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Your Emotional Sherpa®

Gratefulness for our Day leads to a Beautiful Day

March 4, 2021 by Your Emotional Sherpa® Leave a Comment

Give me more Serotonin! 

Serotonin helps maintain our mood. Winnie the Pooh is a perfect example of a person (or bear) with just the right amount of Serotonin floating around in his furry body. He’s never too down and never too high. We do many things to regulate our mood throughout the day. One method is counting our blessings and being grateful. Recording what we are thankful for actually releases some additional serotonin into our systems.

Here’s a Tip from the Trail:

Keep a journal and pen at your bedside. Before you jump to your TODO list, take a few minutes and write down three things for which you are grateful.

For example:

  • “Thank you for another day! I’m alive!”
  • “Thank you for my family.”
  • “Thank you for a good night’s sleep.”

I like to use a dry erase marker and write my three grateful thoughts on my bathroom mirror. Do the same thing during your sleep hygiene routine.  A Harvard Health Publication elaborates on the benefits of showing gratitude each day, and how expressing this praise may be the simplest way to feel better. 

Keep writing your words of gratitude on the mirror until you can no longer see your reflection. Take a photo, so you don’t forget. Erase and repeat. Those words represent the condition of your heart. Gratefulness is the new cardio.

“Let’s not forget we’re alive; it’s going to be a beautiful day.” ~ Joshua Radin

Happy Trails,

Allison

Filed Under: Blog, Trailtalk Articles

Run, run, run away from those negative feelings: can you say Cognitive Dissonance?

February 1, 2021 by Your Emotional Sherpa®

What is cognitive dissonance? 

Cognitive dissonance is when we have two opposing thoughts or beliefs that play a tug of war in our brains. Are you doing something or behaving in a certain way and feeling uneasy, agitated, or ashamed? It’s because your behavior doesn’t align with your values, and you are stuck between a rock and a hard place. Have you been there? Are you there now?

We want to feel a certain way and don’t know how to own our needs and wants, let alone ask for what we need and want in our relationships. What to do? Either keep doing what you are doing and live in juxtaposed worlds or resolve the dissonance by being true to yourself. Sounds easy, but it’s not if you’ve struggled with being too flexible in your relationships: not wanting to hurt someone’s feelings, you can’t say no, avoid talking about difficult issues, and fear rejection. Unfortunately, avoiding choosing between the opposing thoughts/beliefs keeps us stuck in this uncomfortable mental duress. Ever hear the phrase what we resist persists? It persists until we choose to change or wait for the other person to find out, and they decide how to react or respond to your behavior.

Once our stressors overwhelm our coping strategies, the scale tips in their favor because we’ve got nothing in our toolbox to help us deal. That’s when we seek out help, self-medicate to shut down the system so we can shut off the internal noise of disparity. or keep running away.

“Come to the edges, Life said. They said: We are afraid. Come to the edge, Life said. They came. It pushed them… and they flew.” ~ Christopher Logue.

Consider contacting a therapist if you want help navigating your way toward your TRUE SELF.  See this blog to understand the Coming Home to the TRUE YOU concept.

Peace and continued good health to you and yours, The Emotional Sherpa.

Filed Under: Blog Tagged With: Trailogy of the Emotional Sherpa

More than surviving the social separation during this next wave of COVID19

November 30, 2020 by Your Emotional Sherpa®

I am really missing my community connections. At the same time, I’m not the kind of person who attends many large events. I seldom go to malls, concerts, or sporting events.  What I miss is choosing what I want to do and when. The gravity of this pandemic requires everyone to participate and protect one another. Intellectually, I know this. But emotionally, I am growing weary.  My daily routines are less interesting. I’m practicing what I preach as a therapist and nurse, so why am I feeling down? Why am I feeling under? More importantly, how do we thrive during this next phase of COVID19? I’ve been surviving, but I want to move past surviving and actually thrive during this next wave of potential COVID losses and lockdowns.

The song by the Rolling Stones, “You don’t know what you’ve got until it’s gone,”  rings in my ear. The phrase in the song I will focus on now is, “but if you try sometimes, you just might find, you get what you need.”  Full lyrics found here.

