mental health Archives — Page 2 of 3

27Jan 2020 by Kayla No Comments

On Being Unf***withable

Mindset

I am consistently hearing people talk about being fuckwithable. Sure, they don't use that word, but they say things like, "You make me so mad! " or "This makes me feel sad. or "I know he is just a guy from Tinder, but I still obsess over why he hasn't texted me in 3 hours!" In many cases, people are handing over control of their emotions to other human beings. When you say, "you make me feel.." you are giving power to someone else, whether you realize it or not. That means you have the option to take back the control. In the case of someone not calling us back, we know rationally that the reaction is silly. But maybe we don't feel in control of changing it. There are…

23Dec 2019 by Kayla No Comments

Are you authentic?

Mindset

And what does it mean? “Who are you?” I was asked that question in an interview on Monday. I fumbled a lot because I have this definition of WHO I am, but I didn’t feel like it was the answer my interviewer was looking for. What did I say? I answered that I was a life coach, an American living in Myanmar, a former ESL teacher, and a person with narcolepsy and chronic migraine. Why? The interview was for a volunteer position with the Migraine World Summit, so that’s what seemed relevant. We’ve been trained to show the sides of us that make us most qualified for a position in life, to get the job. Even though I know better, my training kicked in, and I said what I had…

03Dec 2019 by Kayla No Comments

Stop Reacting and Start Responding

Life Coaching

Some tips for how to get started I blink back tears and swallow the words that want to come spilling out of my mouth. My partner is looking at me, encouraging me to go on speaking my mind but I know it's not useful. I need to stop reacting to my emotions and take a moment. If I give my energy to these emotions, they will continue. I know they don’t deserve my voice. If I can acknowledge where they are coming from, recognize that I am no longer in that place, and bring myself back to the present moment, I can move past them. What Happened I let myself travel back into the past for a short time to write an article about a painful time in my life and how…

04Nov 2019 by Kayla No Comments

Why I’m So Grateful for Gratitude

Life Coaching, Mindset, Personal Story

It helped me stop feeling like a victim! My alarm was blaring and I reached around clumsily, my eyes still closed trying to make the noise stop. I was angry and frustrated with my poor night of sleep. I had a horrific dream about someone I loved being tortured, and I stayed up for an hour trying to change my thought process to avoid going back into the same nightmare again. The images were fuzzy and dark, but I knew they would be stuck in my mind all day. I stumbled to the bathroom, stubbed my toe on, and slipped in water on my bathroom floor. My partner had left the shower curtain outside the tub, and the whole floor was soaked. I was lucky I hadn't hit my head,…

20Oct 2019 by Kayla 2 Comments

One Self-Hypnosis Technique to Manage Emotions

Life Coaching, life hacks, Mindset

Photo by Mark Daynes on Unsplash Do you ever feel yourself reacting emotionally to a situation and wish you had more control? Maybe your kids are screaming at you and instead of remaining calm, you give them what they want. Maybe someone pulls out in front of your car in traffic and you feel anger bubbling up inside. Or are you the one who can completely ignore your emotions when they emerge and have no idea what I’m talking about? Whichever is the case, we all have situations where emotions appear and we need to deal with them in a constructive way. Self-Hypnosis is a handy tool that can make that quite simple. How Does Self-Hypnosis Work? There are so many different ways to use self-hypnosis they wouldn’t even fit in one book…

11Oct 2019 by Kayla 1 Comment

Recovering From Depression

life hacks, Lifestyle, Mindset

Why Skills Work Better Than Pills There is nothing wrong with taking medication for depression. I've done it before, and it helped me for a while. However, since most of us don't like the idea of taking medication to manage our moods forever, its good to also have some tools that can move us out of a depressed state. So let's talk about depression. Who Gets Depressed? Anyone who has moods can become depressed. Depression is simply a mood disorder. This may sound bleak knowing that literally everyone is vulnerable to depression, but it also means we can all learn some skills to fight back. What medication can't do While medication may be useful for getting you into a state where you can take action, it cannot take the action…

11Sep 2019 by Kayla No Comments

I Got a Daith Piercing for Migraines

Personal Story

And accept that I don’t need to be cured to be okay Knowing that others have been “cured” of chronic migraines makes me feel like there is something that I should be able to do that would “fix me.” I already follow a ketogenic diet to manage narcolepsy. I stopped using artificial sweeteners, and quit drinking alcohol. I practice mindfulness and use energy therapy like EFT, the Emotion Code, and Reiki. What more do I need to do? The answer is nothing. I don’t need to be fixed. I’m not broken. (Neither are you.) Pain is a part of human existence, and everyone experiences it in one way or another. My version is no better or worse than anybody else’s. So what I need to work on is acceptance. I need to…

12Jul 2019 by Kayla No Comments

Harnessing the Power of Gratitude

Lifestyle, Mindset

Sometimes I find myself needing to take stock of what's good in my life. It is way to easy to let negative thoughts rein, so in an effort to stay positive, and harness the power of gratitude here are 40 things I love and I am grateful for. Myself — I have recently learned that unless I am on the list of things I love then something is out of balance in my life. It is not selfish to love myself. Although I am still learning this one day at a time. The sky — it’s everywhere, it's so reliable, its always there to brighten my day or amaze me with its darkness. It's easy to harness the power of gratitude when you are grateful for such basic things that are…

31May 2019 by Kayla No Comments

Stop Wasting Time on Negative Thoughts!

