Essays

  • Markers for good mental health days

    When I was writing the post on knowing your triggers, it occurred to me that though I had a checklist for how to overcome bad days or how to know something is triggering me or that I need to make some shift in my daily routine to sleep better, etc. I didn’t have a checklist

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  • Know thyself…and thy triggers

    Triggers are words, situations, scenes, topics, circumstances, basically anything outside that create a response inside you. The response can be smallish and thus manageable or largish and thus may require some form of tools or professional help to deal with. An example of a tool would be Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT) to help with certain

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  • I think we should stop calling them negative emotions

    We always think of jealousy, anger, fear, guilt as negative emotions. In fact there are tables and posts dedicated to what are negative emotions and how you can control them. And yet these emotions are essential to our well-being. An e-course that I’m taking right now called ‘the science of happiness’ also called them negative

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  • So you’re having a bad day

    My title is a bad joke because lately I have been having more bad days than good days. The news cycle is relentless and every time I feel I can take a breath today; some tweet or story will destroy whatever peace (or piece) I have gathered.

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  • Guilt and me

    Guilt and me

    These past few weeks – months? – guilt, rage and helplessness have become my friends. I didn’t like what it was doing to my mental health – sleeplessness, lethargy, more rage, inability to focus – so I thought of going through my notes to find some sort of message or solace. It’s something I like

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  • Role of a therapist

    Role of a therapist

    When I was new to the process of learning about my mind, I had no idea what to expect from a therapist. I had thought I would go there, talk to her, she would do something and voila all will be well. It took me a while to understand that I needed to take an

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  • 5 things you need to begin your mental health journey

    One of the best conversations I had around mental health was with a friend who said to me, mental health, and working towards being okay in life is a choice as much as it is about support from our family and friends. Unless you make that critical choice to help yourself, no one can help

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