Maybe you haven’t had it easy. But for that reason alone, you’ve had to build resilience, courage and persistence to find a way to bring hope, love and happiness into your life.

Not everyone has that type of determination. Not everyone has that kind of strength.

But while you spend your days working and striving to be better, it’s easy to feel discouraged. Sometimes it only takes talking with others or seeing a friend’s Facebook page to make you wish your life was easier.

When you spend time with your eyes forward, looking ahead at all the people who have more than you, you may forget to look back. Yes you have a long way to go. Yes, your life may not be as simple as your neighbor’s, but along the way in your own individual journeys, don’t forget to acknowledge and celebrate how far you’ve come.

This week you may even find your own gift(s) in difficulty. You will share a sense of community with those who have faced the same issues as you. You may discover tools to maneuver your life better. The good news is that you’re definitely not alone in your journey. In each of these posts there are threads of hope, and together we weave the most beautiful quilt, don’t we?

Mental Health Hero Lee Horbachewski Says, “You are not alone. You are loved.”
(Mental Health Humor) – Author Lee Horbachewski spreads hope via her awareness campaign, her memoir and the story of how she got through the dark moments in her life. Learn more about Chato B.’s latest mental health hero here.

Just Because You Feel Something, Doesn’t Make it So!
(Anxiety & OCD Exposed) – Do you have a right to be angry? According to Dr. Laura Smith, not always. Learn why it won’t serve you or anyone else if you indulge freely in your negative emotions.

How to Discover Work You Love
(Adventures in Positive Psychology) – Everyone has a right to be happy. And despite what you may think, everyone can find work that they are passionate about even in this economy. Get the tools you need to incorporate more joy, purpose and pleasure in your every day by discovering work that your good at and you love.

Bipolar Type II and the Role of Tenacity
(To the Edge & Back) – Having bipolar type II disorder makes life a little harder. But here are the two strengths that can help you overcome the lowest of lows and persist, prevail and progress despite feeling like a failure. This is written for those with bipolar disorder, but can benefit anyone who is going through a tough time.

ADHD: True Confession – Here It Is
(ADHD from A to Zoë) – I can’t say much about this post unless I reveal Zoë’s confession. What I can say is that just like her commenters, you may relate with and understand this surprising gift of ADHD.

It’s not easy to live life with even an ounce of happiness. It’s not easy to grow instead of wither away in self-doubt, negativity and hopelessness. It is especially difficult to seek help when you feel embarrassed or ashamed to do so.

Perhaps you were on your way to recovery, when you had a relapse or you are a therapist who feels burnout or an adult who is being bullied. Sometimes it takes reading how others have survived what you’re going through to know that there is nothing shameful about your experience.

This week’s wrap-up will remind that you’re far from being alone. From tips on how to better deal with adult bullies to facing emotional burnout when you’re a professional therapists, we’re giving you the resources you need to help you grow, minimize shame and discover ways to make positive changes in your life and feel better about yourself.

Change takes time. It can be a long, difficult process. But start reading these now and they’ll be the seeds for that brighter, more hopeful tomorrow.

You Don’t Have to be Buddhist to Experience the Benefits of Meditation
(Adventures in Positive Psychology) – A recent study showed that there is real emotional benefits to meditation. Things like reduced negative affect, rumination, depression, anxiety, and increased positive affect and mindfulness are all attributed to meditating. After reading about these mental health benefits, you may want to consider incorporating it into your own life.

6 Steps for Dealing with Adult Bullies
(Sorting Out Your Life) – Bullying doesn’t end once you’re out of school. Unfortunately, it can continue to haunt you in your adult life. If you’re experiencing adult bullying, don’t be ashamed. Take back your power and control of the situation with these important and effective tips.

20 Ways Shrinks Stay Sane
(Private Practice Toolbox) – We don’t often talk about it. But therapists need help too. Learn ways to prevent burnout with these twenty self-care tips from other professional therapists.

Top 5 Reasons Women Relapse
(Addiction Recovery) – Women are just as much at risk for addiction as men are, but they do have different risk factors for relapse. Discover what women who are dealing with addiction need to be aware of and why this blogger says, “the outlook for women in recovery is bright.”

