Using the COVID Crisis in a Transformative Way

Julie MesserUncategorized

COVID-19’s Impact on Mental Health Hasn’t Been All Bad

Surprisingly not everyone was negatively affected by the global pandemic. In my practice I’ve seen unbelievable growth and change in some clients over the past year. Many used this as a time to to turn inward and gain insight into their own strength and resiliency in the face of difficulty. Despite the many drawbacks, researchers in The Journal of Positive Psychology did find abundant “post-traumatic growth” amidst all the suffering. How did the Pandemic affect your mental health? Did you find areas of growth?

How To Raise Successful Kids – Without Over-Parenting

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By loading kids with high expectations and micromanaging their lives at every turn, parents aren’t actually helping. At least, that’s how Julie Lythcott-Haims sees it. With passion and wry humor, the former Dean of Freshmen at Stanford makes the case for parents to stop defining their children’s success via grades and test scores. Instead, she says, they should focus on providing the oldest idea of all: unconditional love.

Daring Greatly…A Must Read

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Daring Greatly: How the Courage to Be Vulnerable Transforms the Way We Live, Love, Parent, and Lead by Brene Brown

Any dive into self exploration contains a dialogue about vulnerability and shame. Brene Brown’s book Daring Greatly is a great place to start this conversation with yourself.

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How To Make Stress Your Friend?

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“Stress. It makes your heart pound, your breathing quicken and your forehead sweat. But while stress has been made into a public health enemy, new research suggests that stress may only be bad for you if you believe that to be the case. Psychologist Kelly McGonigal urges us to see stress as a positive, and introduces us to an unsung mechanism for stress reduction: reaching out to others.”

The Disease of Being Busy

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“The Disease of Being Busy” is a great article by Omid  Safi a columnist for On Being. 

“Whatever happened to a world in which kids get muddy, get dirty, get messy, and heavens, get bored? Do we have to love our children so much that we overschedule them, making them stressed and busy — just like us?”

 

Guided Meditations by UCLA

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A collection of eight mindful meditations that you can practice on your own.

“Mindful Awareness is the moment-by-moment process of actively and openly observing one’s physical, mental and emotional experiences. Mindful Awareness has scientific support as a means to reduce stress, improve attention, boost the immune system, reduce emotional reactivity, and promote a general sense of health and well-being.”

http://marc.ucla.edu/body.cfm?id=22

*All meditations by MARC’s Director for Mindfulness Education, Diana Winston.

Dr. Brené Brown on Empathy

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What is the best way to ease someone’s pain and suffering? In this beautifully animated RSA Short, Dr Brené Brown reminds us that we can only create a genuine empathic connection if we are brave enough to really get in touch with our own fragilities.

Voice: Dr Brené Brown
Animation: Katy Davis (AKA Gobblynne) www.gobblynne.com
Production and Editing: Al Francis-Sears and Abi Stephenson