Anxiety & Mood | Healthy Routines | Life goals | Mindfulness | Mood | Self image | Self-esteem | Stress

Self-esteem: The Importance of Lust Driven Activities

ByPsychologist & Therapist Jenny Rapp

Another way of reconnecting to yourself and find your inner motivation and drive is adding activities that you miss or are interested in. Our own stories about ourselves are a part of self-esteem/self-worth. These stories are partly constructed by what we cherish and do with our time. Research has shown that when you validate yourself,…

Anxiety & Mood | Mood | Stress

Anxiety: Worry Hour Part 2

ByPsychologist & Therapist Jenny Rapp

This post continues on what to do during the worry hour that was introduced in last week’s post. Worry hour is a tool to handle anxiety and rumination, but also when stuck in unproductive problem solving, mourning a loss etc. by reducing the time spent on nonurgent unproductive or hurtful thoughts to maximum one scheduled…

Anxiety & Mood | Burn out | Healthy Routines | Mindfulness | Stress

Mindfulness: The Body Scan Exercise Part 3 of 4

ByPsychologist & Therapist Jenny Rapp

Here comes the 3d of 4 parts of the body scan exercise, in total 10 minutes long. This is the essence/instructional parts of one version of the 3 major meditations within mindfulness but it usually lasts over 45 minutes with long parts of silence: … Now pay attention to the pressure from the floor or…

Anxiety & Mood | Healthy Routines | Mood | Self image | Stress

Stress: Exercise is Key

ByPsychologist & Therapist Jenny Rapp

You have heard it before, but one of the absolute best way of handling stress short and long run in addition to recovery activities, see last week’s post, is exercise. Research has shown that both aerobic exercises, like walking, running, swimming and biking, and building muscles, as in strength training but also work around the…

Anxiety & Mood | Stress

Anxiety: Worry Hour Part 1

ByPsychologist & Therapist Jenny Rapp

Worry and rumination create stress hormones as well as psychological pain. These two dimensions paired together can often escalate into intense suffering. Try this: to take control of worrying/rumination it is important to assign a scheduled hour per day, yes, that is right – only one hour!, for non-urgent worrying/rumination, e.g. 10 AM.k It has…

Anxiety & Mood | Mindfulness | Mood | Stress

Mindfulness: The Body Scan Exercise Part 2 of 4

ByPsychologist & Therapist Jenny Rapp

Mindfulness meditation can be used for strengthening the ability to remain calm and postpone reactions during stressful situations. Here comes the second part of a body-scan-exercise that you can record and use: … Now pay attention to the lower back – an area where we easily feel pain, stiffness, tension or fatigue. Just breathe. Allow…

Anxiety & Mood | Feelings | Stress

Stress: Acute Stress Management Techniques

ByPsychologist & Therapist Jenny Rapp

To decrease an acute stress-level of 8 or higher on a scale 1 to 10 where the fight-flight mode is controlling the body and mind, you have to focus on physiological techniques since at this level of stress we are outside of pedagogical reach. The most important technique is slow breathing focusing on prolonged exhalations…

Anxiety & Mood | Mindfulness | Stress | Uncategorized

Mindfulness: The Body Scan Exercise Part 2 of 4

ByPsychologist & Therapist Jenny Rapp

Mindfulness can be used to strenghten the ability to remain calm. Here is the second part of the body scan, a continuation of the mindfulness exercise from last week that you can record and use: … Move your attention away from your breathing and instead pay attention to the inside of your left leg and…

Burn out | Healthy Routines | Mindfulness | Stress

Stress: The Two Stress Scales

ByPsychologist & Therapist Jenny Rapp

There are actually two stress levels that are important to keep track of: 1. One is the stress-scale that I explained in last week’s session, i.e. how the level of stress generally fluctuates in the human body during the day depending on activity level and intensity. 2. The other is your general baseline stress-level over…

Anxiety & Mood | Feelings | Healthy Routines | Mood | Stress

Anxiety and Depressive Mood: Activity, Mood and Thought Diary

ByPsychologist & Therapist Jenny Rapp

The second step in traditional CBT is to be aware of your thoughts and the feelings they contribute to as well as what situation that triggered them. A trigger is something that happened and/or something somebody said/did which make you react with thoughts and feelings that reinforce each other making you create a response. Common…