Maryellen dedicates an entire episode to stress for the first time. She talks about how reactive stress makes us, and how we opt for quick fixes in place of the lifestyle changes that bring real stress relief.

April 2021 is Stress Awareness Month. Most people who reach out to schedule a therapy appointment do so because they’re stressed.  We’re often very reactive to stress, feeling that next steps or relief need to come right now in the next few moments.  Stress cleaning is another great example of this concept.  Stress is a very powerful emotion that we will always face, but your relationship with stress does not have to be so negatively reactive.  

Stress is an evolutionary response:

Stress releases cortisol.

Stress paralyzes our parasympathetic nervous system.

There are three phases of stress:

Alarm

Resistance

Exhaustion

There are no quick fixes for minimizing stress.  Kelly McGonagal used to study how to minimize or resist stress, until she realized that doesn’t work.  She now helps people view stress more positively, to be more resilient. 

Maryellen challenges us to rethink how we view a stressful situation and how to more positively view it and move forward.  

Who this Episode is Great For

We’re not fibbing when we say there’s not a single person out there who doesn’t deal with stress!  This episode was made to benefit those young and old, working or stay-at-home, in-office or teleworking, single or in a relationship, small town or big city - you get the idea! 

Like what you hear?  Leave a review and give us a follow on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, Stitcher, iHeartRadio, or any of your other favorite platforms!

Related episodes 

Episode 22- The Dark Side of Wellness: Maryellen exposes pursuing wellness as a mechanism to set aside our dark emotions and live up to societal expectations of following self care. In order to achieve wellness, feelings such as guilt, anxiety, and stress are meant to be felt. 

Episode 14- Why it’s Okay-ish to Experience ‘Burn Out’: Maryellen explains how burn out is exhaustion from chronic stress and shows how not only do people feel burn out, but therapists do too. When recognizing signs for being burned out, Maryellen shares her top 4 tips on how to avoid and manage burnout by simply: 1. Recognizing your burnout, 2. Setting boundaries for yourself, 3. Asking for help, and 4. Taking time away. 

Follow or Find us at:

The show:

https://daydreamernetwork.com/okay-ish-2/

https://okayishpodcast.com/

The network:

@daydreamernetwork

https://daydreamernetwork.com

Host’s Contact Info

https://maryellendance.com/

@maryellendance

About the HOST

Maryellen Dance is a Licensed Mental Health Counselor (LMHC) based out of upstate New York. She focuses on providing skills using cognitive behavioral therapy, often using mindfulness techniques that are vital to personal growth. With a passion for psychology and propensity to ask questions, Maryellen entered this field to educate, learn and share what it means to be “Okay-ish.”

Opening with Bipolar Awareness Day, Maryellen articulates what it means to be Bipolar, and no it is not just being moody one minute and the next being completely normal. Diving into bipolar disorder, Maryellen distinguishes the two types of sicknesses as Bipolar 1 and Bipolar 2. With these two types of bipolar disorders, they relate in the sense of experiencing depression, but differ in being manic or hypomanic AKA having dangerously high levels of energy or moderate levels of energy for different periods of time. Now that we’ve covered the type kinds of bipolar disorder, how do we have a better understanding of handling this mental illness?  Maryellen breaks down the stigma of bipolar disorder and clearly points out NO ONE IS DANGEROUS WITH BIPOLAR DISORDER. If you don’t believe it, hear one of Maryellen’s friends experiences with having this mental illness. They share their misconception of what having bipolar disorder is, along with their story of getting the proper help they needed. 

So let’s stop and think twice the next time we use the phrase “Oh, they’re just being bipolar”, because are they really? 

Who this Episode is Great For

Ever get called bipolar from your friends or family just by experiencing regular mood swings? This episode is a wake up call for everyone who stigmatizes bipolar disorder and explains the true experience of being bipolar and having depressive and bipolar episodes. 