When You Should Quit Facebook
(The Gentle Self) – There are positives and negatives to social networking. But if you’re finding networking sites like Facebook are eating away at your time and self-esteem, maybe it’s time to sign off. For more information on the reasons why you should consider quitting, read this.

You can get sucked into the things you will never be able to control or you can stop that tape, focus on what you can control and get on with your life.

This week you’ll read about the heroes who have not only accepted what feels unacceptable, but have inspired others by letting it positively change their lives. You will also learn the role diet and nutrition play on your mental health, navigate relationships when you have ADHD and have a more meaningful life by being true to yourself.

Yes, life can feel unmanageable. But focusing on what you can control instead of what you can’t will successfully transform you from the victim to the victor. Not only that but it will almost always empower you, change your life for the better, and imbue it with possibility and hope.

Mental Health Hero: Julie Fast
(Mental Health Humor) – A world-leading mental health expert, a bestselling author, an award-winning mental health columnist, a national speaker, a coach and sought after media source on the topic of mental health. Who is she? Chato B.’s next mental health hero.

Diet And Schizophrenia: The Link Is More Important Than You Think
(Therapy Soup) – What’s the relationship between what you eat and who you are? More than you think. Find out what the latest studies are saying about the connection between diet and mental illness.

A Tribute to the Leadership Responsibility of Mother’s Everywhere
(Adventures in Positive Psychology) – This sheds light on the woman who had the most positive influence on you. If you are a mother or have a mother type figure in your life, you will reap a lot of joy and gratitude from reading this belated Mother’s Day post.

Healing Damaged Self-Esteem
(The Gentle Self) – This may come as a surprise to you, but the best thing you could do for anyone including yourself is to be honest. Learn why you need to shake off that phony act and focus on being true to yourself.

Did You Miss It? Podcast of ADHD, Anger and Marriage
(ADHD from A to Zoë) – Did you know Psych Central had its first webinar on ADHD, Anger, and Marriage recently? If you missed it, you won’t want to miss this post with a replay of the event.

The increased heat that comes when spring changes seasons can bring up a lot of emotions. Summer can be the beginning of a fresh new start. But it can also be a reminder of the New Year’s goals we didn’t achieve yet, the habits we’re still dealing with and the weight we can’t seem to lose.

It can provoke a sense of desperation. How many times do we have to keep coming around this same circle of problems? Maybe it’s addiction or a reoccurring theme of weight gain or depression associated with bipolar disorder or anxiety from dealing with OCD. Whatever you’re plagued with, the key is to not beat yourself up about it. Be the mother that you’ve always needed. This week’s most popular posts offer compassion, hope and explanations on why you deserve those things.

Happy Mother’s Day!

Weight Management: Strengths and Mindfulness are Missing Pieces to the Puzzle
(Character Strengths) – Summer’s just around the corner. If the extra heat is making you anxious about losing weight, forgo the temptation to rely on external resources. Here’s how depending on your character strengths and mindfulness can help.

It’s Not What You Have But How You See it: How to Live With Contentment
(Adventures in Positive Psychology) – Feel dissatisfied with your life? Regardless of what society teaches us having more won’t bring you more happiness. This will.

Why are Habits So Hard to Break? Dr. Nora Volkow Has the Answer
(Mindfulness & Psychotherapy) – If you’re dealing with addiction (food, drugs, alcohol, etc.), read this and you’ll find out why it’s so difficult for your body to say, “No” to substances sabotaging your health.

Are Anxiety and OCD the Same Thing?
(Anxiety & OCD Exposed) – What exactly is Obsessive Compulsive Disorder (OCD) and how do you know if you or someone you love has it? This post provides a detailed description of OCD.

The Avengers – Dr. Banner’s Wisdom About Bipolar
(Bipolar Advantage) – Who knew the secret to managing depression and mania in bipolar disorder was in the new movie, The Avengers? This blogger did. Find out what it is here.

In all of these incidences, I wish I could pause time. I wish I could hug that 10-year-old that felt scared and that 30-something year old that felt powerless, afraid, and anxious.

Because in every scenario, I did not pause, take a deep breath and choose wisely. I reacted instead. I reacted out of fear and I gave away the opportunity to do something different.

