Category: Blog

  • Mindfulness for Millennials

    Mindfulness for Millennials

    Healing happens in the space between stimulus and response.

    Spiraling out of control…

    Thoughts swirl around in your brain – then, suddenly – you’re swept away by their currents, careening down a rabbit hole you didn’t even know existed within you.

    If only your thoughts didn’t hijack your every experience, life would be so much more enjoyable.

    So powerful. So disruptive. So compelling.

    But there IS a way to overcome.

    Mindfulness empowers you to show up to the present moment as the version of yourself that you genuinely want to be.

    According to teacher Jon Kabat-Zinn, mindfulness is the awareness that arises through paying attention, on purpose, in the present moment, nonjudgmentally.

    Mindfulness is simply noticing what arises, moment by moment. In your body. Around your body. You can learn to see everything – using the five senses, as well as opening up to your emotional state.

    Mindfulness also provides the opportunity to examine thought and behavior patterns from a distance – to help you create new patterns that serve you at the highest level.

    We all need a vision for where we want to go – and how to get there.

    Dropping into mindfulness can help you cultivate your vision in a heartfelt and powerful way.

    As a therapist, I’ll introduce you to mindfulness and help you apply it to empower you to meet your life as it is, connect your abilities and strengths, and realign yourself with your desired direction in life.

    Together, we’ll use Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT), as well as techniques from Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction, Mindful Self-Compassion, and other mindfulness interventions.

    But, to be most effective, you must explore mindfulness both within and outside therapy.

    There is no greater gift to ourselves than our willingness to be present to our own lives –
    the good, the bad, and the ugly – and we do this most effectively through mindfulness.
    – Ruth King

    Your life is yours – YOU decide how to live.

    While it’s important to understand that you can’t always control everything that life throws at you, you CAN choose your response.

    You get to show up as the author, show yourself compassion, and give yourself the grace to pause amid the seeming chaos around you.

    What’s the hurry?

    Contrary to popular belief, you don’t need to rush. What is meant for you cannot miss you.

    Mindfulness provides a space for you to rest, to cultivate your most profound sense of yourself, and to make the best choice for you.

    To recognize your emotions as they are, acknowledge the circumstances that lead to your feelings, decide who you want to be in the moment, and show up in a way that honors the direction you’ve chosen for your life.

    It’s essential to use the skills we discuss in therapy in real life. Only in practicing these techniques will you see the value they possess in changing your life.

    Embrace the wandering visitors.

    Witnessing thoughts and feelings as mentors who can teach us can be incredibly empowering.

    Often, our culture encourages us to shove away unpleasant feelings and thoughts.

    Despite that, what you resist persists, as you may well have experienced.

    Mindfulness allows for the bird’s eye view on your behavior patterns – as well as the perspective and space to choose to switch how you approach triggering or overwhelming situations.

    Embrace the good and the bad.

    You don’t have to shove away the negative. You can witness it, honor it, and allow it to teach you. From there, YOU decide what you have the power to change.

    When you can show up to life as it is and choose the way you want to interact with the people and events that compose your experiences, you reclaim your sovereignty. You reclaim your power. You reclaim your voice and choice. Having compassion for yourself then makes it easier to have compassion for others.

    Practicing mindfulness makes being in this challenging world a little easier to bear.

    You are worthy of being safe, living with ease, and feeling peaceful.

    Practicing mindfulness can help bring these sought-after feelings into your day-to-day life.

    Between stimulus and response there is a space.

    Mindfulness helps you discover the power of that space.

    To work with Elise in therapy, start by scheduling a free discovery call with her today.

  • Learning to Trust Yourself

    Learning to Trust Yourself

    What is “intuition?”

    There is a wise, calm, and connected “you” buried under all the social conditioning.

    We do need to balance living in the world as our personality with quieting down and listening to a deeper, wise voice that lives within.

    Working with your intuition has to do with trusting yourself. Communicating with your intuition can be considered a spiritual practice.

    Not tuning into your intuition is a common problem.

    How many times have you had a gut feeling to do or say something and not followed through?

