Do you ever feel swamped in your own space or struggle to relax in your own home? Or have you ever created a place in your home just for you to enjoy? 

Your mental health is connected to your physical spaces. 

In this episode, we explore how our physical spaces affect our mental wellness and what we can do about it. Sonya Hayes runs an interior design firm and loves creating spaces that make people feel good. We’ve all experienced a space that makes us feel good; spaces can energise us, relax us, and inspire us.  Sonya designed the Covey Wellness Centre Bookshop to be a wellness space that inspires calm and holistic wellness.

Sonya wants to design spaces that feel like a hug for the person walking in, whether that is you in your home, for your guest or for your client. There are ways to create comfort the minute someone walks through the door.

Tune in for ways your space can be supporting or diminishing your mental wellness, how to make your home spaces your best spaces and ways you can love where you live. 

Sonya's Links:

YOUTUBE

INSTAGRAM

Sarah asks Sonya:

Visit www.coveywellnesscentre.com for support and resources.

*This episode is intended for mental health education purposes and is not a substitute for professional advice, diagnosis, or treatment. Please seek a mental health professional or other qualified health provider regarding your mental health for personal advice and care.

We all have one.  Your body communicates with you - but how do we listen and learn from it?Bodywisdom is the practice of listening to what your body can tell you.  If you’re skeptical, lean in and see what you find to be true about your own body.  We can glean information about what’s happening with us when we listen. 

In this episode we explore what it means to listen to our body and how to discern what intelligence it offers. Listening to our body can include paying attention to physical pain, digestive discomfort, asking questions of it, and more.

Your body is going to communication things.  It starts with the basics - you’re hungry. You’re tired. You need to go to the bathroom. But it doesn’t end there. 

Tune in for ways to build awareness of how your body works and what it might be telling you. Consider your mind body connection in your own life and give attention to the physical parts of you that carry you through the day. Then learn how to attend to what your body communicates.

Visit www.coveywellnesscentre.com for support and resources.

*This episode is intended for mental health education purposes and is not a substitute for professional advice, diagnosis, or treatment. Please seek a mental health professional or other qualified health provider regarding your mental health for personal advice and care.

“Take a deep breath” can seem like patronizing advice to someone in crisis or a child in a tantrum.  No one ever calmed down by being told to calm down.

And yet…

Breath is a tool you have with you all the time that you can access anywhere.  It can be used both proactively and reactively and is one of the simplest ways to create safety in the body.

In this episode we explore exactly what breathwork is, how it can be worked into moments of your day, and why it doesn’t have to be a huge time commitment.  Our breath is a source of both relaxation and invigoration worth giving attention and intention to. 

Tune in for simple strategies, tips and tools for intentional breathing that bring calm and bring safety to your body, and help you control your breath. Learn to breathe with ease. It’s something that you can give yourself at no cost.

Books Referenced:*

How to Breathe - Ashley Neese 

Breath - James Nester

*titles available at The Wellness Bookshop

Sarah asks Nancy:

Tell us what you’re doing and excited about with yoga, flexibility and breathwork. (2:45)

Breathwork practice (28:05)

Visit www.coveywellnesscentre.com for support and resources.

*This episode is intended for mental health education purposes and is not a substitute for professional advice, diagnosis, or treatment. Please seek a mental health professional or other qualified health provider regarding your mental health for personal advice and care.

When we feel drained, scattered or overwhelmed, knowing what “The Next Right Thing” is can make such a difference in our daily lives. Our lives are a compilation of the decisions we make and being able to choose the next right thing is a skill.

In this episode, we explore what it means to choose the next right thing, how to break down huge decisions, and how to look for ‘the little arrows’ pointing in the right direction when you don’t know what to do.

Tune in for practical ways to discern the next right thing in your life, prompts for meaningful reflections on your season, and food for thought as you move toward the life you want.

Books referenced:

The Next Right Thing - Emily P Freeman

The Next Right Thing Journal - Emily P Freeman

Emily P Freeman on Instagram 

Sarah asks Tanya:

Visit www.coveywellnesscentre.com for support and resources.

*This episode is intended for mental health education purposes and is not a substitute for professional advice, diagnosis, or treatment. Please seek a mental health professional or other qualified health provider regarding your mental health for personal advice and care.

Teenagers are the size of adults, but don’t function like them. The same life stressors that impact adults have a unique impact on teenagers, especially now. 

In this episode, we explore the impact the pandemic had on the mental health of teens, how social media has permanently changed their social landscape and why we are seeing such widespread mental health challenges in high schools.  The teen years are a huge stage of growth and transition, and depression and anxiety are becoming more and more common both in casual discussion and professional diagnosis.

So often, teens are going through things that a parent doesn’t see. It looks like they never get off their phone, always stay in their room, they don’t want to go to school or do homework, or they just flat out don’t want to talk. What can we do about it?

Tune in to learn about the post-pandemic world of a teenager. We discuss what a window of tolerance is and how it can be helpful in self-regulation. We talk about strategies for regulation and consider the impact hormones can have. And we talk about what co-regulation looks like and helpful ways to respond to struggling teen.  If your teen is struggling, know you’re not alone and neither are they… even when it feels like it. 

Sarah asks Rebekah:

Visit www.coveywellnesscentre.com for support and resources.

*This episode is intended for mental health education purposes and is not a substitute for professional advice, diagnosis, or treatment. Please seek a mental health professional or other qualified health provider regarding your mental health for personal advice and care.