Our posts this week all offer you a chance to change the way you approach what’s not working in your life. Instead of continuing to react the way you have been, you will get a fresh new perspective, an alternative way of perceiving an old and persistent problem. Time cannot be stopped nor paused, but in knowing a better way, you can learn from your past, alter your present and in doing so, have a more hopeful future.

*The last two mental health heroes are from our own team. Find out who they are here and here.

Personality Differences Matter
(Attachment Matters) – Interested in finding out how your child’s personality can make a difference in effective parenting, conflict resolution and positive discipline techniques? This post packs a punch, identifying helpful techniques to address all of them.

Learning How to Fail
(The Emotionally Sensitive Person) – Did you know there is a right way to fail? If you’re feeling discouraged about a recent failure, you need to read this.

New Study About the Psychology of Bullying
(Beating the Bully) – If you think bullies are young people with low self-esteem, this post will surprise you. A new study reveals who bullies are and what adults need to do to deal with them.

Forgetting Your Phone And Remembering Your Life
(The Therapist Within) – Forgetting your cell phone could appear to be a hassle. But Gabrielle offers a different perspective. Instead of being with your phone at the doctor’s office, waiting in line at the grocery store or at dinner, why not put down your phone and just be for a moment?

How We Underestimate Our Own Power
(The Gentle Self) – Fighting with a loved one may seem like an act of power, but it’s often in our weakness and vulnerability that we lash out. Learn how to stop the arguing before it starts and discover a more effective way to get your needs met.

Yet, when we grow up, that need for help embarrasses us. It makes us feel less than. We think that because we’re old enough to stand on our own two feet, we don’t need help anymore. And if we do, we should stay quiet about it. It’s much better to pretend we’re okay than to let the world know how imperfectly human we are.

It’s unfortunate that we live in a society with opportunities and resources, yet we’re so afraid to ask for help. The truth is we all need help whether we’re 2 or 62 years old. As adults, we may visibly appear to be less vulnerable than children. But the older we are, the greater the depth of our wounds.

Whether you or a loved one is struggling with porn addiction, loneliness or anxiety, I hope the posts below will encourage you to seek help. There is nothing embarrassing or shameful about doing so. In fact, seeking the help you need means you’re probably somebody’s *mental health hero.

Sexual Dysfunction: The Escalating Price of Abusing Porn
(Sex & Intimacy in the Digital Age) – The accessibility and affordability of Internet pornography are causing not only emotional, relationship, and financial problems, but sexual dysfunction. Find out the signs and symptoms of porn-induced sexual dysfunction and what type of treatment options are available to those who need help.

Is Facebook Making Us Lonelier? The Great Mindful Experiment
(Mindfulness & Psychotherapy) – Is social media to blame for our loneliness? In this post, Elisha Goldstein, Ph.D. offers an alternative explanation. Maybe it’s not technology itself, but our choices, values and priorities that are responsible for our connection with others and our disconnection. This is a wake up call on the importance of being more mindful.

Who Says ‘I Love You’ First? Unexpected Findings
(Healing Together for Couples) – This post analyzes recent research findings on the confession and expression of love between men and women. It shines an interesting light on the role sex plays in the significance of those three words we all want to hear: “I love you.”

*Mental Health Hero: Keith Mahar
(Mental Health Humor) – The latest mental health hero is an activist, mental health advocate, social worker and a Mentalympian (anyone who voluntarily competes against stigma, prejudice and/or discrimination by disclosing that she or he has personally experienced mental illness). Learn more about and check out the cartoon version of this mental health humor.

The ABC’S of Behavior
(Anxiety & OCD Exposed) – We learn so much from our pets. In this post, Laura Smith, Ph.D. shows us that how we comfort our furry children and our children can exacerbate their fears. Here she explains what we should do instead.

If you have ever put happiness on hold out of fear, I feel for you. The journey is often lined with disappointment, hopelessness and discouragement. But there is hope.

This week our bloggers will show you new ways to tackle old problems. And it’s all in an effort to help you make small, tiny, doable changes now to give you confidence to make those big, intimidating ones in the long run. Whether you are overcoming a fear of rejection or finding a way to cope with food or anxiety, it’s an opportunity to finally stop wishing for the life you want and start living it.

Building Identity
(The Emotionally Sensitive Person) – If you fear letting your true self be known because of the possibility of rejection, you need to read this. A change in perspective could help you find the intimacy you’re looking for.

