There are days when I feel defeated, broken, and beaten down, but there’s one thing I can do that helps put everything into perspective. For me, I like to look back at my past struggles and where I came from in an effort to appreciate where I’m at in this current moment. How easily we... Continue Reading →
Meeting the Challenges and Uncertainty of Life Head On
Tomorrow I start my new job, in a new place, and in the middle of downtown Seattle. I am by myself on the opposite corner of the country from my hometown. This place feels notably different from the last few places I have worked. For one, I am right near downtown and I am starting... Continue Reading →
The Subtle Art of Being Alone With Your Thoughts
I think back over the past decade and can’t help but think about how much time was spent on my phone. It’s astonishing if I think about it. Communication and distractions on phones take up a large chunk of our lives and have fundamentally changed the routine of our days and our interactions with our... Continue Reading →
Finding Clarity and Purpose in the Fear of Death
I feel like I too easily grow complacent with life, as the drudgery of my routine experience ebbs and flows from day to day, month to month, and year to year. Everything has its place, is endlessly predictable, and seems to bleed on forever in the same old fashion. It’s so easy to seek comfortability,... Continue Reading →
Do You Ever Feel Lost in a Whirlwind of Contradictory Emotions?
I have a week left living in Flagstaff after three months here doing contract work and I am experiencing a whirlwind of emotion. A week from now, this charming small town, wonderfully tucked away in the Coconino Forest and Northern Arizona mountains will be but a memory. I have no complaints. It’s been a lovely... Continue Reading →
Are Your Physical Habits Making Your Mental Health Worse?
So often, our mental experiences spawn from physical habits we develop over time which reinforce our stress and anticipation. These habits can seem benign and necessary, but are in fact neither, for they only help set the groundwork for our anxieties to build. For me this week, I realized that much of my stress at... Continue Reading →
Healing Anxiety and Depression by Growing a Community
I watched a fantastic TEDtalk the other day dealing with the causes of the increasing prevalence of anxiety and depression amongst the Western nations. (Here is a link to the talk: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MB5IX-np5fE&t=393s) It really made me stop and think about our history and about how our societies have progressed through the Industrial and Information/Technological ages.... Continue Reading →
Learning to Recognize the Patterns of My Anxiety
Step one to solving any problem is admitting you have a problem, right? It seems so basic and yet can be so elusive if we lose focus. I was talking to my therapist this week about my anxiety and I told him that this week has been a decent week for me with managing stress... Continue Reading →
Feeling Lost in a Strange Place
It’s been a couple months since I moved to Arizona on my own and while I am elated by the sense of a new place and new adventures, I have recently been feeling homesick. It gets lonely here sometimes. I have new friends and coworkers I have met to keep me company but it’s not... Continue Reading →
For Those Who Are Not Kind to Themselves and Want to Change
The stress of starting a new job and being in a new location has been getting to me the past week or so. There are a lot of unknown variables going into a new situation. What is the workload going to be like? What are the people I work with going to be like? I... Continue Reading →