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Psychological resilience refers to an ability to withstand or readily ‘bounce back’ from stress and grow from challenges. Other words used to describe psychological resilience include ‘mental toughness’ and ‘hardiness.’ The great news is that resilience can be developed and strengthened through deliberate practice. Below are four of the most effective strategies for promoting resilience. …
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A major part of coping effectively resides in the way we respond to pain or distress. The metaphor of two arrows, or what is often referred to as “the second arrow,” metaphor is often used to describe this process. In this metaphor, the first arrow is the actual pain or painful circumstances at hand. This…
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Meditation is a very simple concept, yet many people find it very difficult. The essence of meditation is awareness: knowing what you are feeling, doing, seeing, and hearing. This can be as simple as knowing you are sitting in your living room looking at a plant and hearing the outside rush of cars on the…
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Psychic equivalence and embeddedness are two related terms originating from attachment theory that are useful to reflect upon when we consider how we experience and react to the world around us. Psychic equivalence is a mental state where no distinction is drawn between the contents of the mind and the external world. For example, when…
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The concept and notion of exploring our shadow has gained recent attention in popular culture. The Swiss psychiatrist, Carl Jung, was the first to use this term to designate aspects of personality that are unconscious and separate from our conscious identity as a result of our adaptation to the demands of our environment. Over the…
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Working Through Our Hindrances We all manage challenges as we navigate daily life. Most of these challenges are part of life and involve problem-solving and resilience as we move forward toward our personal goals at home or at work. However, there are additional challenges or obstacles that are somewhat more internal in nature. The Buddha…
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Existentialism suggests that we have both the freedom and responsibility to make our own choices by looking within ourselves. Accordingly, we are tasked with finding meaning, determining our values, and making decisions that shape our lives. Existential psychotherapy builds on these views by approaching therapy with an emphasis on self-determination and our individual search for…
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Buddhist psychology teaches us that the source of happiness and unhappiness lies nowhere else but in our own minds and hearts. From this perspective, we can strive, accomplish, and accumulate great wealth, yet we will always return back to ourselves, back to our own minds and hearts. One way we can work to develop a greater…
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We all face challenges and must find ways of dealing with difficult emotional states such as envy, dislike, anxiety, fear, and general distress. Coping effectively allows for us to move through distress with greater ease. Below are several useful contemplations and practices that can be helpful in expanding our capacity to cope with greater ease. …
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People sometimes have the impression that the primary goal of therapy is to eliminate negative emotions or distress. Although there is often a focus on symptom reduction early in therapy, we generally have much broader goals. Likewise, people sometimes navigate daily life in an effort to minimize discomfort or distress. This is fairly reasonable as…
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