Impacted By Grace

https://laveldanaylor.wordpress.com/2012/11/04/keys-to-effective-self-care/ What is self care?  We hear about self care a lot in our culture today, but what does it mean exactly to truly incorporate self care in our lives? The dictionary says self care is “ the practice of taking an active role in protecting one's own well-being and happiness, in particular during periods of stress.”  Self care keeps our body, mind, and spirit at optimal level so we can be our best selves.  When talking about self care, I like to use Virginia Satir’s (a well know therapist) model. She discusses how there are 8 keys of self care. They are the following: Intellectual Self Care: Activities that you can do to stimulate the brain or engage the mind is a form of intellectual self care. These may be things like reading, playing games, and learning new things.  Interactional Self Care: This involves being social with others. This can include going out to eat with you...

Mindfulness is popular term going around in our culture today. Knowing exactly what mindfulness is and how to use it can be confusing. Mindfulness is important because it can help calm us down and ground us as we face our day-to-day, busy lives. Mindfulness can help with things such as anxiety, depression, and stress. Life can be messy and chaotic, and when it is, the biggest thing we can gift ourselves with is 5 minutes of silence and peace. Today I will share with you what mindfulness is and ways to incorporate it in your lives. The Three Ingredients of Mindfulness First off, I reference Diane Gehart when talking about mindfulness. Incorporating it into our lives is SUPER hard. It sounds easy initially, but when putting it into action, it can be a different story. Three major ingredients for achieving mindfulness include: Intentionality Attention to present experience Grace and compassion There are many ways to do mindfulness, but it has to include those 3 ingredien...

Image Credit: National Suicide Prevention Lifeline Media Resources     As some of you may or may not know, September is Suicide Awareness Prevention Month. Most of you probably know someone or know of someone who has attempted or completed suicide. In 2017, an estimated 1,400,000 people attempted suicide according to the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention. As a counselor, that number is all too real. I want to share with you all warning signs, what to do, and what not to do with someone with suicidal ideation. The definition of suicidal ideation is a person who has thoughts, intentions, a plan, and/or the means to commit suicide. What you need to know: Asking about suicide does not increase a person’s chances of committing suicide. It actually could help save his/her life.  Suicidal ideation can affect anyone regardless of his or her background.  Typically, people do not commit suicide out of t...