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One only needs to read a few lines from poets such as Frost, Wordsworth, and Thoreau to recognize the love for and connection to nature human beings have always had. Nature stirs our souls and imagination and brings beauty to our everyday lives. But it turns out, nature also brings a slew of benefits to […]
One only needs to read a few lines from poets such as Frost, Wordsworth, and Thoreau to recognize the love for and connection to nature human beings have always had. Nature stirs our souls and imagination and brings beauty to our everyday lives. But it turns out, nature also brings a slew of benefits to our mental and physical health.
Research is now clearly indicating that spending time outdoors can have a positive impact on our health. Whether you bike, hike, or simply sit under a tree enjoying the sights and sounds, time in nature has shown to reduce stress, slow heart rate, improve pain, lower cortisol, and stimulate the immune system by boosting the production of natural killer cells that fight disease and infection.
In addition, time outside means time in the sun, and THAT means getting a nice boost of vitamin D, which can do everything from preventing disease, make our bones and teeth stronger, and improve our mood.
Ecotherapy, which is also sometimes referred to as nature therapy, is a practice in the emerging field of ecopsychology. The idea behind this practice is that many modern people, whether they are aware of it or not, feel a massive disconnect from the natural world. When you think about it, our ancestors spent hundreds of thousands of years living WITH nature, feeling it under their bare feet, being outside, ebbing and flowing with the shifts in seasons.
But today, most of us are only connected to a digital device. Ecotherapy gets us away from our screens and out into the beauty of the natural world. Many clinicians, including myself, believe that the earth has a natural ability to balance us. When we get back in touch with the systems of nature, we can experience improved mental health.
If you are feeling out of sorts and like the idea of trying ecotherapy, you can simply spend more time outside. If you would like someone to help you reconnect with nature, please get in touch with me. I am a big proponent of nature therapy and use it in my practice.
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We live in a society that values things that appear perfect. And I suppose there are things that can be perfect. Architects can draw the perfect straight line, mathematicians can solve an equation with a perfect calculation, and a chocolate cake can be perfectly moist. But as human beings, we can never reach a state […]
We live in a society that values things that appear perfect. And I suppose there are things that can be perfect. Architects can draw the perfect straight line, mathematicians can solve an equation with a perfect calculation, and a chocolate cake can be perfectly moist.
But as human beings, we can never reach a state of perfection because we will always be a work in progress. Perfection indicates a finality – a finished product – but we as humans are always growing and changing.
Many people view perfectionism as a positive attribute. They believe the more “perfect” they are, the more success they will have in life.
Perfectionism is NOT the same thing as always doing your best. It is important that we always do our best. By doing so, we can experience healthy achievements and growth. But perfectionism takes this concept to the extreme.
People with perfectionist tendencies often have self-defeating thoughts and/or behaviors that actually make it HARDER to achieve their goals. Perfectionism also can make the individual feel stress, anxiety, and depression.
Most human beings, from time to time, will strive for perfectionism in some aspect of their life. As an example, that “perfectly moist chocolate cake” I mentioned earlier got that way because the person who baked it was trying to get everything JUST RIGHT as a gift for someone’s birthday.
But there are those people who are “full-time” perfectionists. They strive for perfection in all aspects of their life.
Here are some signs you may be a perfectionist:
Again, perfectionism is not the same thing as doing your best. It is a condition whereby the individual is almost incapable of feeling joy or pride at what they accomplish because in their own minds, they are never quite good enough.
If you believe you may have traits of perfectionism and it is causing you stress, there are things you can do to change your behavior so you can live a healthier and happier life.
If you’d like to explore treatment options, please reach out to me.
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Valentine’s day is just around the corner. For many people that means celebrating with their spouse or partner and showing them extra love and attention. But for others, Valentine’s Day is a sad reminder that they are single or are perhaps grieving the recent loss of their significant other. If you are celebrating it alone […]
Valentine’s day is just around the corner. For many people that means celebrating with their spouse or partner and showing them extra love and attention. But for others, Valentine’s Day is a sad reminder that they are single or are perhaps grieving the recent loss of their significant other.
