Tag: Hope Springs Behavioral Consultants

7 Ways to Help Your Child’s Anxiety in Standardized Testing

Bottom-line: It seems like standardized tests are here to stay. But the key to our children doing their best on them is NOT adding pressure or fear to the situation. Instead, it is teaching our children tools to manage their fears and thoughts. It is supporting them in their individuality, and helping them find the good things in their present world. And it’s helping them remember that some of the best things in life are not measured, but rather are experienced with kindness, love, and support.

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How To Help Yourself (And Your Children) Through the Unknown

Helping Your Child Through the Unknown

For many people, unknown things can feel bad or scary. It seems that when we don’t know what to expect, we prepare for all the bad things that could happen. It makes sense; biologically, our bodies are perfectly wired to avoid danger. So when something frightens or upsets us, our hearts beat, our lungs take in more air, and our muscles tense, preparing for “fight or flight.” We try to process the information, make sense out of it, and stop it from happening. We are primed to keep ourselves safe.

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No-Guilt Mindfulness

No-Guilt Mindfulness

My alarm goes off, quietly at first, and then a little louder. I turn it off, and then start my daily practice. What do I hear? I listen. I hear the birds chirping, the dog snoring quietly, the sound of my spouse making coffee downstairs. What do I feel? I notice the cool breeze from my fan, the softness of my blanket, and the comfort of my bed. What do I see? I slowly open one eye to appreciate the soft, dappled light through my window and the blue sky on the other side. What do I smell? The scent of my laundry detergent still lingers on my pillowcase. What am I grateful for? I am grateful for this day, for my life, for meaningful work, for my family. I take 4 deep breaths and I get out of bed. Thus ends my meditation for the day.

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Why Self-Love is So Important (And Not a Bad Thing)

Guest Post: Why Self Love is So Important and Not a Bad Thing

While my generation and younger is thought to be full of selfish, shallow, entitled people (which I do not agree with), what I do think is that a lot of what we’re seeing is not too much self-love, but exactly the opposite. No real self love at all, in fact. Holes filled with insecurities. People who secretly do not feel worthy of the space they take up. People whose only memories of Earth have been of her demise, at the hands of humans. People obsessed with the system’s definition of accomplishment. People who are scared to look deeper, scared of what they’ll find there. People who listen to the voice of short-term happiness, over the deeper voice of long-term joy, because well they don’t trust the deeper one, or they’ve no idea how to hear it.

Looking back, growing up, I can’t think of a single conversation where my friends and I even mentioned the things we liked about ourselves, let alone reasons we loved ourselves. Just typing that makes me feel uncomfortable. The general message (especially as women) was that it’s okay to love things about other people but not ourselves.

As a Midwesterner, I come from the land of humble and hard-working. I value humility like crazy. We’re not big on self-love. But I’m starting to believe that you really do have to possess something first, before you can give it away.

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Girl with Sunflower

Helping Your Child to Respond to a Traumatic Incident

When community tragedies happen, they can feel downright terrifying, especially so close to home. Traumas can have lasting effects for communities, children, and families. They increase our fears, and decrease our feelings of safety. These effects are particularly pronounced if we were present or directly involved with the victims.

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How to Use Self-Compassion to Help Your Health

Self-compassion is a way to help ourselves stay healthy.  If you are like many of us, you may only think about your well-being after something hard has happened, like an illness, a crisis, or a stressful work issue. However, self-care is an ongoing issue, and not just when hard things happen. One thing that’s very […]

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Shy Girl Behind Book

How to Help a Shy Teen Make Friends

New longitudinal research, published by the University of Michigan, based on students from 1991-2012, found that students have smaller groups of peers than they did a generation ago. However, the data also suggests that due to increased contact through electronics and on-line exchanges, relationships tend to be closer than they were 20 years ago. Other research has also found that as teens rely more on electronics, they tend to become less interested and less skilled at direct, face-to-face social interactions

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hamster on a wheel

How to Manage Obsessive Thinking

Anxiety is a condition where people worry. Most people have worries from time to time. We may worry about making a good impression, or how we will do on a test or an assignment. Sometimes people worry about the weather, loved ones, or illness. When worry happens so much that it starts to make our […]

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Test anxiety

The Power of Positive Thinking for Anxious Children

“In a new study, one group of researchers (Hogendoorn et al, 2014) attempted to find what parts of cognitive behavioral therapy were most helpful for anxious youth. Their findings were somewhat surprising. The children in their study benefited the most from the therapist coaching positive thinking skills (“I can do it,” “It’s not so bad,” etc.), rather than the therapist trying to decrease negative thinking patterns (“I don’t want to go.” “They’ll be mean.”) “

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