On this day, when we celebrate all the mothers in the world for their hard work, I wanted to take the opportunity to talk about the importance of self-care. One of the most used metaphors in my work with clients is the ‘aeroplane metaphor’. When I use this metaphor, I talk about the flight attendant briefing the passengers pre take … Read More
Letting go of negative self-stories
Do you sometimes find yourself stuck when you want to make changes in your life? Do you find that you talk yourself out of trying new things? Maybe you are stuck in a negative belief about your self or a negative-self story. Most of the time when I meet new clients for the first session and we discuss their expectations … Read More
Practicing mindfulness for emotion regulation
Experiencing a variety of emotions each day is a normal occurrence. Still, we often struggle with our emotions. We feel overwhelmed by them. We want to push them away, or we judge ourselves for having them. Practicing mindfulness can help us to become more aware of our emotions and manage them better. In some ways emotions are the spice of … Read More
Cultivating Patience
In a frantic world that demands instant gratification we often find ourselves stuck in a vicious cycle of impatience. Cultivating the skill of patience through mindfulness and Acceptance & Commitment Therapy (ACT) offers us an extraordinary grace that we can extend to ourselves and others. Pause for a moment and ask yourself: Who or what has annoyed, irritated or frustrated … Read More
Mindful Attitude of Non-striving
We find ourselves immersed in a hyper-competitive, goal-obsessed culture where striving and achieving is highly valued. However, when we never disengage from striving it becomes detrimental to our mental well-being. With mindfulness meditation we can practice non-striving and disengaging from our striving mode. Non-striving doesn’t make sense if you’re immersed in a hyper-competitive, goal-obsessed culture like most of us are. … Read More
Acceptance and Commitment Therapy
What is acceptance and commitment therapy (ACT)? Acceptance & commitment therapy or ACT (said as one word, not as individual letters) is a relatively young therapeutic framework. The main aim of ACT is to help people become more flexible in their ability to respond to their environment. Increased flexibility and learning to be in the present moment are focus points … Read More
Mindfulness Meditation
What is mindfulness meditation? Jon Kabat-Zin, defines mindfulness like this: Mindfulness is the intentional focus on moment-to-moment experience without being swept up by judgments or preconceived ideas and expectations. Mindfulness is an ancient practice that dates back to 5,000 to 3,500 BCE. Many religions have adopted the basic concepts of meditation including Buddhism, Hinduism, Judaism, Islam and Christianity to name … Read More