It’s hard not to ignore the common theme of male characters in movies: The stoic silent type that doesn’t blink an eye in the face of danger, the bad boy who is always emotionally out of reach, or the gruff male character who prefers to display his feelings in actions rather than words. It seems […]

I know of few women who eagerly welcome the aging process, but getting older does have its benefits. With experience comes wisdom – and I’ve always found that the best lessons I’ve learned were learned the hard way. Like the importance of asserting myself. Or recognizing that destructive criticism, masked as advice, says a great […]

Trying to be perfect is Sisyphus-like turmoil. Face it: No matter how hard you try, you’re going to mess up sometimes. You can certainly do something very well, even near perfect, like not breaking the yolk when you flip an egg or launching your dirty socks in the laundry basket on the first try, but […]

In a previous blog, we looked at four types of toxic people who put productivity and morale at risk. Here is another set to look out for – and I’ve saved the tougher ones for last. Take a deep breath…here we go: Rule-breakers Why they’re a problem: Employees who buck the system and disrespect rules […]

Imagine that you have to deal with the following two people at work: The first person is a new on the team. She’s young, fresh out of school, inexperienced, and has to cope with a steep learning curve, but her academic record bears out the fact that she’s not afraid of hard work. She’s eager […]

In last week’s blog we discussed the protective role of emotional intelligence. Specifically, it’s ability to act as a buffer against depression. Here are the next list of factors where depressed individuals and non-depressed individuals in our study differed the most: Self-esteem Score for depressed group: 56 Score for non-depressed group: 73 Self-esteem is like […]

When I was a teenager, I used to imagine what it would be like to have a switch in the back of my head that could shut off my emotions, never having to feel sadness, anger, and anxiety until I wanted to. Despite the fact that I am extremely analytical, striving always to find a […]

In last week’s blog, I started a top ten list of traits that can act as a protective barrier against stress. Let’s continue: Optimism Score for happy, non-therapy group: 63 Score for unhappy, in-therapy group: 43 I think when most people envision an optimist, they picture an airy, tree-hugging idealist with no common sense and […]

I am not at my best when I am dealing with a stressful situation. I’m distracted, indecisive, and on edge. I can’t eat and I can’t sleep. I am barely functional. So when the time comes for the zombie apocalypse, let’s face it: I’m zombie lunch for sure. I just won’t have the psychological wherewithal […]

I happened to be at a friend’s house when she ripped into her mother for something that I perceived as a minor issue.  After screaming in a dialect that I couldn’t understand, she visibly forced herself to calm down and turned back to me. “People really shouldn’t mess with me when I’m PMSing.” I smiled…until […]

“Procrastination makes easy things hard, hard things harder.” Mason Cooley We often equate procrastination with laziness. It’s the “I’ll-do-it-tomorrow” syndrome, which often turns into next week, next month, next year, or never. It’s how I react to spring cleaning. I’ll look at the windows, knowing that they need to be washed, and then think, “It’s […]

“Your body hears everything your mind says.” Naomi Judd I am not going to deny the networking factor and sheer pleasure of social media, but wow, it’s a horrible medium sometimes. Some people feel that they have absolute license to spew some of the ugliest, hateful stuff I’ve ever read, with body shaming being one of […]