Every time my toddler learns something new, like amazingly-awesome new, she can’t sleep very well. She rolls around for an hour in her crib before falling asleep or gets up in the night and just looks around, sometimes for hours. It happened when she learned to crawl,...
Looking Way (Way) Back: An Evolutionary Perspective for Modern Mental Health
Note from Hannah: This the first in a series of guest posts with the goal of providing new perspectives to mental health, wellness, and being a human. This piece was bravely shared by our guest writer, David. My brain is broken, I thought to myself, as I sat in a...
The Truth About Procrastination
I have always heard from self-proclaimed procrastinators that they “need the pressure in order to perform.” I used to accept this as a legitimate reason to procrastinate, feeling that if it works for people then it’s fine. But somewhere down the line, this way of...
Pre-start to Prevent Procrastination
It's back to school week here in lovely Portland, Maine. Whether you are a student or not, it seems like an appropriate time to revamp work habits. Last week I detailed my dislike of procrastination and this week I think it is high time we do something about it. It's...
Why I Hate Procrastination
Procrastination is not about being lazy. It is not about being complacent. In fact, most procrastinators care very much about how things turn out. Procrastination is a way to avoid the fear of failure until the last possible moment. Then we say, "Oh, of course I did...
Recent Guest Post by Hannah: How To Be a Drama-Free Bridesmaid
I was recently asked to guest blog for GCDSpa, a terrific local business that has personalized beauty products for every occasion. I was asked to weigh in on an important topic: how to survive (or even thrive) the in the role of bridesmaid. Here is what I had to say:...
Feelings About Feelings
As a therapist, I find that the cause of many mental health issues is not the emotion one naturally feels about an event or situation, it is the reaction to this initial or primary emotion. Often for people experiencing panic, it is the fear or embarrassment of having...
Mistakes and How We Respond to Them
In elementary school, our art teacher would coax us into making some unintended dribble or scribble into a "happy mistake." I was not receptive. I would rather have started over so that I might have some pristine piece of art when I was done. A quarter of a century...
Quick Tip Tuesday-Make Sleep a Priority
I spend a lot of my day talking with people about the foundations of good mental and physical health: quality food, exercise, and sleep. Yes, we all know about these things, but we dismiss them as too obvious or too difficult. So I'm the broken record reminding...