Allowing yourself to experience positive emotions — even temporarily — can give your mind and body a much-needed break from feeling sadness, fear or anxiety. Research done by Barbara Fredrickson has shown that positive emotions can help us think more flexibly and become more resilient.
There are many benefits to practicing mindfulness and living a more mindful life, but in case you aren’t totally convinced why it could be good for you, here are some encouraging reasons to spend more time practicing the skill of mindfulness.
When I was in grad school, an instructor told our class it would be a good idea for us to get our own therapy so that we could better understand how the process worked.
A classmate raised her hand.
“But how does it work?” she asked.
My instructor shrugged her shoulders and said simply, “It’s magic.”
Good therapy is “we” — a collaboration between client and therapist. The therapist is responsible for creating an environment for change to happen. This is an intentional practice that requires a foundation of formal education and years of supervised experience in order to be effective. The client is responsible for showing up and being willing to change and grow.
I’m never afraid to tell my clients that I have been in therapy. Being in therapy with the right person at the right time changed my life.
Assuming your therapist possesses at least a basic level of training and competency in their chosen field, it turns out that “being someone you can talk to” is essentially one of the most important factors of all in finding the right therapist.
People come to therapy for lots of reasons, but many wait until a crisis is looming. If you really want therapy to be effective, I highly recommend coming in sooner rather than later. Rather than thinking of therapy as a way to deal with crises, think of it as a tool that can help you avoid crisis situations. When you can’t avoid them, therapy can help you prepare and cope more effectively when one does arise.
Years ago we took a family trip to Yellowstone. A couple months before the trip I stopped by the public library and checked out a park guide written by an experienced Yellowstone traveler. This book led me to the best hiking paths for families with young kids, the least crowded time of day to visit Old Faithful, and unearthed a whole list of “can’t miss sights.”
Tanya Thompson is a Licensed Clinical Social Worker who joined Generations in November 2021 and is a welcomed member of our team. She works out of our northwest Indianapolis office, located at 9001 N Wesleyan Road in the Parkstone office complex. Let’s get to know Tanya! Tanya is native to Indiana, though she spent several […]