In 2018 I experienced my first panic attack at work. And it scared the life out of me. It felt as if I was having a heart attack. I was sweating. My heart was beating at an alarming rate. My hands and legs were going numb. It was so bad that after I called 911, I called my husband and left him a voicemail essentially saying goodbye. I had no idea if I would live through that day.

None of us are strangers to death. The longer we live, the more people that we will know that are here one day and gone the next. I think back to over the past few years at how much death I had been exposed to: Two great aunts, an uncle, a business colleague, a friend’s father and a colleague’s wife.

The Emotional Freedom Technique, also known as tapping, involves tapping on acupressure points on your own body in order to calm the amygdala, the fear center of the brain. The tapping allows for the Chi (emotional energy) to move more freely and bring a sense of relief and calm to the mind and body.

For many years of my life, I believed that something was fundamentally wrong with me. I had experienced a series of events that I perceived had an underlying message: I deserve to be punished for who I am. Now this sounds quite severe but I really believed it. There were pivotal moments in my youth, when I would express my genuine self to others and that I would then endure a horrible response.

I remember so many times in high school, that I would get to school in the morning and I would feel just awful. My stomach would be in knots and I would feel nauseous, and on the really bad mornings I would get terrible cramps. On those bad mornings, I would go to the nurse saying that I felt sick.

Companionship and friendship are a vital part of a person’s life. We are social creatures. We need to interact with others as a way to organize our own thoughts and to feel connected with the rest of the world. Prolonged isolation has been shown to lead to impaired mental function, delayed recall of information, and a slew of physical ailments that negatively affect the health of one’s own body.

Our friends, neighbors, teachers etc. do the same by enforcing societies standards upon us. When we act poorly, we get disciplined by those around us. It is a necessary part of human development in order for us to transform from a self-centric child into a fully rounded adult.

Many of the childhood fairy tales that we were exposed to as kids ended with the lead character falling in love with their “perfect mate” and them “living happily ever after”. Examples include Snow White, Cinderella, Sleeping Beauty, Beauty & the Beast. Each of these stories end with the main characters committing themselves to each other. And it is implied that their relationships survive the test of time.

My parents are both immigrants from Portugal. They both came to the US looking for a better life. My father came here on his own when he was 18 years old. My mother, when she was 13 with her entire family. Each of them brought within them the lessons from their own families around money.

For most of my life, I have had a very complicated history with food. There were certain foods that I had no self-control over. Oreo cookies, chocolate Pop-Tarts, Nutella and chocolate fudge brownies. One particular memory comes to mind. I was home alone and I made a batch of chocolate fudge brownies.

I am lying in bed in my dorm room watching back-to-back episodes of Six Feet Under. A show about a family funeral home where in every episode it opens with someone dying. Not the most uplifting show. I’ve been locked in my room alone for hours.

Work is an essential part of most of our lives. The average American spends about 40 hours per week working, which is equal to over 20% of our lives. The quality of this time is vital to ones mental and physical health. There are many factors that can contribute to someone’s work having a negative impact on their health…

We all have moments when we doubt ourselves around if we successfully completed a task. Did I wash my hands after using the bathroom? Did I turn my alarm on to wake me up in the morning? Did I lock my car in the parking lot? These moments of doubt are quite normal. We can be so focused on other parts of our lives that we forget if we did a common task that particular time.

We all have moments when we doubt ourselves around if we successfully completed a task. Did I wash my hands after using the bathroom? Did I turn my alarm on to wake me up in the morning? Did I lock my car in the parking lot? These moments of doubt are quite normal. We can be so focused on other parts of our lives that we forget if we did a common task that particular time.

Panic attacks are one of the most awful experiences a person can undergo. Many people compare them to having a heart attack due to the similarities in the symptoms of both events. Yet unlike a heart attack that has a biological cause, a blocked artery in your heart, a panic attack comes from your mind.

Becoming a mother is seen as a joyous part of a woman’s life. Think of the stories we tell children about where babies come from: a mommy and a daddy, who love each other very much, make a wish and the stork shows up with a new baby for them. This is a very Disneyfied version of the truth that we relay to our children. Yet, we also simplify the process for the soon to be mothers as well.

Sadness is one of the fundamental emotions that every human being feels. It is defined as being in a state of unhappiness or sorrow. American culture has an aversion to sadness. It has gone so far as to stigmatize sadness, and claim that it is possible to live a life of only happiness and joy. How often do we hear from people, “Don’t be upset, everything will be OK”? These words may be said in order to support or soothe the person who is distraught.

Human beings are social creatures. We have evolved to be part of communities. They help support our needs and provide for us while we contribute to the community in return. But for some of us, being part of a community can be difficult and at times impossible.

SSRI stands for selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors. This type of medication is one of the most commonly prescribed drugs for treating a variety of mental illnesses, primarily depression and anxiety.

The winter months arrive every year like clockwork. For many of us who live further away from the equator, winter comes with a notable loss of sunlight and a significant drop in temperature. Not only are there less hours of sunlight, the sun is not as direct and intense as it typically would be in the summer. Add to that, the increase in the number of layers of clothing we have to wear to deal with the cold.