psychology

Imagine Yourself Better

What do you think of yourself?  Are you typically Positive Polly, or are you more of a Negative Nelly?  The way you see yourself has been shown to make a difference in overall wellness.  The good news is that you can do something to improve your wellness just by intentionally imagining yourself in a better light.  You’ve heard about how “being your best self” can change an outcome from many of the experts on success psychology and athletic performance.  Here’s a glimpse of how imagining your best possible self can impact your overall well-being:

Imagining a “Best Possible Self” to Generate Optimism  Read more...

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Is Happiness a Choice?

Believe it or not, it is within your power to create positive thoughts allowing you to accomplish anything you set out to do.  Can you really think yourself happy?  The answer is a qualified yes. Research proves that how we think can directly affect how we feel.  Here are the ways in which positive thoughts can help you accomplish many things in life.  Read more...

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Your New Wellness Story

New Life Story® Wellness Coaching 

Empowering people who have been sidelined by injury or illness to create a new story of wellness.”

It’s time to create a New Wellness Story® for your life

Do you want:

  • Healthier habits, but don’t know how to maintain them?
  • Less stress?
  • Whole person health?
  • Lasting improvements in your mind and body?

Most strategies for changing wellness fail because they are contrary to how the mind and brain work.  Read more...

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How’s Your Stress Immunity?


Stress is part of life, we simply can’t avoid it.   There are some folks who seem to bend and bounce back no matter what life throws their way, while others tend to bend and break. Let’s face it, life can be just plain hard at times.   And yet, how well we hold up under stress may be more in our own control than we realize.  In fact, stress can make us stronger.

The following article, written by Dr. Neil Neimark (reprinted with permission), talks about some things we can do to help us withstand day to day stress, as well as some of the more difficult things that come our way…



 Read more...

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‘Tis the Season to be Lonely

Are the Holidays a Difficult Time for You?

Many people have lost loved ones, relationships, or health throughout the year. Often the first holiday season that comes along without the loved one, or without the ability to do the things you usually enjoy creates a deeper sense of loss than other days. The following article helps many of us realize that it is normal to want to skip the holiday season.

Uh-0h, It’s That Time Again!

By Russell Friedman, Co-founder Grief Recovery Institute

Many Grievers Wish They Could Skip The Holidays And Jump From Late October To Mid-January  Read more...

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Your Body Eavesdrops on Your Thoughts

The way we think can affect the way we feel, not only in our emotions but in our bodies. The following article from Neil Neimark, MD sheds some light on the ways in which our bodies can listen in on the content of our thoughts and manifest them in ways we may not realize.
Say “YES” to Life!

Research in the field of mind/body medicine tells us that all our thoughts and feelings are chemical. In fact, every thought and feeling we have is translated in the body into neuropeptides, which are the chemical messengers of thought and feeling.  Read more...

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Grieving Loss of Health?

Injury and illness are losses that may need grieving.

There are at least 43 losses which can produce the range of emotions we call grief. The long list includes:

  • Death of a loved one
  • Divorce or end of a relationships
  • Major financial changes
  • Loss of health

Grief is normal and natural, but many of the ideas we have been taught about dealing with grief are not helpful, for example:  Read more...

  • Time heals all wounds
  • You must grieve alone
  • Be strong
  • Don’t feel bad
  • Replace the loss
  • Just keep busy
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EFT for Sports Performance & Injury Recovery

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No matter what sport you play; golf, tennis, baseball, basketball, football, hockey, soccer, track and field, or any other athletic endeavor there’s one thing for certain:

You would love to reach your full potential in the shortest time frame possible.

What if I told you that sports performance can be enhanced in just minutes a day using a simple technique that has been tested by professional and amateur athletes worldwide, with amazing results.

The technique I’m referring to is called Emotional Freedom Techniques or EFT.  Read more...

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10 Ways to Stay Motivated

New Year’s Resolutions are always made with the best intentions, but how many are actually kept? Apparently not most, according to experts. The following article gives some great tips on how to make resolutions (or set goals anytime of year) that are realistic and more likely to be successful.

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  • Set smaller goals with smaller steps
  • Frame your goals positively
  • Get a resolutions buddy who can help you keep track of what you want to do
  • Be patient with yourself and don’t be overanxious

10 ways to get motivated for change in 2010

By Elizabeth Landau, CNN  Read more...

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6 Steps for Managing Stress

6 Steps for Managing the Stress in Your Life

We all experience it at one time or another; this trespasser called stress.  It is perhaps the number one cause of most health problems today.  Let’s explore 6 ways to deal with the stress in your life in a healthy and effective manner.

* Talk about the problems you are experiencing with friends, loved ones or a professional. Keeping everything bottled up will only create more problems later on. Join a support group with people experiencing similar problems.  Read more...