Like what you hear?  Leave a review and give us a follow on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, Stitcher, iHeartRadio, or any of your other favorite platforms!

Related episodes 

Episode 32 - Suicidal Ideation: Maryellen gets to the nitty gritty concept of suicide and breaks down the 4 motives of committing suicide. Along with these 4 motives, stress, mental health disorders, and isolation play a factor into this episode. Maryellen guides you through the misunderstandings and hard facts of suicide, as well as expose teen suicide.

Episode 1 - Therapy Myths 101: Maryellen gives her top 5 myths of therapy and tells the truth of therapists. Her top 5 myths include: therapists diagnosing patients, therapists being white old men, therapists only saying the phrase, “how does that make you feel”, lying down during your therapy session, and blaming all your issues on your mother.  

Follow or Find us at:

The show:

https://daydreamernetwork.com/okay-ish-2/

https://okayishpodcast.com/

The network:

@daydreamernetwork

https://daydreamernetwork.com

Host’s Contact Info

https://maryellendance.com/

@maryellendance

About the HOST

Maryellen Dance is a Licensed Mental Health Counselor (LMHC) based out of upstate New York. She focuses on providing skills using cognitive behavioral therapy, often using mindfulness techniques that are vital to personal growth. With a passion for psychology and propensity to ask questions, Maryellen entered this field to educate, learn and share what it means to be “Okay-ish.”

Trigger Warning: If you or a loved one are struggling with suicidal ideation, please call the National Suicide Prevention Hotline at 1-800-273-8255. Available 24/7.For Teen Health Awareness Day, Maryellen gets down to the nitty gritty concept of suicide and shares the top 4 common motives as to why people commit suicide. Starting from the death seeker to death initiator, death darer, and death ignorer, Maryellen analyzes each influence of suicide and points out how mental heatlh disorders, especially stress, can also play a factor into committing suicide. With spotting out the common misconceptions of suicide, Maryellen throws in data analysis collected from 2019 sharing the hard facts of suicide rates. One of the biggest fears Maryellen expresses is the possible increase in teen suicide as teens misunderstand the view of suicide and commonly commit suicide as an act of following in the steps of celebrities or tv shows. With going over the motives for suicide, teen influences ,and myths of suicide, you’ll have a better understanding of why people commit suicide and reach out to your loved ones or family members. 

Like what you hear?  Leave a review and give us a follow on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, Stitcher, iHeartRadio, or any of your other favorite platforms!

Related episodes 

Episode 29- Self Harm Awareness: Maryellen dives into the truth of self harm, how it’s not correlated with suicidal behaviors and categorizes the types of self harm. The categories broken down for the types of self harm are: attention seeking, self punishment, and stress relief. Maryellen explores each of these groups and explains how to manage the addiction of self harm. 

Episode 33 - Bipolar Awareness: Maryellen describes the two types of bipolar disorders and shares the misconceptions of being bipolar, and no it’s not just having mood swings. She explains how depression is a part of being bipolar and how to handle experiencing so many emotions at once, along with sharing insight on what it’s like to suffer from bipolar disorder.  

Episode 34 -Stress Awareness Month: In this episode, Maryellen stresses the powerful emotion of stress and shares the 3 common types of stress: alarm, resistance, and exhaustion. As stressed as we might feel, Maryellen guides us through properly recognizing our stress and the damages it can cause us if we ignore it. 

Follow or Find us at:

The show:

https://daydreamernetwork.com/okay-ish-2/

https://okayishpodcast.com/

The network:

@daydreamernetwork

https://daydreamernetwork.com

Host’s Contact Info

https://maryellendance.com/

@maryellendance

About the HOST

Maryellen Dance is a Licensed Mental Health Counselor (LMHC) based out of upstate New York. She focuses on providing skills using cognitive behavioral therapy, often using mindfulness techniques that are vital to personal growth. With a passion for psychology and propensity to ask questions, Maryellen entered this field to educate, learn and share what it means to be “Okay-ish.”

