Mental Health
- Bible teaching, Daniel, Encouragement, Faith, Fighting for Joy, Focusing on Truth, God’s mighty power, Hope in God, Life Battles, Life Storms, Mental Health, miracles, Overcome anxiety & worry, Pursuing health and wholeness, spiritual warfare
God Is In the Room & He Still Does Miracles.
Friend— You are Not alone. No matter what you are going through. No matter if anyone knows the battle you are facing, the struggles that are pressing in, the pressures you face. God is right there with you. The song “In the Room” by Maverick City Music is one of my current favorites because it testifies to how God has always been the same, back when Daniel was in the lion’s den and wasn’t devoured after going against the command to only pray to the king. He continued to pray to God and was sentenced to death by the lion’s den as a result. But God protected him. (Read about…
- Amygdala, calming techniques, Coping strategies, EMDR, empathy, faith and psychology, Fight or Flight Response, Mental Health, Overcome anxiety & worry, positive self-talk, Prayer, PTSD, Pursuing health and wholeness, Stress response, therapy, Trauma
Fight or Flight Response Series: Part 3. Stress Responses Don’t Have to Rule Your Life- Decrease Tension, Find Calm, & Take Back Control!
Triggers, trauma, and PTSD don’t need to run your life. There are ways to have improved resilience and decrease those fight or flight symptoms when they hijack your life at unexpected and undesirable moments. We will talk today about some of those amazing techniques- Read on with the hope and knowledge that the intensity of the stress responses you experience can, in fact, be lessened. Their intensity can be dialed down. You can manage and begin to have more control over those intense responses you feel. You don’t have to live your life with amygdala hijack taking over at unexpected and unwanted moments. In my last fight or flight writing,…
- Amygdala, anaphylaxis, calming techniques, Coping strategies, EMDR, faith and psychology, Fight or Flight Response, Focusing on Truth, food allergies, Mental Health, Overcome anxiety & worry, positive self-talk, Prayer, PTSD, Pursuing health and wholeness, Stress response, therapy, Trauma
Fight or Flight Response: Part 2- Assessing Danger, Triggers, & Advocating with An Anaphylactic Allergy Focus
If you’ve dealt with a stressful fight or flight response where your body is on edge, anxious, worried, extremely alert and ready for action, or ready to deal with something dangerous, then you know you don’t choose when to feel that way, it just occurs all of a sudden sometimes. It can be disconcerting and worrisome to have your body jump into a revved up state all of a sudden. So, how do you get control back? How do you begin to tell your body what is dangerous and what is not, How do you calm down that stress response? How do we approach a fight or flight response, a…
- Amygdala, Coping strategies, EMDR, empathy, Encouragement, faith and psychology, Fight or Flight Response, Focusing on Truth, Mental Health, Overcome anxiety & worry, positive self-talk, PTSD, Pursuing health and wholeness, Stress response, therapy, Trauma
The Fight or Flight Response: Part 1- Steps to Take & How to Talk to Yourself During a Response
The fight or flight response. What actually happens when we are triggered and our amygdala takes over, in an instinctual way, to protect ourselves? What occurs and how can we help ourselves turn the dial down on the response when there is, in fact, no actual danger present? Read further on steps to take when a response occurs, how to talk to and interact with yourself when a response occurs, how to identify the reason you are having the revved up fight or flight responses, and ways to decrease the intensity of the response to “get back your life.”
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The Hard Things In Your Life
Don’t shy away from the hard realities of your life.Let me say that again— Don’t ignore, downplay, or dismiss the difficult realities of your life. By being honest with yourself and honest with trusted individuals in your life & with God, you take steps toward wholeness.It’s okay to not have the answers for your difficult circumstances when you do share. By sharing about those— painful and difficult things, the painful realities of your life— with trustworthy, empathetic, and kind people— You can take steps toward wholeness. You are not alone dealing with that reality. Your friend doesn’t have to have wise words or answers for your problems, but they do…
- emotional intelligence, Emotions, Encouragement, faith and psychology, Fight or Flight Response, Mental Health, Pursuing health and wholeness
Emotional Intelligence
Emotional Intelligence. Dr. Alison Cook on The Best of You Podcast, Episode 70 delved into what it is and what it looks like to enter into a social setting having emotional intelligence vs. not having emotional intelligence (using coping strategies to avoid one’s emotions). She speaks on EQ, which is emotional intelligence, and other types of intelligence and gives strategies for interpersonal relationships— How to interact with your emotions and other people’s emotions to lead to a healthier more resilient life. She even mentions the fight or flight response which is what I talked about on my blog, 2 posts ago. Scroll to the end for the link to her…
- Amygdala, Encouragement, Fight or Flight Response, Focusing on Truth, Mental Health, PTSD, Pursuing health and wholeness, Trauma
Emotional Memory & the Amygdala
Did you know that the amygdala is the emotional response center and incredibly important? It processes and stores emotional information, emotional memory. Emotional memories can be tied to items, similar situations, or one of your 5 senses, such as a smell or a sound. Seeing an item may prompt you to have a feeling or emotion tied to it, based on a prior circumstance and moment that occurred in your life, whether positive or negative. The item can evoke negative feelings and maybe unrest or worry and the person won’t possibly even cognitively remember what occurred but will know that that item makes them feel uneasy, weird, nervous, upset. For…
- Amygdala, Encouragement, Fight or Flight Response, Focusing on Truth, Mental Health, PTSD, Pursuing health and wholeness, Trauma
Trauma, PTSD, & the Amygdala
Trauma. It’s that thing that turns the dial up high on your amygdala, your emotional response/ emotional memory center, including the fight or flight response. A traumatic experience can cause intense negative emotion to include fear, anxiety, and helplessness, and other emotions too. PTSD (Post Traumatic Stress Disorder) can ensue from trauma and cause your body to go into a fight or flight response when switched on (or triggered) by something that reminds you of that traumatic event. Triggers can be those unsuspecting moments that switch the amygdala to “on”, those deja vu moments or circumstances or words that immediately make you feel like you are back in that dangerous…
- Encouragement, Fighting for Joy, Focusing on Truth, Mental Health, Prayer, Resting In Peace, spiritual warfare
RELINQUISH CONTROL
It doesn’t feel good to not be in control. In control of our life. Our choices. Our struggles. Our emotions. Our relationships. Our work. To not be on top of everything. Doing well in the many facets of life. It doesn’t feel good— It doesn’t feel comfortable. And yet, being in control is just an illusion. It is not reality. We are not actually in control or even have the actual ability to have control over all the things we interact with in our life on a daily, weekly, monthly, yearly basis. So much is outside our control and we will expend so much energy trying to force things to…
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Running after Truth- Through God & Therapy; Becoming a Healthier Self
Truth. God’s truth. Seeking after the truth of something is an integral part of who I am. Writing down the truth, listening to the truth through songs and sound preaching, not taking someone else’s word for it just because I look up to them or they are important in my life. Verifying that what they are saying is truth by studying God’s word for myself. Seeking truth. Reading truth from the Bible and reading books from trusted Biblical scholars. Seeking truth. Friend, are you also seeking God’s truth out for yourself and studying God’s word on your own? Are you having truth-filled inputs throughout your day with songs based in…