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Using Positive Self-Talk to Conquer Any Goal

89370443Do you feel like you are always talking yourself out of success? As soon as you start to set goals for yourself, do you suddenly have nagging thoughts about how you aren’t up to the task or how you simply aren’t qualified to carry it through?

If you have ever experienced either situation, you need to change the way you respond to your inner dialogue. Instead of obeying your negative commands, you can use positive self-talk to counter the negativity and overcome nearly all anxious thoughts.  Read more...

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Sports Psychology – Not Just for Athletes Anymore

Sports Psychology Can be Used by “Regular People”

Part of my training as a certified coach has been to read and absorb a book called, Your Performing Edge: The Complete Mind-Body Guide for Excellence in Sports, Health and Life by Dr. JoAnn Dahlkoetter.  My goal from the very first chapter was to take the concepts used by athletes and sports coaches, and translate them for use by the “rest of us.”

Below is an article by Dr. JoAnn along with my take on how to use the “3 P’s,” which are the core of the Performing Edge Method, for helping people to heal and recovery from injury, surgery, or both.  Read more...

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Using Mental Training to Recover from Injury

People from all walks of life may at some point in their lives experience an accidental injury.  Trainers and coaches have been using some powerfully effective mental training tools to help athletes return to their sport, while the rest of us have probably only just heard of them.  The mental training tips listed in following article can be used by anyone who is experiencing a season of healing and recovery.  Just exchange any references to athletes and sports with activities related to physical therapy and rehabilitation.  Welcome to the exciting world of sports psychology!  Read more...

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How to Deal with Everyday Life Grief

How to Deal With Everyday Life Grief

What comes to your mind when you think of the word grief? Most people think of death. Even if you Google it, the listings that come up are related to the emotional response that surfaces from the death of a love one. There is very good information and help out there related to that topic. So the purpose of this article is to talk about the silent discounted grief that is part of our daily life but we don’t even know is there for the most part. Believe it or not we all grief since we are born and our emotional health depends on grant part on the mastering of this process. We all hear the word grief here and there but even people who are in the midst of the process don’t know what the word grief means or what the process really involves. The English word comes from the Old French grève, meaning a heavy burden. This makes sense when you consider that grief often weighs you down with sorrow and other emotions that can have both psychological and physical consequences.

There are many unconventional situations that produce grief reactions and most of them are just part of being alive. Judy Viorst in her book “Necessary Losses: The Loves, Illusions, Dependencies, and Impossible Expectations That All of Us Have to Give Up in Order to Grow” talks about most of them in great depth. She mentions how since the moment that we leave our mom’s wound we experience our first loss which is necessary to being alive. Why? Because loss is not a one-dimensional process. When we loose we also win but sometimes the pain from the loss might blind us from seeing the winning aspect of it.

Everyday we confront different and many type of losses – loss of independence, loss of a loved one, break ups and divorces, loss of security when we move to a new place or loose a job, disappointments, pervasive loss of one’s personal sense of well being and adequacy. . . so forth and so on. Even each positive stage of life carries on a loss, going to college, getting married, having a baby, retiring…just to mention a few. So if we can look at grief, sometimes, in a different way, as an essential part of living and growing, we could start understanding and accepting grief as a normal part of life. Here some tips to help you cope with it:

• Like with any sad or uncomfortable feeling or part of life, our reaction might be to try to run away from it. With grief the same happens. Contrary to what we do, it is important to understand that it is better if we welcome and try to go through it. “Easier said than done,” you might be thinking but you just can’t go around it. Grief is a process and you have to move through it to come across the other side.

• Be careful with judgment and allow all your feelings to come up. Since judgment is part of being humans we tend to classify feelings as good and bad. While grieving something or someone, try to stay away as much as you can from judging what you feel. Just feel it.

• Be patient and give yourself time. When there is a change it takes sometime for our internal worlds to adjust to a new reality. Grief requires adjustment and is a healing process. Notice the word process, which means takes time. Even though it doesn’t feel good, it is invaluable for the redefinition of our core self.

• Allow yourself to have fun. Sometimes because something bad happened we don’t allow ourselves to have some joyful moments. Why? Because we tell ourselves that might mean that we don’t care or that we are bad people. Judgment again! Well, let me tell you that the human nature has the amazing capacity to tolerate or do more than one thing at the same time. So you can be grieving and can fun at the same time.

• Surround yourself of familiar things and faces. A change increases uncertainty and vulnerability so the more you can be around routine and all time friends and family members the better.

• Tolerate the discomfort and hang in there. Try to do it without resorting to substances or unhealthy behaviors. Knowing your coping style when under stress might help you to know what to do while grieving. Easy recipe to follow: do exactly the opposite. Eg. If you tend to eat, try to exercise; if you tend to isolate, call a friend, if you try to overdo things, try to relax etc.