How to Create a Timeline: The Power of Re-working Your Life’s Story, 1 of 2
(Neuroscience & Relationships) – Ready to take back control of your life? This powerful exercise will give you the insight you need to understand how what you think about affects your life.

Slowing Down, Not Rushing To Food When Strong Emotions Strike
(Weightless) – When you feel overwhelmed with emotions you go straight to food. What do you do to start coping better? Two experts address one commenters important question.

10 Rules for Coping with Panic: Rule #2 (Part 2)
(Panic About Anxiety) – One fact about the bodily sensations that often accompany anxiety is intended to help you cope. But as blogger Summer Beretsky demonstrates in her post, digesting this nugget of truth while helpful, may not make the process easier.

5 Important Skills For Suicidal Teens And Families
(Therapy Soup) – What is DBT and how can it help your teen? In this post, Dr. Alec Miller identifies 5 important skill-sets that help suicidal teens and their families.

When I grew up and eventually got the things I wanted as a kid, I still looked back fondly on those days. I think about the magic of make believe and cars made out of cardboard boxes and tiny paper boats that sailed atop rain puddle rivers. This is why I’m always surprised when people attempt to procure happiness from financial wealth, professional success and a perfect life. Maybe they bought into reality TV, dreams sold by commercials and that temporary, false facade of what happiness really is.

If you’ve lost sight of true happiness, don’t despair. This week our bloggers will steer you on the right path with helpful tips, informative strategies and a bit of laughter so you can invite a little more happy moments into your day and ultimately your life.

Why Happiness is a Journey, Not a Destination
(Adventures in Positive Psychology) – If you’re tackling happiness the same way you tackle your goals, you will be unsuccessful and disappointed. Life coach Joe Wilner helps you redefine and rediscover happiness to get you back on track in five steps.

Seven Facts About Adolescent Suicide
(Therapy Soup) – Forget about happiness. If you have a loved one contemplating suicide, all you want is for them to be alive. This must-read post provides important facts regarding adolescent suicide. It also includes surprising information on depression in younger children and how symptoms are exhibited differently in youth than in adults.

Re-discover Happiness with Laughter and Humor
(Character Strengths) – Have you laughed today? Find out why laughter and having a good sense of humor doesn’t just make life more fun, but it’s good for you too. Then get tips on how to boost your humor muscle and tickle your funny bone.

30 Seconds to a More Mindful Life
(Mindfulness & Psychotherapy) – Got 30 seconds? That’s all you need to rejuvenate your spirits, calm your nervous system and get clear. Read this to start your day in a more mindful place.

How Mindfulness Aids In Addiction Recovery
(Addiction Recovery) – You already know the impact mindfulness can have on your state of mind. But addiction? Yes a mindfulness practice can heal addiction and those recovering from addiction.

I doubt my husband will forget it either. But for him, it wasn’t the dessert that was memorable as much as my reaction. He remembers how long it took me to finish it, the permanent grin on my face and the intensity with which I savored every bite. I hadn’t even realized I was audibly expressing my satisfaction until he laughed and said, “You do realize people can hear you right?”

I think the reason why the memory was so memorable is explained in one of our posts this week. When we can find moments to savor, when we pay attention to the things that bring us joy, we have more delight, happiness and zest for life. That single moment so many years ago still brings back feelings of complete wonder, sensory overload and joy. If you want to start adding more of those moments in your own life, read our first post below.

Zest, Savoring and Happiness
(Adventures in Positive Psychology) – You can have your cake and eat it too. If you learn how to savor any situation, you’ll always be able to reconnect with it and experience the joy and zest of partaking fully in that moment. Read this post to find out how you can incorporate more meaningful moments in your life.

More About Understanding Self-Control
(The Emotionally Sensitive Person) – Surprisingly, it’s not the most confident individual, but the one who expresses the most doubt that may be less susceptible to the challenging roadblocks of self-control. Knowledge here is much more powerful when it comes to change than willpower.

Social Media Ethics (part 2): Developing Your Social Media Policy
(Private Practice Toolbox) – With social media blurring the boundaries of the therapist-client relationship, it’s appropriate and necessary for you to develop a social media policy for your practice. Get information on how you can create your own here.

