Personal Development

Proactive Ways to Deal with Stress

2024-10-29T12:09:29+00:00January 13th, 2023|Coaching, Featured, Individual Counseling, Personal Development, Professional Development|

You know what it feels like when you do not or cannot manage stress properly. And it is blatantly obvious when others let stress influence them. Not being able to deal with conflict constructively, not listening properly, battling to solve problems, struggling to stay positive – and that is just at home. At work, illness and time off drop your productivity even lower than the reduced performance stress was causing you to achieve. In this article we'll discuss some proactive ways to deal with stress. It is far better to find proactive ways to deal with stress by paying attention to two factors that can make a big difference: how the environment you are in causes stress, and how you manage that stress. Everyone’s environment creates stress points for them; tackling them means you look at coping mechanisms and management techniques aimed at reducing these stress points. The other side of the same coin is to look at strategies that will help put you in a stronger, more agile frame of mind. This is a more comfortable place to be where our heart rates and blood pressure are not elevated and where we feel confident. How to understand stress. Now, before we dive in deeper it is important to define stress: Stress is our experience of being confronted with a stressful situation – also known as stressors. This will look like an unpredictable piece of bad news, a work deadline, or an upcoming bill payment. These stressors are factors that cause us to experience stress. The expectation your spouse has of you to remember your wedding anniversary and celebrate it in a way that shows you considered them when you planned it, maybe a stressor that is interpreted as stress. Stress is experienced when we see upcoming threats or [...]

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How to Stop Stress Eating

2024-10-29T12:10:04+00:00November 24th, 2022|Featured, Individual Counseling, Personal Development, Weight Loss, Women’s Issues|

You had a stressful day at work. Nothing went the way it was supposed to. You’re finally home when you see an email. You ignore it only to be met with another problem at home. You feel the tension rising and you instinctively reach for that bag of chips in the cabinet. Crunching away, you finally start to feel better after stress-eating to your way to the bottom of the bag. Maybe you respond differently. You spent the day at the hospital with a loved one only to come home exhausted and frustrated from the day. You know you should eat something, but you just can’t muster it, so you skip dinner completely. What is happening? How are both of these scenarios linked? It could be stress eating. There is no shortage of stress, especially in recent years. People are finding all sorts of ways to cope. According to the American Psychological Association, twenty-seven percent of adults say they eat to manage stress while thirty percent of adults report skipping a meal due to stress. With so many people struggling with their eating habits when they feel stressed, we must understand what it is and what we can do about it. What is stress eating? Upon first look, it may not make sense to pair skipping meals with overeating. But the two are connected more than you think. Stress eating, also referred to as emotional eating, is a pattern of eating as a coping mechanism to make you feel better, often in stressful situations. When people use food to suppress negative emotions such as sadness, loneliness, stress, or fatigue, it can be considered stress-eating. How does skipping meals fit in? When you experience stress, the body has a surge of adrenaline that triggers the fight-or-flight response. This hormonal response can [...]

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How to Build Self-Esteem

2024-09-25T09:04:22+00:00November 3rd, 2022|Featured, Individual Counseling, Personal Development|

Self-esteem is the opinion we have of ourselves, and the value we place on ourselves. It is shaped throughout our lives and is impacted by all of our experiences, both good and bad. Self-esteem is not stable and might fluctuate or dip at certain points as we go through seasons of growth. Sometimes our self-esteem can change by the day or even by the hour. Our self-esteem is directly linked to the choices we make, our motivation, the types of treatment we accept from others, our confidence levels, and our mental health. Self-esteem can be improved and built up. Doing so will help us to be happier, more resilient to criticism and adversity, bolder in our choices, and more decisive. There is no quick fix to building self-esteem and it should be approached as a long-term goal. What does low self-esteem look like? Sometimes low self-esteem is fairly obvious in people, but most of the time adults who have low self-esteem tend to mask it with certain behaviors. This is because living with poor self-esteem or a negative self-image comes with feelings of shame and fear. Over time, this masking behavior may result in us developing false personas that we hide our negative self-image behind. The Imposter The Imposter is the person who appears grounded, content with their life, and possibly thriving in their career. However, below the surface, they are battling a crippling fear of failure and perfectionism and might be experiencing burnout. They are often competitive people, deriving temporary satisfaction from “winning” and gaining the upper hand. The Rebel A common masking behavior is to act as if others’ opinions do not matter, and that their criticisms or opinions are of no consequence. In truth, The Rebel is deeply affected by others’ opinions but is also angry [...]

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Bible Verses for Building Self-Esteem

2024-10-29T12:11:09+00:00June 17th, 2022|Featured, Individual Counseling, Personal Development|

Do you need help building self-esteem? These Bible verses are ideal for helping you choose a positive outlook even when you aren’t sure about the esteem you have for yourself. You can meditate on them to gain the peace and confidence you are seeking. Any time you need help building self-esteem, you can turn to these verses. Write them out and post them where you can see them often. Then turn them into prayers that will encourage your faith. I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me. And the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me. – Galatians 2:20, ESV This is great news! As a believer, you no longer live by your own power. Jesus lives in you through the power of the Holy Spirit. He guides you and empowers you to live a life of abundant joy because he loves you so much. When you focus on God’s love for you, it can change everything regarding how you feel about yourself. Meditate on all parts of this verse, thinking about the ways it can lift you up when you feel down. I praise you, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made. Wonderful are your works; my soul knows it very well. – Psalm 139:14, ESV This entire psalm is one of the best places to turn in the Bible when you need to build your self-esteem. It teaches you that God masterfully created you before you were ever born and loves every single detail about the way that he made you You are a unique and beautiful creation handcrafted by him for his glory, and no one can take that identity away from you. By hiding [...]

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