Photo by Jacob Wackerhausen

I’ve been writing my blog articles for five years now, and looking back at them, I’m noticing a pattern, which is: Choose a problem and offer strategies to resolve it.

That’s not a bad approach, and it’s the one recommended by writing mentors. Based on readership and feedback, it’s also helpful.

But sometimes it’s a good idea to focus on what you already have. In other words, assets instead of deficits. Today, I’ll show you how to take advantage of that and reduce burnout.

The Deficit Trap

Ask yourself this question:

“How am I doing right now in terms of my goals, life trajectory, and overall self-development?”

Take some time to answer. Jot it down.

How did you do? What’s the ratio of negative comments to positive ones? How many items did you list that refer to deficits, and how many to assets?

In other words, what was your primary focus: What you’ve done well, or what you’re lacking and not doing well?

Our natural go-to is usually negative. We look for what needs improvement. Not a bad thing because ignoring deficits can backfire. Sometimes significantly!

At the same time, it’s easy to get caught in the “deficit trap,” which always spotlights what’s wrong. And in doing that, ignore your assets: improvements, achievements, skills, and personal strengths.

If our negativity bias isn’t enough to tip the scale, our current hustle culture will do it for us.

Hustle Culture

The “hustle culture” broadcasts daily that you need to work harder, longer, take on more and more, and do it all well.

Social media is the handmaiden of the hustle culture because it screams at you that you aren’t as successful as someone else, that you aren’t getting the same great results others are getting, and that you need to do more.

It’s a culture of extremism that leads to stress and burnout.

And it reminds you daily of your deficits, with small reprieves here and there when you achieve a goal. However, when you do that, new demands flood in, leaving you no time before you’re back on the treadmill, running at breakneck speed.

Maybe your life isn’t that way, and if not, it’s a good thing. But no one in our current culture is immune to the pressure to perform.

So what’s the answer?

Shift your mindset from the deficit trap to an asset-driven approach based on your values and strengths. Here’s how.

Identify Your Personal Assets

Personal assets are what you already have that will help you choose what you do, how you do it, and what it means to you.

Even if your life circumstances – for example, your job – are not optimal for you, you can use your assets to improve not only how you do it, but how you feel about it and what it means for you.

There are four types of assets to consider. Here they are.

1. Skills

What do you naturally do well or have learned through effort and experience?

These are concrete skills you acquired, such as leadership, management, bookkeeping, plumbing, or computer coding. List them all. You likely have more skills than you realize, and seeing them will broaden your view of what you’re good at and what interests you. That last phrase is important and needs repeating: what you’re good at and what interests you.

2. Traits

This category includes personal traits such as persistence, working well with others, empathy, kindness, insightfulness, curiosity, humor, creativity, organization, conscientiousness, honesty, and any others that apply to you.

Be careful you don’t shift to deficits while doing this exercise by adding a “but” to anything you list. We’re focusing on positives right now.

3. Values

Values are assets because they provide meaning and guide your choices of activity and behavior. What is most important to you?

There are four parts to this question:

1. What behavior is acceptable to you?
2. What provides meaning and initiates motivation for you?
3. Who do you aspire to be?
4. What values are non-negotiable?

This exercise could be a full project in itself, but for now, jot down what comes to mind easily and let it rest for a few days. You can refine it later. What’s important is recognizing that your values are personal assets that guide your actions.

4. Experiences

What have you accomplished?

List challenges you’ve navigated, insights you’ve acquired, and any areas of resilience you’ve achieved. This is a list all of us should make more often to remind ourselves of what we’ve succeeded at and learned.

It’s easy to forget about these achievements when you focus on what you lack.

How to Use Your Assets

Now that you’ve completed the exercise, do you have a different picture of yourself and how you’re doing? Hopefully so.

Let’s capitalize on that. Using all of this information, you can reassess where you are and decide if your current life is aligned with what you’re good at, what you value, and what you aspire to be.

Not someone else’s version, and not in comparison to anyone else. You are your own measuring stick.

Given your current life circumstances, how can you apply this information right now?

If you have a job that you don’t love, is there some aspect of it you can use to accomplish something that will give you satisfaction and reflect your assets? Maybe a particular skill you’re building, or an opportunity to use your personal traits to provide value.

In the meantime, if you don’t like where you are, you can start thinking about what you would like to do instead and begin exploring possibilities.

If you’re caught up in hustle culture and have ignored your relationships, you might cut back on work and spend more time with family and friends.

Hustle culture is detrimental to your health, both mental and physical.

We’re not meant to “do it all,” and trying to push ourselves to do that doesn’t bring true happiness.

It usually pulls us away from our most important values, not to mention creating burnout, sometimes permanently.

Do One Thing Well

One way to work toward defeating the deficit trap is to focus on one thing with an improvement mindset.

You can attach an end goal or result, but the real intrinsic value is in the process of doing it and feeling the rewards of small steps forward.

It can be something related to work or something you would just enjoy. Maybe improving a work-related or future-work skill could be a good choice. Or something like learning a language, or cataloging all your family photos and creating photo albums.

It could be something more intimate, like showing kindness to your spouse, kids, or colleagues at work, twice a day, every day, for a month.

Choose something that uses your natural and acquired assets.

By noting those as you’re working on something, you can approach your activity with more motivation because you’re building, not deleting.

Make sure whatever you choose is aligned with your values. That will provide more staying power and increase your satisfaction as you proceed.

The odd thing about goals is that they give us an anchor to work toward, but once we reach them, our satisfaction wanes quickly, and we’re on to the next goal.

The real pleasure is in the process of becoming. And when you know that, you don’t mind mistakes and setbacks because they’re part of your growth journey.

A Recommendation

This article was prompted by a podcast featuring Brad Stulberg, whose new book is The Way of Excellence. I’ve purchased it and will let you know how it is.

In the meantime, focus on your assets and make use of them. You’ll feel more inspired.

That’s all for today.

Have a great two weeks!

All my best,

Barbara

Photo by Curated Lifestyle for Unplash+

It’s easy to start a new habit. But not so easy to stick with it. That takes work, time, and consistency. Most people would say it takes willpower.

But what exactly is so hard about it? What gets in the way?

In a word? Resistance.

Resistance is always present. It pops up any time you pursue something creative, valuable, or something that requires consistent attention.

It’s that voice that says, “Let me put this off today. I’m not up to it. I deserve a break. I can do it tomorrow.”

That voice is always looking for an opening, and if you give it just a small one, it shoves its way through the door and takes up residence.

I love this quote from Steven Pressfield about resistance. He says:

Resistance never gets easier. It’s diabolical. It’s like the alien that keeps evolving. It gets more subtle and stronger.

He’s right! It throws our dreams overboard, trashes our good intentions, and never sleeps. It’s always waiting in the wings.

So, how do you deal with that?

You can meet it head-on and push through. That works if you’re in the right mindset and have a heavy dose of willpower, but that’s something you can’t rely on. Willpower comes and goes. It’s not reliable.

A better solution is working under the radar. You have to outsmart resistance. Let’s take a look.

Getting Under the Radar

To outsmart resistance, you have to focus on two things:

1. Keeping the right mindset
2. Showing up when you fail

Let’s go through them.

The Right Mindset

To get in the right mindset, remember these three facts.

1. The antidote to resistance is taking action.

Action, in this case, is any small step forward. Not necessarily big, sweeping actions, but small, tiny actions. Actions create energy, which in turn produces desire and ultimately strengthens willpower. Willpower is a result of action, not the other way around.

2. Secondly, what you do repetitively will become a habit.

Habits require much less energy to maintain once they’re set. Repetition of small actions is more important than occasional leaps.

