When you improve your mood, you improve your life. And it makes you feel much better about yourself, too! Plus, you’ll have more friends because people will be less inclined to avoid you like they do a threatening letter from the IRS.  A hopeful, optimistic mood makes everything about your life better. Here are some…

Halloween. Thanksgiving. Christmas. No wonder people gain about a pound each year on average during the holiday season. That it’s just one pound is nothing short of a Christmas miracle.  One pound. Not so bad, right? Our clothes still fit, kind of. But seven or eight years from now (and eight or nine accumulated pounds later), it…

Sometimes, life just hurts. And while the holiday season fills many people with gratitude and warm fuzzies, for others, it seems to make their pain worse, and their hearts feel a little colder.  If you’re someone who feels on top of the world and abundantly blessed, you don’t need to finish reading this post; enjoy…

To unlock your best life, you must overcome self-doubt and start believing in yourself, which requires inspired action on your part. Here are some ideas to get you started and boost your self-confidence. Identify Where Your Self-Doubt First Started Did your self-doubt begin in childhood or an unhealthy relationship? Was it triggered by something you…

Everyone wrestles with self-doubt from time to time, even “successful” people who look like they have it all together. Self-doubt isn’t the problem. Letting it control you is the issue. How much does self-doubt influence your thoughts and decisions? Does it rule your life? Consider these strategies for defeating self-doubt once and for all.  Find…

Negative thinking fuels self-doubt. You can either let negative thoughts steal your happiness or condition yourself emotionally to manage them when they charge into your mind. Use one of these nine strategies the next time negative thoughts pop into your mind. Shift. Your. Focus – You’re going to have negative thoughts. But instead of fighting…

Regardless of whatever you’re going through, the only person who must believe in you is you. So what if every other person on the planet doesn’t believe in you? Is it essential to your happiness and success? No! Would it be nice? Yes! Defeating self-doubt begins with YOU believing in YOU! And guess what, if…

Self-doubt takes a real toll on your life, especially on self-esteem. Knowing the source of self-doubt makes it possible to recover from it and strengthen your self-confidence and self-worth in the process.    Here are some common sources of self-doubt. Learned Behavior and Limiting Beliefs in Childhood Parents and caregivers that struggle with self-doubt often…

It’s easy to doubt yourself. You second guess important decisions. You wonder if you’re going in a healthy direction. You don’t know if you have what it takes to create the life you desire. On and on it goes. Occasionally doubting a decision or a choice is one thing; everyone has those moments, but living…

Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT) has been around for a long time (80 years) and is an effective method to relieve many mental health issues. What Is Cognitive Behavioral Therapy? It’s a combination of cognitive and behavioral therapy treatments that Aaron Beck developed in the 1960s.  It’s based on the belief that our thinking (cognition), actions…

There’s a lot of talk about resiliency these days, but what is it?  According to the dictionary, with regards to an object, it’s the ability to spring back into shape; elasticity. Regarding you and me, it’s the ability to recover quickly from tragedies and challenges; it’s mental and emotional toughness. But resiliency is more than…

The day will come when your parents or grandparents will need your help and support. They might not ask for it because they don’t want to be a burden.  As their caregiver, you’ll want to help them stay healthy and happy and for them to avoid feeling lonely and isolated.  What can you do to…