- Beauty, Bible, Choose Joy, Coping strategies, Encouragement, faith and psychology, Fighting for Joy, Focusing on Truth, intentionality, Life Battles, Life Storms, Mental Health, Mental Health Advocate, Not Alone, Pursuing health and wholeness, Truth
The act of noticing beauty is a powerful antidote to mental health struggles
The act of noticing beauty is a powerful antidote to mental health struggles.It doesn’t remove the struggles from our life, but it uplifts and brings goodness into the difficult. ❤️ I stopped in my everyday moment to see beauty right there.Flowers still blooming though fall has come.One of my favorite flowers… The purple coneflower What beauty have you found today in your everyday life?Share in the comments ⬇️ This act of noticing beauty in your everyday life is a powerful antidote to mental health struggles. If you haven’t noticed something yet, stop, find something, and comment here. It can be a hot cup of coffee, a smiling face, or anything…
- Choose Joy In the Midst, Coping strategies, EMDR, Fight or Flight Response, Mental Health, Not Alone, PTSD, Pursuing health and wholeness, Stress response, therapy, Trauma
How Can You Decrease Your PTSD or Trauma Response? It is, in fact, Possible.
You Don’t Have to Be Stuck in Your PTSD or Trauma Response. There are ways to decrease and dial down the response in the moment friend. There is hope. The intensity of your responses to trauma can be dialed down. How? The first step is self-awareness. Being aware of what is occurring and what specific things trigger you. (A trigger is something associated with the trauma memory. A trigger is not something you choose, but something your amygdala has connected to the trauma. An object, a similar situation, a sound, a smell, etc.) I know it’s likely not something you want to think about or focus on because avoidance of…
- Breathing technique, calming techniques, Coping strategies, Fight or Flight Response, Mental Health, PTSD, Pursuing health and wholeness, Stress response, Trauma
Use Breathing To Regulate Your Nervous System & Decrease Your Stress
Using our breath to help decrease our stress in the moment is incredibly helpful and important. Follow the prompts in this picture. Breathe in for a count of 3. Hold for 3. Breathe out for a count of 3. The breathing out slowly helps brings online the parasympathetic system (to rest & calm & settle the body & nervous system). This technique has a name called: Boxed breathing- a technique of breathing in for 3 seconds, holding for 3 seconds, and exhaling slowly for 3 seconds helps regulate anxiousness or triggered moments, stressful moments. You can do it multiple times as long as you don’t get lightheaded. I also strongly…
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Integrated Faith & EMDR Therapy for Holistic Healing
“There is no shame in mental health therapy, in fact, there is freedom.” Do you believe it? You are brave.You can do hard things. I’ve walked through intensive EMDR therapy to focus on my traumas and emotional pain.I also walked through spiritual healing through a focused Bible study curriculum at the same time in my Christian faith community. The therapist I worked with incorporated my strong Christian faith into our EMDR sessions which was an incredible source of strength for me. It used the strongest weapon I had towards my trauma and emotional pain healing. Through both my study in my faith community and my EMDR therapy, I began to…
- Amygdala, break the stigma, EMDR, emotional intelligence, Emotions, Fight or Flight Response, Free Resource, PTSD, Pursuing health and wholeness, Stress response, therapy, Trauma
The Amgdala
Do you know what the amygdala is?If you’ve heard of it, it’s probably in reference to the fight or flight response related to stress responses or PTSD.That is true. The amygdala’s importance goes far beyond that though.The amygdala is the emotional processing center. It works alongside other parts of your limbic system to process your emotional memories, good and bad, and store them.You can’t access these emotional memories easily with cognitive thinking. This is incredibly important to understand for trauma healing as trauma memories are processed here.This is also why I’m a big proponent of EMDR therapy for emotional and trauma healing.I will share more on that later though.Follow me…
- break the stigma, faith and psychology, Fighting for Joy, Free Resource, Life Battles, Life Storms, Mental Health, Pursuing health and wholeness, Stress response, therapy, Trauma
Break the Stigma. Normalize Therapy. Download my Resource.
Break the stigma. Normalize therapy. Grab my free resource ➡️ Here’s the link! There is no shame in mental health therapy, in fact there is freedom. So, let me ask— What valley are you walking through? Has your joy been stolen like the song “For My Good” by Maverick City Music says? Are you dealing with relational struggles? The impact of past trauma? Depression? Changes in life you hadn’t planned on? Grief? Loss? Anxiety? PTSD (A response following trauma) ? Manic and depressive changes? Stress? Disappointments? Alcoholism? Addiction? The list goes on… These and so many more topics are reasons to find a therapist— to help you process through the…
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You Are Not ALONE In Your Battle.
- Bible teaching, Christmas, Darkness, Encouragement, Faith, faith and psychology, Fighting for Joy, God’s Love, God’s mighty power, Life Battles, Mental Health, Peace, Prayer, Resting In Peace, spiritual warfare, therapy
Peace Over Darkness & Mental Health Battles This Christmas
“Peace I leave with you; my peace I give you. I do not give to you as the world gives. Do not let your hearts be troubled and do not be afraid.” [John 14:27] “Peace, bringing it all to peace. The storm surrounding me. Let it break at your name…. …Jesus. Jesus. You make the darkness tremble. Jesus. Jesus. You silence fear…” I have sung the words to that song, Tremble, many a time when going through the darkest battles for the life of my husband. Walking through the mental health battle for his life. Praying and asking the Lord for strength, for discernment, for wisdom. For peace. For breakthrough…
- 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…
- 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…
