Building Psychological Strength

In the field of Psychology, we are increasingly learning more about how trauma, habits, and beliefs are handed down from generation to generation, many times, without us knowing. Think about it - you very likely have belief systems and ways of seeing and responding to the world that were transmitted to you through generations of your family.

This has incredible implications for the way we individually respond to the world, but also ...

Trigger warning. How many times have you seen that phrase on social media? Do you truly know what it means? What does it mean to have a trigger? To be triggered? How do triggers impact us in our lives, in our performance, and in our relationships?

This week, we're exploring these very fundamental questions. The fact of the matter is, we ALL have triggers. It's simply an artifact of the way our minds work. What's most imp...

Burnout is a topic that is becoming so prolific because so many of us are EXPERIENCING IT! Turns out, burnout is a state that is at the end of the road of a long continuum. There are ways we can intervene to reduce the chances of ourselves becoming burned out, but we have to recognize it first.

I'm thrilled to be diving into that very topic today.

Today we're speaking with Dr. Cassandra LeClair. She is a Communications & ...

Our romantic relationships are simultaneously some of the most important, most misunderstood, most under-resourced relationships in our lives. So many of us have this misconception that our 'love lives' should just come naturally. That we shouldn't have to work so hard. That they can unfold in a healthy way, even if they're unexamined.

The 50% divorce rate in the US suggests otherwise.

Today, we're digging into th...

There are few things more fundamentally important than our health and wellbeing. When we have it, we take it for granted. However, when we're told there's a problem or when we aren't feeling well, it's all we can think about.

Wellbeing has become even more of a focus since the pandemic because of the experiences we all had over the last 2 years. Mental health has suffered. We've neglected to take care of ourselve...

There's no denying it - the last handful of years have been very challenging. Aside from the personal adversity we've all felt in our individual lives, we've faced incredible collective adversity. The pandemic. Political divide. Crime and mass shootings. It has all been a lot to handle, and many of us have found ourselves searching for ways to move through it and cope.

Thankfully, the field of psychology has a very effec...

One of the basic principles of cognitive behavioral theory (CBT) is that our mind and our behavior (and our emotions and life experience) are strongly linked. Our body and our behavior send strong messages that tell us how to appraise a situation and how we might want to respond. Yet, we spend so much energy attempting to ignore it. We focus instead on being "rational," or "logical." We believe emotions are "irr...

Did you know that research tells us that we all should strive to get TWO HOURS of enjoyable leisure activity EVERY SINGLE DAY?! When I heard that statistic, I was shocked!

We focus so intently on performance, optimization, and striving. We focus on how much we can get done and how to increase that amount. And we forget that life is meant to be fun as well.

This week we're speaking with Dr. Mike Rucker. He is an organizational psy...

Life Design is a field that I am incredibly passionate about. The ability to envision a future we want to create and then take intentional steps to get there is so POWERFUL.

However, the path toward that future is a very individual one. Not everyone will face the same challenges, and we differ in the way we are motivated. Today, we're diving into a couple of frameworks that can help you understand yourself at a deeper level and ...

The conversation around mental health and wellbeing is being elevated after the experience we've all had during the pandemic. However, an incredible amount of stigma still exists around seeking help for a mental health condition.

This week, we're diving deep into what it means to break that stigma, seek out the help you need, and support others in their mental health quest.

I interviewed Sara Schley for the recent Global Resi...

Is it better to set a goal to achieve something or to avoid something? Exactly how detrimental is it to have people around you who don't support your goals? Are big, hairy, audacious goals (BHAG) better to set, or are specific, measurable, achievable, relevant, and time-bound (SMART) goals better?

The content out there on goal-setting and motivation is conflicting. It can be hard to sift through what is important and what will a...

If you're a parent and you've ever felt guilty for taking a break, raise your hand! (April raises her hand.)

Parental guilt is all too familiar for so many of us. Taking care of our little ones is challenging, and sometimes, you just need a break. But, the second you get one, the guilt creeps in. I find that situations like these are easier to handle when we understand WHY we're feeling that way. That's exactly what ...

If you have ever felt like there must be something wrong with you because of how you handled a situation, this episode is for you.

We've all been there. We've experienced anxiety, anger, depression and other states of being, and it can be easy to look at ourselves as though there's something wrong with us. Even the field of psychology has taken this approach. We label things as "disorders" and we try to "trea...

If the last 2 years have taught us one thing it is this: people's lives don't exist in silos. The experiences, stresses, and challenges people face in their personal lives bleed over into their professional lives, and vice versa. It has never been more apparent that we need to support people in a more holistic, human way than right now.

As we look to the future and anticipate yet another stage of change, I wanted to have a c...

What does it mean for you to "perform well" or "win" today? Have you ever stopped to consider that? One more question, as a high-achieving person or a top-performing person, have you ever stopped to consider times when it might be ok for you to show up intentionally looking to achieve at a B+ level?

These questions sound like heresy when we put them in the context of our traditional, high-pressure professional world....

One of the most common things we get asked is how to reduce anxiety. Talk about the ultimate question! Anxiety is SO incredibly common, yet the tools to reduce it can feel so elusive. In today's episode, we're leaning on cognitive-behavioral theory to help us use micro-behaviors to reduce anxiety (or induce any emotional state you're after).

During this episode, I give a quick overview of what cognitive-behavioral theory...

The current state of the world has many of us feeling afraid, uncertain, and even disconnected. Given everything that is happening right now, it's natural to have the impulse to pull away. To disengage. To disconnect.

However, the field of positive psychology shows us that it's our interconnection to other people that drives much of our happiness and wellbeing. Beyond that, it's our interconnection with other people that...

BURNOUT. It's a topic in the news almost daily. Given the stress we've all been under over the last 2 years, burnout is at an all-time high. But is it? Really?

I mean, I agree that we're burned out, but my instinct tells me that we've been that way much longer than we realize. The pressure of the pandemic has brought it to the surface more clearly, but the burnout itself is a tale as old as time.

Today we're talki...