The holidays often bring situations where more time is spent around family. It can be comforting, festive and wonderful and equally stressful and anxiety-inducing. Tense relationships, family drama, and/or unresolved conflicts can make spending holidays with relatives challenging. These events can be especially difficult if you find yourself struggling to align with your family’s viewpoints and opinions. If you are looking for some peace during this holiday season, grounding exercises can help you stay calm and present. When navigating hectic schedules, family dynamics, or the pressure to plan the perfect meal, there are simple practices to ground us and enable us to enjoy the season more fully. See below for a few ideas:

In today’s fast-paced world, escaping screens feels nearly impossible. Whether you are using them for work, school, or fun, screens consume much of our daily lives. While technology brings many benefits, it can also be overstimulating, draining, and cause disconnection from others. Striking a balance is crucial for mental health and overall well-being.

Neuroplasticity is the brain’s incredible way of changing and reorganizing itself through life. Traditionally, scientists believed that the brain was "fixed" after a certain age, but modern research has shown that the brain is changeable and adaptable, even as we age. Our brains will form new neural networks each day, but there are certain things you can do to stimulate growth. Here are a few exercises to improve and increase neuroplasticity:

In a society that's so consumption-focused like ours, it may feel impossible not to fill our space up with sparkly new things. However, once we make these purchases, our spaces begin to fill and we might feel overwhelmed by the clutter. The process of cleaning our personal spaces can feel very overwhelming, but a cluttered room or area can reflect a cluttered mind. Taking small steps, we can go through our things and declutter to ultimately find clarity in our space and mind. See below for some essential decluttering tips: 

Emotional numbness can be described as feeling desensitized or disconnected from your emotions, your environment or surroundings. In life, there are different events that impact our emotions. Think about birthdays, holidays, large life events, relationship milestones, and losses. When a person experiences emotional numbness, they aren’t reacting to these moments and may well be protecting themselves from feeling them. Emotional numbness can be a defense mechanism, a place we go within our nervous systems to protect us from feeling all these emotions.

Are there certain topics that trigger your anxiety? Is there an environment or atmosphere that consistently overwhelms you? When we take care of ourselves, we need to be aware of places, people and things that cause us to feel badly. This is what ‘protecting your peace’ is all about. Knowing what might bring you down is important in managing your own well-being and emotional health. If you have difficulty protecting your peace, see below for a few tips:

With inclement weather, colder temperatures and the increased desire to stay inside, it can be hard to reach out and stay connected to friends and family. As a result, we may be missing out on essential social interaction. Withdrawal and isolation, particularly during the colder months, can negatively impact both our emotional and physical health. However, with a bit of planning, creativity, and commitment, you can maintain, even strengthen your social connections. See below for four tips on how to remain social and connected during colder times:

As the days grow shorter and temperatures drop, the transition toward winter often brings changes in mood, energy levels and overall well-being. While winter can be a time of holiday cheer and days off work, it can also be a time of darkness, isolation, and sadness. That’s why it's crucial to incorporate self-care into our routines. Here are six practical self-care tips to help you take care of yourself during the winter:

You may, upon occasion, feel a sense of dread towards work, become annoyed with a coworker, or just feel overwhelmed by all your responsibilities. When that happens, and it probably happens to everyone at one time or another, it’s likely the right time to take a mental health day– time to rest and relax, in order to be a more productive and happier, healthier person. Taking care of your mental health is as important as taking care of your physical health. Addressing your mental health is not a luxury, it is a necessity.

Being a caregiver often feels like a full-time job. Whether you are a parent caring for your children, a child caregiving for a family member or an older parent, a teacher, a nurse or a nanny, caregivers are important players who are especially susceptible to burnout. After a while, there might come a point where you hit the wall and the energy, compassion and wherewithal it takes can be seriously depleted. This is where compassion fatigue comes in, and it’s more common than you think. 

