Tagged With "Compassion Fatigue"

Thoughts to share - “The soul always knows what to do to heal itself. The challenge is to silence the mind.” - Caroline Myss “But one thing for sure, if you do not address your trauma, it will undress you.” - Sharon Wise “We can't always choose the music life plays for us, but we can choose how we dance to it.” - Unknown Compassion at the Mirror - Psychology Today - https://www.psychologytoday.co...ompassion-the-mirror "Having compassion for our own distress has been found to strengthen our...

Thoughts to share - “The soul always knows what to do to heal itself. The challenge is to silence the mind.” - Caroline Myss “But one thing for sure, if you do not address your trauma, it will undress you.” - Sharon Wise “We can't always choose the music life plays for us, but we can choose how we dance to it.” - Unknown Compassion at the Mirror - Psychology Today - https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/the-clarity/201903/compassion-the-mirror "Having compassion for our own distress has...

Current events this week are extremely triggering and traumatic for many. Here are a few tips from a trauma psychotherapist.

Chera Kowalski remembers working at McPherson Square Library when overdoses became a more common occurrence in Kensington. It was 2015, and Philadelphia saw 696 overdose deaths that year — a 52% increase from just two years before — eighty percent of which involved opioids. There were more than twice as many overdose deaths than homicides. At the time, library staff didn’t have naloxone — an opioid overdose reversal medication — or the training to administer it. The best staff members could...

I've struggled with anxiety throughout my life. A difficult childhood and my highly sensitive personality meant I grew into an anxious kid—there was just too much pain and emotional overwhelm for my young brain to handle. My anxiety most often manifested as perfectionism and people pleasing, so from the outside everything seemed great. I excelled in school and I was a good kid who did as she was told. But there was a war inside me. I felt broken, unable to navigate these huge feelings of...

By Jessica Lander Roughly half of American school children have experienced at least some form of trauma — from neglect, to abuse, to violence. In response, educators often find themselves having to take on the role of counselors, supporting the emotional healing of their students, not just their academic growth. With this evolving role comes an increasing need to understand and address the ways in which student trauma affects our education professionals. In a growing number of professions,...

There is one sure form of guidance you can follow every moment of the day, even in today's most turbulent of times, to ensure that you follow the path in life that is truly right for you, truly good for you. The simple way of describing this form of guidance is: making self-loving or self-compassionate choices for yourself in the present moment . Be guided by your heart-sense regarding your every thought and action . When things don’t turn out the way you want them to, instead of blaming and...

By Bella DePaulo, PsychCentral, February 5, 2020 It is not just at the beginning of a new year that people promise themselves to do better. I rarely make New Year’s resolutions. But there are always times during the year when I think about something I just said or did, or didn’t do, and say to myself, “Self, you have got to do better.” But how? My natural inclination is to berate myself. I’ll give you a trivial example. Sometimes I carelessly do something that costs me money. At the...

This is beautiful. I do believe that the heart-sense is indeed the surest form of guidance we have, but for many of us who've experienced childhood trauma, trusting that heart-sense or even finding access to it can be nearly impossible. So many of us have closed our heart spaces out of a need to defend ourselves and survive horrible circumstances, or we've intellectualized everything, getting stuck in our heads (or both). Thanks for these tips on overcoming that, Bob.

Bob, beautifully written. I wish real love could be found in every church. Jesus gave only 2 commandments Love God and Love your neighbor. However, sadly love is the last thing you find in a church. What you get is judgment, meanness, superiority, lack of support. Money is what speaks in most of these houses of God. All you need is 1 kind and loving person to heal. If you are lucky you will find him/her or else the pain never goes away.

It's a big subject with me - thank you! I would also add the wonderful podcast wherein Gene Monterastelli talks about giving ourselves permissions to be easy and gentle with ourselves. Check it out if that sounds like your cuppa tea: https://tappingqanda.com/2020/...rite-tapping-phrase/

Thanks Jondi! Great EFT resource to share and yes to this - “I give myself permission to be easy and gentle with myself.” Take care, Michael

Thanks for posting this here, Mai Le. As our society becomes more trauma-aware/informed and as more of us take on the role of supporting children and others who've experienced trauma, it's imperative we have a plan in place to support those at risk of secondary trauma, or we will have a whole other problem on our hands that could contribute to perpetuating the trauma cycle. Glad to see you also shared this in the ACEs in Education community too!

