Author: morningcoffeetherapy

My name is Brooke, I am a practicing Marriage & Family Therapist in Raleigh, NC. Most of my writing comes from morning coffee reflection or a long run. As a disclaimer, my writing is one perspective. While reading, please assume it your responsibility to take what is helpful and leave the rest. Peace. Love. Gratitude. Email Contact: brooke@rnb4counseling.com

Anxiety, 11

Limits. Manage anxiety by respecting your limits. Anxiety can happen when an entity/a person is asking something that is beyond a natural, human limit. Is our goal really to prove that we do not have limits? Then, instead of feeling a sense of achievement, we feel exhausted, we have yet again raised the bar, and conditioned people to our lack of limits. Limits are good. Limits keep us from resentment. Limits help us manage anxiety. Journal Prompt: If I do not respect my limits...

Anxiety, 10

Fight. Manage anxiety by wrestling with acceptance. You can fight with your anxiety, distracting you from the life you are hoping to be present for. Or you can make room for anxiety, accepting that it might be one part of you. Movement toward acceptance releases the pressure of control and allows you to adjust your attention to what matters to you. Journal Prompt: When I fight with anxiety, I miss...

Anxiety, 9

Tolerance Manage anxiety by increasing your tolerance for what is uncomfortable. When you cannot tolerate disappointing other people, you participate in a lot you are not interested in and blow past your boundaries. Thus stress and anxiety. Manage anxiety by increasing your capacity to tolerate what is uncomfortable without adjusting your boundaries. Build the muscle of: Tolerating the disappointment of others Tolerating the feeling of false guilt Tolerating other people's anxiety Journal Prompt: What do I need to tolerate to better manage my anxiety?

Feeling Your Way Through Grief, 3

Threatened. Grief pummels emotional stability. Like yoga on a paddle board, the emotional self wobbles through normalcy in the midst of grief. Already uneasy, emotional collapse threatens in harsh comments, the mundane, in mistakes and disappointments, and unnecessary commercials. It's no wonder you keep a distance from your emotions. Why wouldn't you? Journal Prompt: I feel threatened by...

Feeling Your Way Through Grief, 2

Senses. Grief is experienced through your senses–your hearing, sight, smell, taste, and touch. A familiar song. Unexpected fluorescent lights. The smell of Autumn. Bites of cheesecake. The texture of a blanket. What you smell, see, taste, hear, and touch show up in your memory of what has been lost. Use your senses to feel your way through grief. Journal Prompts: My grief sounds like... My grief looks like... My grief smells like... My grief tastes like... My grief feels like...