Sarah Covey and Sarah Piercy discuss the intersection of writing and mental health. Writing is not just for “writers”, it’s a tool that everyone can access regardless of their writing ability. Writing has an incredible impact on mental health because it accesses a new area of our brain and takes us out of the shallows of life into the depths of what matters most.

In this episode we explore evidence for the power of writing, and various writing tools, prompts and practices that have healing potential and therapeutic power. 

Tune in for personal inspiration and practical application to make meaningful progress by “writing it down.” Start writing with I think… I feel… or The truth is… and see what you discover about yourself this weekend.

The writing that’s right for you is the writing that you’ll do!

Books referenced:

Resilient - John Eldredge

The Power of Writing it Down - Allison Fallon

The Artist’s Way

Wild Mind 

Guided Journals:

Start Where You Are 

Wild Calm 

The Next Right Thing 

The Contentment Journal

Mindful Productivity Planner 

Mental Health Workbooks and titles available locally in the Wellness Bookshop.

The power of details gratitude blog post.

Sarah Covey asks Sarah Piercy:

Visit www.coveywellnesscentre.com for support and resources.

*This episode is intended for mental health education purposes and is not a substitute for professional advice, diagnosis, or treatment. Please seek a mental health professional or other qualified health provider regarding your mental health for personal advice and care.

Sarah, Tom and Karen continue the conversation on how perfectionism is about more than a precise, excellence oriented “perfectionist” but about an embedded need within it.  

In this episode, we explore how every human being has elements of multidimensional traits of perfectionism, how they show up in different developmental stages and strategies that are freeing from them.  Perfectionism is not just about neat and tidy order, it has much deeper roots that develop for all kinds of reasons.

Tune in for an understanding of the difference between socially prescribed perfectionism, self-oriented perfectionism and others-oriented perfectionism, the relationship between control and perfectionism, and how the practice of non-striving helps us embrace authenticity and connection.

Resource links:

Henri Nouwen - Three Big Lies

Sarah asks Tom and Karen:

1. What are the three identified traits of multidimensional trait perfectionism? 

2. Tom - what are you thinking about?

3. What is the connection between control and perfectionism?

4. Any final words for listeners?

Visit www.coveywellnesscentre.com for support and resources.

*This episode is intended for mental health education purposes and is not a substitute for professional advice, diagnosis, or treatment. Please seek a mental health professional or other qualified health provider regarding your mental health for personal advice and care.

Sarah talks to Tom and Karen about expanding our understanding of what perfectionism is. What does it look like, how does it show up, and how does it hold you back from the best version of yourself? Plus, does healthy perfectionism actually exist?

In this episode we explore where perfectionism comes, the surprising ways it surfaces in daily life and why it’s more than a tightly tidied storage closet.  Plus, releasing ourselves from perfectionism doesn't mean releasing morals, ethics, excellence, details or the things that matter.

Tune in for practical tools and conversation about naming our perfectionism without living from it. Learn the difference between being a perfectionist versus struggling with perfectionism. How to be a human being, not a human doing. 

Resource links:

Bitter & Sweet - Tsh Oxenreider

Finish - Jon Acuff

Titles available locally in the Wellness Bookshop.

Sarah asks Tom and Karen:

1. What are some of the hallmarks of perfectionism?

2. What role do developmental years play in the formation of trait perfectionism?

3. What are some of the co-morbidities that often appear alongside perfectionism?

4. If I want to overcome perfectionism, what might I want to know?

Visit www.coveywellnesscentre.com for support and resources.

*This episode is intended for mental health education purposes and is not a substitute for professional advice, diagnosis, or treatment. Please seek a mental health professional or other qualified health provider regarding your mental health for personal advice and care.

Jennifer and Sarah focus on the subject of addiction in relationships and how it impacts the ecosystem of a family. Everyone knows someone who is struggling with substance use and abuse, but is it genetic? Why are some more susceptible than others? And what can we do about it? 

In this episode we explore the pervasive challenges addiction brings into families and relationships, and the common dynamics that emerge as a result.  Varying degrees of dysfunction surface in any family system and addiction adds new layers of complexity. 

Tune in for insight into why and how we respond to crisis the way we do, the short and long term results of dealing with substance abuse, and how the body remembers and holds these experiences. 

Sarah asks Jennifer:

1. Why is addiction framed as a disease within the family system?

2. How does addiction affect the dynamics within family systems?

3. What are some of the ways therapy can support people who are dealing with addiction in their families?

Visit www.coveywellnesscentre.com for support and resources.

*This episode is intended for mental health education purposes and is not a substitute for professional advice, diagnosis, or treatment. Please seek a mental health professional or other qualified health provider regarding your mental health for personal advice and care.

Sarah and Rebecca discuss the value of proactive mental health strategies and making meaningful connections with teens and pre-teens. We talk about the value and evidence of having other supportive healthy adults in the life of a teenager and some of the common struggles that face this season.  

In this episode we explore what the social world of teens and pre-teens look like and how it impacts their mental wellbeing, including relationships, rumination, and the added complexity that social media and covid layered into their social life.

Tune in for helpful insight on anxiety and depression in teens and pre-teens, helping adolescents navigate new life stressors, and how learned self-compassion can contribute to a brighter future.

Visit www.coveywellnesscentre.com for support and resources.

Sarah asks Rebecca:

*This episode is intended for mental health education purposes and is not a substitute for professional advice, diagnosis, or treatment. Please seek a mental health professional or other qualified health provider regarding your mental health for personal advice and care.