3. Third, the longer a habit is maintained, the easier it is to keep it going.

You feel the rewards and have a sense of satisfaction that keeps you interested and involved.

Keeping these three facts in mind, what do you do when you start falling off? That’s the big question.

Scale Down

The best advice I’ve heard and used myself to get past this problem comes from James Clear in his book, Atomic Habits.

When you don’t feel like doing that thing you’ve promised yourself you’ll do, he suggests that you “reduce the scope.”

Let’s use exercise as an example, because it’s a habit many people initiate at the beginning of a new year.

Let’s suppose you decide you’re going to walk two miles five days a week outside. You’re excited about it. You even have a treadmill in case the weather is bad, so you can keep going. You schedule it out on your calendar, and you’re ready to go!

The first week is great! You did it, and you’re feeling good and proud of yourself.

Then the second week begins. After four walks that week, you can’t bring yourself to get out there for that fifth one. You don’t feel like it. You’ve got too many things to do. You argue with yourself all day about it and decide it’s just not in the cards today.

Okay, that’s just one day. You’ll do it tomorrow. That’ll work!

Then the next day comes, and you hesitate again. Because you missed a day, you feel like you’ve blown it already, but you still hang on to the idea.

Another day goes by, and another, and by the end of next week, you haven’t walked at all, and that’s it. You’re done. You give it up.

You tell yourself you’ll get back to it next month. But we know what happens, right?

Several factors here contributed to that failure.

1. Your initial intention was too big in scope.

Five days a week is a lot, especially if you already have a busy schedule. The distance is also too much. Two miles requires more energy than you might have, especially at the outset.

Start with something that’s much less time-consuming, takes less effort, and you won’t dread once the original excitement wears off.

You could walk three times a week for just 15 minutes, and no more, until that habit is well established. Or you could scale down even more and walk five minutes. Then, you slowly increase in small increments when you’re ready.

You have to choose actions that sit just below your resistance radar. It has to be easy, enjoyable, and small enough. Scale down enough so it’s doable without too much effort.

The goal is to keep the habit alive until it’s installed.

2. You’re operating from an all-or-nothing approach.

You either do it all, or you do nothing. You walk five days a week or no days. You walk two miles, or none.

You recognize the perfectionistic belief here, right? You do it perfectly or not at all.

Habits don’t operate this way.

When you create a habit, you have to build resilience. That means figuring out how to deal with failures without letting them throw you off your game.

It doesn’t matter if you do it perfectly. And, in fact, if you aim for that, you’ll sabotage yourself.

3. Don’t skip more than one day.

Another factor to consider is that when you skip a day of performing a habit but return to it the next day, you’re more likely to keep it up. You stay with it.

But if you skip one day, and then another, you’re more likely to miss a third day and then quit.

I’ve found that there have been times I’ve skipped a whole week of exercise for various reasons, like being sick or overwhelmed with work, but because the habit is pretty well established, I get right back to it and keep it going.

I would, however, caution you about the danger of that. If you’re prone to perfectionism, skipping is risky. Better to scale way down in scope, but keep at it.

James Clear describes a guy in his book who started his exercise habit by going to the gym for many days in a row, but only staying for five minutes. His first goal was to establish the habit of showing up. He didn’t even exercise. Once he was used to that, he added working out to his routine.

You might laugh – I did – but it’s ingenious.

The Main Points to Remember

Let’s summarize the key takeaways here, so you have them in mind as you create your new habits.

1. The first goal for establishing any new habit is to show up. Showing up can be very small in scope. Five minutes will do. Make it something you won’t resist because it’s so easy.
2. The key to success is consistency. What you do repeatedly will stick over time and reduce your resistance. The benefits you feel, the sense of accomplishment, and the rewards will make it easier to keep going.
3. Scale back to the smallest action when you are unable to comply with your intended activity fully. Doing something will keep your habit alive. James Clear says, “The secret to winning is knowing how to lose.”
4. Keep a running list of the benefits and rewards for the habit you’re working on.
5. Stay away from perfectionism and all-or-nothing thinking. Use your setbacks to propel you forward. Start again, no matter what.

If you’d like to know more, listen to Mel Robbins’ podcast interviewing James Clear. It’s called The Science of Making & Breaking Habits: How to Change Your Life in 1 Month. He provides an excellent summary of the main points made in Atomic Habits. It’s great!

Here’s the link: ​https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8dHEG7WxR4c​

That’s all for today!

Hope you have a great week and your New Year is off to a good start!

All my best,

Barbara

Photo by Jordan González for Unsplash+

It’s that time of year again when most of us consider what we want to accomplish in the year ahead. If you’re like me, you create a mental goal list and use a method to remember it, like writing it down, developing task lists, or putting everything on a calendar.

I do this every year, but looking back at last year’s list, I find myself laughing and shaking my head because I didn’t do half of it. It was way too ambitious, and I got lost in other things that cropped up as the year progressed.

I’ve decided to try something different this year that you might like to use yourself if you haven’t been successful in achieving your goals. It’s a four-step plan, and it’s not elaborate. It’s simple.

I’m borrowing the first three steps from Marie Forleo. She asks herself three questions each year before setting any new goals, which clarifies and lays the groundwork for where to start. Here they are.

Step #1: Review what you did well this past year.

Ask yourself what you achieved and felt good about this past year.

Make a list. Include accomplishments that are work-related, personal, relationship-oriented, or any particular event or experience that added value to you or someone else.

You don’t want to leave anything out.

Most of us generally think first about what we didn’t accomplish. Our natural tendency is to dwell on what we did wrong, or what we didn’t do that we should have.

We have a bias toward negativity.

When I first looked at my 2024 goal list, I immediately saw what I hadn’t accomplished and chastised myself. If you’re a perfectionist, you likely do that with everything.

But when you make a list of all that you did do, some of which wasn’t pre-planned but is nevertheless valuable, you quiet that negative voice and generate some energy to keep striving.

You probably did more than you think; just not what you originally planned.

Step #2: Review your mistakes and what you learned from them.

Now that you’ve recognized your accomplishments, you can review what goals you didn’t reach, habits that got in the way, and mistakes you made.

When you go through this exercise, do it with some emotional distance so that you can pull out the lessons you learned as opposed to beating yourself up.

This step helps you recognize where you need to change and how to make those changes.

Your list doesn’t need to be super elaborate, but don’t shy away from being honest with yourself so that you can use the information to improve this year.

You’ll find it easier to be clear about obstacles that prevent you from succeeding, and remove them next time around.

Step #3: Decide what you need to let go of.

Aha! This step is essential, especially if you tend to get overly excited and enthusiastic about new goals.

You know the routine. You sit down with your list, begin imagining all kinds of wonderful goals and outcomes, imagine how good you’ll feel reaching them, get all juiced up, and start with a bang.

Then, a few months in (or less), you’re already off track, have abandoned some of the goals, maybe feel frustrated, and those gnarly bad habits creep in, like procrastination. Before you know it, your goals have flatlined.

If you want to succeed at anything, you need to streamline your goals and activities so your attention and interest are captured and remain steady.

You have to balance your initial enthusiasm with what’s actually possible.

That means pruning your activities, involvements, mental distractions, and emotional baggage that get in the way.

I personally find this step the hardest. What if you want to do a lot of things and are good at them? Can’t you swing it?

Not usually, and if you pull it off, you’ll probably pay the price in some other area of your life. You have to be choosy and bring your aspirations down to earth.

What’s truly possible, and what do you need to let go of or remove to make it happen?

This step includes both emotional and concrete issues related to the goals themselves.

What are you ignoring or not facing that’s screaming at you and keeping you stuck?

Once you’ve answered these two questions, you’re ready for goal-setting.

Step #4: Make one goal.

