How to Reduce Your Stress, Deal with Anxiety and Keep Yourself From Losing Your Sh*t!

By |2017-05-21T16:05:42-07:00March 13th, 2017|General|

This is a big reason why we get overwhelmed, stressed out, anxious and I talk about how we can start dealing with stress, and how to relieve stress and deal with anxiety by setting boundaries. Did you know many of the biggest signs and causes of stress, and many symptoms of anxiety come from a lack of healthy boundaries in our lives and in our relationships? And we definitely experience some of the biggest effects of that stress and anxiety when we're not protecting our buffer zone. We go a whole lot deeper [...]

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The Danger Of Taking On Other People’s Problems.

By |2017-05-21T16:05:42-07:00February 13th, 2017|General|

Have you ever found yourself ready to pull out your hair because “that person just won’t listen to my advice,” or because “don’t they see how much they are hurting themselves by doing that,” or because “I can’t fathom how someone could be so irresponsible – it’s just too much!” But getting all akimbo and kerfuffled like this is almost totally unnecessary. And we do it because we feel responsible for other peoples' problems. We feel like we have to solve their problem or their life for them. We feel like we can’t possibly let [...]

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A Simple Exercise For Managing Anxiety

By |2017-05-21T16:05:42-07:00January 24th, 2017|General|

In this video I talk about what anxiety is, and what one of the most important things we can build within ourselves is to help us overcome excess or unhelpful anxiety. I then teach you a simple mindset strategy you can use anytime you're having thoughts that are making you feel anxious or overwhelmed. Also, make sure you grab my stress management tip sheet below.

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Why So Much of the Self-Help Advice Doesn’t Work.

By |2017-05-21T16:05:43-07:00May 26th, 2016|General|

  There is A LOT of mental health and self development advice out there and it seems like everyone is a personal growth expert these days. But the thing is, a lot of what people are telling us to do to feel happy, fulfilled and content in life is kind of useless. But not because of WHAT they are saying, but because of HOW they are saying it. And if you don’t know well enough how the human psyche typically works, you would have no idea that your advice, although true, probably won't make any kind of real difference. Here’s [...]

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How to Deal with Social Anxiety.

By |2017-05-21T16:05:43-07:00April 28th, 2016|General|

Have you ever gone to a party, event, or social gathering where you didn’t really know many people and as soon as you walked through the doors felt extremely uncomfortable? I mean so uncomfortable that the only thing you could think about in that moment was what kind of excuse you'd be able to come up that would justify your intense desire to turn right around and high tail it out of there? And did that feeling stay with you to the extent that next time you were offered an invitation to an event, you were [...]

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Don’t Bother With Your Daily Gratitude Practice – It’s A Waste of Your Time.

By |2017-05-21T16:05:43-07:00April 4th, 2016|General|

You’ve heard it, I’ve heard it, we’ve all heard it: One of the biggest and most significant contributors to genuine happiness and fulfillment in life comes from being intentionally grateful. Have an attitude of gratitude (if you will). And once word got out around the power of gratitude, the whole thing became all the rage. Everyone started following the trend of taking on a daily gratitude practice that typically goes a little something like this: “Start or end your day with 3 things you are grateful for and it will change your life.” Well, yes and no. But mostly [...]

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Why You Get Super Stressed Out & Sometimes Lose Your Sh*t.

By |2017-05-21T16:05:43-07:00March 29th, 2016|General|

  Have you ever witnessed that classless human being at Starbucks who yells or snarks at the barista for putting whole milk in their 1% latté? Or the crazed maniac who gets cut off in traffic and then lays on their horn, rolls down their window and screams totally appalling words at the hurried perpetrator? Or the sub-par parent who yells and their child in the grocery store line up for whining about not getting to eat every single chocolate bar on the stand in front of them? Okay, truth time. Have you ever been [...]

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Stop Trying To Be So Nice. It’s Making You Miserable.

By |2017-05-21T16:05:44-07:00February 4th, 2016|General|

By nice, I mean trying so hard to always be pleasant, pleasing, lovely, happy, positive, only doing what other people want you to do, never speaking up for fear of ruffling any feathers, keeping yourself hidden and small behind what you think other people want or expect you of you… nice. Don’t get me wrong, I am a big advocate for treating others with kindness, care, and respect. Be considerate and thoughtful, yes. Only doing or saying or acting in ways we think other people want us to because we want, no we NEED them [...]

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3 Surprising Things that Will Make You Happier.

By |2017-05-21T16:05:44-07:00January 14th, 2016|General|

  You’ve heard them all before. The things you need to do to become happier. Things like be grateful, count your blessings, do things you enjoy, surround yourself with positive people, find the silver lining in every challenging situation. And so on and so forth. Not knocking those. No, not at all. They are all GREAT things to do and they will make a significant impact on your level of overall happiness. And who doesn’t want to be happier? Aren’t we all, at some point or another, searching for the magic formula that will rid us [...]

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How to Keep Yourself From Ever Being Disappointed.