You might be familiar with visualization techniques, a very helpful way of managing anxiety and panic. What's really cool about visualization approaches is that they engage the same neural networks as if you were watching the action in real time. Studies have shown that visualization exercises can help regulate emotions, increase feelings of relaxation and reduce physiological stress responses - and the best part is that it’s so easy to do. Here are three visualization techniques to try next time you find yourself in a moment of anxiety or panic:

An important way to boost your mental wellness is by establishing a consistent morning routine. For many people who struggle with mornings or long days, this might sound like a difficult feat. However, by starting your day with intention and positivity, you may set the tone for the remainder of the day. By prioritizing your mental health from the minute you get up, you invest in a happier, healthier self.

Panic attacks are overwhelming and can make anyone feel that they are trapped in a vortex of fear, physical sensations, and racing thoughts. In those intense moments, regaining control seems impossible. But grounding techniques are an effective way to refocus your attention away from anxiety and back to the present moment.

Teenage years are critical for growth, learning, and self-discovery, but they are often fraught with academic stress. Many teenagers struggle to find the balance between schoolwork, extracurricular activities, and social expectations, which causes stress and can have a negative impact on their academic performance and emotional well-being. As a parent or guardian, it can be difficult at times to know how to best support your teenager with academic stress. In this blog, we will discuss practical strategies for reducing academic stress and promoting success. From developing effective study habits to creating a supportive home environment, these suggestions will help you confidently and carefully support your teenager through the ups and downs of their academic journey.

We all experience numerous emotions each day but we can’t always pinpoint how or what we are feeling. Some emotions may be fleeting, while others may impact the rest of our day. While we may be able to acknowledge an unpleasant mood or feeling, we oftentimes have trouble identifying the source of this feeling. Fortunately, our thoughts are fueled by emotions, and vice versa. For each thought ask yourself, what is the emotion? When you can practice this, you can connect more deeply with yourself.

When speaking about eating disorders we usually hear about Anorexia Nervosa, Binge Eating Disorder and Bulimia, but what is ARFID? ARFID stands for Avoidant Restrictive Food Intake Disorder. ARFID most commonly develops in early childhood, however, an individual can experience onset at any point over the course of their life. ARFID can share a few characteristics with other eating disorders such as nutritional deficiencies and low weight, however, it has some differences as well. How is ARFID different from other eating disorders?

While life can be full of joyful moments, we will inevitably face difficult times. Job losses, health issues, break ups, illness, the list goes on. As we go through life, we can expect to encounter adversity, and this can take a toll on our mental health. That’s why it’s important to build resilience in one’s life. Resilience enables us to endure difficult life events and hopefully grow stronger. Developing resilience, by definition, is challenging but not impossible. If you are looking to establish resilience in your life, see below for a few suggestions:

In today's fast-paced world, finding constructive ways to take care of our mental health is critical. While traditional therapy has an important role, people are discovering the healing power of creativity as part of their journey toward a sense of wellbeing. Engaging in creative activities can help reduce stress, encourage mindfulness, process emotions, and improve overall health. There are endless ways to tap into your creative side — visual art, music, writing, dancing, photography and many other modalities. When you pursue a creative activity, your brain functions similarly to how it would during meditation or yoga. The state of ‘creative flow’ allows us to relax, press pause and momentarily melt into a moment of relaxation and calm.

In the age of adolescence, teenagers normally face impressionable and formidable life transitions. As a parent, you might be wondering how you can support your teenager in the face of these transitions. Whether it’s leaving for college or going to a new school, losing a friend or going through a breakup, change is an inevitable condition your teenager will face. Transitions are both predictable and unexpected, but one thing remains constant: the crucial role a parent plays in providing a solid support system. If you are wondering how you can help your teenager through big transitions, see below for a few suggestions:

So you’ve done the grueling research and chosen a therapist with whom you’d like to schedule an introductory session. You can expect your therapist to ask you some questions in an attempt to get to know you better, assess your issues and learn more about your therapeutic goals. Often, your first therapy session will be a continuation of an initial intake call, where you are still getting to know one another. Many people feel anxious about their first therapy appointment – and that is totally understandable. You might not know what to expect and it may seem odd and uncomfortable to disclose personal information to someone you have just met. Be assured that your therapist knows the initial session is for preliminary information and not about diving deep into your darkest thoughts right off the bat, so there is no need to worry. If you are wondering what types of questions your therapist may ask you during the first appointment, here are a few examples: