How to Advocate for Yourself in your Relationships

Do you ever feel like your relationships aren’t going well for you? Do you find that you give in more often than not? Do you tend to have a passive role in your relationships? No matter what kind of relationship you’re struggling with, don’t worry! It can be challenging to ask for what you want or to find the courage to say “no” when you’re uncomfortable. If you’re looking for a way to improve your assertiveness, try using the DEARMAN skill! It’s an interpersonal effectiveness DBT skill, which means that it’s designed to help you communicate better with others. It teaches you how to calmly and effectively ask and receive. Let’s learn about how it works…

How to Keep your Cool as a Parent

Do you have trouble keeping your cool when parenting your teen? Do certain behaviors of theirs cause you to lose your temper? It’s understandably challenging to deal with teens’ emotional up and downs while keeping your own emotions in check. Therefore, taking a dialectical approach to parenting might be helpful for you. Being a dialectical parent means finding balance—specifically, balance between opposites. There is an opposite to everything in life, and we tend to be most effective when we balance those opposing ideas. By finding balance between things that seem completely opposite to you, like a draining day and a calm mind, you can manage your teen without the emotional strain. Are you ready to apply dialectics to your parenting?

How to Set Realistic Goals

Do you find yourself accumulating numerous goals to accomplish throughout the year that you still haven’t gotten to? It’s important to have goals; it shows your ambition, and it feels wonderful when you accomplish and even surpass your goals. However if you load too many goals onto your plate at once, it can start to feel overwhelming. The feelings of overwhelm lead to stress and anxiety, which can cause you to lose motivation and abandon your goals altogether. So, what can you do to achieve realistic goal setting?

What is Toxic Positivity?

We live in a culture that boasts “toxic positivity.” Toxic positivity is a belief that no matter what difficult or upsetting situation you may experience, you should maintain a positive mindset. Consider the popular phrase “good vibes only.” While “good vibes” are not a bad thing, “good vibes only” negate all other human experiences that do not involve positive feelings. The phrase makes it seem like negative experiences or negative emotions should be avoided at all costs. As humans, we experience a wide range of emotions; we’re not always happy or positive and that is okay. In fact, it’s normal to have a mix of good vibes and bad vibes throughout the day. Learn more about toxic positivity and what you can do to get through challenges without suffering from the effects of toxic positivity…

Managing Negative Self-Talk

When you think about yourself, do negative thoughts instantly come to mind? Do you put yourself down over every little mistake you make? If you experience thoughts like this, you are engaging in negative self-talk—and you are not alone. Negative self-talk may not seem to be a big deal, but over time, they can make an impact on how you view yourself and how you feel. Your thoughts are powerful, and they will influence your emotions and behavior in the long run. Therefore, it’s important to manage negative self-talk so that you’re avoiding increases in anxiety and negative self-image. Here are some tips for managing negative self-talk…

Social Media Self-Care

Social media has become a significant part of our daily lives, as we check apps like Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and TikTok on a daily basis. While there are many positive aspects of social media, there are drawbacks to these platforms as well. Social media can affect our mental health; when we compare ourselves to others and see how much happier other people appear to be, it can make us feel depressed or anxious, among other feelings. That’s where self-care comes in to combat the negative effects of social media. If the content on your news feeds is negatively impacting your mental health, here are a few tips to practice social media self-care…

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…

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…

Are You Experiencing Anxiety?

Dealing with anxiety can be an overwhelming experience. Symptoms of anxiety can interfere with your life if you experience them on a regular basis, or they can make you feel uncomfortable even in doses. Luckily, recognizing when you’re experiencing anxiety and identifying when to ask for help can make a huge difference in your mental health. Consider these four ways to identify when it may be time to seek out help…

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…

Why Asking for Therapy is a Superpower!

May is Mental Health Awareness month and raising awareness starts with you. Did you know that asking for therapy is one of the best things you can do for yourself or a family member? You might even call it a superpower! Think about it: you wouldn’t hesitate to treat a physical illness like a broken bone. Mental health is no different! Therapy is an opportunity to explore who you are while taking control of your own mental health and wellness. Here are some key reasons why asking for therapy can be so worthwhile...

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…

How to Find your Calm

Did you know that you’ve had five skills to help tolerate distress your whole entire life? These are skills that everyone has at their fingertips, yet many people don’t know about them! All you have to do is integrate your five senses. Through self soothing, you utilize your five senses in order to cope with stressful moments. Instead of looking for comfort externally, it is important to practice and learn how to comfort yourself. This skill can be used in any situation. Whether you’re in an argument with a friend or becoming frustrated with your partner, use vision, hearing, smell, taste, and touch to lower your distress level. Here are some ways to incorporate self soothing with the five senses into your daily schedule…

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…

Showing Up With Compassion

As parents, it is possible that you’re incredibly hard on yourself; this kind of behavior can be destructive. It is easy to imagine demonstrating compassion for those that you love. However, it’s far more difficult to show compassion towards yourself. The mindfulness practice for self-compassion will help you learn to practice self-compassion in your daily life. Practicing self compassion is one of the best ways to improve your wellness and your mood, as well as strengthen your relationship with your family members. Learn how to practice a self-compassion break in order to show yourself kindness, alleviate stress, and help you cope with the challenges of parenthood…

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…

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