Healthy boundaries are the key to emotional well-being. After all, you teach people how to treat you. Check out the audio snippet below from the Calming Your Anxious Mind module via Team Happy, for a recap of the essentials steps to adopting a peaceful mindset, where you manage your anxiety, and not the other way […]
Category: therapy
Calming Your Anxious Mind: Overcoming Anger
Anxiety and anger may not seem connected. Anxiety is often associated with fear, and fear is not typically associated with powerful emotions like courage. While it takes courage to stand up to someone and tell them why you’re feeling upset with them, most people would not label anger as a typical […]
Why We Marry our Mom and Dad (and how to divorce them)
“We repeat what we do not repair.” —Christine Langley Obaugh “Why would a person marry someone just like their father or mother if their parents were {insert any abusive trait} alcoholic/narcissistic/emotionally unavailable? Doesn’t it make more sense to look for a partner with the opposite traits?” is commonly asked from up-and-coming therapists during […]
Lust and Loyalty: The Naked Truth About Infidelity
“Part of the modern ideology of love is to assume that love and sex always go together… And probably the greatest problem for human beings is that they just don’t.” ~Susan Sontag Talk about an apropos quote to describe what many couples are thinking, but few are discussing. This is not to say Ms. Sontag’s […]
The Mental Health Game — How Do You Play?
On Saturday I was trolling Netflix for a new adventure, because let’s face it — Criminal Minds gets a bit formulaic (as psychologically sound, as it is), when I spotted Training Day. I recalled Denzel Washington’s award-winning, maniacal rogue cop performance and almost clicked through, when I saw 2001. “Hmm, that’s so dated — is […]
Is Anxiety A Choice?
Researchers who study emotion regulation—how we cope, or fail to cope, with the daily swirl of feelings—are discovering that many anxious people are bound and determined (though not always consciously) to cultivate anxiety. The reason, studies suggest, is that for some people anxiety boosts cognitive performance, while for others it actually feels comforting. Consider the […]
100 Smart Ways to Calm Your Anxious Mind
You can read all the anxiety advice in the world, but none of it matters unless you take action. To set your mind up to master calm, confident and in control, you have to ruthlessly focus your efforts on things that work, and stop spending precious time on things that don’t. Today I’m going to […]
The True Meaning of the Phrase, “I don’t trust anyone.”
How would you like to go through life without any meaningful relationships? If you’re constantly stressed because no one “gets” you, you may be on the fast-track. It’s hard when you want to foster deep connections, but trust holds you back. The good news is life doesn’t have to be this way. The bad […]
The Positively Dangerous Trap of Positive Thinking
“She’s just so damned happy and sweet, watch out or you may get a cavity. Is that smile surgically sewn on her face?” My mom describing the mother of a friend, as we drove to their house for an outing when I was a teen. Because she was classy like that. I don’t remember much […]
Cognitive-Behavioral Therapy: A Fun Guide to Getting Better
Several years ago I wrote an article called The #1 Reason Angry Couples Stay Together that got a lot of people’s attention. It became quite successful and resulted in a lot of big websites copying, pasting and quoting its content. Mostly because pairing two volatile topics like strong emotions and high-conflict couples means […]