Posts tagged: Web

Okay, so I was at the doctor’s office this past week for an annual check-up. 

The nurse performed all the typical tasks: weight, height, blood pressure, heart rate. 

You already know how this goes. 

Then she proceeded to ask me some questions. 

Do you have little interest or pleasure in doing things? 

NO 

Have you been feeling down, depressed, or hopeless? 

NO 

Do you have trouble falling asleep, staying asleep or sleeping too much? 

NO 

Do you often feel tired or have little energy? 

NO 

I interrupted before the next question and asked, “wait, is it okay that the answers I’m giving are with my medication?” 

She said that was fine, so we continued. 

Do you struggle with poor appetite or overeating? 

NO 

Do you frequently feel bad about yourself? 

NO 

Do you have trouble concentrating? 

NO 

And that pretty much wrapped up the check-in process. 

As she left the room and I waited for my nurse practitioner, I couldn’t help but reflect that without my antidepressants EVERY SINGLE ONE of those questions would have the exact opposite answer … YES! 

Why am I sharing this? 

Well, it’s certainly not to push pharmaceutical drugs on anyone. 

Although, I do believe in changing the stigma around that for mental health conditions. 

But the real reason I’m sharing is GRATITUDE. 

FIRST, gratitude for the fact that the medical community is starting to routinely ask depression screening questions. 

You may not have depression, or something like it, but it’s safe to say someone you care about does or will in the future. So, it matters! 

SECOND, gratitude for modern medicine! And even more so, for being fortunate to have found the combination of medicine that works for me personally. I know that last part can be a struggle for many!!   

THIRD, gratitude that I have finally come to a point in my life where I am without shame, self-judgment, or guilt in my diagnoses of clinical depression and premenstrual dysphoric disorder. 

And FOURTH, gratitude that these conditions have led me to dive deep into the skillset of emotional health, for myself, and for so many others that I now get to help as well. 

My medications alleviate my depression, but they certainly do not alleviate the day-to-day trials of life that ALL OF US HAVE. 

That’s where emotional health skills come in!! And that’s why teaching and coaching on the skillset of emotional health is my life’s passion. 

And the best news: it’s never too late to learn! 

The not-so-great news: it’s time to schedule my first mammogram. Yep, so if you have tips, tricks, or just sympathy, feel free to send them my way. 

It’s time to be better than ever.

Let’s talk about something that can be pretty funny AND so incredibly painful ALL AT THE SAME TIME.

That something is being a human being. 

And ultimately, forgiving ourselves (daily, hourly, minute-by-minute if needed) for this “condition”.

We all logically know that being human means making mistakes.

We’re not robots …yet!

BUT despite that knowledge, it’s amazing how hard we can be on ourselves when we screw up. We beat ourselves up over things we said, things we did, things we didn’t do, and even things we thought about doing but didn’t do;).

It’s like we have a never-ending list of things to regret and feel guilty about.

And we don’t seem to want to let go of this list. Even though we hate it, we guard it with our life.

Sooooo maybe it’s time to give ourselves a break and burn that list to the ground?!!

Because here’s a fact we cannot change: WE ARE ONLY HUMAN 

And humans were never meant to be, nor ever will be perfect.

Sure, we could try really hard to be, but that’s exhausting, completely impossible, and only leaves us with pain and guilt. Plus when it comes down to it, it would be pretty boring. Can you imagine a world where everyone was perfect all the time?!

That’s not my kind of world. 

When it comes down to it, our mistakes and flaws often lead us to incredible experiences and opportunities. Not always, but often. We learn from them, we grow from them, and we become better versions of ourselves because of them.

So this week, instead of beating ourselves up, could we try to embrace our humanity, laugh at our mistakes, and move forward with a little more grace and humor?

Could we just accept our humanity for what it is? AWFUL AND AWESOME AT THE SAME TIME. 

Can we PLEASE forgive ourselves for being human

Meaning, making lots and lots AND LOTS of mistakes. Can we take baby steps towards not just accepting but embracing imperfection?

I know from personal experience that this is not easy. BUT IT IS WORTH WORKING ON. Plus, good emotional health is just a skill; it’s all about practicing. So practice, little by little.

If you want a good resource on guilt and shame, Brenee Brown’s, “Daring Greatly” is an excellent read.

And if you need help practicing, I’m here for you. Guiding you to better emotional health is my life’s work.

Okay, let’s be human. Go!

It’s time to be better than ever.

I know it can be tempting to put your emotional health on the backburner, especially when life gets busy, which is just about always. There’s a work deadline, it’s Market Day at the kids’ school, the carpets need to be shampooed … we all know I could continue!

But I have learned the hard way that neglecting your emotional well-being can have serious consequences. I’m sure some of you out there have learned the hard way too! Not sure why we do that to ourselves, but it seems to be a popular trend;).

A helpful way to keep tabs on this, is to always imagine yourself as having an emotional thermometer.

We can typically tell when the thermometer is in the healthy zone or when it’s beginning to rise. The key is to catch it when it’s a degree or two off, versus when it hits 105 degrees and it’s time to head to the ER.

Once that happens we begin to experience things like:

1. Burnout: When you’re constantly pushing yourself without taking time to recharge, burnout can sneak up on you faster than you can say “”mental breakdown.”” Trust me, I’ve been there!

2. Strained relationships: Neglecting your emotional health can cause you to feel irritable, overwhelmed, and disconnected from the people you care about. The exact opposite of someone that you would personally want to be around.

3. Health problems: We’ve always been taught that chronic stress can lead to physical health problems like heart disease and high blood pressure. BUT DID YOU KNOW that elevated cortisol (released into our bodies by stress) also leads to digestive issues and autoimmune disease …. which happen to be seriously on the rise!! And that’s not all.

Your emotional health is DIRECTLY tied to your physical health. So, my advice? Don’t wait until you hit rock bottom to start prioritizing your emotional health.

However prioritizing works for you!

Of course there are the textbook answers: taking a bath, journaling, or seeking support from a mental health professional

But on a day-to-day and minute-by-minute basis, it might be more like getting 10 minutes of fresh air, have a 5-minute stretching routine, spending a few minutes in a comfy chair with AirPods in and eyes closed, watching a couple of funny videos (just make sure and set a timer or give a number limit … too much screen time, we all know, can actually end up causing more exhaustion).

As you start to visualize your thermometer and pay more attention to the changes, you’ll get better and better at catching it a degree or two off, instead of only noticing when things start to spike.

It’s time to be better than ever!