Archive for resilience

Apr
3

Positive Outlook Is Good For Your Health

by Laura Johnson

CBT Skills and Your Health

In A Positive Outlook May Be Good for Your Health, the New York Times reports that actively enhancing positive emotions can boost your immune system and reduce depression. Studies have shown a link between having a positive outlook and health benefits like lower blood pressure and heart disease, better weight control and healthier blood sugar levels.

CBT Skills that Work

In a research study, participants were encouraged to learn at least three of eight skills and practice one or more each day. The eight skills were:

  • Recognize a positive event each day.
  • Savor that event and log it in a journal or tell someone about it.
  • Start a daily gratitude journal.
  • List a personal strength and note how you used it.
  • Set an attainable goal and note your progress.
  • Report a relatively minor stress and list ways to reappraise the event positively.
  • Recognize and practice small acts of kindness daily.
  • Practice mindfulness, focusing on the here and now rather than the past or future.

How to Get Help for in San Jose/Saratoga and Sacramento/Roseville

The Cognitive Behavior Therapy Center in Silicon Valley (San Jose/Saratoga) and Sacramento Valley (Roseville) specializes in therapy and counseling with adults, children and teenagers. Call us in Saratoga at (408) 384-8404 or in Roseville at (916) 778-0771 or Click to send an email for more information on how we can help you or your family members improve your outlook.

Silicon Valley and Sacramento Valley Communities We Serve

Cognitive Behavior Therapy Center of Silicon Valley offers evidence-based therapy for Anxiety, Obsessive Compulsive Disorder and Eating Disorders near the following Silicon Valley/San Jose communities:

San Jose Therapy Counseling • Saratoga Therapy Counseling • Los Gatos Therapy Counseling • Monte Sereno Therapy Counseling • Cupertino Therapy Counseling • Campbell Therapy Counseling • Mountain View Therapy Counseling • Los Altos Therapy Counseling • Sunnyvale Therapy Counseling • Santa Clara Therapy Counseling

Cognitive Behavior Therapy Center of Sacramento Valley offers evidence-based therapy for Anxiety, Obsessive Compulsive Disorder (OCD) and Eating Disorders near the following Sacramento Valley and Sierra communities:

Sacramento Therapy Counseling • Roseville Therapy Counseling • Rocklin Therapy Counseling • Granite Bay Therapy Counseling • Lincoln Therapy Counseling • Folsom Therapy Counseling • Citrus Heights Therapy Counseling •  El Dorado Hills Therapy Counseling • Loomis Therapy Counseling • Grass Valley Therapy Counseling  • Auburn Therapy Counseling

CONTACT US
Saratoga: (408) 384-8404
Roseville: (916) 778-0771
Click to send an email

0 Categories : Anxiety, Cognitive Behavior Therapy, Depression, Health Anxiety
Jun
4

Book Review: Same Time Next Week

by Laura Johnson

Stories of Hope and Resilience in Mental Health

Read Laura Johnson’s book review of “Same Time Next Week” on Positive Psychology New Daily:

http://positivepsychologynews.com/news/laura-lc-johnson/2015060331717

How to Get Help for Anxiety, OCD and Anxiety-Related Problems

The Cognitive Behavior Therapy Center of Silicon Valley and Sacramento Valley specializes in Anxiety, OCD and Anxiety-Related Problems in adults, children and teenagers. We have two convenient locations to serve you.

The Silicon Valley office in Saratoga serves the Santa Clara County communities of San Jose, Saratoga, Mountain View, Santa Clara, Sunnyvale, Los Gatos, Los Altos, Palo Alto, Cupertino, Campbell and surrounding areas.

The Sacramento Valley office in Roseville serves the Placer County and Sacramento County communities of Sacramento, Roseville, Rocklin, Granite Bay, Lincoln, Folsom, Citrus Heights, El Dorado Hills, Loomis, Auburn, Penryn, Grass Valley, Colfax and surrounding areas.

