Finding Your Marbles
A Mental Health Survival Guide

Isabella Mori, who is a therapist in Vancouver, has written a great article on the importance of letting go of resentment.

Clinging to bad emotions and angry feelings about people and situations can be very self-destructive, and it also drains you of the valuable energy that you need to stay healthy. In other words, letting go of your resentments is good for your mental health.

Isabella gives some great tips on how to confront and deal resentment, from meditation (my favorite) to “imagination.” (which might soon become my new favorite)

If you find that you just can’t let go of your negative feelings, or that you can’t shake your anger towards another person, then you should give Isabella’s article a read.

Continue reading “Link: Letting Go of Resentments” »

For me, one of the worst aspects of depression was how much it affected my ability to make decisions. I’m a “take charge” kind of guy, and I felt absolutely helpless when I was so paralyzed by my depression that I couldn’t even make simple decisions. And tough decisions? Forget it!

Last summer I was reading “What Color is Your Parachute” by Richard Bolles, and I found a great decision making tool. With a bit of tinkering, I have come up with my own version of the tool, and now I use it all the time to help me make tough decisions. I wish I had it 5 years ago when I was still depressed.

Continue reading “How To Make Tough Decisions When You Are Depressed” »

I used to be terrible at crisis management. When anything bad happened that was outside my control, I would always come apart at the seams. I would start to panic, and I would end up making a huge mess of things and getting myself more depressed and anxious.

At an old job I had, one of my projects was to write up a crisis management plan. When I was finished this project, I began to wonder if I could apply the same skills and techniques that I used at work to my personal life to see if I could do a better job at crisis management. After some experiments and fine tuning, I developed a five-part personal crisis management system. By applying this system, I was eventually able to manage my anxiety during a crisis. I wasn’t as unprepared when things went wrong, and I was able to quickly calm myself down and get the crisis under control.

Continue reading “How To Manage a Crisis” »

“He’s only big because of his bounces”
– Winnie the Pooh

Courage is one of those things that everyone tries to understand, but that nobody really gets. When most people talk about courage, what they really mean is “fearlessness.” The two concepts couldn’t be more different.

Children are taught that having courage means being fearless. Courage is “ignoring your fear and standing up to danger, no matter how scared you are.” In other words, kids are taught to be Tigger. Brave kids aren’t afraid of anything, and kids who show fear are weak. Sound familiar?

Continue reading “How Winnie the Pooh Taught Me Courage” »