Here’s where you are now:

1. You know your assets and how you’ve achieved them.
2. You identified your mistakes and blind spots and learned from them, so you won’t repeat them.
3. You’ve identified obstacles and streamlined your activities so you’re free to pursue new goals.

Your next step is to create your goal list. However, let’s try something different this year. Here’s what I propose, and it’s something I’m doing too.

Work in two-month segments. Don’t make an annual goal list. Identify one single goal you’d like to achieve in the first two months of the year. So by February 28, 2026.

Write the goal down with specifics. Start from the end and work backward.

What will your accomplishment look like? How will it add value for you, and how will you feel when you reach it? In other words, what’s your why?

Once you know that, work backward and list the actual tasks you need to do to reach your goal. Schedule them weekly, and then go through each week daily.

Don’t allow yourself to set another goal until you complete this one.

You may need to adjust the timeline as you go because unexpected things can set you back.

It’s also necessary to keep an eye out for obstacles coming from you, such as procrastination or letting frustration get in the way.

Stick with your plan. And keep it simple!

Why This Approach Works

Two months isn’t so far out that you feel like you have a lot of time.

When you make an annual goal, you can fool yourself into thinking you have lots of time. And as time goes on, you don’t do the actual tasks you need to succeed. Time gets away from you.

Two months is easier to manage.

Secondly, this approach rewards you much sooner. Getting results is a big motivator. If you accomplish something you set out to do, you’re much more likely to tackle something else.

Third, it’s easier to keep your attention and interest intact when the distance in front of you is shorter. It’s a tighter pocket to work within, so your energy is conserved.

Things to Consider

As you create your single goal, keep these issues in mind.

1. Make sure the goal you set is achievable within two months. Start small. Make it something you know how to do or can easily learn.
2. Make it concrete and specific. Use numbers, tasks, outcome measures, or whatever you need so you know exactly what you’ll be doing.
3. Use an accountability system. Share it with someone, get an accountability partner, or join an accountability group.
4. Track your progress weekly. I can’t emphasize this one enough. If you don’t track your work, you’re much less likely to succeed.

I’m going to do this exercise with you and report back on how it’s going. In other words, you can hold me accountable. I might be sorry😊, but hopefully not, and I hope you’ll join me.

My two-month goal is to complete a mini-course. Specifically, write it, record it, create handouts, and develop a marketing plan. I already have most of the content, so two months should be doable.

Feel free to share your two-month goal with me so I can cheer you on! And by the way, it can be anything. Doesn’t need to be elaborate.

At the end of two months, we can share what we all worked on and how it went.

That’s all for today!

Happy New Year!

All my best,

Barbara

Photo by Emma Simpson on Unsplash

If your mornings feel stressful, you may need a new morning routine.

You might think morning routines are a luxury, but they pay off. The benefits outweigh the time spent. They don’t have to be lengthy or complex. You can individualize and streamline yours to fit your time constraints.

Today, we’ll review the components and benefits of an effective morning routine, along with a list of activities you can choose from to create your own personalized version.

The Three Necessary Components of a Morning Routine

These three components come from Charles Duhigg, the guru on habit formation. If you’ve not read his book, The Power of Habit, I’d highly recommend it.

1. Anticipation

Rather than rolling out of bed and jumping into a flurry of activity to get yourself out the door on time, a morning routine should include time to anticipate and plan for the day ahead.

Activities associated with this are:

• Going over your to-do list
• Organizing your calendar
• Adopting an attitude of positivity
• Reminding yourself to stay flexible
• Scheduling some space for breaks
• Considering what you can accomplish

However you do it, the goal of this part of your routine is to set yourself up for success and to review how you can do that realistically.

2. Relaxation

Activities related to this component help you create a calm, thoughtful mindset. You want to go into the day relaxed and ready to pivot when necessary.

For many people, anxiety is highest in the morning, which is a normal physiological response built into our brains. By including calming activities in your morning routine, you can reset that response and reduce anxiety before stepping fully into your day.

Activities associated with this component are:

• Meditation
• Having some quiet time with a cup of coffee or tea
• Drinking water and hydrating your body and brain
• Exercising
• Writing in your journal
• Creating a gratitude list

3. Connection

The last component is establishing a connection with someone or something. Activities to create connections include:

• Eating breakfast with family members
• Walking your dog
• Chatting with a friend over text
• Reading something that inspires you or has a spiritual message that connects you to your faith or something larger than yourself

It’s any activity that connects you to others, provides a sense of community and belonging, and helps you connect with yourself.

A Sample Morning Routine

Here’s my morning routine, which has morphed over the years depending on my job and whether kids were at home. It’ll help give you an idea of what you can construct for yourself.

Currently, I work for myself and have no kids at home, so it’s easier. Even so, you can include all of these elements in a shorter routine.

1. Make coffee, sit on my bed, and review my daily to-do list. A note here is that I find it better to make the to-do list the night before, so I’ve already thought through what needs to be prioritized. You might feel more pressured if you wait until morning.
2. I currently meditate for 30 to 45 minutes, but I used to get in only 10 to 15 minutes, which was fine.
3. Write a quick gratitude list.
4. Read 2 or 3 paragraphs of something inspiring.
5. Drink a full glass of water.
6. Eat a small, highly nutritious breakfast (not heavy).
7. Four days a week, I walk 2 to 3 miles. I used to do this in the late afternoons and weekends when I had a job that required me to be in the office early.

My whole routine takes a good hour to two if I’m walking. You can shrink yours down to 30 minutes or less if you need to, and still get amazing benefits.

Here are some of the most common benefits.

Benefits of a Morning Routine

1. Being proactive instead of reactive.

When you start the day knowing your goals and tasks, the timeline for completing them, and when you can take breaks, you have a sense of control over yourself and your work. Even if you need to pivot, you can stay flexible while remaining in control.

2. Emotional regulation.

Creating a calm mindset before starting your day increases your ability to monitor and regulate your emotions, both internally and in response to your environment. You may still react, but with more control and less intensity. Regular meditation, in particular, will help you with this.

3. More Organized and Intentional

Pre-planning your days and tracking your tasks throughout the week helps you step back and see the big picture, enabling you to act more intentionally and with greater accuracy.

Viewing the overall landscape rather than becoming overwhelmed by stress-filled demands is one of the main advantages of a regular morning routine. It allows you to remain mindful as you traverse the demands of each day while keeping your emotions in check.

4. Reduced Stress

When you have more self-control, stay organized, and approach your day with a positive attitude, you’re less stressed overall. You can also better analyze your work and activity load to make improvements.

5. Increased Energy

Three activities in particular that help stabilize your energy are drinking water, exercising, and meditating. When you incorporate any of these into your morning routine, you start your day with more energy and can sustain it longer.

Eating a nutritious breakfast helps stabilize blood sugar and conserve energy.

Many people aren’t aware that their brains are 70% water. When you aren’t sufficiently hydrated, you can’t think well. Drinking a glass of water soon after you get up in the morning will help you mobilize your thoughts for the day.

Exercise increases the action of neurotransmitters – dopamine, serotonin, and norepinephrine – tied to mood stabilization, motivation, and energization.

6. Development of Other Good Habits

A regular morning routine is a keystone habit. Keystone habits are those that unintentionally lead to the formation of other good habits.

For example, if you cultivate calm every day in your morning routine, you become a better listener, negotiator, soothing presence, and friend. Your relationships might get a lift.

It’s like exercise. When you exercise regularly, you automatically eat better, get up earlier, and take care of your body.

Keystone habits create positive energy that initiates other good habits without effort.

7. Positivity, Confidence, and Happiness

Effective morning routines don’t make problems disappear, but they enable you to see them in a more positive light and approach them successfully. When you feel more grounded and connected to yourself, your confidence naturally arises.