Inspiring A Mindful Nation: An Interview with Congressman Tim Ryan
(Mindfulness & Psychotherapy) – Can something as simple as mindfulness inspire a powerful change in our nation? It can and it has. In this intriguing interview with Congressman Tim Ryan, Dr. Elisha Goldstein discovers how being more mindful can encourage the change we need right now.

Alone: What Is It Good For?
(Single At Heart) – People may think singles are selfish, self-centered or inept when it comes to living with others. But in this empowering post, we learn why being alone can teach us a great deal about our relationships with others.

It’s been awhile for me, but I often reflect upon my childhood through my adult eyes. I remember, for example, my self-consciousness about my messy hair and short stature, my fear of getting my ears pierced and of big tall grown-ups. I also recall how impatient I was to be an adult so that I could choose what I wanted to eat for dinner and when I could go to bed.

Of all the things I thought being grown up would mean, I didn’t have the ability to see the hard stuff that would come with the territory. I didn’t understand both the blessing and difficulty that comes with our freedom to choose. I can choose, for example, what I wear, what to eat, and where to live. And I also can choose how I live my life. It’s a huge responsibility, one which my little mind couldn’t begin to comprehend.

This week our bloggers remind us that being able to make conscious choices is the privilege we have as adults. Whether it’s learning how to be better parents, managing our emotions, accepting the unacceptable or re-learning how to savor and enjoy our food, they all teach us how turning off autopilot and being mindful can change our lives.

Mindful Parenting: The Buck Stops Here
(Mindfulness & Psychotherapy) – Mindfulness can be applied to various aspects of our lives. And this includes parenting. In this beautifully written piece, Elisha Goldstein, Ph.D. demonstrates the invaluable gift you can give your children by being more mindful.

How Mindfulness Can Help You Regulate Emotions
(Adventures in Positive Psychology) – For some you, the idea that you can control your emotions instead of having them control you, seems impossible. But imagine how freeing it would be if you knew how to manage them more effectively? This will show you how.

To Accept Is To Relax
(360 of Mindful Living) – This short post concisely contains all you need to know about what acceptance really is. Enough said.

How To Eat Mindfully: Q&A With Ed Halliwell
(Weightless) – Instead of controlling what we eat, and struggling to adopt healthier eating habits, Margarita’s interview with The Mindful Manifesto co author Ed Halliwell offers a gentler approach. He teaches us how to enjoy eating again. Surprisingly, in the process of savoring your food by eating more mindfully, you will automatically eat healthier and less.

Is Your Depression Making You Old?
(Depression On My Mind) – Recent research suggests people with depression are more likely to have disorders related to aging. Find out why Christine says this is good news.

Think about the obsessive thoughts and “shoulds” that wear on you day to day. The thing you should have said or shouldn’t have told a friend when they were grieving a loss. The lack of empathy we have, not just for our kids for bad grades, but ourselves.

Over time, they wear you down. They sabotage the life you were meant to live by draining your physical and mental energy and stressing you out.

The solution?

This week our bloggers are giving us all a mental shift by freeing us from limitations, from labels that don’t help us, and from teaching us how not to let our own impossible expectations and pressures dictate our lives. It’s a way to open up, break down old patterns and build new healthier ones. Sometimes all it takes is a shift in old thinking. This should help.

In Defense of Your “Lazy” Child
(Always Learning) – What we define as laziness could be indicative of fatigue, mental exhaustion and a learning issue. This powerful post will make us all think twice about judging our children’s “lazy” behaviors.

Exercise: Improve Your Mood and Help Repair the Effects of Stress
(The Emotionally Sensitive Person) – Want to try something that will help you learn better, be more creative and reduce the harmful effects of stress on your body all without having significant side effects? Read why exercise isn’t just good for your body, it’s good for your mind too.

10 Thoughts that May be Stressing You Out
(Dialectical Behavior Therapy Understood) – Surprisingly, it’s not other people’s expectations that stress you out, it’s your own. Find out what thoughts are wearing you down and what to do about them here.

Empathy vs Sympathy
(Therapy Case Notes) – What are the true differences between empathy and sympathy and which one is best in helping loved ones in the midst of grief? Get a better understanding of what empathy and sympathy really is in this post.

Mindfulness Is a Mindlessness of Self
(360 of Mindful Living) – There are many ways to understand mindfulness. Read this to learn about how you can achieve the experience of oneness by removing the self and object and returning to a sense of mindlessness.

