Mindfulness
fromPsychology Today
8 hours agoAn Exercise for Releasing Emotional Pain
Emotional pain from past experiences can lead to mental and physical health issues, but journaling can help express and alleviate this pain.
#therapeutic-journaling
#therapeutic-journaling
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#mental-health #psychology #self-awareness #personal-growth #anxiety #resilience #emotional-intelligence
Relationships
fromSilicon Canals
3 hours agoThe person in your life who never complains and handles everything isn't at peace - they learned so early that expressing a need cost them something that they stopped expressing needs entirely - Silicon Canals
Being perceived as 'low maintenance' can lead to neglecting personal needs and emotional struggles.
Careers
fromSilicon Canals
21 hours agoI was always the reliable one - the one who showed up, remembered, rearranged, and absorbed - and it took me until 58 to wonder whether anyone would have come looking if I'd stopped - Silicon Canals
Being the reliable one can lead to personal neglect and invisibility in relationships.
#mental-health
Mental health
fromSilicon Canals
1 day agoPsychology says people who feel a persistent low-level sadness they cannot attribute to any specific cause aren't depressed in the clinical sense - they're experiencing the accurate emotional response to a life that has drifted, incrementally and without announcement, away from the one they meant to live, and the sadness is not a symptom, it is a signal, and signals are not treated, they are followed - Silicon Canals
Low-grade melancholy may signal a disconnect between current life and expectations, rather than being a symptom of depression.
Careers
fromSilicon Canals
2 days agoI'm 66 and I spent forty years being extremely good at my job and last spring I realized I had optimized my entire existence for the approval of people I didn't particularly like - Silicon Canals
Professional dedication can sometimes mask a deeper need for approval from others, leading to personal sacrifices and a loss of self-identity.
#solitude
Writing
fromSilicon Canals
3 days agoI'm 66 and the most important relationship of my adult life has been with solitude - not as a consolation for the company I didn't have, but as the place where I have always been most honest, most creative, and most recognizably myself, and I spent too many years being embarrassed about that before I understood it was simply how I was built - Silicon Canals
Solitude allows for self-discovery and personal reflection, free from societal expectations and external pressures.
Mental health
fromSilicon Canals
8 hours agoThe quiet power of doing nothing - why highly sensitive people who protect their solitude aren't avoiding life, they're preserving the energy most people burn through by noon - Silicon Canals
Solitude is often undervalued in a culture that glorifies constant activity and productivity.
Mental health
fromSilicon Canals
13 hours agoPsychology says people who genuinely enjoy being alone aren't missing the need for connection - they've located the one condition under which their full self is available, and that condition happens to require an empty room, and there is nothing wrong with that except that the world was not designed with them in mind and has been making them feel guilty about it ever since - Silicon Canals
Society often mislabels the need for solitude as a deficiency, while those who recharge alone are more emotionally stable and focused.
Mental health
fromSilicon Canals
1 day agoPsychology says people who've mastered not caring aren't detached - they went through a period of caring so much it nearly broke them, and came out the other side with a much shorter list - Silicon Canals
Mastering the art of not caring comes from exhaustion, not indifference, after deeply caring and learning what deserves emotional energy.
Psychology
fromSilicon Canals
4 hours agoPsychology suggests people who become difficult to be around with age are almost always carrying an unprocessed grief - for the life they expected and didn't get, for the recognition they believed they had earned and never received, for the version of themselves they were supposed to become - and the difficulty is what that grief sounds like when it has been stored as resentment for long enough to become the way they experience everything - Silicon Canals
Unprocessed grief can manifest as bitterness and negativity, stemming from unfulfilled dreams and unmet expectations in life.
#self-compassion
Psychology
fromSilicon Canals
1 day agoResearch suggests that self-compassion after failure - not self-criticism - is what predicts whether someone tries again, which means being hard on yourself isn't discipline, it's the thing that ends it - Silicon Canals
Self-compassion, not self-criticism, fosters resilience and encourages individuals to recover and try again after failure.
Psychology
fromSilicon Canals
1 day agoPsychology suggests people who were never taken seriously as children grow into adults who either compulsively over-explain or go completely silent - and both responses are the same wound wearing different clothes - Silicon Canals
Over-explaining often stems from trauma and anxiety, leading to chronic justification of one's presence in conversations.
Mindfulness
fromSilicon Canals
1 day agoPsychology says the people who look back at the end of their lives with the least regret aren't the ones who made the fewest mistakes - they're the ones who were most fully present for the life they were actually living, who didn't spend it waiting for a better version to begin, who loved the people in front of them rather than the idea of people, and who understood, early enough to act on it, that this was always the whole thing and there was never going to be another one - Silicon Canals
Presence, not perfection, leads to a life without regret at the end.
Psychology
fromSilicon Canals
17 hours agoPsychology says the most damaging people in your life are rarely the obviously cruel ones - they're the ones who were kind just often enough to keep you doubting your own perception - Silicon Canals
Intermittent reinforcement creates confusion and self-doubt, making it difficult for individuals to recognize toxic relationships.
