I read an article recently on how Everything Old is New Again when marketing to boomers. In it, the author talks about rekindling their nostalgia for products by taking them and making the products relevant again (such as milk in glass bottles, Detroit’s muscle cars, or the original food trucks like Good Humor).
Recently I found myself in a discussion with a friend who has a background in psychology. She was arguing that past life events and troubles need to be “processed” and “worked through” in order to alleviate current problems. She felt that all past actions would dictate future actions, therefore to understand present problems, the past has to be fully explored. Interestingly, she expressed, with a deep, heaving sigh, that having to do so was a complete drag. She said if you were starting out with a new counselor, you had to “catch them up” with all of your past significant life events. She expressed how exhausting this can be.
I don’t know. No tin foil hat? You don’t live in LA? You wear matching socks? Most of the time? Maybe you can define normal. It’s really tough, but I’ll give it a try.
Why do we have habits?
Are they necessarily bad?
So what if you had to get up every day and consciously note the steps it takes to get ready for work? Your steps may be different from these, but humor me for a moment.
What is the key to choosing the right therapist for yourself?
You know, therapy is not for everyone.
Sometimes a walk with a trusted confidant, or dinner with our friends is just what we need. But if you have an ongoing issue that you have struggled with and it is affecting your daily life, your relationships, or your ability to work, therapy or counseling can be the best investment you will ever make in yourself.
When you find yourself swirling down the toilet of negativity, catastrophizing the possible, future, maybe, might, what if, not-yet-taken-place event that is lodged in your prefrontal cortex, try this.
I am finding that people are slightly confused between the terms guilty and selfish. They will say “I feel so bad [guilty] for even being here and talking about my own needs,” when they have constant anxiety humming in the background. And they will compare their needs to something such as a friend suffering from cancer as if their feelings do not matter, even though the situations are different, and they obviously had no part in causing the others heartache.
Life is a balance of holding on and letting go. When we get overwhelmed it is typically due to the feeling that too much is going on, but it can also be eustress, stress caused by good things happening.
Reframing is a very popular idea that is used in everything from fairytales to commercials. Recall that the ugly duckling realized in the end that he was actually quite a beautiful swan.