Category: <span>Stress</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

Goals Self-improvement Stress By Dave Barry, MFT

Appetite for Change

Appetites can be fickle.

Consider the Wikipedia description of appetite: “Appetite is the desire to eat food, sometimes due to hunger. Appealing foods can stimulate appetite even when hunger is absent, although appetite can be greatly reduced by satiety.”

So appetites are an innate sensation that serves the greater good to keep us fed and alive.

Unless it becomes easily swayed by that sugary donut that we don’t need. But oh, does it look tasty!

Our desires for change in other areas of life are a lot like our appetites. Read more

Anxiety Goals Stress Wit & Wisdom By Dave Barry, MFT

Wit & Wisdom – Neil Gaiman

“Perfection is like chasing the horizon. Keep moving.” – Neil Gaiman

Is there anything more futile than perfectionism? Being perfect is simply not attainable. We all know this. The rational part of our brain agrees that we cannot be perfect. But yet something remains deep inside ourselves that drive us to perfectionism. If we can be perfect than we can also achieve acceptance, accomplishment, assurance. Read more

Anxiety Stress Wit & Wisdom By Dave Barry, MFT

Wit & Wisdom – Corrie ten Boom

“Worry does not empty tomorrow of its sorrow, it empties today of its strength.” – Corrie ten Boom

The story we tell ourselves goes something like this:

Sure, I don’t like to worry, but if I do worry, at least I won’t be taken by surprise when the hardship happens. And if I’m not taken by surprise, then I may be able to cope with hardship. And maybe I may even be able to find a way to lessen the hardship. Or find a way to avoid the hardship altogether. So yes, worrying does me some good.

But that’s an inaccurate story. And if you were able to look back at a record of all the times your worries amounted to nothing, you would know without a shadow of a doubt that worrying does not serve the purpose we like to believe it does. More often than not, we are worrying to not be caught by surprise or solve hardships that never materialize. 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

Anger Management Anxiety Stress By Dave Barry, MFT

Don’t Be An Exploding Ant

I don’t typically read scientific articles about newly discovered insect species. But I couldn’t resist checking out the article titled, “Meet the ‘exploding ant,’ which sacrifices itself for its colony.”

For those of us who are not particularly fond of ants, it’s a bit concerning to learn about the colobopsis explodens, or the ‘exploding ants.’ These ants that dwell in the jungles of Southeast Asia have an interesting form of self-defense. They literally blow themselves up. But they really explode in an attempt to protect their colony. So it’s like a form of colonial-defense. The scientist points out that “these ants will not explode for any old reason. They only do it in response to an attack, a  “form of active self-sacrifice” that kills them. The ants need to “really be provoked.” 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?
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 …