Personal Development Archives | Santa Clarita Christian Counseling

Overcoming the Anxiety That Fuels Over-explaining, Overcommitting, and Overextending

Overcoming the Anxiety That Fuels Over-explaining, Overcommitting, and Overextending

By Santa Clarita Christian Counseling|2024-04-30T17:14:19+00:00April 30th, 2024|Anxiety, Featured, Individual Counseling, Personal Development|

Busy seems to be the buzzword in our contemporary society, describing the lives of people from various walks of life. No matter where we are or what our lives may consist of, our world seems to demand more of our internal and external resources. Yet, when those assets are not sufficiently replenished, we become severely challenged and overburdened by the weight of anxiety and a life that can feel unpredictable, sometimes unsafe, and often unsustainable. In these situations, anxiety stirs, and we find ourselves over-explaining, overcommitted, and overextended. What was once full and overflowing is dangerously low, leaving us to subsist on yesteryear’s abundance, sometimes unaware of how we plummeted there and how our Father desires to meet us there. Inarguably, our lives may be full. Many of us juggle commitments that keep our schedules brimming with activity on both weekdays and weekends. If we’re honest, we may notice the traces of anxiety showing itself in our minds and moods. Increased agitation, irritability, worry, and mental and emotional fatigue will tell on the imbalanced state of our lives, sending us over the edge of what we feel we can reasonably manage. This invariably seeps into our comprehensive well-being, affecting not only our physical bodies, but also our mental and emotional states, interpersonal relationships, and other areas. This leaves us with anxiety that sends us overboard. Over-explaining Anxiety presents in our lives in subtle ways that inform how we approach our daily activities. We may not even realize how it has infiltrated through the colloquial phrases that we use, dismissing the value of rest. Anxiety’s reach isn’t personal, but the culture of “busy” has elevated our sense of worth and importance, yet not always with what truly matters to us. It causes us to over-explain, often preoccupied with what other people [...]

Comments Off

Common Causes of Body Insecurity

Common Causes of Body Insecurity

By Santa Clarita Christian Counseling|2024-02-08T11:39:45+00:00February 8th, 2024|Featured, Individual Counseling, Men’s Issues, Personal Development, Women’s Issues|

Body insecurity can cause issues with your mental health, including depression and anxiety. You may develop body dysmorphia disorder or an eating disorder trying to attain a specific look, weight, or size. Common Causes of Body Insecurity Body insecurity or dissatisfaction can be behind a person’s depression and low self-esteem. Getting to the root, the cause, of body insecurity can help you move forward with treatment. Acknowledging the beliefs or events that created a negative body image is information you can use to flip negative self-talk and break long-held beliefs about yourself. The following is a list of common causes of body insecurity. Societal ideals. What we see in the media influences our society’s ideals regarding body image. Movies, television, magazines, and social media show filtered, heavily edited, and enhanced images of men’s and women’s bodies that are often unattainable. Yet, these images cause us to fret and obsess over our flaws. If you feel depressed after viewing these images, unfollow or unsubscribe from accounts and media that make you feel unworthy. Instead, opt to follow and subscribe to body-positive accounts. Opinions of loved ones. Our loved ones are most likely our role models and mean well. However, their opinions can determine how we view our bodies. If a family member is obsessed with the scale, you may allow that number to dictate your day, too. We repeat the patterns from our childhood automatically unless we consciously choose to go in a different direction. It is not too late to change your habits, behaviors, thoughts, and beliefs regarding your appearance, body shape, or size. Verbal or physical abuse. Verbal or physical abuse from childhood or as an adult can change your beliefs about your body or appearance. If someone criticized or demeaned you about your size, weight, or looks, you [...]

Comments Off

Signs of “Mom Brain” and How to Cope

Signs of “Mom Brain” and How to Cope

By Santa Clarita Christian Counseling|2023-12-08T18:16:49+00:00December 8th, 2023|Featured, Individual Counseling, Personal Development, Women’s Issues|

