Resources for Understanding & Managing Stress
When it comes to stress, it’s actually not all bad. There’s actually three categories of stress.
Some stress and anxiety are part of coping well with everyday life. Healthy stress gives us the impetus to get out of bed in the morning, stumble towards our caffeine source, and pass days in a relatively productive way, building our lives and relationships.
Prolonged stress, like a really challenging job or a difficult family relationship that just never seems to get better, is hard on our bodies and our mental health; however, with support and resources we can generally cope.
Toxic stress, like living through a pandemic while also juggling preexisting health issues, mental illness, isolation or unhealthy relationships, bearing a marginalized identity, or other chronic stress has the potential to impact mind and body long term, BUT these effects can be minimized by leaning into our social connections (or making a new supportive connection via a counselor or psychotherapist) and through finding ways to move, create, express ourselves, self-care, and play – even in the midst of intensely stressful times.
Explore the resources below to find ways to both understand and manage stress:
Learning About the Brain: A Brain Worksheet PDF Resource
This simple brain worksheet PDF is designed to be an easily approachable visual teaching aid for all ages. By emphasizing basic geography over anatomical correctness, this interactive resource can help…
Anxiety Worksheet: Choose-Your-Own-Adventure
Sometimes, a roadmap is all we need to find our way out of a confusing journey. I find that flowcharts can sometimes be that roadmap for managing the symptoms that…
Anxiety Drawing: Visual Insights into the Anxious Mind
Sometimes words fall short to describe feelings. For many, the feeling of anxiety is difficult to capture. As a therapist and artist, I’ve seen drawing bridge this gap. Drawing can…
4 Bullet Journal Layouts to Support Mental Health
Bullet Journal blogs and hashtags are filled with mental health and self-care focused templates, but are these layouts actually effective for maximizing the mental health benefits of a bullet journal? In this article, I explore existing research on how journaling and expressive writing can benefit mental health and, from that research, outline three ways to maximize the mental health benefits of your bullet journaling practice. Along the way, I’ll show you a few of my worksheets and resources that are perfect for adding to a bullet journal.
Anxiety Illustration: Spectrum of Anxiety Coping
Everyone has a different “default” way of coping with anxiety – and many of us will experience a shift from one extreme of the spectrum to the other at least once during our lifetime. While our culture praises the “brave” approach and shames the avoidant, the extremes of both approaches are equally harmful ways of avoiding the discomfort of being present to the tension of the middle ground. In this middle space – where we feel our fear but choose to tolerate some discomfort in order to grow – we inhabit our bodies, we have self-compassion for ourselves, and let ourselves experience the emotions inherent in doing things that are really, really hard.
Self Care in the Age of Working from Home
Even before the pandemic, working from home presented unique challenges to the work-life balance. During the COVID-19 pandemic, these challenges have become even more pronounced, as many of us have…
Abstract Emotion Cards | Art Deck by Kate Creech
Shortly after completing my Mindful Grounding Activity Card deck, I had an idea for a deck of visual emotion cards, each card containing an evocative abstract image for use as…
Mindfulness Card Deck for Trauma-Sensitive Grounding Activities
This mindfulness card deck is designed to be a fun way to invite kids, adults, and groups to turn their attention to their body in a trauma-sensitive way. Perfect for…
Isolation Mental Health Wellbeing Daily To-Do List Worksheet
Our lives changed significantly as COVID-19 spread around the globe and into our communities. In the space of a month we shifted from life-as-usual to- if our jobs and lifestyles…
Worksheet for Cultivating Mindfulness Practices
In a culture where life is often lived digitally, mindfulness matters. While our brains are increasingly adept at sensing fake news or deciphering complex texts based on emojis, increasingly we…