Your Great Journey

We all know the gnawing feeling of needing to have a difficult conversation with someone. While the conversation could improve things in the long term, in the short term our fear can win out and cause us to avoid it. There is good news, though! There are simple skills that can help us learn how to have difficult conversations with greater ease and comfort.

Today we’re sharing an excerpt from the audiobook The Assertiveness Guide for Women: How to Communicate Your Needs, Set Healthy Boundaries, and Transform Your Relationships. This audiobook is written by psychotherapist Julie de Azevedo Hanks. You’ll find it to be a thoughtful, proactive guide. It helps women become more aware of thoughts and feelings, ask for what they need, set boundaries, and speak truthfully for a more fulfilling life.

While Dr. de Azevedo Hanks’ audiobook is for women, this excerpt offers helpful tips for anyone of any gender. If you want to improve your skills dealing with life’s tough conversations, Dr. de Azevedo Hanks shares an effective toolbox. If you’ve ever been bothered by a friend, coworker, child or partner, but found yourself uncertain about how to have a difficult conversation with that person, you’ll appreciate these concrete steps. You’ll learn how to create a situation where your message, intent, mind, and heart will be heard and respected by another person. You can feel comfortable having even the most challenging conversations!

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Julie de Azevedo Hanks draws on her experience as a psychotherapist and clinical social worker, as well as extensive research, to show us how to…express our own voices. But at the same time that she provides us with tools for self-empowerment, she shows how we can do this without dis-empowering others. This is one of many things that makes this book special.

Author, "The Chalice and the Blade"

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What if, instead of trying to fix the problems in your life, you decided that you wanted to do something different? What if you wanted to be miserable? How would you go about it, and what would you learn about yourself? You might be surprised to learn that this counter-intuitive approach to how to feel happy can actually point you in the direction of a life of contentment.

Today we have a conversation with psychologist Dr. Randy Paterson about his audiobook How To Be Miserable: 40 Strategies You Already Use. In How to Be Miserable, Dr. Paterson outlines 40 specific behaviors and habits, which—if followed—are sure to lead to a lifetime of unhappiness. On the other hand, if you do the opposite, you have an effective way to increase your happiness.

In this episode, Dr. Paterson talks about his new audiobook. He also discusses the power of flipping the question and asking: If I wanted to, how would I make myself miserable? He shares tips and exercises to identify the ways you may already be sabotaging your well-being—physically, mentally, emotionally and socially—as well as ways to break out of old, unhealthy patterns. Surprisingly, gaining insight into how to feel happy can be found in this unusual technique.

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Randy J. Paterson, PhD, is director of Changeways Clinic, a private psychotherapy practice in Vancouver, Canada. He is author of The Assertiveness Workbook and Your Depression Map, and he conducts training programs for professionals on evidence-based treatment. Through Changeways Clinic, Paterson presents lectures and workshops internationally on topics including cognitive behavioral therapy and the nature and treatment of depression and anxiety disorders. He is the 2008 recipient of the Canadian Psychological Association’s Distinguished Practitioner Award. For more information, please visit www.psychologysalon.com.

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Many of us over-think the problems in our lives. Maybe you over-think your relationships or eating habits. Perhaps you worry compulsively. If so, you’ve probably wondered how to stop over-thinking. You may even have started to over-think over-thinking! When it comes to food and our eating patterns, over-thinking can be especially destructive. If you’ve ever wished you could just turn off your over-thinking, this simple guided meditation may help.

Today we’re sharing an excerpt from Dr. Jennifer Taitz’s audiobook, End Emotional Eating: Using Dialectical Behavior Therapy Skills to Cope with Difficult Emotions and Develop a Healthy Relationship to Food. Dr. Taitz, a clinical psychologist, knows that eating can all too easily become a strategy for coping with depression, anxiety, boredom, stress, and anger. Eating is also a reliable reward when it’s time to celebrate. If you’re ready to experience emotions without consuming them or being consumed by them, End Emotional Eating can help. You’ll learn how to manage your emotions and urges gracefully, live in the present moment and cope with distress skillfully.