If you are celebrating it alone this year, here are a few ways you can alleviate your sadness this Valentine’s Day.
It’s bad enough to feel lonely, but it’s even worse to scold yourself for doing so. Loneliness is not an indication that you’re doing anything wrong or that there is something wrong and unlovable about you.
Even people that are in relationships can feel incredibly lonely. Loneliness affects everyone at some point in their life. It’s not a sin to feel this way, so stop scolding yourself.
How many times during the year do you make a real effort to show yourself love? If you’re like most people, you don’t really think much about how you treat yourself.
This Valentine’s Day, if you find yourself a party of one, try and make the best of it by focusing all of your love and attention on yourself. Take yourself out to a nice dinner. Or, if you don’t like the idea of sitting at a table alone surrounded by couples, then order in your favorite food and watch your favorite movie.
Take a nice long bath. Listen to your favorite band. Buy yourself a little gift on the way home from work. Use this Valentine’s Day to commit to showing yourself more love and kindness throughout the year.
Valentine’s Day is a holiday to show love. No one says that love must be shown in a romantic way.
This is a great time to show your affection and appreciation for the wonderful people in your life. Get your best friend a box of chocolates or your mom a bouquet of flowers. Put a card on your neighbor’s windshield and your coworker’s computer monitor.
You can be filled with love by being loved, and you can be filled with love by loving others. The more love YOU show this holiday, the more love you will feel inside. And you would be amazed at how the loneliness quickly slips away when you are full of love.
Don’t let the commercialism of the holiday make you feel alone and isolated. You really can have a lovely Valentine’s day if you love yourself and others.
Episode One: “Just Do It – Let’s Get Physical” – Lorena Orozco discusses ways of protecting your peace of mind and how to experience feeling good inside and out.
Episode One: “Just Do It – Let’s Get Physical” – Lorena Orozco discusses ways of protecting your peace of mind and how to experience feeling good inside and out.
Happy New Year! If you are looking for Hope, Motivation, and Inspiration as we welcome in the 2021, check out my new YouTube channel. If you are looking for encouragement, you don’t want to miss this! Viewers will benefit from interviews with suggestions on how to live your best life now and experience happy, healthy […]
Happy New Year! If you are looking for Hope, Motivation, and Inspiration as we welcome in the 2021, check out my new YouTube channel. If you are looking for encouragement, you don’t want to miss this! Viewers will benefit from interviews with suggestions on how to live your best life now and experience happy, healthy relationships. Please feel free to share the link with friends, family and everyone you believe could use a little more joy as we start this new year! Stay Tuned, Stay Safe and Be Blessed!
As many families continue to shelter in place together, they are finding it challenging to beat the stress and stay in shape. Exercising as a family is one-way families can accomplish both of these goals! And the good news is, there are plenty of ways families can exercise without the need of going to a […]
As many families continue to shelter in place together, they are finding it challenging to beat the stress and stay in shape. Exercising as a family is one-way families can accomplish both of these goals! And the good news is, there are plenty of ways families can exercise without the need of going to a public gym.
Take a pack of regular playing cards and turn them into fitness cards. Hearts stand for crunches, clubs push-ups, diamonds for squats, and spades for jumping jacks (or any other exercises you may want to substitute). Have each player take turns selecting a card and doing the activity. So for instance, if someone draws the five of hearts, they need to do 5 crunches.
Strap on your helmets, hop on your bikes and take the kids for a nice bike ride around the neighborhood. You can also decide to bike to the library or to the park for a picnic. Just be sure to pick a route that is safe and isn’t too much effort for your child.
Decorate your living room with a disco ball or other fun string lights, turn on some good tunes, and have a dance party. You can even choose to record yourselves and share your dance party with others on Youtube.
Chances are over the years your kids have begged you to play certain games like hide-and-seek or kickball. Now is the time to embrace these requests and head outside for some family fun. There is also tag, jump rope, dodgeball, and kick the can.
This game will get everyone moving to get some aerobic exercise. Take turns and split the family up into 2 teams. Team A will start by hiding objects around the house or yard. Then team B has 10 minutes to find them all. This means they’ve got to really RUN around looking for all of them. Then swap so Team B hides items and team A has to find them. The team that finds the most items wins and doesn’t have to do the dishes that week.