    It doesn’t feel good afterward, does it?

    And when you don’t listen, you lose trust with yourself.

    You probably hear “intuition” getting talked about on Instagram. Influencers make pretty posts about this topic, and even your friends have started sharing these posts with their stories.

    These posts often include pictures of crystals, the chakra system, or an ethereal woman peacefully meditating surrounded by a blanket of mist.

    It all looks so easy. Sure, it sounds and looks good, but what does it mean?

    It’s about learning how to listen and trust yourself truly.

    In our modern society of smartphones, Alexa, and instant gratification, we do not lack for distractions.

    Plus, there are people in our lives who have other ideas of how to show up – or not show up.

    There will always be an outside opinion if you let it in.

    Listening to your intuition and following through on your gut feeling, despite the symphony of outside opinions, is the hallmark of learning to trust yourself.

    You’ve got to listen intently. Get quiet. Go within.

    It takes practice, patience, and persistence.

    You can look back on your life and see how much repetition it has taken in not following your gut feelings, which has led you to stop trusting yourself. Those are learned behaviors.

    You probably had many examples of role models doing just that- not following their own gut feelings. This is bigger than you.

    You will need patience to unelarn these patterns, and relearn new and helpful behaviors that actually serve you and allow you to trust yourself again.

    Having a goal in mind will help you on this path.

    Learn to ask the right questions as you listen to that inner voice.

    What’s beneath all of this?

    What comes up when I quiet down?

    When I listen to my inner knowing, what appears?

    What is my true north?

    Am I committed to following my unique path?

    When I quiet the outside noise, is my mind peaceful? Or is it scattered, jumbled, and confusing?

    Getting clear on this will help you know what work is yours to do.

    Without that inner voice, you lose your relationship with yourself.

    With our modern, fast-paced, and noisy world, it’s easy to shut out your inner voice. However, this shutting out of your inner knowing is damaging your relationship with yourself.

    When you don’t listen, it’s like having a flakey friend.

    You know that friend you always make plans with, but who cancels at the last minute. Sometimes you wonder about giving up on that friendship because the disappointment and rejection are too much to bear.

    It gets old when you receive that text that says, “Nvmd, I’m gonna stay in! Can’t wait to hang next time.” It brings out your best eye roll.

    You sigh in exasperation, throw your hands up in the air, and think, “I don’t know how much more of this I can take!”

    Without intuition, you lose trust in yourself.

    When you don’t listen to your intuition, it’s like breaking that type of trust with yourself.

    Except for this time, you’re the flakey friend sending that “Nvmd!” text. And your intuition might be rolling its eyes at you!

    You know you want better for yourself. The good news is that this relationship is always here when you are ready to nurture it.

    It’s never too late to strengthen this part of yourself.

    The potential of the relationship you can have with yourself is the most expansive, trusting, loving, unique, and beautiful relationship possible. But it can’t happen when you don’t follow the inner wisdom that you already possess.

    It all starts with learning to trust yourself and listen to your intuition.

    These thoughts, nudges, ideas, and messages are coming through for a reason.

    But they can’t be realized until you answer the call.

    In our work together, we begin by noticing layers of conditioning built up for a lifetime.

    Acknowledgment is a critical part of this process. Noticing what you would like to change makes room for you to expand.

    Then comes deciding to take the first step toward your true north. It can be a small step.

    When you take those small actions, each step is one closer to your ultimate truth.

    It won’t be a one and done thing. Finding your true north takes consistency, gentleness, patience, and trial and error.

    The journey is the destination.

    Allowing yourself to take steps on this journey, knowing that you will continue to evolve into your true self, is what growth is!

    We never really arrive.

    We just keep showing up.

    It might be uncomfortable. You might have to set firm boundaries with other people.

    This can be challenging. But pleasing other people cannot come at the expense of having peace in your own heart.

    Over time, you will fall in love with the process. Waking up and getting to be you will be a blast!

    Making choices that serve your highest good and the highest good of all involved becomes second nature when you see the results.

    You can learn to listen and gain trust.

