Emotional Coaching

Three ways to improve your mental health right now

Three ways to improve your mental health right now

Life is hard enough, why do we have to be so hard on ourselves? If we’re generally pretty good at being kind to, and having compassionate for, others, what’s the deal with that mean inner monologue?

Scientists believe that one reason is due to our “negativity bias”, wherein we evolved to be constantly scanning our environment for danger, training us to orient to what is, or potentially will, go wrong. Retraining something at integral as evolutionary hardwiring is not easy.

To that end, it’s helpful to have a bunch of self-healing tools at the ready. Here are three tools that may come in handy.

May is Mental Health Awareness Month

May is Mental Health Awareness Month

You can’t necessarily judge your mental health by your emotional ups and downs. Feelings are important and definitely have a lot to tell us, but they are always colored by "the stories we tell" about our experiences. Mental health is about experiencing a full range of our emotions without denying, shaming, or becoming overwhelmed. Emotions are innocent, it’s what we do with them (i.e. "act-out") that can get us in trouble.

Journaling T.I.P. for mindfulness & self-compassion

Journaling T.I.P. for mindfulness & self-compassion

Writing about how we're feeling allows us to observe and manage our feelings as they arise, instead of being knocked over by them like a tidal wave. Next time you’re feeling overwhelmed, try this journaling TIP:

Take deep breaths

Identify thoughts

Practice self-compassion

Therapy as Emotional Coaching

Therapy as Emotional Coaching

One myth, stubbornly persistent in our culture, is that needing therapy means one’s mentally ill. In reality, most people seek out therapy for what I like to call emotional coaching. A holistic therapist serves as a translator between heart & mind, helping create a pause, between stimulus & response. Therapy does not have to be about what’s wrong, but about uncovering all that’s right.