Tagged With "Journaling"

I've struggled with anxiety throughout my life. A difficult childhood and my highly sensitive personality meant I grew into an anxious kid—there was just too much pain and emotional overwhelm for my young brain to handle. My anxiety most often manifested as perfectionism and people pleasing, so from the outside everything seemed great. I excelled in school and I was a good kid who did as she was told. But there was a war inside me. I felt broken, unable to navigate these huge feelings of...

Joanna, clearly you "get" what it's like to deal with anxiety, especially that which is rooted in early trauma. Your description of how your anxiety manifests itself sure rings a bell with me, and I'm guessing it does so with many others with difficult childhoods. Thanks for sharing your experience-based suggestions for how to manage and overcome anxiety.

By Ryan White, Center for Health Journalism, July 23, 2020 Harvard’s Jack Shonkoff, a luminary in the field of early childhood, has spent years showing that events in the earliest years of life have profound implications for how budding brains develop, and in turn, shape a child’s later potential at school and work. Now, Shonkoff says it’s time to connect the brain to the rest of the body. “The message now is to say that there is a revolution going on in molecular biology and genomics and in...

I applaud Shonkoff for speaking up. I hope it will help medical, judicial and educational leaders realize that the complex issues they deal with often stem from the brew in which a person steeped as a child. Until that is understood, the problems - and the suffering - will only persist.

You might be standing in a room with hundred-dollar bills blowing everywhere, but if you can’t catch any, or even notice them, you won’t have any extra money in your pocket. Gratitude works the same way. If you don’t even notice the opportunity to feel gratitude or know how to catch it, then you can’t hold much appreciation for it and your life won’t be altered in any positive way. We all need something positive to hang onto, to build hope and motivation moving forward. That’s why I want to...

You can't fail at self-care. If something isn't helpful, maybe you haven't yet found your own way.

All wonderful ways to care for the self, and yet, most of these are just read about, maybe tried for 1 or 2 sessions and then we move on to something else. Something most people call more productive, but I call more exciting. It seems we always go in with the highest intentions, and then, and then, and then after a few sessions we don't see a difference, we don't feel better or different so we move on, or worse, don't try anything else at all because those last 2 things sure did not do...

thank you for reading, Mary! Each person's experience is unique and must be honored, and it sounds like you've found--or are finding--your own way.

Gratitude is proven highly beneficial as a daily practice, not just something we save for the holidays. Learn a couple of easy ways to practice gratitude, and find out how to get personalized support to heal from ACEs and live the stress-free life you deserve.

Gratitude is proven highly beneficial as a daily practice, not just something we save for the holidays. Learn a couple of easy ways to practice gratitude, and find out how to get personalized support to heal from ACEs and live the stress-free life you deserve.

HAHAHAHA!! Saw the Florida post! Lynn Sharpe Underwood I've learned that people will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel. -- Maya Angelou