In today’s episode, Dr. Taitz discusses the pitfalls of rumination. Those of us familiar with over-thinking know that it can exacerbate small disappointments and struggles until they feel overwhelming. Dr. Taitz walks us through the links between over-thinking and suppression, avoidance, and distress—and offers a way to stop over-thinking with a soothing and centering guided mediation. This meditation is designed to bring you out of your thoughts and into the present moment.

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Rumination is actually a form of avoidance. When you ruminate, you are less focused on directly experiencing and expressing the current emotion and are more caught up in an abstract story. You can think of rumination as a way to try to analyze and control thinking. Does it help? It may often be as pointless as worry, to which it is similar.

End Emotional Eating

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What do you consider to be your most destructive habits? Did you know that many habits you might feel are destructive and self-sabotaging, are actually just misunderstandings? According to psychologist Amy Johnson, “What often looks like self-sabotage is a misguided attempt at self-love. It’s you doing the best you can in the moment to feel better, driven by love for yourself and a deep desire for wellness.”

Today we’re sharing an excerpt from Dr. Amy Johnson’s audiobook The Little Book of Big Change: The No-Willpower Approach to Breaking Any Habit. Drawing on a powerful combination of neuroscience and spirituality, this audiobook shows you that you are not your habits. Your habits and addictions are the result of simple brain wiring that can be easily changed. If you’d like to understand the science behind bad habits, make the decision to end them, and finally take charge of your life—once and for all—you’ll find this audiobook helpful.

In this episode, Dr. Johnson shares an enlightening new way of understanding what you might think of as destructive habits. You’ll see your bad or unhealthy habits are useful indicators that you’re in a low state of mind. You’re using your amazing power of thought to your detriment, rather than to your benefit. In those moments, there is a solution. You can step back and let your natural, peaceful state of mind take over.

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Thanks to this powerful book, I’ve been Googling ‘How to Build a Time Machine,’ because, my gosh, I would have loved this book back when my worst addiction (habit) was ruining me. But I find now it also works, as a system, to delete even the smallest of current annoying habits! Very highly recommended!

—author Time Warrior

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Mindfulness is a “superpower” that has been proven to help reduce anxiety, depression and stress while strengthening emotional stamina. In this episode, mental health therapist Sheri Van Dijk introduces the basic techniques regarding how to practice mindfulness. The beauty of mindfulness is its accessibility—you can practice anywhere and anytime. In twenty minutes, you can feel clearer, calmer and more centered, regardless of what’s going on around you. And if you find yourself in the middle of an emotional storm, can you use mindfulness to get your bearings? Yes!

In this episode, we’re sharing an excerpt from the audiobook Calming the Emotional Storm: Using Dialectical Behavior Therapy Skills to Manage Your Emotions and Balance Your Life, written by Sheri Van Dijk. This audiobook helps you cope with difficult emotions calmly and responsibly with a toolkit that utilizes dialectical behavior therapy, cognitive behavioral techniques, and mindfulness practices. If you’re ready to change the way you respond to stressful situations, then the skills in this audiobook will help you develop the inner resilience to weather any emotional storm and avoid needless suffering.

In this excerpt, mental health therapist Sheri Van Dijk introduces the basic techniques regarding how to practice mindfulness. She discusses where to start, and what mindfulness will do for you. You will be introduced to three different mindfulness exercises, all of which are carefully tailored to help you become more present and receptive in the moment. You’ll learn:

These simple exercises will help you learn how to practice mindfulness—anywhere, anytime.

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You can practice mindfulness in an infinite number of ways, because anything you do, you can bring mindfulness to―breathing, watching television or reading a book, having a conversation with someone, driving, eating, walking―the list is endless.

Calming the Emotional Storm

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