Stress & Your Brain

May is Mental Health Awareness Month! The theme for this year's Mental Health Awareness Month is "Fitness #4Mind4Body" and it focuses on the connection between your mental health and your physical health. This month, Shrink Me Not will be bringing you surprising facts about the physical and mental health connection as well as provide practical tips to keep you physically and mentally well!

Stress has a huge impact on our lives and can make even day-to-day life difficult. Research shows that stress is closely linked to high blood pressure, heart disease and obesity. It also shows that people who feel depressed or chronically stressed may have a greater risk of physical illnesses.

Find yourself stuck in a rut, feeling overwhelmed, facing a life transition, lonely or misunderstood? Shrink Me Not can help! Call us at (202) 810-9249 or email us at ShrinkMeNot@gmail.com to set up your appointment!

Healthy Thinking?!?!?

Hey everybody, welcome to Say What Wednesday’s, the weekly segment that gives you little hacks in how to handle life’s challenges.

You’ve heard of healthy living and healthy eating but have you ever heard of healthy thinking? Your thoughts become your actions and if you have negative thoughts then your actions won’t produce good fruit.  In the same way that unhealthy thinking can cause health problems, healthy thinking can lead to positive life changes.  I’m going to give you three tips to develop healthy thinking habits.

Tip 1: Reframe your challenges: Let me burst your bubble…as long as you are alive you are going to have challenges.  The difference between people who live a happy life and those who live a miserable life is how they view the challenges they face.  The same boiling water that softens a potato, hardens an egg.  When you learn how to reframe challenges in your mind, you will be able to seamlessly navigate those challenges and preserve with a smile on your face. 

Tip 2: Ignore complainers:  Okay, remember those buzz kills I talked about a while ago? Constant complainers fall into this category.  You know the people who complain about everything…and I mean EVERYTHING!  The coffee is too hot, the sky is too blue, the sun is too bright, the sandwich is too cold…everything! You cannot “get your mind right” when you are surrounded by complainers so don’t even attempt to entertain anyone who complains all the time!

Tip 3: Complain:Gratitude ratio: Okay, now that you’ve gotten a handle on those people around you who are constant complainers, it’s time to get a hold of your own complaining nature.  For one day…24 hours, I want you to record the number of times you have complained (including those times you complain in your head) and the number of times you have felt or verbalized gratitude.  It’s not intense, all you have to do is keep tally marks.  At the end of the 24 hour period, I want you to count up the number of complaining tally’s and the number of gratitude tally’s.  A good rule of thumb is only 1 complain moment for every 3 gratitude moments.  How do you think your tally list will look?

Your mind holds a lot of power in the enjoyment your life.  Make sure you reframe the challenges that you go through, ignore complainers and make sure you are showing and thinking gratitude more than you are complaining!  I promise if you follow these three tips, you are going to be on your way to healthy thinking.

Check me out on Instagram at Shrink Me _ Not, on Facebook at Shrink Me Not, & of course on my website Shrink Me Not.com. AND, if you missed an episode of Say What?!? Wednesday’s check out my Shrink Me Not YouTube page.

Until next time, Take Care of Yourself!

Be Comfortable With You

Hey everybody, welcome to Say What Wednesday’s, the weekly segment that gives you little hacks in how to handle life’s challenges.

Once per year everyone is celebrated for getting older. When we are children, getting older was fun! It was about becoming a “big” person. In our 20’s getting older was about becoming “real” adults by taking care of ourselves and building relationships. In our 30’s the tides begin to change. Developmentally speaking, we become introspective and we begin to learn ourselves and either embrace our flaws or work to change them. This process isn’t easy and at times it is down-right hurtful, but I have three tips to help the process of becoming comfortable with being you.

Tip 1. Never compromise your values. When we are young, we are taught what we should value most.  Sometimes parents teach us to value hard work, authenticity, inner harmony or even money.  But as our minds cross over into adulthood, what we truly value becomes crystal clear. Take two minutes and make a list of your values, then star your top three. These are the three you will NEVER compromise because they make you who you are.  Yes, as we age our priorities may shift, but our values rarely change.  While getting comfortable with who you are, never compromise the values you hold important.

Tip 2. Comparisons: One of the biggest “Oh my gosh I’m 30!” crisis we have, comes when we compare ourselves to other people.  This is the ULTIMATE no-no.  Everyone in life has their own path to walk.  No one can walk your path and you can’t walk anyone else’s path.  The truth of the matter is, you don’t know what the other person had to do to get what they have!  And honestly, when faced with the same path they walked, you may not be as successful as they have.  Get comfortable with you! Comparing yourself with others prevents you from seeing just how awesome you are!

Tip 3. Guess what folks…It’s okay to change.  Most of the time we are holding on so tight to who we used to be in our “glory days,” that we fail to see that who we are becoming is sooooo much better than who we were.  So, to get comfortable with you, give yourself permission to change.  I guarantee you will come to a point in life (usually mid-30’s) where you are so comfortable with yourself that no one could pay you to go back in time.

Alright guys so never compromising your values, not comparing yourself to others and giving yourself permission to change are three very important practices to begin becoming comfortable with you.  There’s one thing I know for sure, God broke the mold when He made you! 

I hope you’ve enjoyed this edition of Say What Wednesday’s.  forget to check me out on Instagram at Shrink Me _ Not, on Facebook at Shrink Me Not, & of course on my website Shrink Me Not.com. AND, if you missed an episode of Say What?!? Wednesday’s check out my Shrink Me Not YouTube page.  

Until next time, Take Care of Yourself!