You can see the silver linings in stressful or difficult situations. You can use them to push up rather than sink in.

You have a sense of self that extends beyond what you do or what happens around you, which improves your overall performance. It’s a win-win.

How To Start

If you don’t already have a morning routine, select one or two of the activities we’ve reviewed today and begin incorporating them into it.

Don’t do everything at once. Start slow and build up. You don’t want to overwhelm yourself or add too much activity, which can create stress instead.

You must be mindful of your time constraints, so work within that. Start with the activity you have the least resistance to. If sitting quietly with a cup of coffee for ten minutes is the most you can do initially, start with that.

After a few weeks, you’ll enjoy it so much you don’t want to miss it. Then slowly add other activities.

Choose a day to start and monitor how you feel each day. You can tweak as you go. And, if you already have a morning routine, you might be ready to upgrade it. Either way, enjoy your morning oasis!

That’s all for today.

I hope you have a wonderful Christmas or the holiday of your choice! I’ll be back to you in the first week of 2026.

All my best,

Barbara

Photo by Jacob Wackerhausen

Too much stress destroys your ability to focus. It’s like a grenade shattering your attention as you scramble to keep yourself steady.

Today, we’re reviewing the positive and negative effects of stress on your ability to focus and the most effective method for sharpening and controlling your attention.

We’ll start with a brief description of the types of attention.

The Three Types of Attention

In her book Peak Mind, Dr. Amishi Jha defines three categories of attention. It’s worth knowing these because they’ll help you rein in your attention based on the type you need.

1. Selective Attention (Flashlight)

Selective attention is the type you usually think of when talking about focusing. It narrows in on something and spotlights it. Meanwhile, distractions are muted so you can concentrate without interruptions. It functions like a flashlight with a steady, narrow beam.

You can use selective attention to focus on something in your outside environment, or turn it inward to focus on your internal environment, including thoughts, feelings, your body, and memories.

2. Alerting System (Floodlight)

Now imagine your flashlight shining with a wide beam, like a floodlight. You use this type of attention when you enter a room and scan it to get a panoramic view of what’s there and what’s going on.

Alerting attention focuses on the present moment. It’s broad, diffuse, and receptive. You use it in social settings, when walking into a meeting, or when brainstorming. You’re ready to pivot based on what’s happening right now.

Again, like selective attention, alerting attention can be applied to both your external and internal environments.

3. Executive Functioning (Juggler)

Dr. Jha likens executive attention to being a juggler. A juggler has many balls in the air and can switch attention back and forth quickly and with precision to keep them going without dropping any of them.

Executive attention derives its name from its reliance on executive functions.

An executive creates and manages a system to help you reach your goals. He oversees, monitors, and coordinates all aspects of the system to maximize results.

We’ll come back to a strategy that helps you sharpen all three types of attention, but first, let’s look at the effects stress has on them.

The Effects of Stress

Let’s start with several facts you need to know up front.

First, your ability to attend doesn’t fully mature until the age of 25, as does your brain.

That means you might mistake having ADHD during your teens when, in reality, it’s a matter of your attentional system not yet being fully developed. Not always, of course.

Now for some sobering news:

Your brain and attentional system start declining by age 35, and sometimes earlier.

Ugh! That means you need to learn how best to preserve both to slow down the decline.

Now for stress.

The upside is that you actually need a certain amount of stress to attend. In other words, you need a burst of energy and some urgency to kick your mind into gear enough to get going. Dopamine is part of this process.

On the other hand, once you reach a certain level of attention and keep applying stress, you get diminishing returns. Your attention starts to fade, making it harder to maintain.

This shift of attention due to increased stress is called the Yerkes-Dodson Law. See the diagram below for an illustration of how this works.

You’ve likely experienced this. You get motivated, start working on something, and attend more easily as you get into the flow. But at a certain point, you’ve reached the peak of your energy, and your attention begins to decline.

Often, we push ourselves beyond this point and keep going, but the benefits decrease. If you continue, you get fewer and fewer returns.

Stress peaks when you become overwhelmed and have to put in more and more effort to keep up with your tasks.

It also rises when you’re struggling with internal issues that cause worry, anxiety, or mood disturbances.

In short, two primary obstacles to maintaining attention are:

1. Time-related stressors
2. Emotions

Here are some strategies to help with both.

#1: Single-Mindedness

Think of attention as a strong Wi-Fi signal. When it’s working well, you get a clear picture on your computer, your TV streaming works, and there’s no fluctuation. But when it’s spotty, it goes on and off rapidly. You could be Zooming with someone, and their image freezes for a moment, or what they’re saying is out of sync with their mouth movements.

This process occurs when you’re multitasking or when you’re constantly interrupted while working.

The more focused and single-minded you are when doing just one thing, the less stressful it becomes. Not to mention, you perform better.

Everyone knows this, but we easily forget it. Practicing this daily helps retrain your mind to focus.

If you spend a lot of time online, you’ve probably weakened your ability to focus on one thing at a time, especially if you’re doing several things simultaneously. You might be watching TV, scrolling through Facebook, and having a conversation all at once.

This type of activity will eventually leave you unable to attend to any single-minded pursuit for any length of time.

Do one thing at a time.

#2: Create Emotional Space

Emotions can help you attend. If you have a strong interest in something, you do it easily. But emotions can also be a major detractor.

You’re trying to finish a report at work, but your mind keeps reverting to worry about one of your kids. You’re having catastrophic fantasies about what could go wrong. Finally, you give up and take a break because you can’t concentrate.

Our minds can’t tell the difference between doing something and imagining it. The stress is the same in either case.

So if you’re worrying and imagining worst-case scenarios, your stress response will drain your attention, as if something were actually happening around you.

In other words, emotions expend a lot of energy and effectively distract you from attending to what you want to focus on.

The antidote to all of this is to create emotional space so you can control how you respond to both internal and external stimuli. You can best achieve this through mindfulness meditation.

If you haven’t tried meditation and aren’t particularly enthused about it, don’t say no yet.

Dr. Jha cites extensive research showing that 12 minutes of mindfulness meditation per day, four days a week, engages all three types of attention and maintains it even under stress.

The method used during the research was to simply watch your breath, sitting quietly for 12 minutes. I’ve attached the specific directions so that you can try it.

I’ve meditated daily for many years. I remember when I started, I felt the effects immediately, which was helpful because it motivated me to keep going. But even more motivating are the cumulative effects you continue to experience the longer you practice.

You reach a point where you feel a sense of space in your mind, regardless of what’s happening around you. Because of that, you can respond to anything more intentionally.

That doesn’t mean you don’t get stressed out, but it happens less often, less intensely, and to a lesser degree.

For the very little time it takes, the positive effects are remarkable.

There are additional benefits beyond attention, including mood stabilization, creativity, patience, calmness, tolerance, and resilience.

#3: Remove Stressors

The last strategy is to work on removing stressors instead of stress.

Stress is your response to a stressor, not the other way around.

To reduce stress, you need to cut out the things that cause it – bad relationships, the wrong jobs, self-destructive behaviors, too little sleep, poor eating habits, and so on.

Take an inventory. What’s stressing you out most? List them and prioritize them. Then decide which of them you can remove and make a plan to do that.

Even if it takes time to remove a stressor, simply identifying it and making a plan will help.

Last Note

We’re approaching the holidays at lightning speed, but hopefully you’ll have some time after them to think about and try some of these ideas.

Don’t forget to check out the attached meditation instructions. I’ve also listed a few previous articles that might help.

That’s all for today!

Have a great two weeks!