Email us for more information on how we can help you overcome your anxiety-related problems.

0 Categories : Anxiety, Cognitive Behavior Therapy, Exposure and Response Prevention (ERP), Motivation, OCD, Positive Psychology
Jun
5

How Lucky Are You?

by Laura Johnson

Growing up, I did not consider myself to be a lucky person. I often heard my father saying things like “Everything I buy breaks. I have the worst luck.” When I was nine, I won a holiday raffle at school for a plastic candy cane filled with M&Ms. I was sick that day, the only day I missed that year, and the teacher re-drew names. For years, I saw this as proof I wasn’t lucky. I started to believe, just like my dad, that I had the worst luck and became anxious about trying new things. I expected the worst to happen and my anxious behavior and negative thinking often ensured it did. When things went well, I’d find a reason why it was an exception and when things went poorly, I told myself, “That’s okay. I didn’t expect it to work out anyway.”

How Lucky Are You?One day when I was in my early 20s, I read a story by a manager explaining his career success. Here’s what I recall him writing:

“I used to work late every night. One evening, I was in the elevator and the CEO got on. We chatted and he asked me, ‘Haven’t I seen you here before?’ I responded, ‘You might have, sir. I’ve been here every day and evening since I started this job two years ago.’ He said, ‘Son, why don’t you come by my office in the morning.’ The next day,he assigned a tough job to me, one he said needed someone who could work hard and be available to clients at all hours. I gladly accepted and my career progressed over the next 20 years.”

This prompted an “aha” moment. I became inspired to start turning my luck around through hard work and, over time, letting go of my negative inner voice.

Working Hard to Get Lucky

It’s easy to think some people are luckier than others and just “have all the luck” or “are in the right place at the right time.” However, most successful people work hard and, slowly but surely, they encounter and capitalize on lucky opportunities.

Some people do have natural talent and you might think that’s why they are lucky. Have you ever told yourself, “Oh, that person is so lucky but I’ll never amount to anything because I don’t have his or her talent”? It’s easy to fall into this thinking trap when we watch seemingly overnight sensations on reality TV. On the other hand, is that the exception rather than the rule? For example, Michael Grimm, recent winner on “America’s Got Talent,” started working in local bars at age 12. Eighteen years later, it appears he “just got lucky.”

Research has found it takes hard work and deliberate practice, not just natural talent, to achieve great success. Deliberate practice takes your abilities to the next level with disciplined and frequent practice focused on achieving clearly defined objectives, developing specific skills and getting feedback on your performance. Research indicates it takes 10,000 hours, or 10 years on average, of deliberate practice to become an expert in any field.

Your Thinking Can Improve Your Luck

There’s another way to improve your luck. That’s to harness the power of your thinking, attitudes and beliefs about yourself and the world to start noticing opportunities, listening to your intuition, expecting good things to happen and turning bad luck into good luck.

Richard Wiseman’s research, described in The Luck Factor and a Reader’s Digest article, identified four factors common among lucky people. They tend to:

  • Be skilled at creating and noticing chance opportunities: Lucky people are relaxed and open to new experiences, allowing them to notice what is present. In contrast, when you are anxious, you may get tunnel vision and miss opportunities.
  • Make good decisions by listening to their intuition: Lucky people listen to their inner voice and avoid second guessing themselves too much or looking back on their decisions with regret.
  • Create self-fulfilling prophecies with positive expectations: Lucky people expect good things and have an optimistic explanatory style. When bad things happen, lucky people tend to see the cause as external, believe the bad event will end and don’t let it affect too many parts of their life.
  • Adopt a resilient attitude that transforms bad luck into good: Lucky people see the positive side of bad events. Instead of telling themselves, “This is awful,” and falling into despair, lucky people focus on how things could have been worse and are thankful for their good luck.

 

Note: This article originally appeared on MentalHelp.net on September 27, 2010.

