Category: personal development
Posted on March 18, 2018
by MJ
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Did everyone make it through the Ides of March intact? When I was in high school, I was the only student in the history of my school to study Latin 3 or 4. Nowadays, schools would delete the offering, but I guess the school… Continue Reading “Being Julius Caesar”
Posted on January 24, 2018
by MJ
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It’s been too long since my last post. Forgive me, faithful readers. I was not prepared for how I would feel after I reported the ongoing sexual harassment–the Sean Situation. One imagines that it would be empowering. From experience, I can tell you that… Continue Reading “Developing Grit”
Posted on December 22, 2017
by MJ
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I want to talk about negative core beliefs and dissonance–and perhaps a way to challenge them effectively. Bear with me as I get there. I have written a lot about my last two years in therapy with a neuroscientist. I didn’t know initially that… Continue Reading “Pushing Back against Malignant Core Beliefs”
Category: Complex PTSD, coping strategies, mental health, personal development, PTSD, Recovery, therapy, traits in victims, traumaTags: biologically based trauma, challenging core beliefs, cognitive dissonance, healing from PTSD, maladaptively processed memories, malignant core beliefs, target behaviors, therapy
Posted on December 20, 2017
by MJ
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I want to talk about how finding out what motivates you can lead to personal liberation. To do that, I will take you back to my junior year of college. I was something of a fresh-faced know-it-all with something to prove. I didn’t really… Continue Reading “Maybe C is for Catalyst”
Category: encouragement, Healing, Moving Forward, personal development, traumaTags: compartmentalization, healing from trauma, healing process, integration, integrity, perfectionism, performance-based identity, personal development, Recovery
Posted on December 15, 2017
by MJ
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This week has been what I used to call in undergrad “Hell Week”–all the final exams were scheduled successively in a rather discouraging 1-2 punch. It was exhausting when I was just entering my 20s living with little to no responsibilities in terms of… Continue Reading “Is Multitasking Stealing Your Thunder?”
Posted on December 7, 2017
by MJ
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Jack the New Therapist aka the FNG will be no longer. It has become a failed collaboration. That is what my reasonable self says. My snarky self is pointing at this: Jack has one of the worst Resting Bored Faces I’ve come across. There are… Continue Reading “A Timely Ending”
Category: divorce, domestic abuse, emotional abuse, encouragement, Healing, human trafficking, mental health, personal development, PTSD, therapy, traumaTags: cognitive dissonance, domestic abuse, EMDR, healing from PTSD, healing from trauma, myth of arrival, Recovery, Resting Bored Face, therapy, when a therapist isn't effective
Posted on November 25, 2017
by MJ
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For my non-American readers, Thursday was Thanksgiving here in the States. It is a big deal. It marks the beginning of The Holidays–a season of high stress, joy, high consumerism on display, dread, meaningful religious observations, turmoil, GERD, Mariah Carey on loop, and so… Continue Reading “Easing into The Season”
Category: anxiety, Complex PTSD, domestic violence, encouragement, Healing, mental health, panic attacks, personal development, traumaTags: anxiety disorders, coping with anxiety, domestic abuse, enjoying holiday season, healing after divorce, panic attacks, PNS, SNS, stress during holidays, Thanksgiving
Posted on November 23, 2017
by MJ
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I saw Jack, my still-feeling-new therapist, on Tuesday, and we had an almost adversarial session. It didn’t feel therapeutic to me. I felt as if I were there to challenge his ideas and assumptions of what survivors of trauma look like. He consistently says,… Continue Reading “Making Changes on Purpose”
Category: anxiety, encouragement, Healing, mental health, Moving Forward, personal development, therapy, traumaTags: epigenetics and trauma, healing process, imagining change, narrative brain, Recovery, therapy, trauma recovery
Posted on November 11, 2017
by MJ
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I have recently been reading a lot of material on the endocrine system and neurology. Why? Anatomy and Physiology II. Brain, brain, brain, brain. What I’ve learned, aside from more than I ever expected to know about hormones, is that distress of all kinds… Continue Reading “The Neuroscience behind Feeling Stuck”
Category: Complex PTSD, coping strategies, Healing, mental health, Moving Forward, personal development, Recovery, traits in victims, traumaTags: catastrophizing, habenula, healing, healing from PTSD, learned helplessness, neuroscience, outlier events, Storytelling Brain, Time Perspective Therapy, trauma, What if
Posted on October 28, 2017
by MJ
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After almost a year of grad school perhaps one might expect to feel like this: Sometimes, however, I swear the doctors are looking at me like this ::cough::Dr. Hong::cough:: I suppose it goes with the territory. Humility and feeling completely inadequate are better traits… Continue Reading “The Significance of Being Seen”
Category: abuse in families, Healing, personal development, therapyTags: abuse in families, belonging, borderline mothers, Brene Brown, healing process, practicing vulnerability, therapy, trauma