Working with human nature, not against it.
It is that time of year. So much is going on and coming up. And, that is natural. When overwhelm hits, it feels like you need to do all the things. What actually needs to happen is taking a step back. Not much good comes from action that is done out of an unregulated...
You read that correctly. A sheep in wolf’s clothing. Jealousy gets villainized. It is regarded as unbecoming. And, I get that. But let’s not throw the baby out with the bathwater… This post is #8 in a series of 10: Ten Basic Emotions and their Messages. Before we start, let’s quickly set the...
No one enjoys feeling guilty. It might be hard to believe there could be anything helpful about it. There is. It tells you something about the kind of person you are. There is even actually something helpful about shame, which seems like a relative of guilt. Stay tuned to hear about that, or better...
I know, being sad is a bummer. Most people don’t want to sign up for experiencing sadness. It’s not exactly pleasant. However, sadness is actually an important part of the human experience. Just like it is important that our cells die off and replace themselves. If they did not, we would not grow taller...
The human emotional system is built as a messaging system. Each emotion has a general message it wants to convey. Once that message is delivered, the emotion or the wave of that emotion can subside. Sometimes it takes a little time for the emotion to process through the body, sometimes it is relieved right...
Why is dealing with tears so hard sometimes? People apologize for their tears in therapy all the time. They say “I told myself I wasn’t going to cry today”. Or I will see them actively try to stop their tears. And this is IN THERAPY. Where tears are actually part of the expected terrain....
Do you remember the last time you flipped out over something that doesn’t seem like a big deal in retrospect? We all do it sometimes. “Losing it” looks different for different people. For some people it looks like becoming super defensive. It can look like lashing out at someone, shutting down, being destructive or...