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How to Practice Mindful Eating

March 24th, 2022

Mindfulness can be defined as the action to observe what is happening while it is happening, in a non-judgmental and non-reactive way. While practicing mindfulness, you learn to pay attention to external stimuli (what you see, hear, touch, smell or taste) as well as internal stimuli (your body sensations, emotions and thoughts). One way to practice mindfulness is through mindful eating. 

How to be a Great Listener: Tips on Strengthening Relationships

March 21st, 2022

Have you ever struggled with effectively communicating in a relationship? Do you often feel others aren’t listening well to you? Well – one of the best things we can do when we feel someone in our life isn’t listening to us well, is to focus on being a better listener toward them.

How Disconnecting from Social Media Leads to More Connection

March 17th, 2022

Our technological world is rapidly expanding. Fifteen years ago when many teenagers were getting their first cell phones, they were only able to call and do simple texting messaging. Now, most adults and teens alike have a computer in their pockets. We are more connected than ever. But are we really? Of course, with any technological advances, there are positives and negatives. Here, we are going to be talking about social media in particular and how disconnecting from social media leads to more connections.  Positives and Negatives of Social Media

How to Manage Self-Critical Voices and Become More Self-Compassionate

March 15th, 2022

Managing Self-Critical Voices We all have that little voice in our heads. Sometimes it can be really helpful and motivate us to accomplish our goals, but other times it can be overly critical. When our self-talk becomes overly critical, it not only has a negative impact on our minds but also on our bodies as well as the people around us. So, it’s important to learn to manage our self-critical voices and practice being more self-compassionate

How to Practice Self-Compassion

March 14th, 2022

We often hear that we need to be kinder and less critical of ourselves, but that’s easier said than done. Often, our self-critical thoughts have been developed over so many years that we hardly even notice them happening anymore. Or, at times, we may believe we need this type of ‘tough love’ in order to motivate ourselves to be better (that we will be ‘soft’ if we are too kind to ourselves). This is untrue. Repeated criticism results in increased levels of cortisol and adrenaline, which leads to the body trying to protect itself by beginning to shut down (e.g., depression).

How to Determine Our Values for more Values-Based Living

March 11th, 2022

Are you ever faced with a decision that feels impossible to make? Most of us probably have at one point or another. Sometimes this difficulty in decision making is a result of competing values. For example, you have a big work presentation tomorrow and you really value work, but your kid comes home from school and had a bad day and could use some support and you also value your family. This decision requires you to decide which you value more. For some, making that decision may be easy, for others, it’s less black and white. 

Working from home – How to create good habits and find balance

March 9th, 2022

Since the beginning of COVID-19, a lot of you had to transition to working from home. Working from home has its positive aspects: more flexibility, more time available, fewer expenses, the possibility to wear more comfortable clothes, the opportunity to work everywhere: in a coffee shop, on your couch or even in your bed, the possibility to take care of children/pet/house chores during the day, etc.  Even though it sounds good on paper, a lot of home-workers have reported feeling unhealthy and unbalanced since they had to make this transition. 

4 Steps to Transforming Anxiety

March 1st, 2022
In: Anxiety

There are plenty of reasons to feel anxious both on a global level, from pandemics and war, to personal reasons such major life changes and the pressures of relationships and daily life. At its heart, anxiety is based on a fearful prediction of the future. Fear is programmed into humans as a survival mechanism so we know that it serves a useful function. In a way we need anxiety – but the question is what about anxiety is purposeful and what about it is harmful?

5 Tips on Taking Care of your Relationship

February 25th, 2022

Relationships. This is what research is showing us: “People who work on their relationships and stay in relationships are happier”, explains Dr. Waldinger in summarizing the Harvard Study of Adult Development that followed more than 700 men from 1938 until now. The research found that:

Impacts of workplace bullying and harassment on mental health

February 11th, 2022
In: Trauma

J reported that he has been being harassed by his co-worker for the last two years as retaliation after a prior minor conflict. The patterns of harassment involve humiliation, intimidation, offensive behaviors and statements, spreading of groundless rumors, and so on. The bully tries to intimidate J by constantly giving J nasty looks and gestures as if he is going to hurt him, or waiting for J to fail at something so he can report it to the manager. J does not feel safe in front of the bully, as he is targeted.

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