C.A.L.M. Your Way To Less Stress

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C.A.L.M. Your Way To Less Stress

Stress. Just the word conjures up visions of feeling anxious, tired and stretched to the limit. Allowing ourselves to become overwhelmed by too many demands, decisions, and difficult people often results in feeling as if all that is within us is speeding up, and everything around us is spiraling out of control. Attempting to relax may seem impossible, our lack of focus can lead to frustration, and our responses to others may be irritable and destructive. Unyielding levels of stress may even trigger physical symptoms such as respiratory difficulties, digestive issues, and cardiovascular effects.

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Avert a Mental Health Crisis With These 4 Steps

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Avert a Mental Health Crisis With These 4 Steps

Life is full of heartbreaking and confusing events. They happen to all of us at some point, and often become too much to handle on our own. We recognize when we aren’t functioning, and we know when our friends, colleagues or loved ones don’t seem like themselves. But then what? When the denial dies down, and the evidence is incontrovertible, determining the best way to get help poses our next challenge.

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Valuing All Relationships: 5 Ways to Make Profound Connections

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Valuing All Relationships: 5 Ways to Make Profound Connections

“Finding the one” and “lucky in love” are phrases that reflect the primacy of romantic relationships in our culture. Though a passionate and profound connection with a life mate is a beautiful adventure, those who choose to focus on other priorities, or have not had the opportunity, may feel that they are missing out on “living happily ever after.” Terms such as “significant other” and “committed relationship” imply a subtle devaluation of other relationships that may keep us from seeing the love that we do have in our lives.

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5 Powerful Ways to Help Someone in Emotional Pain

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5 Powerful Ways to Help Someone in Emotional Pain

Dealing with our own physical and emotional pain is difficult, but responding to the pain of others can be overwhelming. Witnessing or hearing about physical injury calls attention to our vulnerability, and reminds us that our bodies are not invincible. Though broken bones and bloody wounds may unnerve us, we know we can do something to help — be it first aid, finding assistance, or calling 911.

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Agree to Agree: Learn the 2 Types of Agreements for Better Communication

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Agree to Agree: Learn the 2 Types of Agreements for Better Communication

Clear and honest communication is the shortest distance to creating trust in relationships. Whether we are talking to colleagues in the boardroom, children in the kitchen, or partners in the bedroom, we are at risk of creating mistrust and unnecessary negativity when unspoken expectations are not met, and presumed agreements have been broken. When agreements are spoken, truthful and explicit, everyone understands the rules of the road.

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4 Ways to Keep the Peace During Family Gatherings

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4 Ways to Keep the Peace During Family Gatherings

Though some may look forward to gathering for the holiday season, others feel dread when revisiting the tensions of holiday celebrations past. We may have memories of heated discussions, forced chitchat, and awkward moments spent with parents, in-laws, siblings — and even friends with whom we no longer feel a connection. No matter the reason, we have the choice to take a fresh approach to a familiar holiday story. Bringing in our leftover feelings from the past does not serve us or anyone else.

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Seasonal Affective Disorder and the Winter Blues

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Seasonal Affective Disorder and the Winter Blues

When we hear the phrase “dark winter of the soul”, we instinctively imagine a dark, slow, or even depressed time. Lack of sunlight can darken our mood during the winter months by triggering symptoms of seasonal affective disorder or SAD, a type of depression that may be debilitating in its most severe form.

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How did we get here? 3 Steps to Improve Difficult Conversations

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How did we get here? 3 Steps to Improve Difficult Conversations

“You are so inconsiderate. You’re always looking at your phone when I talk to you.”
“Oh, come on, you’re exaggerating.”
“No I’m not. I feel like you don’t care.”
“You’re overreacting!”
“Why are we even together?”
“Let’s face it, no matter what I do, you’re never satisfied.”

Do you recognize yourself in this conversation? You are not alone.

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Why Do I Feel Uncomfortable Around People?

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Why Do I Feel Uncomfortable Around People?

Elliot Alderson, the main character of the popular hacker drama, Mr. Robot, embodies a modern paradox. Though we proficientlyconnect with the masses through technology, some of us can be deeply confused by the nuances of direct human contact. As viewers, we are privy to Elliot’s desolate meditations about his social isolation. In episode 8, he asks us to consider what lurks beneath the murky surface of his social anxiety. “We are all living in each other’s paranoia,” he says in his deadpan drone. “You can’t deny that. Is that why everyone tries to avoid each other?”

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13 Signs That It’s Time to Break Up with Alcohol

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13 Signs That It’s Time to Break Up with Alcohol

SheOwnsIt.com is a community that supports and empowers women entrepreneurs. I’ve recently had the honor of connecting with this inspiring network of women. The following is my first article as a Featured Contributor on SheOwnsIt.com — I hope you will consider sharing this information about alcohol use with others.

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Valuing All Relationships: 5 Ways to Make Profound Connections

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Valuing All Relationships: 5 Ways to Make Profound Connections

“Finding the one” and “lucky in love” are phrases that reflect the primacy of romantic relationships in our culture. Though a passionate and profound connection with a life mate is a beautiful adventure, those who choose to focus on other priorities, or have not had the opportunity, may feel that they are missing out on “living happily ever after.” Terms such as “significant other” and “committed relationship” imply a subtle devaluation of other relationships that may keep us from seeing the love that we do have in our lives.

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Toxic Friend Cleanse: Rid Yourself of Junk Food Relationhips

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Toxic Friend Cleanse: Rid Yourself of Junk Food Relationhips

Have you ever enjoyed spending time with someone, but then walked away feeling unfulfilled or even empty? You had fun, nothing particularly negative happened, but you felt as though something was missing. Looking back, you may not feel the desire to deepen the connection further — or even spend time with them again. There was no excitement when recalling the moments you experienced together, and no sense of loss when you consider that they may not reach out to you in the future.

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3 Ways to Reduce Anxiety and Put the “Fun” Back in “Functioning”

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3 Ways to Reduce Anxiety and Put the “Fun” Back in “Functioning”

Most of us say we are “stressed” as often as we say we are hungry; but how often do we confuse feeling stressed with a health condition that may sabotage our functioning? Our ability to adapt to rising stress levels can become so familiar to our existence, that what we call “stress” may actually be a mental health syndrome known as Generalized Anxiety Disorder (GAD). Nine percent of Americans will be diagnosed with GAD within their lifetime, and well over half of them will be female and approximately thirty years of age.

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Why You Should ‘Give Up the Ghost’ on Ghosting

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Why You Should ‘Give Up the Ghost’ on Ghosting

Having a friend, date, or co-worker be a “no-show” is not a new story, but technology has transformed the “no-show” into a “no muss, no fuss” vanishing act called ghosting. For those of you that have been spared, ghosting is the act of terminating communication with a love interest, and intentionally avoiding contact with no explanation. Though the term specifically refers to dating relationships; we know that our friends, spouses, and relatives are just as capable of vaporizing into the ether.

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