Westlake Village Counseling

"Getting offline and unplugged can help you focus your energy on friends and family with person to person contact. For further guidance on how to cope with the summer blues, please check out this article." https://lttr.ai/dxSM #anxiety #stress #depression

"Some benefits of practicing breath work include stress reduction, reduced anxiety, and relaxed muscles. To learn more about breathing exercises to help you out when you’re feeling overwhelmed, check out this article." https://lttr.ai/dlnD #relaxation #breathing #meditation

"Those with chronic pain/illness need statements where loved ones are acknowledging how another feels and connecting with them where they are at emotionally, which can be very powerful. To read an open letter to caregivers of those with chronic illness and pain, please check out this article." https://lttr.ai/dgjx #chronicillness #caregiver #anxiety #stress #chronicpain

"Why Sleep Matters and How to Improve It - These are great ways to process feelings from the day so that you are feeling less stressed and anxious. Experiencing worry or anger will demand more energy, making it harder to get your mind and body get ready for sleep." https://lttr.ai/dTdX #sleep #stress #selfcare

"If the idea of looking at a screen with distorted colors doesn’t appeal to you, orange tinted glasses may be for you. To understand how saying no to blue lighting will lead to quality sleep, please check out this article." https://lttr.ai/c1Yy #stress #sleep #insomnia

The holidays may look different for many of us this year. Please know it’s absolutely normal and okay to feel a sense of loss or even uncertainty in how you are feeling. Emotions can run on overdrive and that’s certainly true in 2020. Please know you are not alone in your feelings and experiences during this holiday season.

"Why Some Stay Silent about their Medical Illness & Pain - Being treated differently and seen through the lens of pity tends to bring up feelings of sadness and disappointment that the illness is changing another thing in your life." https://lttr.ai/a9ex #anxiety #chronicpain #chronicillness

"To even consider possibly introducing some self-care practices feels selfish to many people. The idea of putting yourself first ahead of others oftentimes goes against how we were raised. For guidance on understanding why self-care is hard and learning how to overcome it, please check out this article." https://lttr.ai/aczN #relaxation #selfcare #wellness

"Over the Hurdle of Medical Illness: How Do I Adjust to Life Now? - Processing the emotions, the worries and the fact that life is going to play out differently from this point onward requires patience within yourself. You probably lived with chronic illness for some time. So now, it may take additional time to move onto new possibilities." https://lttr.ai/aQX4 #illness #coping #anxiety

For Americans facing the COVID-19 lockdown and economic instability through the spring and summer, that became a difficult question to askand to answer. Things were already pretty bad. And then the presidential election began in earnest.... What can we do to stay resilient in the face of this election? One way is to check in with ourselves daily to make sure we’re doing the things that sustain our health and well-being, while remaining empowered to make a positive impact on... the election itself. To come up with reflective questions to ask yourself, we looked back on our articles about surviving stressful times, and we consulted psychologists affiliated with the Greater Good Science Center. We hope these questions will help you make it through the electionand beyond. https://greatergood.berkeley.edu//eight_questions_that_can

"More support often helps in the healing process and can lead to greater resiliency. For guidance on how to parent with chronic pain, please check out this article." https://lttr.ai/Yln5 #parenting #family #chronicpain

"All of this responsibility and being there emotionally for your loved one can lead to secondary trauma. To learn about how it impacts caregivers and loved ones, please check out this article." https://lttr.ai/Z8Ae #relationships #anxiety #stress #caregiver

"You have road trips planned, vacations with the family and other social events in mind. But sometimes those over-ambitious plans just don’t work out. To gain insight on how to cope with the summer blues, please check out this article." https://lttr.ai/Z12P #anxiety #stress #depression

"Simply having someone to talk to who is willing to hear what you have to say, helps in coping with the pain. Check out this article for helpful steps to manage pain without medication." https://lttr.ai/YlEO #chronicpain #painmanagement #pain

"When feeling more calm and relaxed, the brain is better able to think creatively and support you in the problem solving process. To learn about meditation myths and how to overcome them, please check out this article." https://lttr.ai/YW3V #stress #relaxation #meditation #anxiety

"A Caregiver’s Journey Through Cancer - We’ve had cancer as the third entity in our marriage for 25 years, but often, it has been almost a silent party. Now it’s out, it’s raw and uncovered and it’s overwhelming in how it took us in a giant leap into a seemingly bleak future." https://lttr.ai/YPEN #anxiety #cancer #grief #caregiver #relationships

"Some ways to process feelings and worries that seem too intense, is to do some artwork or journaling. To learn more about the anxiety, chronic pain and illness connection, please check out this article." https://lttr.ai/YFjt #anxiety #chronicpain #chronicillness #stress

"Body Scanning: Learning how to reduce anxiety and improve resiliency - There are so many obligations and distractions that keep you moving from place to place without a moment to catch your breath." https://lttr.ai/Xqqm #bodyscanning #anxiety #pain #stress

"Making an effort to bring awareness to the helpful ways both parent and child are coping is a powerful approach in boosting the child’s self esteem. It sends them the message that they do have a say in how they live their life with this illness which is both an empowering and healing message. To learn more about how to parent your child with medical illness, please check out this article." https://lttr.ai/Xh4M #parenting #anxiety #chronicillness #chronicpain

"The hardest part in navigating chronic medical conditions is coming to terms with a new normal. The person with chronic pain and illness will make changes in their life to honor and acknowledge where their health is at this time. To learn more ways to support your loved ones, please check out this article." https://lttr.ai/XaEi #chronicillness #illness #pain #chronicpain

Clinical psychologist Jamie Howard recalls talking to a mother recently who noticed her daughter was staying in her bedroom and crying often. The teen finally revealed that all her friends formed a separate group chat without her and had become anxious about why they excluded her and what they were saying behind her back. We had her strengthen other friendships and make new friends to rebuild her self-esteem and remind her that she’s very likable, says Howard, who specializes in anxiety and mood disorders at the Child Mind Institute. We got her doing more dance, walking her dogmore activity that naturally brings about self-confidence. https://www.nationalgeographic.com//screen-time-use-is-u/

"If you developed your illness as an adult, adjusting to your new normal also means having to make big life adjustments. To understand why some stay silent about their medical illness and pain, please check out this article." https://lttr.ai/XHp7 #anxiety #chronicpain #chronicillness

"It is important to know that the mindsets we hold within ourselves can have a powerful impact on the pain we feel. This is because mental mindset plays a role in influencing our perceptions of pain. For more guidance on pain management without medication, please check out this article." https://lttr.ai/XHPw #pain #chronicpain #painmanagement

"Self-care may sound good in theory, but to actually implement it is an entirely different story. Do you ever wonder why that might be the case? To understand why self-care is hard and learn how to overcome it, please check out this article." https://lttr.ai/WjAi #relaxation #selfcare #wellness

"Embracing how you feel and all you have gone through can help set the stage for taking on this next life chapter. For guidance on adjusting to life after medical illness, please check out this article." https://lttr.ai/WOmn #illness #coping #anxiety