Depression has a way of stealing your energy and motivation. So how can you improve your energy and motivation while recovering from depression or depressive episodes? First, you have to understand that these are two separate things - and they each require different interventions. I'm going to show you how to tell the difference and some ways to improve each. Get Practical tools for navigating life with depression and anxiety, delivered weekly⁠. ⁠Sleep better, without pills (partner I...

How can an introvert enjoy alone time without feeling lonely, isolated, or disconnected? In my personal, and professional experience, there are 3 reasons you might struggle with this. I'm going to breakdown each reason for you and give you some tips on how to navigate them. Get Practical tools for navigating life with depression and anxiety, delivered weekly⁠. ⁠My book: For When Everything is Burning⁠ Mood Bloom games for depression and anxiety(I have partnered with this brand): ...

You're probably not actually self-sabotaging: and I have a few reasons for saying this. "Self-sabotage" is one of the most overused phrases in mental health. It's become a blanket phrase for people who are struggling to seeing meaningful change in their lives. I'm breaking down what self-sabotage actually is, and how you can avoid it - if you happen to be doing it. Get Practical tools for navigating life with depression and anxiety, delivered weekly⁠. ⁠ ⁠My book: For When Everything is...

Facing emotional pain and grief is incredibly hard. I spent years running from my childhood grief, thinking time would magically fix everything. But avoiding pain only prolongs the suffering and stunts our growth. It's understandable to want to avoid it, ignore it, run from it. The reality is, sometimes facing that pain, trauma, or grief turns out to be as bad as you think it will be. The critical thing here is that you do force yourself to face it, feel it, and work through it. It's going...

Managing 1 or more chronic mental health conditions is a full-time responsibility. If you push this to the bottom of your priorities it will be extremely difficult for it to ever improve significantly. But since you have a life filled with other responsibilities, your time, attention, energy, and resources are probably already spread thin. Here are 5 you can do if you have just 5 minutes. Get Practical tools for navigating life with depression and anxiety, delivered weekly⁠. ⁠ ⁠My...

I'm exploring four unconscious behaviors that hurt people with mental illness. These things aren't going to serve you in managing your mental health. I'll show you how to recognize these patterns in hopes that you can reduce their occurrences - it will lead to significantly better outcomes. Get Practical tools for navigating life with depression and anxiety, delivered weekly⁠. ⁠ ⁠My book: For When Everything is Burning⁠ Mood Bloom games for depression and anxiety(I have partnered...

Thought patterns don't define you, and they're not fixed. The thing about depression is it traps you in narrow, repetitive thinking. Your thinking is actually quite malleable. But reshaping your thoughts, often takes a lot more than just trying to think differently. I'm talking with Dr. Moshe Bar of Hedonia about how they've been able to gamify Facilitating Thought Progression (FTP) in order to rewrite thought patterns. I'm all-in on alternative, science-based methods for managing...

Your life isn't failing; it's just stretched thin. This is not a cliche, empty reassurance, or toxic positivity: you're probably doing better than you give yourself credit for. Think of yourself as a distribution manager with limited resources. You're juggling work, relationships, health, and home - all demanding more than you can give. More than likely, you're using an incorrect metric to measure how well you're doing. I'm going to explain how to measure your success more accurately...

Our world is built on the ability of individuals to function socially (for better or worse). So what happens when your default social functioning differs from the norm? In the case of empathy, differing from the norm - both with "too much" or "too little" empathy - can have a disabling effect. Get Practical tools for navigating life with depression and anxiety, delivered weekly⁠. ⁠Sleep better, without pills (partner I believe in)⁠ ⁠My book: For When Everything is Burning⁠ Mood Bloom...

Waking up early and struggling to go back to sleep creates a lot of stress on your body. Some studies have shown this to decrease cognitive functioning by up to 10% per hour of lost sleep! Sometimes, this is caused by a sleep disorder. I'm going to show you 4 ways to stop waking up too early. If you're struggling to stay asleep, you can use these 4 methods on your own. But I highly recommend you check out my friends at Sleep Reset. (partner I believe in) Get Practical tools for...

The traditional clinical symptoms of depression often don't cover the full spectrum of what it feels like to experience depression or depressive episodes on a daily basis. Today I'm diving into 8 specific symptoms of depression you won't find in the official overview - but I think they are illuminating, validating, and helpful. Get Practical tools for navigating life with depression and anxiety, delivered weekly. https://bit.ly/SelfHopePsychology Sleep better, without pills (partner I...

Life doesn't always involve constant growth - it has dormant phases too. We sometimes experience events that halt progress unexpectedly, invisibly.Trauma, resource scarcity can end growing seasons prematurely. Like trees, grass, we aren't fragile for needing dormant periods occasionally. Unseen circumstances dictate when growth stalls, despite others' journeys. Don't judge the pause as failure - it's natural cycles. Get Practical tools for navigating life with depression and...