Have you ever walked into a room, and stood there wondering why you came there in the first place? Or maybe you started tidying a room and ended up working on dishes and then folding laundry? Perhaps you have a color-coded planner, plus digital reminders, and a whiteboard calendar in the kitchen to remind people of key dates, appointments, etc. If any of these things are true, you might have “mom brain.” Over the past few years, there has been a growing conversation about the mental load that mothers carry. Even married women without children can find themselves carrying more mental load than their husbands no matter how equitably the household tasks are divided. When women invoke mom brain, they’re typically describing the experience of feeling scattered, distracted, forgetful, or disorganized as a result of being pregnant or having children. The hormones of pregnancy and postpartum have significant impacts on brain chemistry. Plus sleep deprivation can cause a temporary collapse of cognitive function. Beyond the postpartum period, you may continue to have seasons of forgetfulness, distraction, trouble focusing, and so on. If you are responsible for the well-being of yourself and multiple other people (spouses, children, pets) you are going to burn out if you don’t take proper care. As a mother, caring for your family is often your top priority, from making decisions regarding school, driving to extracurriculars and appointments, managing a household, and possibly even a job your brain is constantly fluttering from thought to thought. There are meal plans, groceries, and chores to do (or teach children to do, which is also a process). The sheer amount of brain power directed toward the care and keeping of a family is massive and often invisible. When left alone, this type of mental load can lead many women to [...]

Comments Off

Embracing Being Single in a Couple-Up Culture

Embracing Being Single in a Couple-Up Culture

By Santa Clarita Christian Counseling|2024-03-27T12:26:13+00:00November 27th, 2023|Featured, Individual Counseling, Personal Development|

It seems there is nowhere safe to turn if you want to remain happily single without constant reminders or encouragement to be coupled up. Whether in our entertainment such as TV shows, on social media, or among one’s loved ones, being single comes up as something to move past, grow out of, or escape. Romantic relationships are great, in their own way, so it’s understandable why people who love you would want that happiness for you. However, if you’re not in the space for it, those overtures can become overwhelming. On the other side of it, you might be single and eager to get coupled up. In that case, the reminders of your singleness can also become grating, but out of frustration of a desired goal. It is, however, possible to embrace the season of singleness that you’re in, for however long you’re in it. Being single and opting out of romantic relationships is not an inferior way of being, and a deeper appreciation of singleness can help you toward deeper contentment. Understanding singleness in the 21st century. Being ‘single’ means a variety of things for people in our context. It could mean that they have no romantic prospects that they’re currently exploring. However, it could mean that they aren’t in what they consider to be a “serious relationship” or a committed relationship with someone. This can be confusing, as it leaves a variety of options open, including the various “situationships” that people find themselves in, which include ‘friends with benefits’ or casual hookups. Singleness in the 21st century is thus a vast complex of relationships that aren’t official, committed, or serious, as well as not having romantic prospects. You have to ask follow-up questions when someone says that they’re single; that includes questions such as “Are you involved with [...]

Comments Off

Feeling Insecure: Why We Shouldn’t Ignore the Doubt Inside

Feeling Insecure: Why We Shouldn’t Ignore the Doubt Inside

By Santa Clarita Christian Counseling|2023-08-07T11:56:30+00:00August 5th, 2023|Coaching, Featured, Individual Counseling, Personal Development|

It is an all-too-common occurrence for many of us – we are going about our days, feeling good and like we are managing things. Then bam! Something happens and we are knocked to the floor, leaving us feeling insecure. Maybe it’s an off-handed comment by a family member or boss. Or we leave an encounter feeling like we messed up. Perhaps we forgot to do something that leaves us feeling like the worst ever. When feeling insecure takes over, it is important to take time to do a debrief to figure out what derailed our day. Too often we spend our time berating ourselves, replaying our mistake in our head, and letting “could have, would have, should have,” take control. But if we want to find a way to stop feeling insecure, we must take control and analyze what happened. Sometimes what happened was a simple mistake or misunderstanding. Other times, we are on the receiving end of someone else’s bad day. But most times, feeling insecure starts and ends inside of us. Our inner critic knows our weaknesses. It can push the right button and pull us into the pit. What to Do When You're Feeling Insecure But we don’t have to live there. Regardless of what happened, you can take control of the moment and bring some perspective to things. All you need is a notebook, pen, and the gumption to be honest with yourself. Start with the questions below to help defuse insecurity’s power: Why do you feel insecure? Describe what happened, whether it’s a real incident or the thought of insecurity in your head. What is the critic saying? What is leading to those feelings? What actions are you taking to cause these feelings? What outside influences are you letting speak into things? What is this triggering [...]

Comments Off

CONTACT INFO

Santa Clarita Christian Counseling

ABOUT US