As we get older, it’s easier to shrink inside ourselves. Gone is our ambition, flexibility (physically and emotionally) and our courage. It’s not an inevitable transition if we are aware of it early. But most of us walk around in a haze allowing time to render our muscles worn and our ambition shot.

We rarely stop and think about how stuck in a rut we’ve gotten until we’re faced with a challenge that forces us to step outside our comfort zones.

If you’re open to spreading your wings a bit, read our top posts this week. It’ll give you a new perspective on things like sexual addiction, creativity, blogging and recovery. It seems like quite an unrelated mix. But all together they show us that we’re never too old to learn something new, that we can re-engage our creativity, take more risks, heal ourselves and get through difficulty regardless of our physical age.

Reclaiming Our Creativity
(The Creative Mind) – Most of us believe education to be empowering and a vital factor in self-growth. But what happens when our educational institutions are doing the opposite-in fact, eroding our creative and intellectual abilities? This post reflects on the ways we can reclaim the creativity we’ve lost.

Should Sexual Addiction Become A Legitimate Mental Health Diagnosis?
(Sex & Intimacy in the Digital Age) – Is sexual addiction a legitimate disorder, one that deserves its own mental health diagnosis? Why this blogger wholeheartedly agrees and what the future looks like for sexual addiction as a potential DSM-5 diagnosis.

What is Your Courage Quotient?
(Adventures in Positive Psychology) – Can a lucky charm make you more brave? Is embracing failure a key to being more courageous? And is a willingness to act on our fears enough to get us to overcome them? The answer is, “Yes” to all of the above. Learn ways to boost your courage quotient in this riveting interview with The Courage Quotient author and psychologist Robert Biswas-Diener.

Lifting The Cloud Of Early Recovery: How To Stop Being Confused And Start Thinking Straight
(Addiction Recovery) – The beginning stages of recovery can be tough. Here is a list of steps you might want to bookmark, share and print out to help you get through the process easier.

Why the Blogs You’re Reading May or May Not Be the Answer
(Mindfulness & Psychotherapy) – Can a blog really help to address your specific problems and issues? Not according to this blogger. While it can provide a sense of support, connection and community, read why you shouldn’t expect any blog to be your sole source for healing.

Then again, our emotional health doesn’t suddenly rise with the temperature. Individuals with S.easonal A.ffective D.isorder and those with allergies may even feel worse with the rapid change of the seasons. And even then, life doesn’t suddenly get better. Sometimes when we’re feeling good, when the weather’s good, life sends us a doozie of a problem. We’re knocked back down to square one and the discouragement and despair that comes with that (whether it’s being wronged by a friend or failing at a job) feels overwhelming. You can easily wonder if you will be able to handle it all.

Don’t give up! These bloggers will show you how to pick yourself up if you’ve been knocked down. Learn how to accept a past hurt, combat negative stigma and isolation by joining a movement to spread awareness, and manage stress by being more resilient. In doing so, you’ll create your own spring garden of healing regardless of the weather outdoors or the emotional one going on inside.

Ten Steps of Acceptance – When Forgiveness Is Not An Option
(Neuroscience & Relationships) – Whether you’ve been wronged recently or in the past, an important process in your healing involves forgiveness. But what if you’re not ready to forgive? Try these steps to cultivate acceptance instead.

Mental Health Heroes will all GO Lime!
(Mental Health Humor) – Too often we feel discouraged or helpless about misinformation regarding mental health. But this is a movement we can all be proud of. Find out how you can get involved by spreading awareness and reducing stigma in the month of May.

Easter Inspiration – How to Get Back Up When You Get Knocked Down
(Adventures in Positive Psychology) – It’s natural to fall into valleys every once in awhile. If you’ve hit one and are feeling discouraged, take heart. This post will help you pick yourself up back up with five ways to help you look on the bright side.

Emotionally Sensitive People: Survey Results, Part 1
(The Emotionally Sensitive Person) – Two hundred and sixty-two results later, and the answers are in. Discover what concerns emotionally sensitive people most and what coping skills they have developed to help them live in an often insensitive world.

