Holly Forman-Patel MFT

Day 19 Protecting ourselves and taking responsibility for our own emotional state is such an empowering experience. Often setting boundaries, not only physical and mental but emotional, is vital There are many ways to set emotional boundaries and I am going to share with you today my version of one I learned from an EMDR Therapy friend, which works particularly well with someone who is causing us pain. It's called the bubble exercise. As always, get into a safe and comfortab...le spot and place. Take a minute to breath in and out, regulating your nervous system. Then imagine yourself wrapped inside an invisible bubble. Inside the bubble is anything (this is your imagination, so anything goes!) you need to feel grounded, joyful, happy, etc. It can be helpful to add aspects that relate to the senses. I might imagine sunshine inside my bubble, with a lovely lilac tree that I can smell, etc. I then imagine only letting inside my bubble emotions that I wish to experience, knowing that I am the only one that can allow anything in or out. After you feel secure in this space, I want you to imagine the person who is causing you pain, and imagine sending them out love, kindness, compassion or another nurturing or positive emotion. Enjoy. #copingskills #grounding #EMDRtherapy

Day 18 One constant in life is change. We cannot stop it or control every aspect of it. We can however control how we react to it. Change can be scary, drive us to feel out of control, isolated and lonely and even be exhausting. When I find myself in these moments of wanting to resist change, I like to reflect on the beauty of it. Today I am sharing a picture of the seasons as reflected in the change in my Japanese Maple tree.... Where do you find beauty in change? #copingskills #grounding

Day 17 The above is a type of mediation called Love-Kindness (metta). Meditation is now one of my favorite ways to ground. I find that for many people, the idea of meditation can feel a bit overwhelming. I used to be one of these people until I stumbled across a medication phone app called Waking Up by Sam Harris a few years ago. The premise is 10 minutes of meditation a day with a new mediation offered daily. I found that the 10 minute offer felt like something I could commi...t to without feeling overwhelmed. A few months ago, one of the daily meditations revolved around the concept of metta, something I had never heard of before, and quickly came to love. For me, engaging in this meditation on days where I am not in a great space, works best as it really shifts me away from the mindset I was in and opens my heart to not only the day and world but to the amazing people in my life. I use this meditation by finding a comfortable spot, inside or outside, where I feel safe. I first direct the meditation at myself, focusing on breathing in and out as I repeat the words to myself. I then shift it to the amazing people in my life, those who have been around for many years along with those who are new in my life. Lastly, I shift it to those in my life or in the world who have been triggering pain within myself. Depending on the day, I might change some of the words, such as add or substituting "May you feel love", etc. My hope for you today: May you be happy. May you be well. May you be safe. May you be peaceful. May you be at ease. #copingskills #grounding #wakingupapp #samharrisorg

A lovely article a colleague wrote to guide parents in supporting their children with stress related to the climate crisis by taking care of themselves.

Day 16 Some days, we just are not feeling it and have a hard time from the moment we wake up in finding a grounded or neutral space. When this happens, I know I have two main choices. One is to be a fatality of the day or the other is to take control and shift it. I find that while the latter can be hard it often has a more rewarding payoff. One of my favorite ways to shift through an emotion that doesn't seem to want to shift is through a somatic exercise that I learned from... the EMDR Therapy Feeling State Protocol by Robert Miller (and there are a variety of other iterations of it in different therapies). I will share with you how I have come to use it and please watch the video for a more comprehensive approach. To do this, sit in a comfortable position. Notice where you are feeling the discomfort in your body. Turn it a color. Break this color of emotion into tiny little dots. Focus on breathing out the tiny dots of color as you breath in another color of tiny dots. Do this until you are feeling more resourced and grounded. My color to breathe in and resource with is purple. What will yours be? #EMDRtherapy #copingskills #grounding