0 Categories : Uncategorized
Apr
22

Resilience: The Art of Bouncing Back

by Laura Johnson

Definition of Resilience: the ability to become strong, healthy, or successful again after something bad happens

 

What is Resilience?

Bounce BackResilience is the process of adapting positively in the face of adversity, trauma, tragedy, threats or significant sources of stress — such as family and relationship problems,  health problems or workplace and financial stressors. It means “bouncing back” from difficult experiences.

Being resilient does not mean that you don’t experience difficulty or distress. Emotional pain and sadness are common if you have suffered a major adversity or trauma in your life. In fact, the road to resilience is likely to involve considerable emotional distress. Many people suffer adverse events and have come out stronger as a result but that can be hard to see when you are in the midst of suffering.

Factors in Resilience

Resilience is not a trait that you either have or do not have. It involves behaviors, thoughts and actions that can be learned and developed in anyone. A combination of factors contributes to resilience. Many studies show that the primary factor in resilience is having caring and supportive relationships within and outside the family. Relationships that create love and trust, provide role models and offer encouragement and reassurance help bolster a person’s resilience. Several additional factors are associated with resilience:

  • A positive view of yourself and confidence in your strengths and abilities.
  • The capacity to make realistic plans and take steps to carry them out.
  • Skills in communication and problem solving.
  • The capacity to manage strong feelings and impulses.

Bouncing Back from Failure7 ways to build resilience

  1. Connect with others. Form good relationships with close family members, friends and others. Accept help and support from those who care about you and will listen to you. Being active in community groups and church, temple or synagogue and volunteering to help other less fortunate can provide social support and help you with reclaiming hope.
  2. Take care of yourself. Pay attention to your own needs and feelings. Engage in activities you enjoy and find relaxing. Exercise regularly. Develop confidence in your ability to solve problems and trust your instincts. Taking care of yourself helps to keep your mind and body primed to deal with situations that require resilience.
  3. Keep things in perspective. Even when facing very painful events, try to consider the stressful situation in a broader context and keep a long-term perspective. Avoid blowing the event out of proportion and seeing crises as insurmountable problems. You can’t change the fact that highly stressful events happen, but you can change how you interpret and respond to these events.
  4. Move toward your goals. Develop some realistic goals. Do something regularly — even if it seems like a small accomplishment — that enables you to move toward your goals. Accept circumstances that cannot be changed and focus on situations you can alter. Instead of focusing on tasks that seem unachievable, ask yourself, “What’s one thing I know I can accomplish today that helps me move in the direction I want to go?”
  5. Take positive, decisive actions. You probably have more influence that you think. Take action in the face of negative situations as much as you can, rather than detaching completely from problems and stresses and wishing they would just go away.
  6. Find opportunities for growth. People often learn something about themselves and may find that they have grown in some respect as a result of their struggle with loss. Many people who have experienced tragedies and hardship have reported better relationships, greater sense of strength even while feeling vulnerable, increased sense of self-worth, a more developed spirituality and heightened appreciation for life.
  7. Maintain a hopeful outlook. An optimistic outlook enables you to expect that good things will happen in your life. Try visualizing what you want, rather than worrying about what you fear. Try looking beyond the present to how future circumstances may be a little better. Note any subtle ways in which you might already feel somewhat better as you deal with difficult situations.

Get Started with Building your Resilience Muscle

Resilience is the ability to bounce back from tough situations and to avoid becoming a victim of helplessness. Being resilient can help you manage stress, lower your chances of depression, and it has even been proven to help people live longer. You may feel like you’ve had so much bad luck that it’s impossible to come out strong. Once you learn to seize your life by the reins and prepare for the unexpected, you’ll be on your way to being a more resilient person — and to living a happier, more purpose-filled life as a result. Use the steps above to get started.

 

0 Categories : Cognitive Behavior Therapy, Motivation, Uncategorized