When it comes to expectations, my preference is to aim low and then be happy when I meet or exceed them. I know that approach doesn’t work for everyone, so I wanted to explore when it may or may not work. I think it might help to break the expectation/doing/result process into steps. This process …
Goal-setting is a popular thing; plug it into Google search, and there are billions of hits. But is goal-setting always the best approach? Maybe identifying and heading in valued directions can be a good alternative some of the time, especially if something like mental illness is making the whole goals thing difficult. Valued directions in …
Perhaps there are things you want to do, or think you should do, but they’re just not happening. How hard do you push yourself to try to get ‘er done anyway? Do you keep trying even when it becomes clear there’s no way it’s going to happen? I can think of a few factors that …
How Hard Do You Push Yourself Against Mental Illness? Read More »
In this emerging blogger post, Burnie of Quash Stigma, Not Fat writes about persevering in eating disorder recovery. When the going gets tough in eating disorder recovery, you have to keep going. I’ve found myself doubting the recovery process many times, and when i’m in this place I return to my “why choose recovery” list. …
Why You Should Keep Going in Eating Disorder Recovery (Guest Post) Read More »
In this series, I dig a little deeper into the meaning of psychology-related terms. This week’s term is competitiveness. From an evolutionary perspective, competition is hardwired into us; living beings need to compete for limited resources in order to survive. For most of us, though, that isn’t too much of an issue, and the competitive …
In this series, I dig a little deeper into the meaning of psychology-related terms. This week’s term is Maslow’s hierarchy of needs. In 1943, psychologist Abraham Maslow proposed a model of human motivation that was based on a hierarchy of needs, both physical and psychological, that people are motivated to meet. He identified five levels …
In this series, I dig a little deeper into the meaning of psychological terms. This week’s terms are intrinsic and extrinsic motivation. We need motivation in order to do pretty much anything. But where does it come from, and does the source of the motivation matter in terms of the outcomes? Self-determination theory is one …
In this series, I dig a little deeper into the meaning of psychological terms. This week’s term is motivational interviewing. Motivational interviewing (MI) is a therapeutic communication approach. It’s often used in the field of addictions, but it’s got some very useful tidbits that are more broadly applicable to motivation for any sort of change. …
Fluctuating motivation in mental illness means that sometimes, things are happening, while other times, the wheels just fall right off. Motivation follows activation? A basic element of cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT) for depression is behavioural activation. The idea is that motivation follows activation, meaning if you force yourself to do stuff, you’ll start to feel …
This post is a conglomeration of various quote posts I’ve done over the years. The first few gems in the post full o’ quotes are mental health-related tidbits from Eeyore, Winnie the Pooh’s eternally pessimistic friend. When I was young, I had Winnie the Pooh wallpaper, and Eeyore was my favourite. A sign of things …
