Git 'Er Done

Making lifestyle changes is not always easy, especially the stopping of certain self-destructive behaviors such as overeating, alcohol and drug use, excessive spending, and staying in destructive relationships. Behaviors such as these are “habitual”, meaning they occur repeatedly often without much conscious thought given to the activity. The longer they go on, the harder to extinguish them or replace them with more healthy activities. It is safe to say that we engage in some of these behaviors as a mechanism of coping with internal insecurities or outside emotional stress and though some of us may realize these actions are unhealthy, it can be a struggle to do otherwise. The old saying, “we are creatures of habit” could have no greater relevance than in describing some of these type of behavior patterns.

As the title suggests to “Git ‘Er Done” is a tongue-in-check way of saying, just get going on making the behavior changes you need that will lead to healthier living. As not to seem insensitive or that just like that, a snap of your fingers and every self- destructive behavior is gone, but to some extent making a conscious, goal-directed, New Years resolving effort to modify 1 or more of these behaviors is how we break habitual behavior cycles and start replacing them with other adaptive behavior patterns.

So since many of us attribute New Years resolutions to a time when we set these goals for behavior changes into the next calendar year, make a simple plan to modify 1-2 behaviors you think are contributing to your poor physical, emotional, financial or spiritual health and Git ‘Er Done! Check out WEBMD for some specific healthy change ideas Make 2005 New Year's Resolutions a Reality

Cognitive Behavioral Therapy - It Works!

...Our emotions and our actions are not separate from our thoughts. They are all interrelated. Thinking is the gateway to our emotions--and our emotions are the gateway to our actions. By Dr. Arthur Freeman and Rose Dewolf, "The 10 Dumbest Mistakes Smart People Make and How to Avoid Them"

Irrational thoughts, beliefs and goals effect our emotions and our actions. Cognitive Behavioral Therapy's (CBT) premise is increase awareness of these irrational thought patterns and increasing the frequency of realistic thoughts and development of realistic goals and interpretations. Our thoughts affect our reality. CBT is considered an Evidence Based Treatment for Depression, Anxiety, BiPolar disorders and even Schizophrenia. This means that researchers have determined that CBT works! Contact Us for more information!

Is Your Spending a Symptom?

In general, at no other time of the year is our spending as great as during holiday times. We also know that people, in the winter months in certain geographic areas, experience more mood-related disorders such as Seasonal Affective Disorder. These mood disorders contain symptoms such as sadness, impaired sleep and appetite routines, isolating and thoughts of self harm. To complicate the stress of the season, we often experience other external family and financial stressors this time of year as well. The manner in which some people cope with these biochemical and environmental stressors can involve over-shopping and consequently, over-spending.

Pathological spending can be difficult to diagnose this time of the year due to our tendency to purchase materials in a gift-giving mode anyway. It is possible that increased seasonal depression and holiday buying are linked in an unhealthy manner. Find out more about compulsive spending at Compulsive Spending Carries Heavy Price or Contact Us for a more personal screening.

It is Up to You to Create Your Own Adventures

I was gifted with this wisdom by opening a fortune cookie on the 1st day of owning our business. It is posted on my coffee cup to remind me everyday of my vast potential.

We have a choice and we can create the kind of environment that we want to live. We have been empowered by freewill to create. We are making choices everyday and creating our own reality. It is up to you! What are you creating? What are you seeking? What are you planting in your life? No one else can create your adventures for you. Take the first step of Knowing that You are the One that you have been waiting for! Let us Help...Contact Us!

Synchronicity

Have you ever had an experience were you have been thinking about someone that you haven’t seen or talked to in a while and then they call you? Have you ever experienced a time when things happened at the same time with meaning and you had a gut feeling that it wasn’t just by accident.

One of the founding father’s of psychology, Carl Jung’s notion of synchronicity is that there is an acausal principle that links events having a similar meaning by their coincidence in time rather than sequentially. He claimed that there is a synchrony between the mind and the phenomenal world of perception.