Would you describe your life as a rollercoaster? This probably looks like sustained periods where you're extremely high-functioning and then prolonged periods where you struggle to do even the most basic functions. Most people suffering from depression and anxiety experience this to some degree. If this is you, you're probably like me, a "high ceiling, low floor" person - highly functional sometimes, unable to do basics at others. I'm sharing the 3 keys that help me move through the...

Trying to replace negative thoughts with positive ones rarely works for your mental wellbeing. Your brain perceives threat and warns you by replaying those thoughts. Fighting this impulse makes your mind cling tighter. I'm laying out an effective retraining technique. No more fruitless thought struggles - you'll gain control. Get Practical tools for navigating life with depression and anxiety, delivered weekly⁠. ⁠Sleep better, without pills (partner I believe in)⁠ ⁠My book: For When...

Life doesn't always make sense, not all pain has a purpose - and this reality can hurt. This frustrated me for years. While not all pain leads to something positive, I want to offer a perspective that can help you avoid falling into deeper levels of despair. I call this technique, 'The Web.' Get Practical tools for navigating life with depression and anxiety, delivered weekly⁠. ⁠Sleep better, without pills (partner I believe in)⁠ ⁠My book: For When Everything is Burning⁠ Mood Bloom games...

Society expects everyone to fit into predetermined molds, but that's not realistic. There is no "normal" path meant for everyone. Get Practical tools for navigating life with depression and anxiety, delivered weekly. Sleep better, without pills (partner I believe in) My book: For When Everything is Burning Mood Bloom games for depression and anxiety (I have partnered with this brand): iOS Android Connect with me on TikTok Therapy with me (Iowa residents only) Work with me (Non-Iowa...

There's an epidemic of unhelpful responses when someone opens up about their struggles. My take: Most well-meaning people inadvertently make things worse because they simply don't know what to say. When we see loved ones suffering, it triggers distress in us too. Our instinct is to quickly make their pain go away, for our sake as much as theirs. But rushing them through emotions or invalidating their fexelings creates isolation. I want to look at four common unhelpful responses, and...

People with depression often feel like they aren't very smart - I hear this all the time in therapy sessions. But the usually the opposite is true. And there are a few very interesting reasons for that. Get Practical tools for navigating life with depression and anxiety, delivered weekly. https://mailchi.mp/90ccaf44c876/self-hope-psychology My book: For When Everything is Burning https://bit.ly/forwheneverythingisburning Mood Bloom games for depression and anxiety (I have partnered with...

Stress and anxiety can feel almost identical, even though they are two very different things. When it comes to improving your mental health, know which one you're dealing is pretty important. I'm going to show you how to determine whether what you're feeling is stress or anxiety, and then give you some practical things you can do today to help each. Get Practical tools for navigating life with depression and anxiety, delivered weekly. https://mailchi.mp/90ccaf44c876/self-hope-psychology My...

Life is completely overwhelming a large portion of the time. From all the things you have to do, to the things you need to do, and add in the things you want to do, and they're just no realistic way to get it all done. Now, instead of allowing that to shut you down and turn to avoidance, I'm going to show you how to turn it into action that helps you ease your stress. Get Practical tools for navigating life with depression and anxiety, delivered...

If you deal with any kind of mental health issues - especially depression and anxiety, - excessive phone usage is not helping you, generally speaking. But there are ways to use your phone to actually benefit your mental health. These 10 tools can help you establish more control of your life and improve your wellbeing. Get Mood Bloom games for depression and anxiety (I have partnered with this brand): iOS...

You might be (accidentally, unknowingly, unintentionally) making your life worse in a number of ways. One way is your (internal and implicit) criteria for what is considered a "good day." Your requirements for defining a good day might be ruining your life. But you can modify these "checkboxes," and I'm going to help you do that. If you've Lost Hope in Life, I invite you to join me for a live conversation and Q&A Thursday, May 16th at 4pm est. Here's the link:...

If you've Lost Hope in Life, I invite you to join me for a live conversation and Q&A Thursday, May 16th at 4pm est. Here's the link: https://bit.ly/losthopeinlifelive I spent years chasing acceptance; it ruined my life. People rejected me, so I kept lowering my standards. It was the transitive property fallacy - I'm "less than." This video exposes that toxic thinking, and I layout a better approach to self-worth that might actually work for you. Get Practical tools for navigating...

Insecurity is a universal human experience, not a personal failing. Most coping methods actually reinforce insecurities rather than resolving them. Embracing insecurities as identity reinforces negative thoughts. Denying weaknesses leads to reality harshly exposing them. Overcompensating through impression management is exhausting. I'll show you how to overcome insecurity through incremental self-improvement. Facing insecurities through gradual exposure therapy diminishes their...

Past mistake, failures, choices, circumstances may be haunting you right now. Things you desperately wish you could forget - but know you probably never will. You can't change any of this. But the regrets you feel about things you've done or things that have happened to you can hold you back in an entirely different way. I'm going to show you how you (inadvertently) turn your guilt into shame and how that effects your life. Get Practical tools for navigating life with depression and...