Psychologically, we’ve known for decades that a road to healing is the ability to speak up and be counted, but how do we do that? At work and home? Especially in a landscape where people are already on edge, what you have to say is likely to upset or offend someone somewhere. Too often, our…
I’m run down and sick, so I’m posting something positive every day this week until I lift my spirits. There is a reason I’m depressed. It’s more than having major and persistent depression disorder. I’ve had a surprisingly cruddy year. I have to admit that I’m frustrated because my coping strategies are failing me. This…
But what if people hurt you? Yes. People can hurt. When I first presented this Morning Mental Fitness Program, somebody asked what about my amygdala? The Amygdala generates our pain. A healthy Amygdala doesn’t get in the way of life, but most of us have an Amygdala that’s experienced some pain, so it does get…
Sometimes life gets me down. So what am I going to do about it? I’ve been way too sick to blog lately or post here. I mostly lay in bed and cough. It’s a party! But I did get some book writing in. One more chapter, and I’ll be ready to post it on Kindle…
Often when we prepare ourselves for the day, we prepare ourselves to invest in our assets, for what we can get out of the day, for what we can produce, for how much of an influence we can be, or for how much further we can get in our careers. There is nothing wrong with…
We come to the last minute, the last question and the last brain area of this Morning Mental Fitness Program. It involves a specialized part of your Limbic System, the Anterior Cingulate Gyrus (sometimes called the Anterior Cingulate Cortex). Anatomy: The Anterior Cingulate Gyrus The Anterior Cingulate Gyrus simply means “the front part of the…
What is the Visual for 2021? The year is visualized as beautiful jewels encased in ice or freshly dug out from the icycold ground. The frozen and cool jewels are mysterious and admired. They appear cool and reserved, almost beyond reach. The good news is there are “diamonds in the dirt” to be discovered in…
I was recently hanging out one evening with some friends, at six feet of distance, outside, at a bonfire. I started to engage in a conversation with an acquaintance who is a firefighter. He knew of the advocacy work that I do around mental health. We hadn’t spoken in quite some time and I could…
Jack’s 9 months old tomorrow. I had a scroll through some of those early days photos to reminisce. But they’re hard to look at. I don’t look miserable – but I was. I don’t look anything. My face was frozen by medication side effects. I was on a high dose of aripiprozole, diazepam, propranolol. The…
This year for Mental Illness Awareness Week, October 3-10, 2021, we are joining Mental Health America (MHA) to raise awareness of mental health conditions that are often misunderstood. MHA created this theme after listening to our community, where many felt that their diagnoses weren’t at the forefront of the mental health conversation. These conditions include…