Category: <span>Depression</span>

Confidence Depression Goals Self-improvement Stress By Dave Barry, MFT

The Orbital Perspective

50 years ago we landed on the moon. It was an extraordinary accomplishment on many levels in achieving the goal set by President Kenedy “of landing a man on the Moon and returning him safely to the Earth.“

Civic pride and scientific advancements were not the only outcomes of man’s exploration into space. One unexpected, but albeit, significant discovery was the change in perspective that comes from looking back and seeing planet Earth from space. This experience was felt first hand by the astronauts themselves and forever changed their minds. But anyone of us who looks at the photographs from space can’t help but be touched by a sense of awe as we see our home in all its glory, fragility, and wonder.  Read more

Anxiety Depression By Dave Barry, MFT

The Defiant Nevertheless

The residents of Whoville woke Christmas morning to find that their town had been ransacked the night before. The scheming Grinch was bent on robbing them of their joy of Christmas, and he attempted to do so by stealing all of the Christmas decorations and gifts from the entire town. But as dawn broke over Whoville the Grinch was shocked to hear the residents in the town below still singing joyfully. Welcome Christmas. Christmas Day…Welcome Christmas Bring your cheer! Read more

Anxiety Depression Stress By Dave Barry, MFT

Deconstructing Busy and Finding Rest

Let’s talk about something that we all typically struggle with (myself included): achieving rest. The title of this news report says it all: “Everybody is exhausted.”

Generally speaking, we need more sleep, are overstressed, and don’t take the time off work we need and deserve.

Even when we get downtime it is often not spent in a way that is refreshing. That’s because we rarely unplug and get away from things that buzz, ping, and beep. Our Social Media news feeds produce more info than our brains could ever possibly process. There are always more shows to binge-watch, and video games to get entirely immersed in, and email threads to reply to. There is nothing inherently wrong with any of these items (smartphones, Netflix, video games, work), but we must consider the effects of sensory overstimulation on our minds that were created to have a regular cadence of rest. Read more

Confidence Depression Self-improvement Wit & Wisdom By Dave Barry, MFT

Wit & Wisdom – Abraham Lincoln

“I do not think much of a man who is not wiser today than he was yesterday.” – Abraham Lincoln

 

We all make mistakes. We all fall down. Fail. Miss the mark. That’s an unavoidable part of life.

You can choose to believe that you are defined by these moments. Or, you can choose to believe you are defined by how you respond to these moments.

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Depression Relationships Self-improvement By Dave Barry, MFT

The Value of Memorializing

Not too long ago I had the chance to visit the 9/11 Memorial at the World Trade Center in New York City. Words fail to describe the sheer power of that site.

My son was with me that morning and I found myself stumbling through an appropriate way to explain to a child where we were and what we were witnessing. We talked about how all of those names etched in stone are names of people who are no longer with us. He was curious why there were two square holes with waterfalls in the middle of lower Manhattan. I had him look up and try and picture what once towered overhead. In delicate terms, I tried to describe how on a morning many years ago there was a great tragedy and those towers were badly damaged and came crashing down. We spoke about bravery and heroism. And we spoke about hurt and loss.

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Anxiety Confidence Depression Self-improvement By Dave Barry, MFT

Thanks For The Feedback

Jason got his essay returned to him with several corrections and suggestions written by the teacher in red ink. He got a ‘B-’ on the assignment. He was hoping for an ‘A’.Katherine was giving a presentation at work and she noticed Lilly spent most of the time distracted by her phone and not listening to what was said. Afterward, Katherine’s boss told her how much she appreciated all the hard work Katherine had put into the presentation.Doug made dinner for his family but his youngest son refused to eat it saying that it tasted “yucky” and demanded to have Mac ‘N Cheese instead.Jackson told his wife how much he liked his wife’s new hairdo.Marita told her husband that she feels alone in the relationship and that she thinks her husband is always preoccupied with his job.

Feedback is all around us. Each and every day we face a barrage of feedback, both wanted and unwanted. Some of it is flat-out wrong, while others can be spot-on. There’s no avoiding feedback. We simply have the choice of how we respond to it. Read more

Anxiety Confidence Depression Self-improvement By Dave Barry, MFT

Erasing The Past

I recently read a news article about a tattoo artist in Iowa who offers a free service to remove old tattoos that depict racist images. Those who take him up on his offer express deep remorse and regret getting the hateful tattoos many years ago. Racially divisive images once represented a belief they were passionate about, but now symbolize a gross error in thinking and a mark of shame.

This tattoo artist in Iowa is offering a valuable service. An opportunity to erase reminders of the past that prevent some from living life to the fullest presently. One customer had a racial symbol erased and replaced with the name of his granddaughter. Erasing a hateful image that remained for years as a shameful reminder of foolishness and replacing it with a loving name that is the pride of this grandfather.

Transforming shame to pride. Read more

Confidence Depression Self-improvement Wit & Wisdom By Dave Barry, MFT

Wit & Wisdom – Galway Kinnell

“Sometimes it is necessary to reteach a thing its loveliness.” Poet, Galway Kinnell

We are all born with a value that is priceless. That value does not change over time. Only the perception of that value does.
Life has a way of making us think that our value is tarnished. Maybe, if we are honest with ourselves, we also fall into the trap of devaluing others. Read more

Anxiety Depression Stress By Dave Barry, MFT

The Problem With Complaining

It was recently that time of the year to change the clocks. Spring forward one hour. The reason I knew daylight savings time was approaching was that my news feed started to get littered with articles and posts all bemoaning this inconvenience. Complaining about changing the clocks seems to be a twice a year tradition that has become so predictable you can, well, set your clocks to it. Could our collective hatred towards daylight savings time be the last thing we as a country are unified about?
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Depression Goals Self-improvement By Dave Barry, MFT

Christmas Decorations in March

The first couple of weeks in January are always a bit sad for me. The festive lights and decorations that seem to be everywhere through the holidays start to come down. Well, most of them. Some houses suffer from Chronic Holiday Decoration Procrastination. The strings of lights and the lawn inflatables that light up the street and inspired so much joy in December seem to be oddly out of place as the weeks go by in the New Year. Read more

Global Leadership Summit – 2023 – Day 2

As I mentioned in my previous post, the Global Leadership Summit is a two day event hosted outside of Chicago. It brings …

Global Leadership Summit – 2023 – Day 1

Am I a leader? If so, what and who am I leading? And how good of a job am I doing at leading? If I’m honest, these are …

Non-Zero Day

Zero Days. We’ve all had them. And if you’ve had enough Zero Days you know that they can lead to despair. The …