All my best,

Barbara

Suggested Reading:
Mindfulness Meditation Instructions.pdf
How to Effectively Deal With Stressors
Stress-Release Strategies That Help You Avoid Burnout

Photo by Pablo Merchán Montes​ for Unsplash+

Ask yourself this question:

What would happen if you were suddenly unable to use your thinking brain and had to rely solely on your emotions to run your life?

It would be a s*** show!

Really, it would be disastrous, and that’s because emotions, although necessary and valuable, are not reliable sources of information. They have significant impact and purpose, but they can’t supplant critical thinking. And, by nature, they often lead us astray.

On the other hand, they are very necessary. Thinking without emotions would also be disastrous. We need a balance of both.

Today, let’s talk about the purpose of emotions, what they do, and what they can’t do. And along with that, how to best use them.

Let’s start with what emotions offer, and what they don’t.

Five Purposes

The first thing to remember when thinking about emotions is that they aren’t good or bad. They just are. What you do with them is what matters.

So don’t suppress them. You need them. Let them come up, and then you can decide how to respond.

Here are five reasons we need our emotions.

1. Our Natural Alarm System

Emotions are the product of our more primitive brain. They are the brain’s mechanism for warning us of danger that could threaten our survival.

Tied to the amygdala in the brain, emotions tell us when to pay attention.

At the same time, the primitive brain can be somewhat catastrophic and blow things out of proportion.

So when you get those niggling feelings of distress coming from your emotional brain, you have to review them mindfully to keep things in proportion to reality.

2. A Source of Drive and Energy

Emotions are like the spark plugs in your car. You can have a super engine, a full tank of gas, and everything in working order, but if you don’t start the car using those spark plugs, you’re not going anywhere.

Emotions supply the energy and drive to take action.

You have an idea, you make a plan, but you won’t be able to carry either of those out if you don’t put some emotional energy behind it.

Your emotions provide the sustained interest, the push to act, and the sense of accomplishment you get when you’re successful.

So they’re not just the spark to start things up, but they keep the engine going and provide the energy to sustain your motivation.

A think tank without emotional drive is just a think tank.

3. Emotions Create Memory

Our brain accumulates memories of events, experiences, and sensory information. However, it’s our emotions that make memories stand out and remain in our memory bank.

The greater the emotional impact something has on you, the more likely it is to find its way into your long-term memory.

This is a researched fact. And also why memories are not always reliable.

We don’t remember verbatim what happens. We remember the impact it has on us. The greater the emotional impact, the stronger the memory.

4. The Great Connecter

Without emotions, we wouldn’t be able to connect to anything.

Even if you’re dealing with complex ideas that come from intense thinking, your connection to them or to someone you’re sharing them with comes from emotional validation and investment.

Without emotion, the ideas would dry up. There would be no feeling of stimulation, interest, or connection.

People who see themselves as mostly rational and view emotions as secondary, or even unnecessary, are fooling themselves. Because without emotions, they wouldn’t be able to invest in or even enjoy their thoughts.

Relationships of any kind require emotions. They are the source of attraction, bonding, appreciation, attachment, and ongoing commitment.

5. Color, Nuance, and Definition

Think of emotions as the paint in a work of art.

The ideas, lines, and shapes are the cognitive aspects of a painting. But the color and shading are the emotional aspects that give it definition and nuance. It’s what allows us to feel the image and connect to it.

A line drawing can do that to an extent, but without shading, we see it more from a cognitive than an emotional perspective. Still beautiful, but not as connective unless the image itself portrays emotions we connect to.

How to Use Emotions

You can use emotions in all the ways we just defined, but it’s never good to take them at face value. They are highly influenced by past experiences and impressions, as well as discomfort or elation, depending on the situation.

In other words, they can exaggerate aspects of a situation while downplaying others.

Emotions aren’t good historians because of how selective they are, which means you miss information and facts that need consideration.

They also create drama in your mind and can lead you to quick reactions you later regret.

Let your emotions arise, but examine them before acting on them.

Question both your thoughts and feelings before making any decisions that will have a lasting or significant impact.

It’s fine to get lost in feelings that won’t have a negative impact, such as listening to your favorite music and temporarily losing yourself in the pleasure it brings you. But if you become angry at someone and feel compelled to tell them off, you’ll want to pull back and think it through before acting.

Maintain the position as the artist, not the painting itself.

In one of his articles, Nick Wignall writes that there are four reasons to ignore your emotions.

I wouldn’t necessarily ignore them, but I would step back from them in any of these situations and apply some critical thinking to see how exaggerated or accurate they are, and how they might affect your behavior.

I’ve added a fifth one. They are:

1. When they conflict with your values
2. When they lead to aggression
3. When they lead to worry
4. When they lead to rumination
5. When they lead to destruction

These are all self-evident except for the last one, which requires some definition.

Emotions can easily compel you to ignore consequences. When you feel strongly, you can react quickly without giving it a second thought. This phenomenon is what’s known as emotional hijacking (Goleman).

It happens when your emotional brain is triggered and interprets a stimulus as dangerous, triggering a spontaneous knee-jerk reaction without input from your thinking brain.

The stimulus can come from outside you, such as another person or situation, or from within, through your own thoughts or ruminations.

An example of the former would be shouting horrible, attacking things at your partner in the midst of a rage, and not being able to take them back. In the latter case, someone could self-harm in the midst of intense despair.

These situations result in destructive behavior you can’t undo. Emotions in these cases can have devastating results.

Treat Emotions as Your Creative Partner

Use your emotions in the ways we’ve talked about:

To connect, add color and interest to our life, supply drive and energy, serve as a warning device, and create memories.

But temper it with critical thinking. Be mindful.

That last one isn’t so easy, but it is something you should practice daily.

You need to separate your sense of self from both your thoughts and feelings. Thoughts and feelings are things that arise within you and that you engage with.

The key is that you have a choice in how you engage and to what extent.

Our current culture is heavily biased toward emotions. I was raised in the 50s when culture was heavily biased toward rational thinking, to the exclusion of emotions. We were taught to suppress them and see them as second-class citizens in our minds.

That wasn’t beneficial, but neither is the current focus on emotions and the belief that you should follow your feelings.

No, you shouldn’t. You should use them carefully to inform, but not blindly follow them.

We need a balance and partnership between our emotions and thinking. That way, we get the best of both of them.

Make sure that you’re driving your car, not your feelings.

That’s all for today.

Have a great two weeks and a Happy Thanksgiving!

All my best,

Barbara

Getty Images for Unsplash+

Navigating life without being able to think effectively is like driving a car with a broken steering wheel. You’re all over the road.

The question is, “What does a strong thinking capacity entail?”

Ned Herrmann, a renowned researcher in creative thinking, offers an answer through his Whole Brain Model, which describes four thinking styles we use to manage our lives.

You’ll likely resonate most with one or two of them, while not so much with the others. Yet, you need them all to function optimally.

Let’s begin with a description of Herrmann’s model, then move on to how you can use this information to improve your relationships, succeed at work, and develop your communication skills.

The Whole Brain Model

In Herrmann’s model, he identifies four thinking preferences based on his extensive research. You might already be familiar with these if you’ve ever taken the HBDI for your job.

The four styles are as follows.

Quadrant A: Analytic

The analytic style deals in logic, facts, data, critical thinking, and all things quantitative. Analysts are good at solving problems and making decisions based on validated information.

People with these skills make good financial analysts, engineers, and researchers.

Quadrant B: Practical

The practical style emphasizes planning, organizing, sequencing, and attention to detail. This person handles tasks, calendars, implementation, scheduling, processes, and structure. They can create order out of chaos and keep everything on track.

People with these skills make excellent operations managers, event planners, and office managers.