    Learning to trust yourself and listening to your intuition might require you to ask for help.

    You can pull tarot or oracle cards, listen to guided meditations, read a book by a spiritual teacher, get into nature, or try to meditate on you own.

    Perhaps you need more guidance, support, suggestions, accountability, and someone to hold a safe space for you.

    I love working with people who want to raise their consciousness, live meaningfully, and with deep purpose. Listening to people like you learn to trust yourself lights me up.

    Because I believe that when every person is going after their dreams and living their best life, then the world will be safer, more welcoming, and more joyful for all.

    Don’t take the journey alone.

    With me as your therapist walking with you down this path, you can be sure that I will bring all my clinical skills into the relationship.

    You will receive space to process and explore what triggers you and what distresses you about this journey.

    I will make suggestions, give you spiritual homework, and help you guide yourself to a more exciting and expansive life.

    Are you willing to take the plunge?

    If so, I am ready to help you walk the path that leads to both a better relationship with yourself and increased trust in your inner voice.

    Schedule your free discovery call with me today.

  • Visualization for Dreamers

    Visualization for Dreamers

    What you see now…

    The way you see your life is almost overwhelming.

    You’re caught in the mire, even though you want so much out of life. No matter what you try, it seems just out of reach.

    What if there is something within you that can help you make sense of all of this chaos?

    The vision is there, it’s the path forward feels foggy.

    What’s in your way…

    When you’re worried about a future outcome, you may notice anxiety creeping in on you.

    Your heart takes off, and so do all those unwanted thoughts. Before you know it, you’re sweating and can barely catch your breath.

    Hypervigilant, you notice even the tiniest change in your environment – always on alert for any hidden dangers.

    And often, the harder you try to calm down, the worse it gets.

    Anxiety can be a trauma response that functions as an attempt to reclaim power over your experiences. Though it’s trying to help you, it gets in the way.

    What you want to see…

    When you’re experiencing anxiety, you’re picturing future outcomes you want to control, but that leaves you feeling disempowered.

    The first thing to know is a bit of a paradox –

    We’re actually in control of very little. But once you release your need for control, you’ll get something far better than you can imagine.

    What you can control…

    Something you can begin to control is your thoughts.

    You can begin to notice patterns that arise as you get into certain trains of thought. It’s a straightforward practice, but it can be incredibly empowering – and life-changing.

    With thoughts… come pictures. Our minds often think in pictures. Your vision is strong, and beautiful.

    When you put a picture of something in your mind, playing out the situation that worries you, your mind doesn’t know the difference between thinking about something happening – and going through the action of what you’re thinking about.

    Control… through visualization.

    Because of this incredible power of your mind, visualization can help ease pain and quell anxiety. Visualization allows you to take control of your worries and to insert a picture of the outcome you desire in your mind.

    If you’re going to think about a future outcome, you can use this superpower of your mind to think through the result for the highest good for you and all involved, instead of the pain of unwanted outcomes.

    When you imagine it, you put yourself through it. Your brain thinks you’ve achieved it.

    Visualization… to realization.

    Visualization helps make doing it in 3D reality easier.

    You’ve “been here before.” You’ll recognize the bodily sensations, emotions, and feelings you had while visualizing the outcome. You’ll know the steps to take to get there as you’re living your life.

    It’s a little “woo woo,” but it’s a LOT of results and outcome-oriented. This process is brain science.

    And energetic law.

    Stop hesitating at every corner. Take back control of your life.

    As a trained therapist, I work with you to help you notice your thought patterns and to develop new, empowering thoughts that connect you to your most profound truth and aligned outcomes.

    As we work together, I’ll support you in replacing these negative thought patterns with more empowering and positive ones. I’ll guide you in seeing your future playing out in a way that serves you and feels good.

    You can reclaim the mental space you dedicated to anxiety and give it back to excitement.

    You deserve to live the life of your wildest dreams.

    Visualization can help you plot the path from here… to there.

    And I am your accountability partner and safe space through it all.

    Schedule your free discovery call with me here.