What do I need? What’s missing? I have loving friends and family. I have a great job. My home is my sanctuary. Still, this virus I refer to as Slender Man (a fictional, supernatural scary dude) is unnerving me.

My friend, June Marie, and I talked on the phone the other day, and I asked her about her experience with the continued COVID lockdown.  She said her biggest struggle is loneliness. June Marie said she has a great life and home but needs to get out of her house. She’s not an avid outdoor enthusiast like many of her ski town friends. At the same time, she loves walking in her neighborhood, volunteering,  meeting friends for lunch, and perusing the local stores’ sales rack. June Marie states, “I enjoy sharing a meal with a few friends and found the summer outdoor dining worked well for us. With outdoor dining not an option during the winter, she laments, ” I am worried I won’t have many options for leaving my house this winter.”

June Marie kindly agreed to put her thoughts into words and talk about how she will thrive during this next social isolation phase. Here’s what June Marie has to say.

What does one do with this? 

It is a strange time. Historically unprecedented. Isolation from others. The world turned upside down. News that keeps getting bleaker and bleaker. This is the challenge of our lifetimes. Keep in mind; other generations have had their challenges.  Please think of the WWII generation….their lives were turned upsidedown in a way we can’t even imagine.

The good news is that there’s a promising vaccine on the horizon.  Soak that in.  Isn’t that wonderful?  Until general distribution, however, maybe March, we will have to make the best of things.

My go-to when times get tough is finding the blessings in what currently feels disorienting and a hardship.  I get creative. The arts are my refuge. I love music, painting, and reading fiction. I garden, knit, and laugh a lot. I sing and play the piano. And, I hope to inspire you to turn your concerns and negative energy into innovation and adaptation.

I live in Park City, Utah.  It’s uniquely equipped to afford us many opportunities for innovation and adapting to change. The four seasons in this arid mountain community teach us adaptation.  We learn to dress, play, and plan for extreme weather changes. Mother Nature is an excellent teacher.  Many live in this ski town because they love being active in the outdoors.  What a perfect time to engage in the nature surrounding us, gulping in the fresh air, seeing others doing the same around us.  For many here, this is the easy part. I live in a town of high functioning and high performing people.

But what of the missing social contact?  It is difficult for extroverts and those who don’t engage in an outdoor activity as readily.  What can we do?

Again, think of what many of us are getting, rather than missing.  Time.  Time to think.  Time to call old friends or family.  Time to write letters that we would never have written in other circumstances.  Perhaps time to keep a journal and write about the historical events happening to you.

I have a friend whose mother in lockdown in another state.  It is heartbreaking.  But she has adapted.  With the help of “Alexa,” they are connected every day.   She reads books to her that they can discuss, plays piano for her, sings to her.  Not perfect, but creative.

And what about social contact?  Again, we here in Park City should be uniquely equipped to approach this, as we are a world-class dining hub.  We want to support our restaurants, and curbside dining is great.  But many of us miss the social part of the dining and don’t feel comfortable with inside dining.

Think about it.  We can use the outdoors because we know how to dress for the cold as skiers, hikers, and snowshoers.  Why can’t we continue outdoor dining?  We are “ski tough.” Restaurants have heaters.  We can continue our social distancing as good citizens and still enjoy ourselves with food, each other AND support our world-class restaurants.

A friend and I tried this the other evening.  It was cold, but we asked to be seated outdoors.  We had layers, she had a blanket, and the waiter put on heaters for us.  We were the only ones outside dining, but we had a lovely and relatively risk-free time.

Park City and its residents could set an innovative example this winter for the rest of the country and the world.  Let’s take outdoor socializing to a new, creative level!

“There’s no such thing as bad weather, only unsuitable clothing.” ~ Alfred Wainwright.

Thank you, my dear friend, for offering up a Tip from the Trail: dress warm, bring blankets, and turn on the heaters.  Peace, love, health, and hope to you and yours!