2 Things You Can Do Right Now to Decrease Anxiety and Depression
(Dialectical Behavior Therapy Understood) – When you’re in the midst of uncertainty and stress, the best thing you can do is to take care of yourself. Here are two ways that’ll help you better manage your health no matter what you’re going through.

Do you take it right away, absorb the pain quick so you can move on with your life? Do you look for new ways to heal old wounds or do you find yourself unable to cope, burrying your feelings in work, with food, by avoiding, denying and repressing what is too difficult to deal with?

Forget about being green. It’s not easy even being human. And we can’t escape it. It’s the common thing that unites us all. What separates us is how we’ve learned to deal with it.

At my grandfather’s funeral years ago, I was the conscious observer watching how each of my relatives managed their pain – some broke down and cried, others stifled their own sadness to assist loved ones. I realized that no one way was better than the other. But that being conscious of how we heal and taking the time to do what works best for each of us is most important.

It may be mindful emotional eating, self-soothing activities, helping others who are in worst shape than we are, or shining a light on our shadows that can be instrumental to healing. If you’ve been faced with a painful situation recently, read our posts below. Each offer a different way to help you heal yourself and feel confident no matter what hand you’re given.

Self-Soothing: Calming the Amygdala and Reducing the Effects of Trauma
(The Emotionally Sensitive Person) – Learning how to self-soothe is often taught in childhood to help calm nerves and provide comfort when children are upset. But some individuals either aren’t sufficiently taught self-soothing techniques because of early trauma or being emotionally sensitive. This makes the following post pertinent to help you manage your emotions, prevent chronic conditions and increase your ability to tolerate difficult situations.

8 Strategies to Make Your Emotional Eating More Mindful
(360 of Mindful Living) – Think emotional eating is bad? This blogger says it’s not only inevitable, but emotional eating can work as an effective coping strategy and stress reliever. Surprised? I was too.

Facebook For Veterans With PTSD
(Therapy Soup) – Mental health professionals are donating their time to help veterans and their families. This is how social media should be used. Find out how you can get involved here.

Sexual Abuse – Shining Light Into The Shadows
(Family Mental Health) – How do we overcome darkness created by abuse and trauma? We shine a light on the shadows by sharing our stories of survival like this courageous woman.

Does ADHD Build Character?
(ADHD Man of Distraction) – Maybe you’re forgetful, always late, and can’t always be counted on. You can blame it on your ADHD or you can embrace what you’ve got. And what you’ve got blogger Kelly loves.

If that someone sounds like you, you’ll reap a ton of benefits from this post.

If you’ve ever had a moment in your life when you knew you had to stop doing what’s not good for you so you can start living your life, you know it’s not easy. Maybe you’ve tried to change before, but a fearful thought scared you back to square one. It’s okay. Change takes time. If you’re on the fence or don’t feel quite ready yet, this week’s posts may just give you a subtle push in the right direction.

Depression? Anxiety? Seven Strategies to Naturally Boost Healing Processes in the Brain & Body, 3 of 3
(Neuroscience & Relationships) – There are a lot of things we don’t have control of, but why not focus on the things we do? Here are seven ways to boost your mood, health and well-being by simply being proactive about taking care of you.

The Mindfulness Manifesto: It’s Time to Transform Your Life and the World
(Adventures in Positive Psychology) – Feeling discouraged about the changes you hoped to make in 2012? Don’t be. This intriguing interview with one of the authors of The Mindful Manifesto shares how mindfulness is helping individuals cope with stress, break old habits, and even help with addictions.

Cognitive Neuroscience Video Contest Winner
(Channel N) – Got 3 minutes? Learn about the history of cognitive neuroscience in this entertaining and award-winning student video from the Institute of Cognitive Neuroscience Brains on Film Competition 2012 at the University College London.

When Borderlines and Narcissists Collide
(Therapy Unplugged) – What happens when someone with Borderline Personality Disorder meets up with a Narcissist? This blogger describes the pain that conspires when they meet and personally reflects on how hard she’s worked to not allow her emotions get the best of her. Inspiring? I think so.

Changing Habits: The Power of Believing
(The Emotionally Sensitive Person) – When you confront a bad habit, you might feel the need to escape. But don’t feel discouraged about what you haven’t changed yet. Read this and you’ll feel both hopeful and motivated to begin the process of change, even it’s just a tiny step in the right direction.