Congratulations! You just survived one year of COVID! After enduring all the stress and anxiety from COVID, Maryellen guides you through processing your traumatic memories with COVID and helps you see the brighter side of going into 2021. A year of COVID has caused everyone to at least have one or two dreadful memories and feel all the waves of emotions, but sit back and relax as the hard times are over. By following these 4 tips, you’ll be able to control your feelings, cope the way you think is best for you, and not let the COVID stress take over your life. These tips are to help you see your battle with COVID in a positive way, to be able to “see the brighter side” 

Be flexible. Be flexible with your emotions, allow yourself to feel negative emotions

Your emotions are okay. 

You don't need an excuse to be angry or sad or happy, and you don't need anyone validating your emotions. 

We are only human, allow yourself to feel all your feelings, “feelings are like waves, they come and go” 

 Don’t cope by listening to others. 

You do you. 

Don’t follow the trend and cope by exercising or changing your diet, everyone has a different coping mechanism. 

Figure out what coping mechanism works for you.

Third Additional tip: Don't judge the way you cope. Whatever makes you feel good, keep doing it 

Don’t ask yourself “What If…” Don’t express your fear by asking what if scenarios and dig yourself into a dark hole. As all emotions are meant to be felt, don’t allow fear to control you. 

Like what you hear?  Leave a review and give us a follow on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, Stitcher, iHeartRadio, or any of your other favorite platforms!

Related episodes 

Episode 5 - The Dreaded Episode All About Self Care: Maryellen cuts to the chase and skips the “Live Laugh Love” cliche by breaking down what self care actually is. She gives her insight on why the term “self care” isn’t really self care unless it helps you. This episode crashes on the trend of self care and how there is more meaning to self care than a simple hashtag. 

Episode 23 -We’re Still In COVID: Taking a step back to January, This episode recaps the ups and downs of COVID as well as highlighting 3 wellness tips to continue the fight against quarantine. Maryellen digs deep into our emotions and guides us to wellness by telling us to: give ourselves a break, go outside and feel the fresh air, stick to a schedule, and keep our brain distracted. 

Follow or Find us at:

The show:

https://daydreamernetwork.com/okay-ish-2/

https://okayishpodcast.com/

The network:

@daydreamernetwork

https://daydreamernetwork.com

Host’s Contact Info

https://maryellendance.com/

@maryellendance

About the HOST

Maryellen Dance is a Licensed Mental Health Counselor (LMHC) based out of upstate New York. She focuses on providing skills using cognitive behavioral therapy, often using mindfulness techniques that are vital to personal growth. With a passion for psychology and propensity to ask questions, Maryellen entered this field to educate, learn and share what it means to be “Okay-ish.”

Maryellen provides a 'crash course' overview on some childhood specific disorders to share what they can actually look like. Hint: it's different than what you might think.Visit chadd.org for ADHD resources.

Debunking myths about what self harm is and how to help.If you are struggling with self injury please text HOME (that's 4663) to 741741 for resources and assistance.

First, a big announcement: Maryellen just released her new book, the It's Okay to be Okay-ish Journal. Check it out here!Obviously when talking about self esteem there had to be an episode about romantic relationships and how those impact self esteem. Learn about what high functioning relationships look like, what gaslighting means, and how to maintain self esteem no matter what your relationship is. If you are in a relationship involving financial, emotional, physical, or sexual abuse please call 1-800-799-SAFE for resources.

Maryellen talks with speaker, Dan Faill, all about self esteem in men, failure, and how he maintains his self esteem.

Maryellen dives into what's going WRONG when talking about self esteem and how to switch the self esteem conversations to positive things that will actually help us feel better!

Self Esteem, Self Concept, Self Awareness, oh my! Maryellen kicks off 'boost self esteem month' by talking about what self esteem means, the difference between self esteem, self concept, and self awareness, and she gives two very important tricks to managing self esteem.