Filed Under: Blog

Play Outside: The Healing Power of Nature

October 24, 2020 by Your Emotional Sherpa®

This month, we look to nature to find joy, solace, solutions, comfort, and more. Our team of therapists reviewed and chose a wonderful collection of resources investigating and reporting on the benefits of accessing nature daily. Just getting outside and moving your body to clear your mind elevates our mood.

  1. How Nature Impacts Our Wellbeing – The University of Minnesota outlines some great methods in which nature heals, soothes, restores, connects us. How can being in nature reduce stress? Read the full article here.
  2. Bouldering Psychotherapy – Nature can help us escape the daily grind through many outlets. This article discusses how climbing and bouldering can force you to live in the moment and focus only on your task/activity. It proves to be very cathartic and beneficial in treating depression. Read the full article here.
  3. Atlanta Connects Outdoors – Thrive Outside Atlanta works to build and strengthen networks focused on providing children and families with repeat and reinforcing experiences in the outdoors. Their new initiative, “Sensory with Soils,” provides youth a learning opportunity from merely playing in the dirt. Read the full article here.

Check out this publication about how nature heals our souls in Science of Forest Therapy.

Reboot, Reset and Restore in the great outdoors.  Spending time in nature helps us reframe and recalibrate our waypoints. 

Follow the journey of the Emotional Sherpa® in our blogs for more insight into how moving your body in nature clears your mind.

A classic quote for the legendary trailblazer, Chief Seattle, “take only photos and leave only footsteps.” 

Peace and continued good health as you seek solace outside in your communities. Happy trails!

Filed Under: Blog, Evidence Based

Connecting to a mental health therapist on or off the Trail.

October 5, 2020 by Your Emotional Sherpa®

 

Mental health counseling has come a long way since Freud. Unlike the psychoanalytic therapists in the old days, this therapist is looking at his client. Freud sat behind his patients smoking cigarettes. Eye contact wasn’t part of the psychoanalytic process at that time in history. The therapist was considered a blank slate or sounding board. After the client talked and talked to the therapist behind their head, they’d finally hear, “well, let me tell you what I think.” The therapist interpreted what the client told them about their lives and current struggles. Talk therapy is still popular and works for many people. Times have changed, and so has mental health care counseling.

The blank slate approach doesn’t create a safe space for self-disclosure for many of us. I think it helps to know that our therapists suffer from the same “human condition.” That doesn’t mean I need to know everything about my therapist’s personal life, but I want to know they have experienced stressors and other traumatic life events. A relationship with a therapist is unique. It’s the most essential part of the therapy experience. We want to feel safe, understood and, at the same time, challenged. 

Turning the mirror towards ourselves and looking at how we show up in our lives is hard. Finding the right therapist to facilitate your journey is vital.

Before you choose a therapist, do some investigating. What kind of therapy do they practice? What type of issues does the therapist typically treat?

Then, meet with a couple of therapists you’ve reviewed online. The client-therapist relationship is the key to a successful therapy experience. Connecting with someone you trust and feel safe with is where it all starts. Once that connection is established, the work begins.

See this site for details about choosing the right therapist for you.

What does it mean to be emotionally well? It means functioning in and interacting with the world. Can you carry on day after day, interacting with others while at the same time dealing with stress, conflict, or problems? Here are some additional questions to ask yourself about your mental health.

  1. Can you make and maintain relationships with your peers?
  2. Are you functioning well and feeling satisfied with your work or school performance?
  3. Can you be humorous?
  4. Are you able to adapt and change when necessary?
  5. Do you like yourself?
  6. Can you identify your strengths and weaknesses?
  7. Can you deal with conflict?
  8. Do you have a variety of coping strategies to draw on when you’re stressed?
  9. Can you accept responsibility for your actions?
  10. Can you problem-solve?
  11. Are you able to reason and think clearly?
  12. Do you have insight into what’s happening to you or around you?
  13. Are you able to make judgments about your choices and what is best for a situation?
  14. Have you contemplated questions about the purpose of life?
  15. Do you have self-control over your emotions and behavior?

