Did you know that fatigue is the most common issue women bring up with their doctors? Of course, no matter what your gender, it always seems like there’s too much to do and not enough hours in the day to do it all! Although there’s no way to magically get more time, there are things…

The list of factors that can potentially cause mom burnout is long. Very long. Up near the top is negative family communication. Mom is almost always the nerve center of family activities and emotions. That alone is enough to cause burnout. When communication has turned sour—or stopped completely—all bets are off. 7 Ways Negative Family…

You take care of your car with regular maintenance and tune-ups. You also take care of your physical health with annual checkups. But many of us don’t think about the fact that we may need a mental health tune-up as well. If you feel like you’ve been out of sorts lately, it’s a good time…

You find yourself suffering emotionally and looking for anything to help ease the emotional pain. What can you do? Perhaps you could turn to alcohol to numb the pain. Or you might use food to cope and over time start binging. You might decide to buy something new to distract yourself. Shopping, food, and alcohol aren’t a problem…

Emotional health seems to come as an afterthought to a lot of people. Magazines line the racks near the grocery store checkout line with titles such as “Bigger Biceps in 30 Days!” or “Lose the Beer Belly with This Simple Trick!” But you don’t see a lot of titles about improving your mental and emotional…

Recently, a dear friend of mine visited me in Houston from out of town, which excited me but also sent me into a cleaning frenzy.  This friend had never seen my apartment before, and I wanted it to be spotless and organized and cool and interesting and all kinds of fabulous.  For some reason, I…

Wellness can be defined as a way of life oriented toward optimal health and well-being in which body, mind, and spirit are integrated to live life more fully. It is the optimum state of health and well-being that each of us are capable of achieving.   In our counseling practice in Houston, we utilize a…

We’re Not Really Multitaskers After All While conventional wisdom teaches us that multitasking makes us more efficient, research suggests that we’re incapable of efficiently managing more than two tasks at a time. Rather, we’re just shifting our attention rapidly from one thing to the next, which can have a detrimental impact on our brain. Think about it,…

  Mindfulness Meditation Reduces Pain in Recent Research Study   A recent study at Wake Forest Baptist Medical Centers showed that people with minimal training on mindfulness meditation were able to curb the intensity of physical pain by 40% and pain unpleasantness by 57% simply through meditation for pain management   The participants only completed…

Feeling Overwhelmed?   Pick one of the stress management strategies listed below and commit to finding a way to begin working it into your regular routine, one small step at a time.   Learn to Have Healthy Relationships This subject could fill an entire book. In the limited space of this post, let’s look at…

When stress is high, it’s important to know what makes you feel calm and relaxed. Otherwise, it’s easy to turn to unhelpful coping strategies. What calms you or makes you feel more relaxed when stressors are high? Take a moment to reflect on this now so you’re not caught off guard once you’re feeling overwhelmed.…

Dealing with Midlife Change   Benefits of the Midlife Checkup Taking the time to assess how your life is going at midlife and plan for midlife change can result in benefits such as these:   -It can help you identify and intensify your inner strengths. -You can find your own voice and express it your own…

Defining Shame vs Guilt Shame is a destructive emotion and can be one of the big reasons why we’re afraid of our feelings and our vulnerability. Brené defines guilt as, “something adaptive and helpful – it’s holding something we’ve done or failed to do up against our values and feeling psychological discomfort.” She defines shame…