Anxiety: Risk or Resources?

Think of a time when you were anxious recently. What did you feel in your body? Tightness, your stomach flip flopping, quickening breath? Did you have a thought about these physical symptoms, like ‘this is terrible, this feeling won’t go away, I can’t stand this,...

Perfect Christmas?

A friend and I recently shared our experiences of decorating the Christmas tree this year. She shared how stressful it was. It was an ordeal to put the lights on the right way, yelling and blaming were involved. I know that scene all to well from my past experiences....

Your Thought Maybe True, But Is It Helpful?

Part of the work I do with clients is to help them evaluate their thinking to see if it’s realistic and helpful. We look at the evidence to see how true a thought is and often discover that the most upsetting thoughts are not 100% true. Then, based on the evidence, we...

Will You Be AWARE or Run Away?

In my yoga class last night, the teacher stressed the need to slow down and listen to our bodies. She said that when yoga gets hard, our minds want to run away. I found that to be true. I had to really focus on my breath and tell myself that I could handle this...

Practice

When I teach fitness at the elementary school, kids often tell me that they can’t jump rope. My teaching approach is that I expect everyone to try and do their best and that our fitness time is a great place to practice a new skill. Not everyone can jump rope like the...

‘Tis the Season… To Be Stressed

Here I am on Saturday two weeks before Christmas, feeling stressed out. There are just so many things to do. I found myself wondering why I felt so busy and stressed, really I don’t have that much to do. But, there is this built in sense, particularly for women, that...