By |2017-05-21T16:05:44-07:00January 10th, 2016|General|

Ever been disappointed? THAT was a dumb question. So, as you know, it feels awful. And I’m going to go as far as to say that deep disappointment is probably one of the worst feelings ever. But not to worry, right here, right now, I’m going to tell you what you need to do to never feel disappointed again.  You must never try anything new, do anything daring, take any risks, pursue any of your dreams, go for any of your big goals, or start any new relationships. On second thought, just to be sure, [...]

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Positive Affirmations Don’t Work.

By |2017-05-21T16:05:47-07:00September 6th, 2015|General|

  And I’ll tell you why. In a minute. First. Have you ever stood in front of the mirror and told yourself something about being amazing, wonderful, powerful, and strong? And after the quick dopamine rush that any good pep talk can offer, did you feel like a changed person? I mean really, deeply changed? Did that warm and tingly feeling of confidence and self-love last more than a hot second or two? Most likely not. But you don’t have to feel bad, you didn’t do anything wrong. It’s just that you told yourself a [...]

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5 Things You are doing Unintentionally that are Making You More Anxious

By |2017-05-21T16:05:47-07:00August 30th, 2015|General|

Anxiety is a normal emotion. We all feel it at times, and that’s not a bad thing. Anxiety CAN serve us well if and when it comes about to warn us of impending danger, but actual danger, not the relatively inconsequential things we usually get ourselves all worked up about. Anxiety is a big issue in our culture, bigger than ever. But I’m not going to go in to philosophizing as to why it’s become such a problem. We’ll save that for another day. Regardless of the reason for our anxious feelings, one thing is clear, it’s [...]

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5 Important Secrets Confident People Know Well.

By |2017-05-21T16:05:47-07:00August 3rd, 2015|General|

Do you think people are more confident because they are super successful? Or are people more successful because they tend to be quite confident? Most of us believe the former, when in fact, the latter is actually true. And although some were born exuding confidence right from the start, most of us have had to work on becoming more confident. So not to worry, you don’t have to have always had confidence in order to become a confident person. There are some pretty straight forward things you can start doing right away to bring out the Yay and [...]

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Why Having High Standards May Be Holding You Back.

By |2017-05-21T16:05:48-07:00July 5th, 2015|General|

It donned on me part way through the day that because this past Wednesday was Canada day, the work week seemed to just slop by before I realized I had yet to write my weekly Good for Me article. Now of course no one is forcing me to write one post each and every week – and I’m sure those of you who are waiting with baited breath for the moment I push the publish button are few and far between, but I made an unspoken commitment to myself to post one original article per [...]

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One Simple Habit to Help You Overcome Anger & Frustration.

By |2017-05-21T16:05:48-07:00June 21st, 2015|General|

Do you ever have times when everything can be going great and then one little bad thing will happen it’s ALL you can think about? It’s as if all that was going well up until that point gets completely wiped out because of this one tiny flaw. But what about the flip side? Does the same ring true? When everything is going terrible and one little good thing happens, do we allow this one small positive occurrence to take over and sweeten the unpleasant situation? Do we let it come in and trump all of [...]

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The Easy Way to Become Successful.

By |2017-05-21T16:05:48-07:00June 7th, 2015|General|

There’s an old teaching tale that goes something like this: Two villagers were talking one day about how each of them wanted to become wealthy. Both agreed that in order to consider themselves wealthy they would need to somehow acquire a relatively large pile of coins. One of the villagers decided he would not change anything about his life, but rather spend his days sitting at home by the fire hoping a pile of coins would suddenly appear on his doorstep, and occasionally complain about why he wasn't getting what he wanted. The other villager decided [...]

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The One Key Question Every Resilient Person Asks Themselves.

By |2017-05-21T16:05:48-07:00May 28th, 2015|General|

I recently read an article by one of my favourite writers – Jeff Haden and it really got me thinking (I love it when good writing does that!) Now, I wholeheartedly recommend reading this article for yourself, because, in true Jeff Haden fashion it’s interesting, inspiring, informative, and a really enjoyable read. But if you’re a little more pressed for time, I’ll give you the quick rundown. The article talks about the one question every (professionally) successful person asks him or herself. He basically explains that we’ve all failed, been looked over for promotions, haven’t [...]

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6 Essential Habits Of Emotionally Healthy People.

By |2017-05-21T16:05:51-07:00May 22nd, 2015|General|

We all want to feel good and be emotionally healthy – no surprise there! And often times feeling satisfied with who we are is simply the result of how we choose to act and react in any of the situations we face on a daily basis. In the years I’ve been in practice as a mental health therapist I’ve worked with many men and woman in their healing, growth, and personal development process, and what I’ve found is there are a few key things many of them learn to do through our work together that really [...]

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5 Things That Will Make You More Likeable (to Others AND Yourself).

By |2017-05-21T16:05:52-07:00March 4th, 2015|General|

I’d say it’s safe to say most of us like being liked. And there are times when maybe we’re not so sure how liked we are and would perhaps like to be a little more liked. I mean really, who doesn’t want to be on the top of the invited-out-for-lunch group at the office? Or the person getting ample calls, texts and emails with requests for weekend plans? Of course, some people are just more likeable by nature – usually those who have a more easygoing or optimistic personality. That said here are some pretty [...]

