"Work hard, play hard." "Shoot for the stars." "Never stop chasing your dreams." "If you can dream it, you can do it!"

These are sayings and quotes we might have heard or seen throughout our lives.

In school, we're faced with the pressure to academically succeed, participate in extracurricular activities, and live a rich social life (this, of course, all while holding unique and inspiring aspirations for ourselves.)

In the fall the nights grow longer, the temperatures drop, and everything green seems to fade. In spring, the light peeks through our curtains sometimes before we're even awake, the weather gets warmer and while the foliage around us blossoms, allergy season makes its rude debut here in Colorado.

Regardless of the season, it's a change, and change, sometimes, is hard.

After school activities to get to, tests to prepare for, papers to write. Deadlines to make, social expectations to meet, bills to pay. Chronic illnesses to battle, emotions to process, the world to face. The pressure, the stress, the frustration, the pain, is on. We fly from one thing to the next, hardly able to breathe. We know we need to slow down, to take a moment in the moment, but we can't seem to make ourselves, because what does that even mean anyway?

Maybe, we think, this is the only way we're able to handle all these things, by just pressing on absent-mindedly, numb to what our bodies and minds may be trying to tell us. Or maybe we did try to slow down, to connect with the present, but it seemed to make things worse. It compounded those uncomfortable and painful feelings.

Mindfulness, it turns out, is a double-edged sword.

Breakups. Sometimes they creep--a slow, terrible fracture between people who once really loved each other. Sometimes they happen suddenly, seemingly without notice, leaving you suddenly alone and heartbroken. However breakups happen, they almost always leave you with a slew of emotions: grief, sadness, anxiety, fear, loneliness, and maybe even, some guilt and shame.

So how do we navigate these feelings? Especially when we're feeling incredibly vulnerable, broken and, well, just down right shitty? We might even think How do I learn to love again?

Community Connections is a spotlight blog series where we uplight other wonderful organizations and clinicians who align with our values here at Interfaith Bridge Counseling. This month’s feature is Lauren Erikson of Natural Emodiment, PLLC. We hope you enjoy getting to know Lauren and all the amazing opportunities she offers to our fellow mental health community through our video interview below.

There are two buzzwords in the media that really grind my gears: 1) Self-Care and 2) Coping Skills. Lots of therapists, healthcare providers, and wellness people love to use these two words interchangeably, like they’re synonymous. It’s easy, if we’re being honest, to tell a client to take a few baths per week or to take a couple of deep breaths when we’re stressed or in pain. But that isn’t very helpful and it doesn’t really solve anything.

So…what is self-care? What are coping skills? And more importantly, when do we need them or something more?

A few weeks ago, I had the pleasure of hanging out with Katie K. May at Group Work, which is a podcast all about group therapy. This was my second time as a guest on the show and we dived into using group therapy as a part of pain management. Below is the transcript of the podcast linked above.

Sometimes, challenges with mental health are hard to navigate. Even more so when the things that you’re feeling seem like they could be easily caused by a few different conditions.

One of the most common examples I see on the daily: Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD), Anxiety, and Depression. Is it one? Two? All three? Without knowing some of the differences, it can cause one or all to be missed.

Developing a healthy parent-teen relationship can be s-t-r-e-s-s-f-u-l.

As a parent, it can be difficult to raise a teen with both compassion and firmness. As a teen, it can be hard to open up to your parents and understand their reasoning. Together, these challenges create the perfect storm for misunderstanding and distrust...and oftentimes, actually results in parents using reward systems as a punishment to try and change unwanted teen behavior.

When you’re a disabled person, it can be really difficult to find a community of peers who get it.

Like…maybe you need to find a solution to something. Maybe you need validation. Maybe you need someone to tell you you’re not the only one experiencing something. Communication is a large part of our lives. In fact, it’s a human need. But when you’re disabled, for some reason, finding the right community of people to communicate with and about things, is sometimes just a bit more difficult.

A few weeks ago, I had the pleasure of sitting down with Rev. Amelia Richardson Dress of UCC Longmont to chat about my blog post 7 Ways on How to Mentally Survive Your High School Lockdown. Below is the transcript of the podcast linked above.

Are you (or if you’re a parent, your teen) feeling stressed? You’re not alone. All people experience some sort of stress, but teen stress is reaching an all time high. From school to social media, our friends to our parents…the pressures of every day life just keep on growing. And while some level of stress can be healthy, high levels of stress can interfere with our abilities to learn, to create and sustain relationships, and even to manage our own emotions and overall mood.

If you’re a teen or even the parent of a teen, the fear and anxiety of a school lockdown or school shooting is all too real. In 2018 alone, more than 64 school lockdowns turned into school campus shootings. It’s as if school lockdowns and school shootings are becoming our new norm, establishing an all-too-familiar cycle of fear, devastation, and loss.

With the New Year already here, it might feel as if you want to start off on the right foot. But if you’re anything like us, you may have unwanted memories or feelings tugging along into 2019. And if you want to begin the process of releasing those unwanted memories or feelings, a burning bowl ceremony (also known as a burning bowl ritual) is a great place to start.

The first few months of college, whether you’re brand new to campus or returning after the holiday, can be tough. You’ve spent a lot of time academically preparing for this opportunity in your life, just like everyone encouraged you to do. Yet, here you are struggling to adjust to the dream you’ve spent so much time and energy working towards.

So often, distracting ourselves becomes a mundane task of living our lives. To give way to our busied thoughts and tasks of the every day such as school, work, family, friends, chores. Our instinct unfolds to this idea that it is easier to be absent-minded to ourselves - to our fears, our anxieties, our worries - all the pressures and demands of our lives. Thus the distraction becomes easier than the ability to pay attention.

So often, distracting ourselves becomes a mundane task of living our lives. To give way to our busied thoughts and tasks of the every day such as school, work, family, friends, chores. Our instinct unfolds to this idea that it is easier to be absent-minded to ourselves - to our fears, our anxieties, our worries - all the pressures and demands of our lives. Thus the distraction becomes easier than the ability to pay attention.

It’s all over social media and it’s in all of our personal conversations, it’s the topic of self-care. There are so many different ideas and opinions going around on what self-care is (and isn’t), none of which are necessarily wrong. But more than anything, is leaving a lot of unanswered questions and confusion about what each person should be doing for self-care. And honestly, this is a really tricky topic to talk about because self-care isn’t universal.