Walking is such a great form of exercise and an equally great way for families to connect. Try and build walking into your daily schedule. Maybe after dinner take everyone out for a walk around the neighborhood. If you have dogs, take them, too!
These are just a few ideas you can try with your own family. Get creative to come up with some ideas of your own. While Covid has definitely made our lives more stressful and challenging, the silver lining is that it has helped many of us reconnect with our families. Take this time to do the same and stay fit at the same time.
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During this time of year, radio and TV ads would have us believe we should all feel merry and bright. Sadly, that’s not always the case. According to the National Institute of Health, many people experience depression during the holiday season. Some of the most common reasons people experience depression during this time of year are: Financial hardship – […]
During this time of year, radio and TV ads would have us believe we should all feel merry and bright. Sadly, that’s not always the case. According to the National Institute of Health, many people experience depression during the holiday season.
Some of the most common reasons people experience depression during this time of year are:
If you can relate and are looking for some relief, here are ways you can cope with your depression this holiday season:
Feel Your Feelings
If you are grieving a loss, it’s important that you’re honest about your feelings. Your instinct may be to put on a brave face for friends and family, but forcing yourself to be happy for the sake of others will only make matters worse. Sadness and grief are a part of life, no matter the season, and it is 100% okay for you to feel your feelings.
Give Something Besides Money
If a lack of finances is the primary source of your mood, look for other ways you can give to others. You can volunteer at a local charity. Are you a good cook? Offer to cook for friends and family. If your talent is writing, write your kids a bedtime story or, if it’s painting, paint a beautiful mural on their wall. At the end of the day, thoughtful gifts from your heart will leave the greatest lasting impression.
Focus on Self Care
It’s important that you care for yourself during the holiday season. Eat right, drink filtered water, exercise, and get plenty of rest. While these steps are important for everyone throughout the entire year, they are particularly important for those suffering from depression during the holidays.
Seek Help
Depression is nothing to take lightly. If your depression has lingered, is getting worse, or you’re having suicidal thoughts, it’s imperative that you seek help from a qualified mental health professional. They will be able to help you navigate your overwhelming emotions and offer tools to manage symptoms.
If you’d like to explore treatment options, please get in touch with me. You don’t have to suffer alone. I would be more than happy to speak with you about how I may be able to help.
When you first fell in love, you could never imagine that someday the sound of your partner chewing could make you want to scream. It’s inevitable that once we are out of our honeymoon phase and reality sets in, we realize that all relationships take work and compromise. But while some couples may hit bumps […]
When you first fell in love, you could never imagine that someday the sound of your partner chewing could make you want to scream. It’s inevitable that once we are out of our honeymoon phase and reality sets in, we realize that all relationships take work and compromise. But while some couples may hit bumps in the road every so often, other couples find themselves in bigger trouble, with neither party knowing exactly how to fix things.
If you are in a relationship that is no longer feeling healthy, here are 5 warning signs that it may be time to try couples counseling:
Once you have a communication breakdown, you are unable to rationally share thoughts, feelings, and concerns with each other. Beyond this, unhealthy communication tends to leave one or both partners feeling depressed, angry and hopeless.
When there has been infidelity, it is very difficult for the couple to rebuild trust and repair the damage. While there is no magic pill to recover from an affair, a therapist can offer tools and strategies to rebuild trust.
If you and your partner act more like roommates than romantic partners, this indicates a lack of intimacy and a potential need for professional help.
You try to mask your real feelings for as long as possible, but then you start to act out the hurt and resentment you may be feeling. For instance, if your partner has been unfaithful and you have agreed to stay in the relationship and work things out. But over time you find yourself lashing out, acting rude and trying to make them believe you are having an affair so they will feel the same kind of hurt. This acting out is unhealthy for both people and is a BIG indicator you need to seek some help.
A break from negative energy can be very helpful to the relationship. But when a temporary break leads to more and more time away from home and someone renting their own apartment, this indicates a need for counseling. Spending time away from home usually doesn’t lead to any real resolution, just more distance.
