Fear is a basic, yet powerful emotion. It shows itself to us in many forms; a racing heart, surge of energy, “butterflies” in the stomach. These physical cues usually result from our most primal form of fear that sets off the fight, flight or freeze response. A near miss on the highway, physical confrontation or […]

This past weekend I was watching Disney’s Chicken Little with my son and I thought it was a great movie. I couldn’t believe I had never watched it before. It’s geared towards a younger audience, but it has many important life lessons to teach us. One of these, is the power to accept what has […]

In the last blog on this topic I talked about how families differ in their handling of emotions. Parents are the primary role-models for how emotions are to be dealt with in family units. Children learn how to process their emotions by watching what their parents do (or do not do) with their own feelings. […]

This week I was listening to a lecture on anxiety and the speaker talked about “optimal anxiety.” Now, when I first hear the word “anxiety” I do not feel warm and fuzzy. However, the speaker stated there is a healthy form of anxiety that motivates people to successfully accomplish difficult tasks and this is “optimal […]