five year plan

Five-Year Plan – Nancy

Do you have a five-year plan? Are you a goal-setter or do you prefer to “muddle through”?  For some the idea of making a written life plan is a no-brainer, while for others it sounds like an idea from an alien planet. Making a plan for the future is a strategy that can help when life feels chaotic and directionless.  …

Acceptance and the unacceptable

Acceptance and the Unacceptable

How can we reconcile acceptance and the unacceptable in our lives? A new blog post from Rick Hanson sparked me to thinking about the relationship between acceptance and acquiescence or even complicity. So many things are wrong with the world. Is there no role for righteous anger? And yet… Acceptance in the sense that Rick means is really about not …

Micro-Progress Overcomes Inertia

A reader of this blog forwarded to me an article on “micro-progress” that promises a solution the the common problem of procrastination. Editor of Smarter Living, Tim Herrera, writes… “Of the countless articles, books and so-called lifehacks about productivity I’ve read (or written!), the only “trick” that has ever truly and consistently worked is both the simplest and the most difficult …

Yoga Practice Five Reasons

5 Reasons to Start a Yoga Practice – Gina

Yoga can be an incredible tool in well-being and recovery, why not check out the five reasons to start a yoga practice below! 1. Stress Management Stress management is a huge factor in managing mood and well-being. Increases in stress can lead to disrupted sleep, weakened immune systems, and mood episodes. Yoga has shown to help people manage stress on …

Successful Job Hunting

A young man in the tech industry who worked with me for nearly a decade got me started thinking about the key to successful job hunting. The tech industry is notorious for its high turnover and this young man enjoyed working in startups, where the turnover is even greater. As a result, he found himself looking for work every year …

Mood Trends

Mood trends are useful to track in order to prevent a full blown episode of depression, hypomania or mania. I think of them as equivalent to the idea of a falling or rising barometer. Before satellites and modern weather forecasting, whether the barometer was rising or falling was the best predictor of the weather. If the barometer was rising it …

Faith and Depression

Depression wears down our sense of trust and faith. Biologically, depression involves activating parts of the brain that search for problems. What is faith? It is an experience more than a specific belief. You can try an experiment by completing this sentence a few times (in your mind or out loud): “I have faith in  _________.” Then complete another sentence …

Self-Esteem: A Key Aspect of Mental Health

Much has been written about the topic of “self-esteem.” Sometimes the idea almost seems like one of those “buzz” words that doesn’t really mean anything. A significant amount of research points to the development of self-esteem as a key aspect of mental health. Self-esteem builds slowly and its foundation is the sense that we are loved and valued by others. …

Bipolar for Beginners

So you’ve just learned that you are bipolar.  If you’re like me, things in your outer world have unraveled and you now find yourself with a new diagnosis and (hopefully) a helpful psychiatrist. I’m going to list the ‘awarenesses’ that helped me understand how my new brain works in the hopes that these will help speed up your own recovery.  …

A Spoonful of Courage

In a previous post, I shared Linda Graham’s views on resilience from an excerpt from her article Bouncing Back :Rewiring the Brian for Maximum Resilience and Well-Being. After further reading, Graham also discusses the importance of having courage when creating a more positive outlook on life. We have the ability to experience great personal growth when engaging in new things. …