A safe place to talk openly about mental health & illness
In this series, I dig a little deeper into the meaning of psychology-related terms. This week's term is self-esteem. Self-esteem refers to the extent to which we perceive the various elements of our self-concept positively. It incorporates our physical self-image, how we feel about the things we've accomplished, how successful we consider ourselves to be… Continue reading What Is… Self-Esteem
Do you make judgments when things are going well? The idea for this post came indirectly from Mark Manson via AP2 of Clear Air Turbulence. It's about meta-feelings. Like metacognition is thinking about thinking, meta-feeling is feelings about feelings. Mental illness, or even a lot of stress, can mean extended periods of time feeling rather… Continue reading Meta-Feelings: How Do You Feel About Feeling Good?
I've noticed that a lot of people in the blogging world have quite a strong inner critic. I don't, and II find it fascinating when it seems like people believe that they should self-criticize in order to do things properly, or in order to avoid being a bad person. So let's chat about it. To… Continue reading How Does the Inner Critic Get Started?
The Center for Contemplative Mind in Society I first heard of the term contemplative practices when reading the book A Fearless Heart by Thupten Jinpa. This involves approaching an inner problem without avoidance or distraction. By establishing some mental space, you can consider the problem without getting caught up in the thoughts and emotions that… Continue reading Exploring Contemplative Practices
This post is by Valerie Rice of The Tiny Couch. Journaling: Good Vs.Evil We have probably all heard about the therapeutic technique of journaling. Some of us might even keep a journal or diary on our nightstands, even if we only use it sporadically. Well, that’s cool, but do you really know why? I truly… Continue reading Emerging Blogger Series: Valerie Rice (Tiny Couch)
Recently I was commenting on a post about self-esteem by Caz of Mental Health 360º and decided it was worth expanding on in a post of my own. I've always has good self-esteem, and this is what I've identified as the basic building blocks that support it. Inherent worth of humanity This is probably more… Continue reading My Self-Esteem Building Blocks
None of us is perfect. That's probably a good thing, because perfect would be boring and quirky can be far more interesting. And maybe sometimes, rather than trying to put our best foot forward, it's worth diving into a quirky soup of messing up... and that metaphor ran out of steam in my head before… Continue reading Embracing Imperfection
The wounded healer interview series features people who've dealt with significant mental health challenges, and who also work in a helping role to support the mental health of others. This interview is with Kacha of Food.for.Thoughts. Image credit: CleanPNG Wounded Healer, Who Is Looking in the Mirror Tell us a bit about you, the helping… Continue reading Wounded Healer Interview: Kacha
AI recently about the worry tree as a tool for managing worry, and my friends at WeDIDIt mentioned that the idea the worry is productive can be a trap that leads to endless worry and rumination. Hence this post – "should" you worry, ruminate, self-criticize, or engage in other repetitive negative thinking patterns in order… Continue reading “Should” You Worry About Things?
52 Small Changes for the Mind by Brett Blumenthal lays out a year-long series of weekly small changes to improve your overall mental wellbeing. It's not specifically geared towards people dealing with mental illness, but there are plenty of common sense, realistic ideas that could be useful for anyone. Each of the book's 52 chapters… Continue reading Book Review: 52 Small Changes for the Mind