Life is full of changes — many of them hard to deal with. How can we understand and cope with the stress of life’s transitions?
A life transition is any change or adjustment that impacts your life in a significant way. We all experience transitions throughout our lives — big and small, planned and unplanned.
[Read more…]Many people use these two terms interchangeably, but there are important differences in what it means to be assertive vs. aggressive. See below for examples of assertive communication and some helpful tips.
Assertiveness is a helpful way of communicating that is clear, direct, and constructive. It’s built on the understanding that your own needs and another’s needs are both important to consider, and that both deserve to be respected.
[Read more…]Not every relationship is worth preserving. For those relationships you want to maintain or improve, The ‘GIVE’ skills from dialectical behavior therapy (DBT) help you do just that.
G — (Be) Gentle. One part of being gentle is to avoid being attacking or threatening in your communication. These types of actions are likely to put others on the defensive and to have a destructive effect on the relationship. This skill is important to use especially when the other person doesn’t do something you’d like them to do. It can be tempting to use anger or threats to change their mind, but this will not help you accomplish your goal of maintaining the relationship. Instead, be willing to take “no” for an answer.
[Read more…]How can you tell if your sleep troubles are insomnia? It can be complicated, but Justin Arocho, Ph.D., explains how you can tell if you have insomnia or not.
Insomnia is the term used for not being able to sleep enough, or well enough, despite having the chance to get a full night’s sleep. According to the American Academy of Sleep Medicine, about one third of adults experience insomnia at least occasionally. So, it’s a relatively common experience many of us go through. Insomnia can happen to anyone, at any age – from children through older adults.
[Read more…]Lots of people have difficulty with change — but it always comes. Change is inevitable. So how can we improve our emotional and mental health to be better at coping with it?
Life is full of changes. So why do they throw us for a loop so often?
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