Anxiety and fear are specifically designed to help us prepare for and respond to threats.As Dr. Jill Stoddard put it in her new book, Be Mighty: A Woman’s Guide to Liberation from Anxiety, Worry, & Stress Using Mindfulness and Acceptance, “by simple definition, anxiety is a state of future-focused readiness...
Empowering Yourself with Mindfulness: Attending Intentionally to What Matters in This Moment Seaside Anxiety and OCD Center
What if I feel guilty for focusing on meaning when basic needs demand my attention?It may feel incredibly difficult or even indulgent to consider what brings us meaning when we are facing such a collective threat to our health and our financial stability. It may also feel trivializing to invoke...
Fostering Resilience during COVID-19 by Connecting with Our Values Seaside Anxiety and OCD Center
You are enough just as you are.Navigating a pandemic is exhausting; it demands so much of us already, and additional pressure to do more when just getting through the day feels taxing enough can feel less than helpful. Part of the beauty of ACT is that values based actions are...
The Unexpected Benefits of Teletherapy Seaside Anxiety and OCD Center
Increased convenience: involving family and doing exposures at home.Child and teen specialist Thi Wlodarski, LMFT agreed with Dr. Lopez that exposures have been more easily facilitated: “telehealth has been really beneficial for my clients whose rituals are often done at home. Clients are able to complete exposures in the situations...
How Do I Control My Anxious Thoughts? Seaside Anxiety and OCD Center
So what do we do when our thoughts seem to be holding us back or getting us stuck? We have a couple of options.Cognitive Behavioral Therapy works on changing the content of our thoughts.From a traditional Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT) perspective, we might try what is known as cognitive restructuring....
Managing Uncertainty and Doing the Next “Right” Thing Seaside Anxiety and OCD Center
If you’re like me, and you have a tendency to get stuck on what the “right” thing means, this quote as a standalone mantra could be tricky.But from an Acceptance and Commitment Therapy standpoint, the “right” thing would be defined as the workable thing. That is, the thing that moves...
Lessons from Traveling in Time Seaside Anxiety and OCD Center
Lesson #3: The secret to a rich, meaningful life is being fully present and choosing how you will meet each moment. Toward the end of the film, Tim shares my favorite lesson of all. He shares his father’s secret to a good life. His father tells him to live each day...
Getting Comfortable Being Uncomfortable Seaside Anxiety and OCD Center
The alternative to resistance is willingness. Willingness is getting comfortable being uncomfortable and allowing our internal experience to be as it is without trying to control or change it. When we are no longer caught trying to wrestle with and get rid of our anxiety, we get to choose what...
Unsticking from Anxious Thoughts Seaside Anxiety and OCD Center
By Annabelle Parr, MA, AMFTOur capacity for language allows us as a species to be excellent problem solvers. It’s the thing that allowed us to invent cars that transport us over large distances quickly, and it’s also what gives us the ability to notice if we have a flat tire,...
Making Space for Anxiety Seaside Anxiety and OCD Center
So how do we make space for anxiety?Making space for anxiety looks like slowing down, noticing our heart is racing, our palms are sweating, our head feels light, our body feels tingly and shaky, naming that we are feeling anxious or nervous, and compassionately saying to ourselves “yep, this takes...