counseling by kaci

Hi friends! In case you live in a hole, or haven't really woken up from a post-Halloween candy binge, I just wanted to remind you that the holidays are JUST around the corner. And for some, this may mean sugarplums and gifts and everything wonderful, but for most people, the holidays bring one big huge thing to our life: STRESS. Did anyone stress out reading that first sentence, 'the holidays are just around the corner'? I'll tell you what- I stressed out just writing it. I was in the mall yesterday and SANTA was there (um, why is he not in the North Pole still, whipping those elves into gift-making shape?) and Bath and Body works was chock full of holiday spirit and smells and sparkles. I was at once conflicted with holidays excitement and nostalgia, and also complete overwhelm and shock and financial overwhelm. Moral of the story- if you hear the word 'holidays' and your heart stressfully skips a beat or two, you are not alone. In fact, according ...

A constant lament I hear a lot in my therapy room is: "...but it's so hard! I know what I should  do, but I can't. I just can't do it!" While I can absolutely appreciate that feeling  of not being able to do it, I would argue that belief is just not an actual fact . An important, but unpopular and unfamiliar realization is that we can actually recognize something is really hard and seemingly impossible, and do it anyway . I know that sounds sort of like a 'duh', and I swear I'm not saying that in a snarky, obvious way, but it's a truth most of us are really not aware of, and have little practice doing.  This concept of  'it's hard but you can do it anyway' can sort of be related to what we would call a 'dialectic'. The concept of dialectic s is essentially recognizing that there are two opposite things that can, and do, coexist at the same time. Take for instance, wet and dry. Or dark and light. Chocolate and vanil...