Mental wellness is a dynamic process, just like our physical health. We all move in and out and along a continuum of both mental and physical wellness. Accessing support for our emotional health is becoming more acceptable. It’s about time, wouldn’t you say? The adage, “pull yourself up by your bootstraps”, is just that, outdated thinking. Trailtalk hopes everyone will seek out emotional support when they need it. That is taking action and responsibility for our life journey. 

Check out this website to learn more about mental health.

Peace and good health to you and yours, The Emotional Sherpa. 

 

 

 

Filed Under: Blog

Are you SAD? When the seasons change, so do our moods

September 28, 2020 by Your Emotional Sherpa®

If you are more sluggish and cranky than usual these last few weeks, it could be related to the shorter days, less exposure to sunlight, and colder temperatures. 

A 2008 study by J. Denison and colleagues looked at how temperature, wind power, sunlight, day length, precipitation, and air pressure affected mood. Over 1,000 people completed online diaries he linked with weather station data. The researchers determined changes in temperature, wind, and sunlight had negative effects on mood. Seems obvious to those of us with Seasonal Affective Disorder (SAD).  Waking up in the dark makes it harder to get out of bed. The snooze alarms on our phones work overtime during this time of year.  Shorter days cause high carb food cravings. Many of us start packing on the pounds as winter approaches. Holiday food feasts add insult to injury.

We, humans, fall out of emotional wellness during stressful life events. Much like getting a physical illness. Our immune systems get overwhelmed by a virus and we fall ill. We aren’t necessarily terminally ill but we need help and support with our recovery back to wellness.  It’s the same with our changing moods. The continuation of COVID’s social distancing and other restrictions has compounded has tipped the scale where our stressors overwhelm our coping strategies. Trailtalk’s Rocketman knows that fear resides in the past (would of, could of, should of thinking) and in the future (creating outcomes, worst-case scenario thinking).  We all fall out of balance when we thoughts time travel.  Living in the present moment, mindfully is where we find our baseline level of contentment.

Like Malcolm Gladwell says in his book, The Tipping Point, it’s all about time at task. We have to practice changing our thinking if we want to change how we feel and act. See your therapist if you want to learn about the think, feel, act cycle. Some of us need more than therapy during the changes of season. If you have a family history of depression and anxiety, contact your medical provider for additional support.

Here are a few TIPS from the TRAIL to help with SAD:

1. Try adding additional light to your morning routine for 20-30 minutes. Get a SAD Therapy LightBox. Look for a lightbox 10,000-lux light that is specifically used for seasonal affective disorder. We have a couple listed on our website store. Check Costco and Amazon. The key is to use it daily. Talk to your medical provider or therapists if you need help choosing the right light box for your morning routine.

2. Take extra Vitamin D. Ask your medical provider for a simple blood test before you start a supplement, so you know how much to take every day. Even if you are an avid outdoors person, the use of sunscreen prevents us from absorbing adequate amounts of Vitamin D.  Low vitamin D means low serotonin, which means low mood.

3. Get a Carhartt jacket or other type of warm snow clothes, a pair of yaktraxs, boot heaters, hand warmers, and hit the trails!  According to the Scandinavians, “there’s no such thing as bad weather, it’s just bad clothing.”

4. Find an accountability partner who will be waiting on you to slip on the snow boots and meet them outside. Walking and talking in nature heals. Move your body and clear your mind.

If adding light therapy to your morning routine, taking vitamin D, getting outdoors every day for even 30 minutes doesn’t lift your mood, seek out an emotional tuneup with a therapist. Weather changes can affect our moods, but some of us have depression and mood shifting all year round. Get help and make this season brighter for you and your loved ones.

Peace, love, health, and hope to you during this season of change,

The Emotional Sherpa

References:

https://www.psychiatry.org/patients-families/depression/seasonal-affective-disordeDenissen, Jaap J. A.; Butalid, Ligaya; Penke, Lars; van Aken, Marcel A. G.

Emotion, Vol 8(5), Oct 2008, 662-667. http://dx.doi.org/10.1037/a0013497

Military focused SAD article https://health.mil/News/Articles/2020/01/08/Shining-light-on-those-wintertime-blues

Filed Under: Blog, Trailtalk Articles Tagged With: Depression

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