• Do not compare yourself to others. This is an easy trap. Because we know other people that went through a similar situation we push ourselves to heal as other did. Celebrate your uniqueness and allow yourself to have your own process.

• Keep in mind that grief is about remembering while attaching to something new. It is not about forgetting the past but it is about finding a way to keep people, places or experiences as part of who we are but being able to look into what the new horizons offer to us and see the beauty of it.

• Ask for help if necessary. If things get out of hand, the pain becomes intolerable for too long or adjustment doesn’t happen, do not hesitate to ask for professional help. Sometimes friends and family mean well but they don’t really give you the best advice.

As Karen O. Johnson MEd, founder & CEO of Everyday Life Grief Consulting says: “Life is made up of loss and it needs to be accepted and addressed to survive it in a healthy manner. Transforming the shattered dreams of grief can be a painful, but illuminating experience.” And remember that there is not a typical response to loss, as there is no typical loss (regardless of its nature). Our grieving is as individual as our lives.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Isabel_Kirk  Read more...

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Five Steps for Managing Depression

Take Charge of Your Depression in Five Simple Steps

Depression is one of the most common experiences in the United States today, but it doesn’t have to be YOUR experience.

Yes, it’s true that depression is ‘biochemical’, that it happens in your brain. And yes, it’s true that your brain processes change what you think and how you feel. And your brain processes change what you do and how you choose.

But luckily, what you think and how you feel, what you do and how you choose, also change the way your brain works! And that gives you power. You can manage, reduce, and even reverse your depression!

Here are some points of power that have been proven by research to change how your brain works. They rebuild healthy brain structure and healthy brain function. And when you choose to do these things, you don’t just change your brain. You also change your experience. You feel happier, more energetic, hopeful and free. You sleep better, and you’re more fun to be around! No, change won’t happen overnight. But when you use your power, when you tip the scales-the changes WILL happen!

#1: Exercise
I know. You can’t. You don’t have time, you don’t have a place, you hurt too much, and you just aren’t motivated. Yep, that’s depression talking! You can exercise at some level, and you gain power when you discover what that level is, and do it! The more you do, the more you can do, and your power grows. Aerobic exercise causes a wash of healing biochemicals throughout your brain and body, and it’s been shown to be as effective as an anti-depressant for many people. And the biochemical changes from exercise help your brain re-build. Exercise is one powerful way to change your brain.

#2: Thought Patterns
Automatic negative thoughts-ANTS! They dig ruts in your brain, so your thoughts just automatically slide into the same old patterns-negative, self-critical, hopeless. Stop! That doesn’t get you where you want to go! Find your affirmations, statements of worth and meaning, purpose and love in your life. Don’t have any? Then write some-it will be hard, but energizing. Nourish the little green shoots of love and acceptance that are struggling to grow. As you do, you will develop your power, and build hope. And at the same time, you’ll develop the healthy brain you need to enjoy your life.

#3: Meditation
When you meditate, you ‘turn on’ the well-being biochemicals in your brain, and let them wash away the damaging effects of stress biochemicals. Then the well-being biochemicals go to work rebuilding, soothing, growing healthy new neurons in your brain-and rebuilding health throughout your whole body. It’s like washing out your brain, and then nourishing it with a rich biochemical chicken soup! Don’t know how? Try one of the many resources you can find on the web, and check it out. Meditation is a gift to enrich your life-mind and brain, body and soul.

#4: Touch
In your heart, you know the power of touch. Caring, gentle, loving. What a wonderful way to change your brain! Yes, you can even pay for touch-with massage! Massage does change the biochemicals your body makes, and over time, it will begin to change your brain. But you don’t have to pay for touch. Embrace your child, sit and rock-kids eat this up! Snuggle with your dog, pet your cat, hug a friend. And do it every day, at least 5 times a day.

#5: Sleep techniques
You may already sleep all day. Or perhaps you CAN’T sleep at all! Either way, it’s true-depression changes your sleep patterns. But in this area, as in all the others, your choices also make changes, and you can make the choices that will get your sleep back on track. Healthy sleep choices are clear and easy to follow-and there are resources here on the web.

You’ll need to explore each of these areas, to learn more-changing your brain takes time and practice. But you want to learn, and you believe there’s help-that’s why you’re reading this article.

Keep it up. You are changing your brain!

Dr. Deborah Kukal is a licensed psychologist who has been teaching patients how to change their brains and change their lives for more than 10 years. She has engaged patients from virtually every walk of life in the successful and rewarding practice of health focused meditation.

Dr. Kukal’s Christian meditation CDs nourish your physical health and enrich your emotional life, as well as deepening your intimacy with the Lord.