Quadrant C: Relational

The relational style centers on people, feelings, and interpersonal dynamics. These folks embrace emotions and use them to build harmonious relationships through empathy, understanding, and clear communication. Emphasis is placed on making connections.

People who favor relational thinking make good therapists, coaches, trainers, and negotiators.

Quadrant D: Experimental

Think big picture for this style. The experimental style thrives on imagination, innovation, strategizing, intuition, and creativity. These are your visionaries: people who think outside the box and come up with creative solutions to problems. They excel at synthesizing ideas and making unique connections to overcome barriers.

People in this category are inventors, artists, entrepreneurs, and designers.

How Does This Help You?

As you go through the descriptions, which style appeals to you most? Are there several that match? What doesn’t appeal to you?

Knowing your preferred thinking style (or styles) has significant benefits. Here are three of them.

1. Get more aligned with your work.

The first benefit is that you can choose a job or career that matches your thinking style.

It’s easier for you to succeed in work that feels natural to you. You’ll be able to excel and find greater satisfaction from your work.

Someone analytical is probably not going to enjoy being a graphic designer, and vice versa. But they’ll love being a business analyst and do well at it.

Studies have shown that people are more productive when their work aligns with their thinking style.

If you think about the things you like to do, you’ll note that your favorite work activities fit with your preferred thinking style.

Exercise:

Write down the types of work activities you like to do, and see if they align with one or several of the thinking styles outlined above.

What activities do you dislike, and what styles do these represent?

It’s fun to see this on paper. From there, you can imagine other things you’d like to pursue that fit with your natural style.

2. Improve your communication.

Having a thinking style that differs from someone else’s can make communication difficult.

For example, if you lean toward the analytic style and are working on a project with someone who’s more experimental, you might get frustrated with each other.

The analyst focuses on details, data, consequences, facts, and logic. The experimental person is big-picture, global, impressionistic, focused on possibilities, and willing to take risks.

For these two people to work well together without throwing in the towel early, they will need to:

1. Acknowledge and embrace each other’s thinking styles.
2. Appreciate what they both bring to the table.
3. Understand how each of their gifts contributes to positive results.

In his book The Whole Brain Business Book, Herrmann cites research showing that diverse working teams are 66 percent more efficient at solving complex problems than homogeneous teams with similar thinking styles.

Exercise:

Think of someone you have a relationship with who has a thinking style that’s very different from yours. What kinds of communication issues have come up because of these differences?

Can you think of a conversation or conflict where these issues arose? How did you respond? Were you feeling frustrated or impatient?

Here’s an example

Your partner, an analyst, begins a conversation by sharing details and laying out an analysis for you. However, you, who use the experimental style, haven’t yet grasped the big-picture topic, and you start to feel very impatient.

You want to interrupt and say, “Just give me the overall picture in a few words without all those details.”  They, however, are frustrated because you want to skip over what they consider crucial facts.

When you recognize differences in thinking styles with someone else, you can work with that. You can discuss and decide together how to handle things so both of you are comfortable without feeling impatient or frustrated.

In the example above, you could both agree that the analyst will present the big-picture topic upfront to orient the other person. Then that person will, in turn, listen as the analyst builds their case with facts and data before adding their comments. This way, you honor both styles and gain the full benefit of each.

3. You can expand your use of styles.

Although you naturally lean toward one or more thinking styles, you need them all. That’s one of the main benefits of knowing this information.

As you look at your style (or styles), what’s missing? What do you tend to leave out that causes problems?

If you’re visionary and love to create, but you never analyze the effectiveness of your ideas and creations, you could get into a lot of trouble. Entrepreneurs often do this and fail because they don’t take the time to carefully review, analyze, and evaluate their results as they go, making the necessary changes.

On the other hand, someone who is highly analytical might miss the big picture and, along with it, creative solutions and opportunities for growth.

Here’s another example:

You can be a great planner, organizer, and taskmaster, but if you don’t attend to the emotional needs of the people you work with, you might offend them and create conflict that ultimately undermines your good planning.

You can see how having some skill in all four styles is helpful.

Exercise:

As you read about the four styles, which ones repelled you immediately?

That’s the one (or ones) you need to work on.

How can you incorporate these styles more into your interactions with others, your work, and your approach to projects? If you’re short on practical concerns, what’s the best way to improve your organizational habits? If you’re great at analysis but don’t usually think that much about people’s emotional needs, what exercises can you practice to increase your emotional intelligence?

Choose one to improve and map out a plan to work on it. Then execute it.

It feels good to have a handle on all four aspects of thinking. You get better at everything, especially critical thinking, which we all need.

IMPORTANT NOTE: Before we go today, I want to let you know that I am changing my blog delivery from weekly to biweekly. I’ve been sending out articles every week for over five years, but my life circumstances are shifting, and I need to cut back on my output.

I will continue to provide you with the best information and articles I can, and I hope to include some extras as we go that you’ll enjoy.

That’s all for today.

Have a great two weeks!

All my best,

Barbara

Photo by Szepy

Have you ever looked up mental health symptoms on the internet to find out what might be wrong with you? Or, if not you, with someone you know?

Or maybe you’ve heard of a particular mental health diagnosis and you wonder if it applies to you. Like ADHD, for example.

It’s a common thing to do, and the internet makes it easy to find information on your own without seeing a psychologist.

The problems are that:

1. A cursory review of online information is not sufficient to make a valid diagnosis.
2. “Popular psychology culture” can lead you astray.

In other words, psychology is subject to cultural fads, and those fads can influence how you see yourself and how you interpret both your own and others’ behavior and mental health status.

Today, I’m briefly describing recent and current psychology fads and giving you some strategies for what to do if you think you have psychological issues that need treatment.

Let’s start with the fads.

Psychology Diagnostic Fads

A diagnosis is a description of specific emotional and mental symptoms or conditions accompanied by a range of behavior patterns that cause distress and impairment in particular areas of a person’s life.

Generally, diagnoses describe specific mental and emotional disorders based on extensive observation and empirical research over time.

In other words, you have a list of possible symptoms that occur regularly, accompanied by specific, repetitive behaviors.

In social culture, some diagnoses become popularized and find their way into everyday descriptive language. You have a mood swing one day at work, and a co-worker says, “She’s just bipolar.”

You have to be careful of these fads, because they influence your perceptions and feed your confirmation bias to confirm your assumptions.

Here are four diagnostic fads that have occurred over the past 45+ years. You’ll recognize them.

Fad #1: Borderline Personality

In the late 80s, there was an emphasis in psychology circles on how to diagnose and treat Borderline Personality Disorder.

Interest in this disorder spread to the general public. It began to be used to describe anyone who seemed to be impulsive, highly emotional, difficult to deal with, or attention-seeking.

Then the movie ​Fatal Attraction was released in 1987, which added fuel to the fire. The label increased in popularity. If you haven’t seen the movie, Glenn Close plays a psychopathic woman with underlying Borderline Personality Disorder.

Fad #2: Bipolar

The Bipolar rage came later in the 1990s, and to some degree hasn’t subsided.

Someone who has mood swings or occasionally seems manic can be labeled Bipolar in a heartbeat.

This diagnosis remains a fad in popular culture today, so much so that people don’t think twice about referring to someone or to themselves as Bipolar at the hint of mood issues.

However, most people who think they are Bipolar are not.

The diagnosis is precise, and the criteria are definitive. It’s very well-researched and clearly describes symptoms, behavior, biological aspects, and treatment needs.

Having moods swing or occasionally acting out is not the basis for making such a serious diagnosis, yet we do it all the time. Even today, it’s a popular go-to when talking about moody people.

Fad #3: ADHD

You’d have to live off the grid not to know about this one.