Mindset

Is your time valuable? Stop wasting time on negative thoughts! If you were carrying $86,400 and $10 blew away, would you set down the $86,390 you have left to chase after it? Or would you just let it go? I recently received a text forward with this question. When I read it, I didn't even think about the answer. My mind immediately jumped to the conclusion, I'd let it go and hope that it fell into the hands of someone who needed it. The message went on to say that we each have 86,400 seconds in a day. Our time is more valuable than money because we can't get it back. Once we spend it, it is gone forever. So, every time we get upset, we lose 10 seconds. But…

24May 2019 by Kayla 3 Comments

What is a life coach?

Lifestyle, Mindset

First I will tell you what a life coach is not; it is not a therapist. Most do not have a degree in counseling or psychology. If they do, they have left the profession to be a life coach for a reason. Life coaches should have some kind of training. I am a Certified Life Coach. In addition, I am a practitioner of Cognitive Behavioral Therapy, Neuro-Linguistic Programming, and the Emotional Freedom Technique (EFT). Life Coaches Help you Shift Your Perspective A life coach will challenge you to look at things from different perspectives. They will question your actions, and the goals you claim to have. They will help you narrow down what is helping you move forward in life and what is holding you back. The goal is to…

26Apr 2019 by Kayla No Comments

Mindfulness Activities to Try Today

Lifestyle, Mindset

I realized in my last post, I wanted to encourage everyone to try more mindfulness activities, but I didn't give you a lot of guidance on what to do. So here we go, here are some mindfulness activities for adults that are easy to integrate into your day. (more…)

19Apr 2019 by Kayla No Comments

Mindfulness Increases Energy

Lifestyle, Mindset

I never realized how much energy was burnt by the thoughts running through my head, until I found that mindfulness increases energy. Recently I disclosed to a friend how much I have battled with my body over the years. I have never had an eating disorder. But I have always felt as if I was taking up too much space. I wanted to make myself disappear, or shrink into a miniature version of myself. But I never knew how. I’ve hidden my insecurities and self-harm for years. But recently, I decided to live a more authentic life and talk about things that most of society keeps under wraps. Body Issues When my friend and I discussed this issue, she told me she didn’t know my generation still had this problem.…

16Apr 2019 by Kayla No Comments

Choosing Life

Personal Story

Choosing life didn't even feel like an option when I was depressed... One morning I heard my alarm ringing. I buried my head under the pillow, like covering my head in cotton would make the day dissipate. My roommate threw a book at my legs to get my attention. I regretted that the sound was also disturbing her rest, so I sat up and turned it off. As I hunkered there below the ceiling taking shallow breaths, exasperated before even leaving my lofted bed, I vowed to myself this wouldn’t go on much longer. I was 18 years old, and for the previous months, I had been applying to colleges. But I didn’t see myself [caption id="attachment_976" align="alignright" width="225"] This was me in April 2010[/caption] there. I didn’t see myself…

29Mar 2019 by Kayla No Comments

Narcolepsy Coaching

Mindset

Narcolepsy Coaching is a new concept. Interested in finding out what it's all about? Are you tired of feeling tired? Do you dream of waking up and feeling like you slept? Is your goal to get out of bed with purpose and not snooze your alarm? Do you wonder how much of your fatigue is normal, and how much is because you are living with narcolepsy? If any of these apply to you, then you are in the right place. [caption id="attachment_317" align="aligncenter" width="300"] Me in awe of a beach in Tanzania, 2017[/caption] What do I want to offer? I want to help you get from just coping with your symptoms, to living your best life. Sure, I recognize there is no narcolepsy cure (although I try to keep up…

23Mar 2019 by Kayla 2 Comments

Letter From a Person Living with Narcolepsy

Narcolepsy, Personal Story

Dear friend, Do you remember that time we had big plans to do something amazing on the weekend? I told you at the last minute that I really wanted to go but I just couldn’t do it. Well, I remember it. Because it was hard for me to make the decision to take care of myself instead of going to do something fun that I was really looking forward to. What did I do that day? Instead, I spent the day making sure I had healthy food lined up for the week. As part of my self-care routine, I took a few short controlled naps. Focused on physical and mental health, I drank a gallon of water and meditated. I arranged my calendar for the week so I would not…