When I mention the idea of mindfulness meditation, of consciously sitting with ourselves and observing our own inner world, the usual response I receive is along the lines of: “I like that idea but I can’t do that, I can’t quiet my mind.”
Mind racing anxiety plus the common trauma symptom of
Stressful situations can make the most balanced people act in crazy ways. A few weeks ago, I received an email from a friend who is worried about her relationship with her long-term partner. She told me she’s been feeling very anxious. She wrote:
I’m not really eating and sleeping is bad and sometimes talking… helps, but
There is no denying it, yoga has made its debut in America. There is a yoga studio on every corner. There are hundreds of yoga classes going on every day. Everyone seems to have at least thought about trying yoga at this point, if they haven’t already been to a class. Every week there seems
Flashbacks can take many forms. Children and adults can have emotional flashbacks. Veterans can have combat flashbacks. They are part of the aftermath of trauma for many people.
A person can experience trauma after an overwhelming experience, such as violence or an accident. Trauma may result from living with others who feel unsafe, such as parents
Did you know that PTSD (Post Traumatic Stress Disorder) is considered a trauma induced anxiety disorder? PTSD is also considered a normal reaction to abnormal events. That means you are normal, and your responses are normal responses to what happened, the event that happened is considered ‘abnormal.’ Statistically common events, unfortunately, but still
Ever look at someone and think to yourself, “How are you still alive?” Maybe that’s just me and the field I work in, but we all know someone who has been through hell. Someone who either struggled with addiction, abuse, poverty, or other challenging life circumstances. We hear stories of life challenges and
A beautiful outcome of mindfulness meditation is the opportunity to slow down and explore our relationship with our minds. We meditate to understand the stories we tell ourselves about our lives and experiences. This is so important for trauma survivors, mainly because we oftentimes make up a story that the world around us
Sometimes, life hits us with an arrow and we feel like shit. We lose our job, a relationship ends, we get sick, someone close to us passes away, someone insults us at work.
Sooner or later, physical and emotional pain is bound to show up in life.
If you’re hurting there are a ton of
I am often reminded that as a Psychologist, I take a lot of my knowledge as “common knowledge” and forget that many not trained in psychotherapy may not know the meaning of some of the terms I use or things I talk about in general.
When I ask people if they have heard of
I was somewhere in South America, traveling on a bright yellow bus, staring out the window lost in thought. What was I doing all by myself on this bus, on this continent, where I didn’t know anyone for thousands of miles?
I had thought that if I just packed up and ran away from my problems,
