Tag: Joy

You are sitting on a bench at your local playground. It’s sunny (despite Michigan’s temperamental weather). Your gaze begins to wander and settles on children climbing. They are climbing everywhere. It’s amazing, actually, how many things children can climb on. You further notice how they run, walk, slide down slides, play tag, squeal with delight on swings. Toddlers trundle off in a big, new-to-them world. They seem to take up space with ease; it’s their world, we’re just living in it. They are so sure that they belong wherever they go. Do you have this scene? For me, this imagined space invites lots of emotions: joy, wonder, delight, curiosity, and sadness. Yes, sadness. Because I, as an adult, have a harder time feeling so present and excited and happy and confident of belonging. I have more awareness and more to my story as to why these emotions make sense for me.

What is play, and why does it make sense for all humans of ...

There are very few roles in the world with the expectation to be and do it all, quite like the role of a mother. There are also many contradicting messages about what exactly all of the IT we are meant to be doing is. So often, instead of challenging this ridiculous expectation, mothers succumb to the overwhelm of it all and just end up feeling like failures. The reality is, when you are expected to be and do it all, and you push yourself to achieve it, you are never really going to be doing any of it particularly well. How could you? This sets moms up for burnout in the one job you can not give up.

I recognize this phenomenon in every mom that sits across from me in therapy and I look upon their faces with so much empathy because years ago, that was me! What changed the game for my motherhood a few years ago, is that I came across the podcast, The Lazy Genius, and felt like this woman was throwing me a lifeline! She encouraged her listen ...

“Gratitude is a quality similar to electricity: It must be produced and discharged and used up in order to exist at all.”

—William Faulkner

If there was a supplement that has been shown to decrease symptoms of depression, anxiety, pain, disease, and improve mood, sleep, and immunity, would you take it? I would, I’d be looking at Costco to buy it in bulk. The good news is, this supplement does exist and doesn’t require a yearly membership or three low payments of $19.99; however it looks different than adding a packet into your morning smoothie.

Practicing gratitude daily helps override our automatic tendencies to hyper focus on problems and gain some perspective in difficult situations and seasons of life. Gratitude can also be a path we follow to find hope in difficult seasons. Practicing gratitude daily for three weeks develops positive mindset into a habit. After the initial three w ...

January and February are often busy months in our counseling office, and this year is no exception. A combination of Seasonal Affective Disorder, the post-holiday blues, and the doldrums of West Michigan winter can cause understandable feelings of depression and sadness. I myself have experienced this phenomenon regularly for most of my adult life and unconsciously looked for ways to brighten up these months and give myself a boost in mood — some of my solutions worked well, others not so much. And while Bachelor Mondays can be a psychologically rich diversion… allow me to present to you an alternative balm to the soul that can warm up even the coldest and darkest of January/February evenings: Valentine’s Day.

Now, hear me out. I am aware that Valentine’s Day is a polarizing holiday. “It’s too commercial!” you might say, as you notice the rising prices of greeting cards and heart shaped candy. “It’s elitist and demoralizing!” you may cry as ...