Try a FREE guided Christian meditation by Dr. Kukal at her website, http://www.joyofchristianmeditation.com Learn to meditate and experience the healing joy of Christian meditation.
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Seven Steps for Managing Anxiety

Seven Steps for Managing Anxiety

Have you ever been in a situation that brought on sweats, rapid heartbeat and shortness of breath? You probably weren’t having a heart attack but an anxiety attack.  If you suffer from anxiety disorders, learning to manage it is the first step to overcoming it.

Anxiety is characterized as extreme reactions to fearful situations.  When someone follows you into a dark alley, those anxious feelings of a racing heartbeat and sweaty palms gives way to heightened senses and a rush of adrenalin that can save your life.  This is the fight or flight syndrome.

In the case of frequent anxiety, the fearful feelings are dread of a particular situation and not the situation itself.  Getting caught in traffic can cause an anxiety attack over what might happen when you get to work late.  Starting a new job can bring on anxiety attacks.  You don’t know anyone and fear of that unknown can send you into a panic.

Everyone experiences panic or anxiety in small ways.  Like the fight or flight example, it can save your life.  In new situations, we get panicky but when the outcome we fear fails to materialize, the anxiety stops.  For someone with chronic anxiety, this is not the case.

Every situation that brings anxiety is not life-threatening.  More than likely it is an extremely stressful situation that has brought on the anxiety as a way of dealing with it.  Unchecked anxiety of this type can lead to depression.

If you suffer from anxiety attacks on occasion or a more frequent anxiety disorder, there are steps you can take to keep your anxiety under control.

1. See a professional.  This is always a good first step.  Self-diagnosis of any type of physical or mental condition is unwise and can be dangerous.  A professional psychologist can help you understand your anxiety and prescribe medication or other effective techniques.

2. Get a good night’s sleep.  During the sleep cycle, your body repairs itself.  You feel more rested after several hours of restorative sleep, reaching the REM stage.  Most people need eight hours a night which varies within an hour or two each way.

3. Exercise on a consistent basis.  Exercise helps you to use oxygen more efficiently.  It helps to get more oxygen to the brain.  It also increases focus which may help you see solutions to problems rather than simply worrying about them.

4. Meditate.  Meditation is more than chanting mantras.  Yoga is an exercise that involves quieting the mind and controlling your breathing.  Simple mediation such as taking 5 minutes to clear your mind everyday can work wonders in the fight against anxiety.

5. Manage the worry.  When you feel your pulse start to quicken, count backwards from ten.  As you count, focus on the situation.  What has actually happened? Resist the urge to read anything more into the situation.

6. Don’t use alcohol.  You might think that the glass of wine is relaxing your tension but alcohol is a depressant.  In anxious situations you could rely too heavily on it and gain another problem in the process.

7. Find some relaxing activities.  Stress can rob you of your energy.  On a regular basis, do something you like such as gardening, painting, reading or listening to music.

Anxiety can come into your life at any time.  It’s normal.  When the anxiety becomes frequent you could be at risk for more serious conditions.  If you feel your anxiety is starting to take over your life or increasingly causing you problems, seek professional help immediately.  There is no need to suffer this terrible condition in silence.

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What Is Life Coaching?

What Exactly is Life Coaching, Anyway?

When was the last time you had someone focus entirely on you – to help you get what you really want?

A trained life coach will help you define and reach your goals in every area of your life.

Here’s what a life coach can do for you:

•  A trained professional life coach helps you find focus, identify your goals, track your progress, and stay motivated along the way.

•  A life coach helps keep you on track – not just with your long-range goals, but with your monthly, weekly, and daily goals.

Here’s why many people are using a professional life coach:

•  When you have a professionally trained life coach working with you, you have a trained support coach – someone who knows what to do, knows how to guide you – and stays with you, helping you get through the obstacles, and reach your goals.

•  Your life coach is a mentor, a guide, and a motivator – giving you objective feedback, encouragement, and non-stop support.

These are some of the benefits you’ll get from working with a professional life coach:

•  You’ll have a trained professional focusing completely on you – and what you want to achieve.

•  You’ll have help identifying what you really want, in every important area of your life, and you’ll have help getting it.

•  You’ll get assistance, not just now and then – you’ll have help week after week.

•  You’ll have help finding your focus, creating the right attitude and the right actions, overcoming obstacles, tracking your progress, and staying motivated.

Here’s how life coaching works:

•  You’ll meet once a week, usually by phone, for a one-on-one conference, usually 30-45 minutes a session.  In each phone conference you’ll plan and review together each of your “focus goals” and action steps.

•  In each session, you’ll also receive support and guidance in creating the righ attitudes and motivations in the areas that you want to work on most.

•  In addition to the weekly phone conferences, you’ll also communicate by email – so you’ll have help during the week preparing for each session.

Here’s how you can find out if life coaching is for you:

• Contact me to schedule a free consultation!

I appreciate referrals!  If you know anyone who might like to know more about coaching please send them to my website: www.HealYourBest.com

Thank you, and I look forward to working with you!  Read more...

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