This diagnosis was established in 1987, gained popularity in the early 1990s, and remains popular today.

Popular culture has latched on to “ADHD” to describe everything from a wandering mind to difficulty focusing to poor decision-making.

Those things are part of the descriptive symptomology for making the diagnosis, yet the diagnosis is much more complex and comprehensive than a handful of symptoms.

To complicate matters, other issues can create ADHD symptoms such as anxiety, depression, panic states, illness, drug use, and early attachment disorders.

Making a diagnosis requires investigating and sorting through all the possible causes of the symptoms before making a valid conclusion and prescribing the best treatment.

However, people commonly refer to themselves and their kids as ADHD when there’s a problem with focus or impulsivity.

Sometimes it’s used humorously, as in “I’m having an ADHD moment!”

There’s nothing wrong with that, but it does make the case for how easily some psychiatric diagnoses become fashionable.

Fad #4: On The Spectrum!

That brings us to the current psychology fad, which is Autism.

Autism is a real thing and has been misunderstood for years because no one really knew what it was or why someone behaved the way they did.

Fortunately, medical and psychological communities have devoted much more attention, along with additional research, to understanding, diagnosing, and treating this disorder.

Is it on the rise? Maybe, or maybe we just see it better than we did before. Either way, it’s in the public eye.

You often hear someone saying they’re “on the spectrum” or that someone else they know is “on the spectrum.” It covers everything from being shy to social awkwardness.

For people who have been struggling for years with Autism, or who have kids with the disorder, the growing professional interest is a relief. It signals help on the way and hope to treat the symptoms and improve lives.

The faddish aspect is not so welcome because we can use it to dismiss behavior patterns that aren’t related to Autism at all, but that need addressing.

The Upshot?

The upshot is that self-diagnosing based on psychological fads, confirmation bias, and faulty information on the internet can be damaging, even when done with good intentions.

Here’s what can happen when you self-diagnose mental health issues.

Identity Distortion

When you label yourself in any way, you’re crunching your identity.

Diagnosing has a limiting impact. It pigeon-holes you into a neat little box that confines you and keeps your attention focused on specific aspects of yourself.

You can get so caught up in the label that you begin to restrict some of the positive aspects of your personality while focusing on what you perceive as symptoms and problems.

The label itself has a shrinking effect that’s detrimental, especially when self-imposed.

Victimization

Diagnoses can also make you feel victimized. That’s more common with trauma, but applies to experiencing psychological symptoms as well.

Even the term “disorder” conveys the idea that something is happening to you from outside you.

In effect, it does happen to you, but you still have to work to resolve the problems that are there. You can’t just offload them. You have to take an active role in processing them, which is why people seek treatment.

Reducing or Demeaning Others

Labeling someone with a diagnosis is reductionistic in itself. Instead of seeing that person in their wholeness, they become the symptoms associated with the diagnosis and not much more.

This phenomenon doesn’t just happen in popular culture; it also happens in professional circles – all too often, I might add.

Therapists can easily get in the habit of thinking of their clients as the diagnosis they have rather than the person they are.

A good therapist knows that the minute you assign a diagnosis to someone, you have to make sure you’re always seeing the whole person – their individual and unique circumstances, their strengths and assets, and always their value and worth despite symptoms.

Instead of Self-Diagnosing . . .

When you’re struggling with something – a mood pattern, behavior issue, relationship problem, or anything that impairs your well-being – focus on the specific behaviors involved instead of jumping to a diagnosis.

Assess the behavior and think about how you can change it. Look for information, techniques, and strategies to help you.

If you’re worried about a specific diagnosis, seek out a therapist who can help with the issues that are leading you toward your assumptions.

A diagnosis itself isn’t a bad thing. It can help point you in the right direction toward the best solutions and strategies to address it, but don’t diagnose yourself without professional confirmation.

Taking a simple test or inventory is a start, but most mental health diagnoses can’t be made without extensive interviewing and a review of your history.

By all means, be very careful about diagnosing others. Even if you’re right, diagnosing can be demeaning.

That’s all for today.

Have a great week!

All my best,

Barbara

Photo by Christian Kielberg on Unsplash

What do you need to feel valued?

That’s a broad question, for sure, and there are likely many things that fit your individual needs, but there are three must-haves built into our DNA. I’ll outline them in this article and give you some ways to incorporate them into your relationships.

The first one is a ground-floor requirement.

The Need to Feel Visible

Everyone needs to feel visible. It’s part of feeling worthy, feeling as though you matter, and being a part of humanity.

Over years of providing psychotherapy, I recognized that an essential part of the therapeutic process is to be a witness to someone else’s life, including their thoughts, feelings, experiences, ideas, needs, and obstacles.

Having someone listen to you with they’re full attention and concern is uplifting because it affirms your existence and value.

We all need a witness. That’s part of what we get from our relationships. When someone acknowledges you – acknowledges your life – you feel seen.

Invisibility is like a kind of death. It brings isolation, a feeling of not belonging, and eventually leads to depression.

One of the harshest punishments we levy on people in prison is to lock them up in solitary confinement for long periods of time.

The same applies to animals in captivity. They start to go crazy after a while. Literally, it can produce psychosis at some point.

We need each other. Our brains are set up that way. We need someone to witness our existence, even if it’s from afar.

We need to feel visible. It’s a necessary form of validation.

How to Use This:

Fortunately, witnessing and visibility go hand in hand. You get both for the price of one.

If you intentionally and thoughtfully show up for someone by acknowledging them and showing interest in their thoughts, feelings, and stories, you make them feel seen. Conversely, by being that witness, you also become visible.

Relationships characterized by mutual interest and acknowledgement are more likely to last and flourish.

However, there are some caveats. That brings us to the next item.

Confirmation of Worth

Witnessing is the first step, but it must include acceptance and affirmation to be beneficial.

You can be a witness to someone’s weaknesses through criticism and judgment, and call that witnessing. It is acknowledging someone’s existence, but only partially and without acceptance. And it’s damaging.

So, witnessing must include confirming someone’s worth. And that’s done by accepting the whole person, not just their individual assets.

It’s a strengths-based approach, which means you observe all the various aspects of someone’s personality and presentation but focus most on their strengths.

This is tricky because true acceptance doesn’t exclude any part of a person, even their imperfect parts.

But it can be achieved while helping someone recognize their worth and encouraging them to express their strengths to the fullest.

If you were practicing this with your partner, one of your kids, or even a friend, you would focus on the assets this person has by acknowledging them with appreciation and love.

You would still see the whole person, including areas that need improvement, but your primary focus would be to validate who they are and show your admiration for what they bring to the table.

And now for the third and last requirement.

Kindness and Empathy

To confirm someone’s worth successfully, kindness and empathy are necessary.

Empathy is the way to understand and accept someone’s feelings and reactions to life’s circumstances, and kindness is the act of offering help and healing during difficult times.

Kindness can be as simple as providing assistance or showing positive regard.

To be truly kind, you have to be interested in the other person’s feelings. Kindness says, without saying it, “You matter. You’re deserving of basic respect.”

Kindness rises above pettiness, elitism, discrimination, and hierarchical thinking. It equalizes us.

You can be kind to anyone at any time. That’s one aspect of it that makes it so powerful—it’s handy. We can use it often and easily.

You can be kind to people you don’t know, to people you have occasional contact with, and to people you see every day.

It’s a universal language that everyone understands when they’re on the receiving end.

How to Build These Practices

Now, let’s put together some practical tips you can use in your relationships to apply these ideas.

Witnessing

For people you see every day (such as your partner, family members, or children), set aside some time to find out how they are, what happened during the day, and how they felt.

This shouldn’t be a rote conversation like “How was your day?” They say, “It was fine. No problems.” And you say, “That’s great!” End of conversation.

