As many of us continue to be living with stay at home orders, social distancing, and limited options for safely engaging with the outside world, we are spending more time with ourselves. I am hearing from many that this increase in self-reflective time has increased the pre-therapy jitters. It’s common to feel a bit nervous before a therapy session. In a pre-pandemic world, it may have been a quieter build up of nerves due to rushing to session (maybe even in person) from work, or going right into a social get together after a session. With less face to face interaction with others, we can hear ourselves that much more clearly, and that might bring up fears of doing therapy “wrong” or fear of really being seen in therapy. Today we’ll take a look at factors that contribute to these nerves, how to cope, and when it might be time to reconsider your path with therapy. 

It is incredibly easy to find information about how to exercise, how much you should be exercising, and why it’s important to exercise. In fact, this information seems to find us, even when we aren’t looking. You might receive this information from your doctor, your friends, the nightly news, and daily targeted advertisements on your social media! The message behind much of this information is that you need to exercise to be healthy and this might also mean changing something or many things about the way your body looks. It can feel really challenging to divert your attention from these messages and check in with yourself on how much and what type of movement your body needs. 

This Sunday, May 10th, is Mother’s Day here in the United States. Although Mother’s Day is particularly weird this year, let’s be clear that Mother’s Day can be a day of mixed emotions any year. You may be relating to the day from the role of a mother or from the role of an adult child --or both. I find that any day that carries the expectation of joy and celebration also carries with it the shadow of loss and pain. I hope that you can allow yourself to honor the multiple truths of the day that feel present to you. 

I’ve been hearing this week that it can be really challenging to spend more time at home for any number of reasons, but particularly that it is more challenging to spend more time with your own thoughts. You may be balancing the responsibilities of work and home with the added element of not being able to access some of your go-to coping strategies. The idea of self-compassion and remaining present with yourself might sound great but feel out of reach or even annoying. I hope to be able to identify a few common myths about self-compassion and normalize some of the thinking traps that can feel a bit sticky or murky.