Just Mind

By: Mary Hoofnagle, M.A., NCC, LPC-Intern Ahhh!  September.  Heat begins to cool off.  Leaves begin to change.  The warm spicy scents of autumn fill the air. Alarm clocks ring earlier.  Traffic gets heavier.  Homework piles up.  Schedules grow dense with meetings, and games, and concerts.  All of a sudden we have more to do and […] The post Back to School Blues and Stress Relief for Adults appeared first on Just Mind.

by Margaret Fiero Nonstop shelling in Gaza, Ebola outbreak, a passenger plane being shot down in Ukraine, ISIS making  Al Qaeda look like the Lion’s Club, natural disasters occurring with an alarming frequency… at times it feels like the world’s crumbling around our ears.  These tragedies are difficult for those with robust mental health to […] The post How to Cope in Our Crazy World appeared first on Just Mind.

by Margaret Fiero In my time spent training to be a counselor, I often urged clients to dive wholeheartedly into radical self acceptance. How do I reconcile those urgings with my own reticence about loving myself? My weight struggles and body image issues always seem to stand in the way. I’ve been down this road […] The post Exploring Intuitive Eating appeared first on Just Mind.

By:  Mary Hoofnagle, M.A., NCC, LPC-Intern When I first heard Robin Williams died by suicide, my first instinct was that it offered a natural opportunity to discuss suicide awareness. But I had already been working on a completely different post, and I wondered if writing about suicide was truly the best way I could honor […] The post Five Misconceptions About Suicide appeared first on Just Mind.

by Margaret Fiero Are you a multitasking maniac? Do you think that you can eat a burger, call your mom, text the dog sitter and apply mascara while driving with your knee? Doing more with less time is a modern obsession. In fact, we seem to believe that juggling multiple tasks at once is the […] The post When Multitasking Creates Madness appeared first on Just Mind.

by Margaret Fiero I consider myself a beginner yogi, and one thing I love about yoga is how often my misconceptions about it are shattered. I’ve been thinking recently about a popular myth I once assumed was true: yoga is all about the poses. Sure, they’re important, but the transitions from one pose to another are just […] The post The Power of Transition appeared first on Just Mind.

By Margaret Fiero If you’ve ever struggled with depression, you known the feeling of wanting to wallow alone, away from others. UT professors Dr. Art Markman and Dr. Bob Duke, co-hosts of KUT’s “Two Guys on Your Head,” argue in a recent episode that it’s in those moments that you should push yourself to go […] The post How Socializing Helps the Brain appeared first on Just Mind.

By Margaret Fiero and William Schroeder If you’re anything like me, whenever you see a high caliber professional athlete perform, you wonder from which planet they hail. The speed, agility, and grace these athletes possess can be mind-boggling, particularly if you’re among those of us with a tendency to trip over their own two feet. […] The post What It Takes to Be a Professional Athlete appeared first on Just Mind.

By:Mary Hoofnagle MA, LPC, RPT, NCC Mindset is the way you approach the world and what you believe to be true.  When it comes to success, your mindset is the most important predictor of your future. Everything begins with your mindset and branches out from there.  People either operate from a fixed mindset, or a […] The post Mindset Matters Most appeared first on Just Mind.

by Margaret Fiero Are you crippled by your inner critic? Are you thwarted by your internal judge, always slamming the gavel down on your every thought and action? Where does that eternal, constant scold come from anyway? More importantly, is there any way to subdue it? Starting at a young age and throughout life, we […] The post Here’s a Quick Way to See Your Strengths appeared first on Just Mind.

By:  Mary Hoofnagle The moment Lupita Nyong’o won best actress was incredibly exciting.  Not because her performance in 12 Years a Slave was thrilling (which it was), but because the stunning actress didn’t arrive on the scene with talent alone.  She comes with a powerful message.  In a speech you may not have seen, she […] The post Why Self-Acceptance Is Important appeared first on Just Mind.

What did you do last night? Odd’s are most of you fell into the same technology trap that I did and the next thing you knew it was time to go to bed. Did you bring your phone to bed with you as well and read Facebook as you went to bed? It’s a bad […] The post Why We Need Technology Timeouts appeared first on Just Mind.

by Margaret Fiero In my last entry on how to set good boundaries, I explored different types of unhealthy boundaries. In this entry, I will explain how to set and maintain healthy boundaries. Easier said than done, perhaps, but there are steps we can take to build firm but flexible boundaries. Before beginning to build […] The post Maintaining Your Boundaries appeared first on Just Mind.

Anxiety and depression can be debilitating. Both cause distress, impair your daily functioning, make it difficult for you to work towards your goals, and interfere with your sleep and appetite. Furthermore, both prevent you from doing the activities you used to enjoy. Depression can make people too tired, sad, and hopeless to initiate previously rewarding […] The post The Simplest Way to Overcome Anxiety and Depression appeared first on Just Mind.

by Margaret Fiero We hear about boundaries a lot: wars being waged over disputed land, voting districts being redrawn, neighborhoods changing due to new zoning laws. How often, though, do we think about our own boundaries? Personal boundaries are critical, yet often go unexamined. It can be healthy to take stock, particularly if you continually […] The post How to Set Good Boundaries appeared first on Just Mind.

I will forever remember when my dad was diagnosed with cancer. I found out September 2012 that my dad had kidney cancer. Most people don’t realize what this process is like for people. You go in to the doctor because something is wrong or for a routine scan, it is followed up by a number […] The post Tips for Supporting People with Cancer appeared first on Just Mind.

By: Mary Hoofnagle “The past is just a story we tell ourselves,” says Samantha in the recent film Her. Of the many things this movie offers to explore and think about, this one struck me the most. The idea that the past can be rewritten is hardly new. Winston’s job in the novel 1984 is to rewrite […] The post How to Change Your Life’s Narrative appeared first on Just Mind.

by Margaret Fiero In my last post I wrote about psychologist John Gottman’s research and Relationship Warning Signs. This week, I’m addressing a more hopeful topic: Seven Principles for Making Marriage Work, Gottman’s research-based guide to achieving marital harmony. Here are some brief descriptions of each principle: Building Your Love Maps: When a couple first […] The post Seven Principles for Making a Marriage Work appeared first on Just Mind.

by Margaret Fiero Is it possible to predict whether a marriage or long-term relationship will succeed or fail? John Gottman believes so. No, Dr. Gottman isn’t a fortune teller, he’s a renowned psychologist specializing in marital stability, who has used numerous techniques to study relationship patterns in married couples. Gottman also claims to be able to predict which […] The post Relationship Warning Signs appeared first on Just Mind.

By: Mary Hoofnagle January can be pretty stressful. Catching up at work after some time off, recovering from prolonged exposure to family stress, mounting debt from holiday purchases, coping with illness in the midst of flu season, failed resolutions, the looming tax deadline, the Polar Vortex… But there’s good news.  You have the power to turn […] The post Let’s Talk About Stress appeared first on Just Mind.