is right for your teen? DBT teaches your teen skills that will help with acceptance and change. The main goals of DBT skills therapy are safety, learning useful coping skills, and creating a life worth living. In addition, DBT helps your teen become mindful about their emotions, develop healthy relationships, and find balance in their life. Consider these three reasons why DBT will help your teen…

Red Means STOP: How to Manage Distress Effectively

When you’re in a crisis situation, it’s easy to act on your emotions. You may react on an emotional urge without even thinking about it. However, the intensity of emotional urges can often affect how you respond and as a result, cause negative consequences. When you feel yourself becoming frustrated, it can be easy to begin raising your voice or yelling. When you feel upset, you may likely isolate yourself rather than dealing with the issue at hand. While it’s natural to experience a variety of emotions (even powerful ones), acting on the emotions without thinking can negatively impact your mood, your actions, and your relationships. Luckily there is a DBT skill to help you when your emotions are running high: the STOP skill. Learn about STOP so that you can navigate emotional situations more effectively…

Cool Down When You're Emotionally Overheating

Did you know that changing your body chemistry can help calm your emotional state? When you’re in a crisis or difficult situation (whether internally or externally) your state of mind can cloud your ability to make wise decisions. By learning to tolerate distress, you will improve your ability to regulate your emotions and act accordingly. In the distress tolerance module, the TIPP skill helps to create a bodily reaction lowers your emotional response. By activating your parasympathetic nervous system during distress using TIPP, you’re able to process and respond to your emotions more rationally. Here’s how TIPP works…

Coping with Difficult Emotions

We deal with difficult emotions every day. Feelings like frustration and nervousness can make life challenging. Although you cannot get rid of these uncomfortable emotions, you can choose how you deal with them. As a parent, it’s important to learn healthy ways to accept and cope with stressful emotions and crises. It will not only help you become a more effective human being, it will also allow you to model for your children and your family how to tolerate distress. Consider using IMPROVE the moment to replace negative emotions with positive ones…

How to Mindfully Respond to your Child

It can be difficult to always respond to your child in the most effective way. When you’re in a stressful situation, your body acts without thinking. You may act on your emotions and respond in ways that you later regret. However, you can modify your response before you act on impulse by incorporating mindfulness into your parenting. You have the option to react on emotions or respond mindfully. Let’s explore how you can start to integrate mindfulness into your parenting approach in order to reduce stress and maintain a positive parent-child relationship…

How to Accept the Things that You Can't Change as a Parent

Do you find yourself having the same conversation, argument, or request over and over with your kids—to no avail? It is understandably exhausting asking something of your child or partner and nothing seems to change. However it’s possible that the situation is unchangeable, so learning to accept the situation for what it is may be your only solution. The DBT skill of “radical acceptance” embodies that idea, as it’s the skill of accepting the things you cannot change. Let’s go over how it works and how you can apply it to your parenting…

Distraction: An Impactful Parenting Tool

Parents are faced with a variety of different challenging situations from day to day. From managing the kids’ online activities to breaking up arguments to preparing meals that everyone will enjoy, the stress can add up. In these situations, it might feel difficult to deal with intense or painful emotions as they arise. Ineffective ways of managing a crisis may help in the short term, but they can end up making things worse. Use crisis management skills like Wise Mind ACCEPTS when you feel yourself reaching your threshold to Emotion Mind or if you feel your emotional temperature rising…

Parenting Without Judgment

Do you ever find you’re hard on yourself as a parent? Do you tend to assume the worst about yourself when the situation unfolds differently than planned? Judgments are FUEL on emotional fire. Although you need judgments in order to stay safe, negative judgments may impact your self-efficacy and how you view yourself in the parenting role. In Dialectical Behavior Therapy, acting non-judgmentally is essential to avoid mistaking your opinions or emotions as facts. Take a vacation from judgment and parent effectively by adopting a non-judgmental stance. Let’s explore how you can identify your judgments and replace them with a non-judgmental, neutral stance…

Managing Darker Days of Winter

Check in with yourself: how have you been feeling? It’s possible that you’re feeling tired, gloomy, or distracted lately. It’s more common than you think this time of year! During winter, the loss of sunlight can have a major impact on your mood and your ability to function. With fewer hours of sunshine, it’s harder to stay motivated, upbeat, and get things done. You don’t have to waste your winter away, waiting for brighter days to return! Consider these ideas below to manage the darker day gloom…

Lessons From 2020 to Carry Into 2021

There is no doubt that 2020 has been a year of adjustment. We have learned valuable lessons collectively as a society, and on an individual level as well. Whether they involved finances, social engagement, emotional health, or work, they taught us valuable insights that we may not have otherwise gained during a typical year. As this year begins closing behind us, let’s recognize the valuable lessons learned that we can apply for years to come. Here are three important lessons from 2020 that will be beneficial in 2021…

3 Ways to Avoid Holiday Self-Punishment

After a delicious Thanksgiving meal with loved ones, does your mood feel lower? Are you hit with negative feelings that weigh you down? The holidays are a time of celebration and enjoyment; so why is it that once the festivities have ended, we’re met with a sense of sadness or regret? It’s more common than you’d think to experience post-holiday self-punishment. After the thrill of a positive experience, we’re susceptible to succumbing to negative emotions. Avoid punishing yourself and stop getting stuck in negative feelings by following these simple steps…

Three Ways to Cope with This Year’s Virtual Holiday Season

With the holiday season looming, it is becoming increasingly evident that this year’s festivities might not resemble years past. However, with a little extra effort and creativity, a merry holiday season can persevere. Here are three ways to cope with the virtual holiday season...

Action steps, Family, Tips for Your MindEmily HudakNovember 22, 2020holidays, coping, challenges, family, gratitude

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