How does this notion of Synchronicity impact your life? Are you conscious of how your choices in thought impact your existence?

Are You Having Panic Attacks?

A panic attack is a brief episode of intense fear and it is usually accompanied by physical symptoms that may include chest pain, heart palpitations, shortness of breath, dizziness, or abdominal distress. In scientific terms, panic attacks are thought to occur when the brain's normal mechanism for reacting to a threat – the so-called "fight or flight" response – gets "switched on" at the wrong time. Panic attacks usually last for a few minutes but may continue for much longer. Most panic attacks are at their worst between 10 and 30 minutes after they begin. The symptoms usually fade over the course of about an hour.

Usually, a first panic attack seems to come out of the blue. It might happen when you are doing something ordinary like driving a car, shopping, or going to work. Suddenly, you are overwhelmed by frightening and uncomfortable symptoms. Panic attacks usually take a person completely by surprise. One reason they're so devastating is that you can’t really predict when they’ll happen. People who've experienced panic attacks describe experiences that are so overwhelming and terrifying that they really believe they are going to die, lose their minds, or be totally humiliated. These horrible things don't actually occur, but the chance seems very real to the person who is suffering the attack. People who are experiencing their first panic attack often go to the hospital emergency room because they think that they’re going to die.

If you think you may be experiencing anxiety and/or panic symptoms and are interested in addressing ways to cope with them in a more healthy way, Contact us for a confidential and FREE review of your situation. Based on a few of your concerns, we can provide a professional opinion whether further attention to your symptoms could be helpful.

Foundation of Motivation

Do you want to be successful? Do you want to move from the doldrums of a life with little meaning or satisfaction? Are you sick of waking up and dreading another day of work? Are you ready to find what you have been searching for?

If your answer is YES! The 10 Foundations of Motivation is a great book to help you organize your thoughts and get you moving in the right direction. Shawn Doyle describes that the first step is finding out what your purpose is? Why are you on this earth? Who are you truly meant to be? What are you passionate about?

We all generally have the same wiring, it is what we decide to do with this wiring that makes the difference between finding ourselves at age 50 and wondering what we have accomplished in life and finding ourselves smiling at age 50 with continued enthusiasm for our life’s-work, knowing that we are fulfilling our purpose.

I have been fortunate to be remotely connected to a program called Peace Jam. Nobel Peace Laureates volunteer their time to youth to instill within our youth the belief that we can all make a difference. I have had the opportunity to hear several Nobel Peace Laureates speak and every one of them has been very clear about one thing. You and I are no different than them. (Nobel Peace Laureates - Archbishop Desmond Tutu, Jody Williams, Máiread Corrigan Maguire, etc.) They just decided to take action in something they believed in.

Find out what moves you emotionally, mentally, spiritually and physically. You may need some alone time to do this. You may need to work at it – writing down ideas or asking friends and family what moves you? You may already know your dreams but for whatever reason lost sight of them years ago. Get Started...the world is waiting for you! Contact Us! We can help.

Online Counseling and Telemental Health Works

More and more reports and research have been validating the effectiveness of phone counseling, email consultations and ways, other than traditional psychotherapy, of connecting with people in a therapeutic manner. Studies have found that telemental health services break down treatment barriers , such as the stigma of seeing a mental health professional, immobilizing personal fears, transportation issues and other limitations that restrict consumer's attainment of traditional psychotherapy services.

As a society evolves, advances in technology capability are making mental health services available to a larger, historically isolated population of consumers. These options have not been available to these individuals in the past. As our society and mental health services evolve, we have chosen to embrace the opportunities of online and telecounseling services. We are excited about our ability to offer increased flexibility while maintaining quality counseling services.

The first email inquiry is FREE. We are interested in connecting with you about your concerns and helping you get back on track! Contact Us! We looking forward to hearing from you soon.

Psychotherapy works over the phone, study says...