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3 Lies Perfectionism Wants You To Believe.

By |2017-05-21T16:05:52-07:00February 6th, 2015|General|

We are somehow becoming a society of people who believe, promote, and encourage the idea that if we want to be seen as successful, worthwhile, and valuable human beings we need to be perfect in every way. For one reason or another there's the idea out there (and in here) that in order to feel really good about who we are we need to be outstanding, awe-inspiring, limitless, totally beyond reproach, and flawless. To say the least. Now that is a LOT of pressure. Trying our darndest to prove to ourselves and others we are [...]

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Why It’s So Important To Care More About Each Other.

By |2017-05-21T16:05:52-07:00January 27th, 2015|General|

Further to our last discussion in and around freedom of Expression found here and here, I received some really thoughtful feedback on my blog, here on LinkedIn and also in my personal email inbox. One such reflections that came to my inbox, so was thus not shared publicly, was from my dear Auntie Ruth Blaser. Ruth is such a deep, thoughtful, and passionate person who dedicates her life to the acceptance. love, advocacy, and inclusion of others in many different realms, and is an inspiration and role model to many. Here is what she had to [...]

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Influential People: How Do They Do It?

By |2017-05-21T16:05:52-07:00December 12th, 2014|General|

In his runaway bestselling book TheTipping Point, Malcolm Gladwell writes about a certain type of person he calls “senders.” These people, he writes, “Are those who are very good at expressing their emotions and feelings [in a positive and uplifting way], which means they are far more emotionally contagious than the rest of us.” These are the types of people who, after spending some time in their presence, we can’t help but absorb, take on, and be influenced by the energy they are sending out. Have you ever been feeling kind of blah and then [...]

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Good Fortune.

By |2017-05-21T16:05:56-07:00January 28th, 2013|General|

Over this past week I have found myself trotting from one thing to the next to the next – perhaps a little too much trotting if you ask me, but needless to say it has been quite the busy week. So much so, that the time to contemplate what I wanted to blog about this week has not so much as entered into my realm of consciousness… until now. Just as I was about to do a little bit of research to find something interesting to write about I pulled out my little after-lunch-sweet-morsel, which [...]

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What’s Floating the Boat?

By |2017-05-21T16:05:56-07:00November 27th, 2012|General|

A short time ago I was working with a client who was having a hard time feeling good about himself. In one of our more recent sessions, he was feeling particularly depressed because he had been telling himself over and over again how lazy he was, and the more he heard this message the less able he was to get up and get things done, thus confirming precisely what was being said. In our session we decided to devote some time to looking closely at just how lazy he actually was, because in fact, he [...]

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The Meaning Behind the Message.

By |2017-05-21T16:05:56-07:00November 20th, 2012|General|

Here's the Bad Good News: For better or worse and no matter who's listening, what we say about ourselves is how we think about ourselves - or at least it will inevitably become so.   ... stay tuned for next week's post where I'll to share a recent and potent example of this from my clinical practice.

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In A Jiff

By |2017-05-21T16:05:57-07:00October 22nd, 2012|General|

So I’ve recently had it put right there in my face, and it took me more time than it should have to see it happen. There it was: one of the quickest and easiest ways to instantly boost our mood. I was in session with a client recently who was obviously feeling quite low. Right away I asked her what was going on and she said she wasn’t sure, and so we spent the next little while talking about why she may have been feeling how she was feeling. We weren’t having much luck and [...]

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With A Little Grace

By |2017-05-21T16:05:58-07:00July 23rd, 2012|General|

Self deprecation and humility – there is a difference. I don’t know if it’s a Canadian thing or what, but I think many of us fear appearing egotistical, prideful, or cocky to such an extent that we overcompensate too much toward the other end and become almost self-deprecating. It’s often relatively subtle – an “oh it’s not that good” here, an “I kind of messed it up” there, a “You should see how good so and so does it”… but any and all put downs we give ourselves do still chip away at the soul [...]

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Perspective. Part Deux.

By |2017-05-21T16:05:58-07:00July 9th, 2012|General|

Last week we started to talk about perspective and looking at ways to increase our happiness through positive and empowering choices. The focus was on what we can choose to do. But only if we want. This week I promised to go through the next 5. SO without further ado… THE NEXT 5 THINGS WE CAN CHOOSE TO DO TO INCREASE OUR HAPPINESS 6. TAKE OPPORTUNITIES TO EXPRESS GRATITUDE (Original: Give Up on Complaining): We all have things we can be grateful for, like certain people and situations in our lives, or other things that are good or decent or [...]

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Perspective is Everything. Really.

By |2017-05-21T16:06:00-07:00July 3rd, 2012|General|

A little while ago a good friend forwarded me an article she received by email from another friend that was intended to be helpful and encouraging, but instead made her feel miserable and overwhelmed. The title of the article was ‘15 Things You Should Give Up To Be Happy,’ I hate to be critical, but I had to side with my friend here… even before I opened up the article and read what was written, I had begun to form my bias based on the title. First off, the Should. I don’t like Shoulds, and [...]

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