Mental health
fromSilicon Canals
9 hours agoPsychology says people who intentionally limit their social media use aren't more disciplined than everyone else - they became more honest about what the unlimited version was replacing, which was the interior life, the undirected thought, the boredom that produces things, and once they understood what was being replaced they didn't need discipline, they needed only the honesty to stop - Silicon Canals
Boredom can lead to meaningful engagement and creativity, rather than being a sign of lack of activity.
#emotional-intelligence
Mindfulness
fromSilicon Canals
5 days agoPsychology suggests people who stay calm during conflict aren't less emotional - they learned early that the person who controls the temperature of the room controls the outcome, and they stopped reacting and started choosing - Silicon Canals
Controlling emotional responses during conflict can significantly influence the outcome of the situation.
Psychology
fromSilicon Canals
2 days agoPsychology says the most emotionally strong people aren't the ones who never fall apart - they're the ones who fall apart privately, reassemble without fanfare, and never use their recovery as a reason for anyone else to feel guilty - Silicon Canals
Emotional strength involves acknowledging feelings and recovering privately, not denying vulnerability or pretending to be unbreakable.
Mindfulness
fromSilicon Canals
2 days agoPsychology says people who constantly research self-improvement but never start aren't lazy - they've confused the feeling of learning with the feeling of changing - Silicon Canals
Learning about self-improvement can create a false sense of progress without actual change in behavior.
Mindfulness
fromSilicon Canals
5 days agoPsychology says the most important life lesson isn't learning to make better decisions - it's learning to live peacefully with the ones you can't undo - Silicon Canals
Irreversible choices shape our lives and learning to coexist with them is crucial for mental well-being.
Mental health
fromSilicon Canals
3 days agoPsychology says people who mellow out as they get older aren't the ones who suffered less - they're the ones who decided, at some point and without always knowing they were deciding, that the suffering was going to make them more open rather than less, and that decision, remade daily in small ways that nobody notices, is the entire difference - Silicon Canals
Emotional responses to life's challenges can change over time, leading to greater peace and stability despite ongoing difficulties.
Psychology
fromSilicon Canals
3 days agoPsychology says people who feel like they've been living someone else's life aren't confused or ungrateful - they're often the ones who were so good at adapting in childhood that they never stopped adapting long enough to find out who they actually were - Silicon Canals
Adapting to others' needs in childhood can lead to feeling disconnected and lost in adulthood.
Mental health
fromSilicon Canals
4 days agoYou know a woman has lost her joy in life when she describes her days accurately and without feeling - when the words are all correct and the tone is completely flat and the account of her own life sounds like something being reported rather than lived, and she doesn't notice the flatness because she has been inside it long enough that it just sounds like how things are - Silicon Canals
Emotional flatness can creep in, making life feel like a series of tasks rather than meaningful experiences.
Psychology
fromSilicon Canals
4 days agoPsychology says people who apologize constantly without realizing it are more damaged than they appear - because they internalize blame and absorb conflict, a survival response from childhood, which never switches off even when they're safe - Silicon Canals
Excessive apologizing often stems from childhood experiences of mistreatment and can lead to chronic self-blame in adulthood.
Psychology
fromSilicon Canals
1 week agoResearch suggests the calmest people in any room aren't naturally calm - they once had the most chaotic inner world and built stillness the way someone builds a house around a wound, one deliberate wall at a time - Silicon Canals
Calm is constructed through experience and understanding, not an inherent trait or genetic gift.
fromTiny Buddha
2 months agoThe Power of Writing for Healing: An Embodied Approach - Tiny Buddha
When I was studying writing in college, my personal essay class was my favorite. I'd already been journaling for almost a decade, so I understood the power of exploring life experiences through the written word. Journaling wasn't immediately helpful for me. In my younger years, I often wrote to ruminate, beat myself up, count calories, or otherwise reinforce patterns that didn't support me. But as I worked through childhood trauma in therapy and through other approaches, my writing gradually became healthier.
Writing
Mindfulness
fromwww.theguardian.com
3 weeks agoMy depression felt creatively expansive. Now I've overcome it, how do I keep the meaningful parts? | Leading questions
Depression creates a false sense of depth and truth through darkness, but intensity and authenticity exist equally in joy, love, and light as they do in despair.
fromPsychology Today
1 month agoDon't 'Should' Yourself Out of Joy
The shoulds are a type of cognitive distortion (unhelpful thinking habit) that can lead to judgment. You may judge others, for example, 'They shouldn't act that way,' and yourself. In this post, we will focus on the shoulds you direct at yourself, though the strategies may be helpful for all cognitive distortions.
Mental health
fromPsychology Today
2 months agoKeep Your Pen Moving: 6 Science-Backed Benefits of Gratitude
You've just had a crummy day, and you wish you hadn't. Your first instinct is to pick up the phone, call your best friend, and complain. But you also know deep down that you want to be more positive. You know that complaining emphasizes the negative in your life, and you'd like to create a shift for yourself. You recall that you started a gratitude journal, and when you use it, you find you really enjoy noticing the good things more than the bad.
Mental health
Mental health
fromwww.theguardian.com
1 month agoThe one change that worked: When good things happen, I write them down and it's made me more optimistic
Persistent catastrophizing and chronic worry can be softened by noticing and recording small positive coincidences, which can shift outlook and reduce anxiety.
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