Avoiding Exercise Addiction: The Key is Awareness and Balance
Okay, the holidays are over and it is the beginning of a New Year and you want to work on the new you. You have created an idea of how you want to move forward with your exercise plan and have bought a membership to your local gym or fitness studio. What could possibly go wrong? Well, a lot could go wrong if you are not aware of the imbalances in your life.
Many people start off by having the goal of attaining a certain fitness milestone and make the commitment to themselves that they will work hard at keeping that resolution. The imbalance occurs when the commitment to exercise crosses the... Read More
Adolescents receive various messages from their mothers. But a new study, led by Laura Wray-Lake of the School of Behavioral and Organization Sciences at Claremont Graduate University, suggests that messages of caution and compassion have a particularly significant influence on the socialization and behaviors of teens. Compassion messages are inferences that people should all be treated with respect and value, whereas caution messages teach children to be wary of the world and people around them. Wray-Lake and her colleagues looked at several factors that influenced the value messages of the mothers,... 
It is well established that racial discrimination can have negative emotional consequences, including 
“When two people are under the influence of the most violent, most insane, most delusive, and most transient of passions, they are required to swear that they will remain in that excited, abnormal, and exhausting condition continuously until death do them part.”
― George Bernard Shaw
Ask any bride and groom on their wedding day, “Will your marriage last a lifetime?” They will look at you like you have three heads and reply, “Of course.” And that is truly what every bride and groom believes. As we know all too well, one out of two of them will be wrong.
There are three truths... 
The
In my efforts as a counselor, helping couples and individuals raise children with autism, I've combined what I learned in school with what I've learned in my own journey. My last blog talked about that gravitational pull autism has on a family. I'd like to address a few ways we can limit that pull from affecting every aspect of our lives negatively. These are not quick fixes, and you won't find a step-by-step guide here. It's a process that requires daily practice, much like yoga. There is no end point, and you will not have “arrived”; it's ongoing. I like to call it living mindfully and with... 
Psychotherapy is the first form of treatment for depression or anxiety and involves a variety of treatment techniques. During psychotherapy, the person experiencing depression or anxiety speaks with a licensed psychologist or therapist who helps him or her to identify and work on the causative factors. These factors trigger depression or anxiety by working in combination with chemical imbalances in the brain or heredity factors.
Psychotherapy helps people with depression or anxiety in the following ways:
Understanding the behaviors, ideas, and emotions that contribute to depression or anxiety
Identifying... 
Value affirmations, also known as self-affirmations, are positive assessments of one’s abilities, traits, and personality qualities. Value affirmations can increase 
What would you do? An important romantic figure from your past finds you on an internet social media site. Perhaps this was your first love. This renewed connection brings to mind the passion and enthusiasm of youth—before children, financial problems, and middle age. In your mind, you travel back to a time before career worries, mortgage problems, and thinning hair to a time of anticipation, optimism, and more energy. What would you do? Is it a wrong choice to maintain contact on-line? Is it wrong to have a texting relationship? Where do you draw the line? What is the line that would determine... 
Caring for an aging parent can cause increased stress and decreased mental health. In recent years, the number of people who provide 
According to a new study led by Bert N. Uchino of the Department of Psychology and Health Psychology Program at the University of Utah, ambivalent interpersonal relationships cause telomeres, chromosomal structures that maintain a person’s biological balance, to shorten. Short telomeres have been linked with increased risk for heart disease, infection, and decreased cellular life. Research has supported the theory that negative relationships are directly related to increased 
Anthony kind of slumped into the office and comfortably settled himself into the easy chair. “Doc,” he said, “I’m here to find out if my marriage is over. To me, it seems like it really is.” He went on to explain that his wife, Julie, and he had been living two separate lives for as long as he could remember. She was very involved with the children’s activities; she worked full time and had a rather hectic schedule as a corporate attorney. They rarely ate together and their conversations, though cordial, were impersonal.
“She had a function at work and invited me to come,” he... 
Although 
Nearly one in 12 women who suffer with 
