Noticing Your Warning Signs Do you ever find yourself pushing through the week, waiting until the weekend, hoping to relax and recover only to find yourself back in bed Sunday evening dreading the week ahead? What about when every decision seems difficult to make and...
Whether we realize it or not we use coping strategies everyday. Some maybe as subtle as sleeping in to avoid the traffic, or procrastinating on a project or term paper due (guilty) hoping it will just do it itself. It is when our unhealthy habits...
Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT) suggest that our thoughts, emotions, and behaviors are interconnected, and that what we think and do impacts the way we feel. It follows that monitoring and changing thoughts where needed can change one’s life. It’s reported that the average person has...
Let’s talk about anxiety and depression. I am sure you have heard these words before. What I am about to say might surprise you. Anxiety and depression are not bad things despite what we have been led to believe. Now, I want to clarify that...
With the onset of the COVID pandemic, there was a multitude of social outlets many of us like to engage in that were put on hold. Concerts, going to restaurants, and even more mundane social contexts such as working in a setting with co-workers that...
You feel your heart beating harder and faster in your chest. A lump forms in your throat. The sound of the person talking to you fades into the background as your own thoughts and concerns become all-consuming. Maybe you feel a turning in your stomach...
Over 10 years ago, I taped a prayer onto my kitchen cupboard where I would see it often. It was an extremely challenging time in my personal and family life. I felt anxious, stressed, burdened and grieved. I needed the daily (sometimes hourly) reminder that...
Greetings, Second Story community! The last time I wrote, we were at the very beginning of what has become a strange and difficult season. I know I speak for all of us here when I say it has been an honor to walk with many...
When I was 23, I had an exceptionally difficult year. If you want to know more about what happened, come talk to me… but suffice it to say I was in rough shape, mentally and emotionally. I recently came across some writing (in the form...
September is Suicide Awareness Month. Death is a horrible topic. It shouldn’t exist to begin with. Even grieving death hurts deeply. But what happens when you want it, death? When the beauty within yourself turns ugly and all you know is the ashes of broken...