Great tips for actions anyone can take just about any time to relieve stress and process difficult emotions. These sound like good habits to develop so we always have a way to help calm ourselves no matter what is happening in our world. Thank you, Hilary.

Joanna, clearly you "get" what it's like to deal with anxiety, especially that which is rooted in early trauma. Your description of how your anxiety manifests itself sure rings a bell with me, and I'm guessing it does so with many others with difficult childhoods. Thanks for sharing your experience-based suggestions for how to manage and overcome anxiety.

This is such important information. It's one thing for social workers, mental health care providers, first responders and the like to require self-care to avoid secondary trauma, but when librarians are added to the list, you know things have gotten bad (and I have worked in public libraries, but a few years before conditions reached their current off-the-charts level). Thank you for sharing this with us, Caitlin.

The magnificent fall foliage displayed during the month of October reminds me of transition and forward momentum. Ideally, as humans, we grow and change along with the seasons to find meaning and purpose in life and flourish. Unfortunately, the progression of our lives isn't always smooth and people aren't always kind. There are essential life skills that we can learn, however, that can help us grow through struggle and choose love in our thoughtful responses. We have had varied reactions to...

My son often complains that he can hear my footsteps throughout the house when he’s trying to sleep. He says it sounds like I’m running. ‘Why don’t you slow down,’ he asks. When I think about it I guess I am rushing around to do this and do that, get things accomplished, and finish tasks. In fact, I take pride in my productivity, sometimes patting myself on the back at what I have accomplished by 9:00 a.m.! After my youngest son Jesse died, I started a foundation and began to travel almost...

Modern Tools for Everyday Living - Strategic Interventions

Emotional flashbacks take a horrendous toll on those who experience them. To feel like you are in danger with all the emotions that accompany it, fear, anxiety, startle, and a myriad of other feelings without understanding where they are coming from is both frightening and debilitating. This piece will delve deeper into emotional flashbacks and methods to defeat them.

Glenn R. Schiraldi, Ph.D. Psychology Today blog post, November 16, 2021 Strong, distressing emotions are disturbing enough. They also trigger and maintain the dysregulated stress that causes so much suffering in adults affected by ACEs. Regulating intense unpleasant emotions is the second step to healing.

February is a special month – it’s Choose Love Awareness Month! It’s time to celebrate love and focus on our ability to choose love in our lives! For 28 days the Choose Love Movement shares daily action tips on ways you can bring more ‘Nurturing Healing Love’ to yourself and others all month long and beyond. We also share how you can live a Choose Love lifestyle by incorporating the Choose Love Formula into your daily life: Courage + Gratitude + Forgiveness + Compassion-in-Action = Choosing...

Hi Folks, The month of May recognizes Mental Health Awareness and National Trauma Awareness The May Surviving Spirit Newsletter - sharing Hope and Healing Resources for Trauma, Abuse & Mental Health is posted at the website - http://newsletters.survivingspirit.com/index.php It can be read online via - http://newsletters.survivingspirit.com/pdfs/2022-05-The_Surviving_Spirit_Newsletter_May_2022.pdf or this - http://ml.survivingspirit.com/dada/mail.cgi/archive/newsletter/20220501202915/ To...

Are you a health coach with a mindfulness practice? Would you like to share some easy mindfulness strategies with your clients? Perhaps you're a health coach that hasn't added mindfulness to your self-care yet, but wants to learn more about it? Having a mindfulness practice can improve resilience for both health coaches and their clients.

Great points.

One of our most popular articles of all time is on Loving a Trauma Survivor . This article continues that idea — how to help a trauma survivor, in a healthy, positive way. Loving a trauma survivor may mean you also want to help them in many ways. You may want to help them heal, help them live an easier life, and help them be happy! This is natural and usually comes from a loving, kind, generous place. While your help and support can begin in wonderfully positive ways — do you ever feel...

Shame-based memories imprint primarily in the non-verbal right brain, largely beneath conscious awareness. When our usual attempts to cope with the inner turmoil of shame fail, mindfulness can help. Bringing the various aspects of a disturbing memory to awareness gives the brain a chance to change the memory.

For moving past hidden wounds from childhood, mindset matters. These important attitudes undergird the process of healing from adverse childhood experiences.

Wounds of the heart may persist after troubling memories from childhood adversity have been rewired. Fortunately, pain from childhood adversities can spur us to create a peaceful heart of forgiving, kindness, calm, and purpose.