Search Results for: lisa firestone/feed/2009/11/fear-of-intimacy

Tips for Helping Your Child Handle Emotions

…to opportunities. Tough as they can be, outbursts, arguments, and bouts of fear can all offer prime chances to integrate a child’s brain. Here are a few effective tips to help get your child develop a well-integrated mind. To learn more, join us for the upcoming free and CE Webinars with Dr. Bryson. Use the logic of left brain to make sense out of feelings in the right – Simply telling our children to “calm down” or “stop crying” is not an effecti…

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Why Sleep is So Necessary and in Such Short Supply

…f feelings is necessary to healthy sleep. Feelings often get buried out of fear that they will take over and we will lose our strong hold on control. The opposite is true. The more we acknowledge and allow the natural movement of emotions, the more freedom we have to make choices about our next action. The alternative is getting backlogged in unexpressed emotions, that solidify, and later come to life when we try to sleep. (movement is healing, st…

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Benefits of Mindful Parenting

…ikely to alarm both young children. What they will learn in that moment is fear, not to be better behaved. In fact, at those times, what we are actually modeling for them is out of control and aggressive behavior. Being mindful allows us to step back from the situation, observe our emotional reaction, take a breath and act in a calmer, more rational manner. In this same scenario, the parent could acknowledge the children’s frustration by first loo…

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Why the Women’s March Felt SO Good: A Neurochemical Perspective

…ocin, and optimistic. So much of politics and media coverage is powered on fear. It’s easy to get anxious, paralyzed in a wash-cycle of too much cortisol. It’s important to remember that there is antidote. According to British psychotherapist, Jonathan Hoban, “Oxytocin plays a pivotal role in the process of reconnecting, rebuilding trust and feeling safe. If we all took certain daily actions that encouraged the production of oxytocin within oursel…

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Human Rights Violations in Personal Relationships

…the most effective and destructive means of controlling because it elicits fear, anger, guilt, and alarm in one’s partner. Some of the most destructive behaviors commonplace in relationships are those that people act out to ward off loving responses from their partner. Defended individuals tend to maintain the negative identity they acquired within their original family and are resistant to being seen in a more positive light. Changing their basic…

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5 Ways Working on Ourselves Can Benefit Our Kids

…imes of stress have more to do with our past than the present. Our child’s fear can rekindle a feeling of fear we felt as kids. Their cry can resonate with our own early distress. As parents, we may try to keep our cool and hide our reactions, or we may let them spill out in ways we regret. Either way, our inner emotional state is often displayed, be it verbally or non-verbally. Our expressions, micro-expressions, tone of voice, and body language…

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Breaking the Habit of Our Unhealthy Stress Cycle

…lay with each word separately? Anxiety has a perception of trepidation and fear intermingled with imagining the worst in the future. Adventure has a perception of excitement and encouragement to move into the future imagining something good. If you enjoy the adventure of amusement park rides, you’ve chosen to activate your system like anxiety, but perceive it to be your choice, and therefore, are interested in approaching. Regardless of whether th…

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Paying Attention to Your Mental Health

…our mental health: fear and isolation. The coronavirus has our existential fears going through the roof! We are terrified because this deadly virus seems to be everywhere and so much is unknown. There is no vaccine or cure for it yet. We don’t know who has it. People aren’t being tested for it. Whole cities and countries are being quarantined. When our death anxiety is aroused, we are often unaware of the ways we are impacted by it. We may be more…

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Should I Spank My Child?

…itrary or done out of anger. Power is of two kinds. One is obtained by the fear of punishment and the other by acts of love. Power based on love is a thousand times more effective and permanent then the one derived from fear of punishment. -Mahatma Gandhi Child psychologist “Dr. Mac” has helped kids and families for over forty years. A graduate of Dartmouth and the University of Virginia, he is the Clinical Director of the Family Therapy Institute…

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The Challenge of Receiving

…e person they want to go to for safety is the very same person they are in fear of. Because of this erratic and unpredictable dilemma, the child has no organized strategy to get their needs met. Adults with a fearful-avoidant attachment usually live in an ambivalent state in which they are both frightened of being too close to or too distant from others. They see their relationships from the perspective that they need to go toward others to get th…

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