This interaction should be an in-depth conversation where you ask questions and show interest in how this person really is. Not just what they encountered today, but how it affected them emotionally.

You need to be fully present, empathetic, and accessible.

Sometimes, all someone needs to feel visible is just to be heard. To feel like someone else is there who cares about them and has their back.

For people you see less often, you can still give that kind of full attention and interest that makes them feel heard and provides a sense of belonging. That’s the goal.

Confirmation of Worth

As you have conversations or interact with people, lean toward assets. Notice their strengths and comment on them.

You don’t have to fawn over people, and you shouldn’t do that, especially when you’re using that as a means of getting something you want. But you can authentically appreciate someone’s talents and gifts by saying so.

A soothing and enriching conversation you can engage in with your partner is to identify each other’s strengths and how they work together to benefit both of you.

It helps you each appreciate what you have together and what you each provide that makes you successful as a couple.

We usually focus on the negative. But if you intentionally have these kinds of conversations and exchanges, you discover that the things that bother you about each other become less important. And in the process, you both feel validated and valued.

Kindness and Empathy

Kindness is easy if you focus on it. It’s fun to practice getting better at it. Try these things:

1. Make eye contact and smile at people when out in public. It doesn’t need to be a lengthy contact. Just a quick acknowledgement with a genuine smile has the right impact.
2. When someone’s talking about something they’re upset about, don’t counteract with advice. Listen quietly with full attention, and empathize with their feelings. Just that and nothing more, unless they ask for it.
3. Help someone without being asked. It can be anything. Offering help with dropping off a car for repair. Helping unload the groceries. Making coffee. Anything small will do. Be sure to do it cheerfully and without any expectations.
4. Help someone when they ask. Willingly and with a smile.

Empathy requires a deeper level of engagement.

To be empathetic, you must take time to understand where someone is emotionally and how they are perceiving a situation. What story are they telling themselves, and how do they feel about it?

You need to listen, ask questions, and get a complete understanding of where they’re at without showing pity.

Real empathy is genuine. There’s no need to one-up. You listen with both your heart and your mind, and reflect back what you believe is being said.

Remember that when you feel like someone understands and gets you, you feel heard, seen, and appreciated.

That’s what you should aim for when practicing empathy.

I hope you got something today to help your relationships thrive and grow, as well as understand what you need in a relationship.

That’s all for today.

Have a great week!

All my best,

Barbara

Photo by Nappy for Unsplash+

I just watched the news. What was I thinking? If you want to feel depressed, that’s the thing to do.

Now, I’m not saying you should stop keeping up with what’s happening. You need to. But the heaviness we all currently labor under is debilitating. We’ve normalized stress and cynicism.

That being the case, it’s more important than ever to find pockets of joy amidst the barrage of negativity.

We need to remember how to laugh. Not the tee-hee kind of laughter, but the deep belly kind of laughter that resets our nervous systems and reconnects us to each other.

Let’s start with outlining what laughter can do for you.

Why You Need to Laugh More

First, laughter is not avoidance. It’s an antidote to pain. It lifts you and signals hope, even when things are challenging.

Secondly, there are real physiological and psychological benefits from laughter, verified by research. Here’s a quick list:

Physiological Effects:

• Boosts your immune system
• Reduces levels of stress hormones
• Stimulates circulation
• Improves heart health
• Enhances mental functioning (focus, attention, and concentration)
• Elevates your pain threshold and tolerance
• Strengthens your core muscles

Psychological Effects:

• Lowers stress by reducing levels of stress hormones
• Improves depression by altering dopamine and serotonin levels
• Provides needed mental health breaks, allowing you to function better
• Alters and widens your perspective when dealing with trauma and negative input
• Connects us and supports inclusiveness
• Enhances our relationships

Not An Escape

Laughter is not a means of avoidance or escape. It’s a powerful coping mechanism that helps us deal with stress and brings us together to solve the problems we face.

It doesn’t deny pain; it gives it room to breathe.

It lets you loosen your grip on worrying about what’s wrong long enough to see it with more clarity. It’s an aid for reframing your problems and building emotional endurance.

Most importantly, humor helps diffuse tension, especially when conflicts arise. It reaches across barriers of age, race, culture, and language. It’s a connector even when there is strong disagreement.

It provides levity and, in the process, opens pathways to find areas of agreement.

In short, laughter (and humor) is:

1. An effective coping mechanism
2. Perspective changer
3. Tension diffuser

We need to cultivate it. Now more than ever.

How to Promote More Laughter in Your Daily Life

1. Give yourself permission.

It’s easy to feel guilty about feeling good when things feel grim all around you. However, that’s when you need humor most. Because it’s not only a coping strategy, but a survival skill. Let it rip!

2. Make it social

Laughing with other people is powerful because it’s both contagious and amplifying.

Haven’t you had the experience of sitting around with family or friends and telling stories that have everybody laughing so hard they can barely breathe?

It’s like a massive pressure valve release. No matter what else is going on in your life, for that moment, you feel swept up in pure joy.

Laughing with other people, even just chuckling, tends to intensify the effects.

Make some time to get together with people you can laugh with and share moments of unadulterated joy.

3. Engage with your favorite laughter triggers.

These are your favorite comedians, TV shows, reels, storytellers, or books that make you laugh without effort.

I’ve got a few comedians I watch on YouTube when I want a lift, as well as some TV shows that have been favs for years because the humor is always fresh, no matter how many times I watch them.

I have a relative who watches reruns of Friends daily because it levels out her mood when she’s stressed. My husband and I watch Seinfeld for the same reason.

Sometimes, just 10 minutes of accessible humor can lift your spirits and provide a mental break from stress – enough to get back to work with renewed energy.

4. Look for the absurd.

Looking for the absurd in situations (which isn’t hard to do these days) can help you see things from a broader perspective.

It diffuses obstacles. It also restores your sense of control and makes things easier. Something that feels insurmountable becomes workable, allowing you to sort through the issues at hand and address them effectively.

5. Review past experiences.

When you can remember and see the humor in past experiences that at the time were difficult, you’re able to look at the present with more hope.

You’re reminded that you sometimes inflate the significance of things in your mind and assume the worst, yet in retrospect, it wasn’t at all as bad as you thought.

You can laugh at yourself, or with yourself, as you recall your inflated or assumptive thoughts at the time.

By the way, being able to laugh at yourself is a healthy and emotionally intelligent activity, not to mention humorous and uplifting.

6. Play!

You might scoff at this one, but it’s effective. Adults who can play are happier, less stressed, and more creative. If you tend toward seriousness, you may find it challenging to let yourself regress and be playful, but give it a try.

Try acting silly with someone you’re close to. Play games together. Do something fun and out of the ordinary.

Take time out of your usual day-to-day to engage in an activity that absorbs your mind and delights your being.

Make it social: a trip to a theme park with friends, playing cards or board games, going on a picnic, or signing up for a craft class.

Remember that taking a break from serious, focused work or problem-solving by engaging in something fun that sparks joy can make you more effective when you return to it.

Make Humor Your Ally

There will always be things to worry about, sometimes more than others.

Regardless of the times or the obstacles, humor and the experience of joy are necessary coping mechanisms that not only provide a temporary respite but also initiate new and creative thinking to help come up with solutions.

A sense of humor is an aid to mental health. From a psychological point of view, it’s a necessity. It’s like the whistle on the tea kettle that keeps the steam from building up until it explodes.

Make time to laugh. Cultivate it. And, when at all possible, use it to connect with others.

You’ll feel less isolated and more in control of the actions you can take to solve the problems you face.

That’s all for today.

Have a great week!

All my best,

Barbara