Tag: change

It’s abundantly clear the world does not look or feel the same as it did two years ago. I’ve noticed that people tend to refer to time as “before 2020” and “after 2020”. With my clients, I have referred to the pandemic and quarantine as a global trauma. I don’t know if anyone has coined that term yet, but I have seen some reference to it as a “global mass trauma”. I would describe a global trauma as a catastrophic event that has affected the entire population of the planet in some way, shape or form. It’s something that has transformed life as we once knew it. 

I think it’s fair to say the pandemic in 2020 has done just that. It’s easy to say “well, it’s over. Just let it go”. When the reality is, it’s not over. And the repercussions aren’t over. If we take what we know about trauma and apply it on a global level, what do we know? 

We kn ...

In 2015, I realized that I was addicted to screens. I was a 3 screens at all times person: watching TV, looking at stats on my computer, playing games on my phone.

It wasn't until a major crisis in my life that I was able to shut those screens off and reconnect with my real life.  After a time of screen detox I started to think through what boundaries and limits I could put in place in my life.

Here's how it went. 

I love sports: hockey, football, soccer, basketball... pretty much all sports I can become interested in and enjoy. This isn't a bad thing. But at one point in my life I was consuming 24-30 hours of sports content each week.  I was highly invested in my favorite teams. This is a nice way of saying, "If my team lost, I was grumpy the rest of the day..." While not a bad thing in itself, sports had become misordered in my life. 

Rather than swearing off sports altogether, I began ...

            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 become a problem with our normal daily routine is when we need a change.  Our skills, routine, or what we think is working needs to be looked at.  Is this beneficial for me, is this getting me where I want to be, am I seeing bad consequences from these decisions?  These are just some of the questions we need to ask ourselves if we aren’t where we want to be.  

            Coping skills, strategies, or techniques have a couple of common threads that can be applied to just about any disorder: anxiety, anger, alcohol abuse, or any other ...