If you and your partner are interested in exploring treatment options, please be in touch with me. I would be more than happy to discuss how I may be able to help.
This week’s blog is on a topic many women have experienced; and secretly gone through. The pain and emptiness of not having anyone to confide in or help bring understanding and clarity to; including such questions as “Why Me?” Hopefully not anymore after today! My guest today is Tasha! She has volunteered to briefly share […]
This week’s blog is on a topic many women have experienced; and secretly gone through. The pain and emptiness of not having anyone to confide in or help bring understanding and clarity to; including such questions as “Why Me?”
Hopefully not anymore after today! My guest today is Tasha! She has volunteered to briefly share her story and her journey on how she has survived and want to help other women who have experienced the unforeseen loss of their unborn child and/or have experienced infertility challenges.
Q1: Dr. Wynette:
Hello, please tell us a little bit about yourself and what motivated you to participate in this week’s blog: Surviving Miscarriage!
A1: Tasha:
Hi! My name is Tasha, and I’m here to tell my story. From the time I was a teenager, I would say about 16, I always had my life planned out. I said by the time I’m 30 I’m going to have two kids, I’m going to have a boy & a girl, and I’m going to name them this & that…and I’ve always been the type of person to plan everything out, and my fertility journey didn’t go as I planned.
Having a baby is the most, I think is the most fulfilling experience a woman can have, and when it doesn’t happen for you right away, it makes you feel like you did something wrong, or why is this happening to me. So many women go through the struggle of getting excited about being pregnant, and then going through the struggle of having a miscarriage, and this is the reason why I’m sharing my story.
Q2: Dr. Wynette:
After having it all planned out, what was your experience when you found out you were indeed pregnant?
A2: Tasha:
Pregnancy is an emotional roller coaster. You go through so many ups; you go through so many downs. You go through the excitement of first finding out your pregnant, your anxious, you want to run & tell everyone, and then when things don’t go as planned, it’s like you just got the wind knocked out of you and that’s exactly how I felt. It took me a very, very long time, I would say years to finally come to a place where I could share my story with you.
The reason why I’m sharing my story is because I don’t want anyone to ever feel like their alone, and at the time that I had my miscarriage, that’s exactly how I felt. And, I had a lot of highs, & I had a lot of lows, and I just don’t want anyone to ever have to feel like their alone. There’s a whole community of women dealing with miscarriage, but because it’s so taboo, we’re afraid to talk about it because we feel ashamed, we feel guilty, we feel all these different emotions.
Q3: Dr. Wynette:
What would you want to say or let women who have experienced a miscarriage know?
A3: Tasha:
As women we blame ourselves, because I know I blamed myself for a lot of years. When I miscarried, my first thought was “What did I do wrong”, “Did I not eat right, did I overdo it, did I overtax my body…what could I have done different? And, I had to come to the realization that I didn’t do anything wrong. You feel angry, you feel sad, you feel depressed, you feel isolated, you don’t want to talk about it, and it seems like everybody’s saying the wrong things to you. And, I just want women to know that you’re not alone, and it’s going to be okay. You’re entitled to feel sad, depressed. You can feel any way that you want and it’s okay to feel that way. And, this is why I decided to share my story because I want everyone to know that, you’re not alone, and there is support for you.
Q4: Dr. Wynette:
If a women who have experienced the life changing event of miscarriage was looking for support, how can they contact you?
A4: Tasha:
I can be reached via email at natashakgrant@hotmail.com.
Q5: Dr. Wynette
Would you be interested in facilitating and hosting an online support group for women surviving miscarriage?
A5: Tasha:
Absolutely! You never know what someone is going through, & you never know how you can help someone else, just by telling your story. There’s a whole community of women dealing with miscarriage, and I think it would be great to have an open forum where we can talk about it. A judgment free zone.
Thank you so much Tasha for making yourself available to assist other women going through the pain of miscarriage. I encourage anyone who would like to continue this conversation and for support please contact Tasha at natashakgrant@hotmail.com. There is hope and life after a miscarriage!