If

Life always moves forward whether we are feeling prepared or not. It also places many demands on us that can make us feel overwhelmed and fearful about what is ahead. Even exciting future events can be stressful for us. In response, each of us have learned helpful and not so helpful ways of managing these stressors. The same goes with navigating emotions and negative thoughts. The most natural inclination for human beings is to avoid feeling any unpleasant or uncomfortable emotions. We push them away and hope that they will disappear. This makes sense because this is how we problem solve and it can help relieve other types of pain and/or discomfort. If we feel cold, we seek warmth for relief. If we feel tired or hungry, we know how to alleviate this. Unfortunately, emotions and negative thoughts are not as simple to manage. We can spend hours of time and energy trying to avoid emotional pain and fearing its return. We all prefer the 'feel good' emotions such as joy, gratitude and contentment. If only they would present more often and stick around longer! Unpleasant emotions are also temporary but we can start to fear them or see them as a threat. When this happens, we tend to strategize several ways to avoid, numb and/or deflect them. However, sometimes anxiety and stress can become problematic when we feel less capable of managing it. Some of us stop doing activities that we enjoy or put ourselves last on our list to be taken care of. We can work together to identify what your resources are, what direction is right for you and build upon your current level of resilience. We can explore what you wish your future to be and set goals around this.