In Sanity: A piece of mind

Happiness -  is it a state or a trait? Is it the same as pleasure? What does it have to do with well-being? Can you be happy in life if your life lacks meaning? There is a lot of stuff to unpack as it relates to happiness and how we experience it. This podcast discusses qualities that happy people have, and how they can be used to create savoring rituals.  What Happy People Know by Dan B...

How would you rate your level of well-being? Are you physically fit? Do you feel spiritually connected? Do you make time for a mindfulness practice? Take some time to answer these questions, listen to the podcast and see what other areas of your life might need improvement. Cultivating well-being takes a lot of work. It takes commitment, and a desire to live life making quality tasks a priority.&n...

Join me and a couple of my daughters to continue a discussion about parenting. Things really have changed, and parenting has changed. My girls share their insights and add to my own about how parenting "with the brain in mind" really is an effective way to help create secure attachments with your kids (which is another topic to be addressed at a later time), reduce tantrums, encourage brain integr...

Drs. Dan Siegel and Tina Payne Bryson have written a book called "The Whole-Brain Child: 12 Revolutionary Strategies to Nurture Your Child's Developing Mind." In this podcast, I break down the strategies to provide access to this information for any who may be interested. The book is very much worth reading and is easy to understand and valuable for anybody with a brain.  The Whole-Brain Chil...

Time is not a limited commodity because it is always there, unfolding every second before you. Focusing on time creates stress and dissatisfaction with life. You have enough time, we all do.  Put First things First Become the Master of Your Time

When we avoid or distract from negative emotions, we close ourselves down. This practice might numb us from the emotions we don't want to feel, but it also numbs us from the emotions we want to feel. Feeling them all is the only answer to wholehearted living. 

“If a problem is fixable, if a situation is such that you can do something about it, then there is no need to worry. If it's not fixable, then there is no help in worrying. There is no benefit in worrying whatsoever.” ― Dalai Lama XIV

Thanks for sticking with this multi-part series on worry. There are solutions, and there is hope for less chronic worry.

Keep listening and learn how to keep the worry nests out of your hair. The Worry Trick by David Carbonell, PhD

If we aren't supposed to worry, why is there so much to worry about? Here in this first podcast about worry, learn the difference between worry and anxiety, and how worry tricks us into thinking doubt is danger.                                &n...

Emotions are just visitors. You can invite them in and you can invite them to leave.  SUDS Scale   Dialectical Behavior Therapy

Hodge Podge: a heterogeneous mix; a jumble. Now, do what I did and look up heterogeneous. 

Food is not good or bad. It just is. However, it is always possible to eat to make us feel better and to make us feel worse. That may look different for all of us. Listen to today's podcast and learn how to eat for better mental health. Feelings and behaviors occur, our body has cravings to satisfy our deficiencies and we feel better for a "minute." Increasing neurotransmitter production, and amin...

In order to teach kids values, parents and caretakers have to have them. It seems prudent then, to teach kids to HAVE values. These usually come from morals which are generally learned in the home. Listen to this week's podcast for a few tips and some useful information about how parents and young people alike can figure out how to use values to create a happy, healthy, productive life.  

Stick with me for some more important groundwork about food and mental health. Amino acids are an important compound and come in a variety of "flavors" and "styles." They play a pretty big part in mental health and your best source is your food. I guarantee you won't have to change much in order to increase or decrease what you are already eating to feel mentally and emotionally better. 

Mood and Food, Part 1  Your brain is always on and requires a constant supply of fuel. Food is that fuel. What you eat affects the way you feel in body, mind and spirit. Listen to part 1 to learn a bit about the brain, a bit more about neurotransmitters, and the part food plays in the balance of those neurotransmitters.  Brain Basics: Know your Brain

This episode talks a bit more about parenting styles. I also talk a bit about why it's important to allow, even encourage children to make mistakes. Once the mistakes have been made, there are two types of consequences. Listen to find out what they are, how they work, and what you can do to improve effectiveness.  Check out the website and the books on Amazon.  Love and Logic Parenting &...

There are 4 different styles of parenting. Most parents have a little bit of all of them. If you understand what they are and how they affect children, you can decide if and how you would like to adjust. Listen to this week's episode to find out your style. 

Mindfulness isn't magic and it can't cure heart disease, but it is a helpful tool. There are a lot of benefits, and more and more research is being conducted. Like any other strength practice, it's important to practice regularly. 

Michel de Montaigne got it right - The greatest thing in the world is to know how to belong to oneself. Check out this week's episode and the resources in the show notes for ways to increase, improve and live life self-aware. It is not selfish or self-centered. It is a way of being that increases your ability to be in relationships of all kinds and types knowing how you positively and negatively i...

Rising as we lift others, empowering women to reach for the stars, shedding the shame of not being good enough - that's all on us, ladies. Listen to this week's podcast for a few relatively easy ways to support and strengthen the women you know in creating their very best selves. 

Sounds like I'm in a feedback loop with podcast topics. Not so. Listen to this one, and I promise you will hear new and interesting ideas about how to feel less anxious, how to worry less, how not to get sucked into future tripping. Listen to today's podcast to hear the metaphor that helps me keep all those feelings at bay. 

In this episode, I talk metaphor. Life is like a difficult trail run or bike ride, at least for me. I've learned some good lessons that I'd like to share with all of you. 

Join me and a few of my kids this week for a conversation about pets. When you have 9 kids, you might end up having 90 pets, and then you will likely have 900 stories about those pets. We barely scratched the surface. Maybe one day there will be another pet podcast. Noel the hamster Humane Society Foster Program

Why do you journal? Why do you not journal? This week I talk a bit about my journal journey - the good and the bad. I will also give some insight into how and why journaling is an effective intervention to help with depression, anxiety, PTSD, and stress reduction. Peruse the links for more information about how and why this is the case.  83 Benefits of Journaling for Depression, Anxiety, and...