I worked in a nursing home for 5 years. even if I have to take the stairs or park in the back of the lot, I will always appreciate being able to walk for as long as I still can.
for information on individual therapy, contact me at bradleyjabel@gmail.com
if you want to function better socially, you develop social skills.
if you want to handle stress more effectively, you develop coping skills.
if you want to manage anger, you develop anger management skills.
if you want to increase your self esteem, you have to develop your SELF ESTEEM SKILLS.
we have to start thinking of self esteem as a skill, not as some esoteric emotional wonderland.
self esteem is the same as every other skill you possess, from coping to cooking, from anger to acting.
it is not a thing that happens because you compliment yourself once.
you have to work at it.
you might not go as fast as you'd like.
your progress will not be linear.
there will be setbacks.
but if you're invested in it, you keep going.
having self esteem takes deliberate and focused effort...just like every other skill you possess.
you will learn from your mistakes...just like every other skill you possess.
the more you do it, the better you get...just like every other skill you possess.
because having healthy self esteem is a skill.
for information on individual therapy, contact me at bradleyjabel@gmail.com
good mental health starts with our ability to see value in places where other people aren't even looking. now through the end of the year, i'm challenging myself to find something new to appreciate every week.
artificial intelligence will take over because we don't appreciate the value of our own species.
or what we do.
or how hard it is to do what we do.
we're more dazzled when a computer, designed and programmed by humans, does the same stuff we do.
and if we don't appreciate what we do, we can't be surprised when computers take over what were previously human activities.
there is a fast growing field of music on YouTube that is entirely AI generated.
not gonna lie. some of it sounds good.
most of the time, it's presented as an obscure artist lost to time.
check out this undiscovered nugget!!!
and as soon as i learn that it's AI generated, i close it immediately.
i'm not interested in listening to music a computer created with algorithms programmed for optimal audio enjoyment.
there is no soul in that. no humanity.
how can I connect to a song when the songwriter is a computer???
I appreciate how hard it is to write lyrics that connect with listeners.
I appreciate what it takes for a musician to transform the sound they hear in their head to a sound we can hear in ours.
there is power in creating music.
there is power in listening to music.
there is power in appreciating the artist and their process.
I don't want musician (or any artist of any medium) to go the way of buggy whip makers and switchboard operators.
appreciating each other is no longer central to good mental health.
appreciating each other feels like an act of self preservation.
for more information on individual therapy, contact me at bradleyjabel@gmail.com
you will never fully appreciate the number of branches on a tree, or how much they collectively weigh, until you clean up the one that falls into your back yard.
for information on individual therapy, contact me at bradleyjabel@gmail.com
good mental health starts with our ability to see value in places where other people aren't even looking. now through the end of the year, i'm challenging myself to find something new to appreciate every week.
there is a very short list of foods i won't eat because of their taste.
black licorice.
kombucha.
olives.
olives are the worst. how hungry was the first person who ate one and decided to keep eating?
black and green, stuffed or marinated, doesn't matter. they are all yuck, but that doesn't stop me from appreciating that people all over the world love them.
and that leads us to the great appreciation misconception.
people think appreciation is linked exclusively to what they like.
it's easy to appreciate what you enjoy, but if you can appreciate what you don't like, you're that much closer to a healthy mindset.
mental health is a zero sum game. the more time you spend being annoyed, the less time you have to be anything else. now flip that around. the more time you spend looking for reasons to appreciate the world, the less time you have to stew in your own angry juices.
challenge yourself to pick one person/place/thing/idea you personally don't enjoy and find a reason to value its existence.
and if you ever invite me over for dinner and you're serving anything with a tapenade, i'm busy that night.
but I do appreciate the offer :)
for information on individual therapy, contact me at bradleyjabel@gmail.com
have you played board games lately?
I'm not talking about monopoly and jenga and feelings jenga and coping skills jenga and multigenerational family relations jenga. we're way past all of that.
board games continue to take us into strange new worlds.
i appreciate that people are pushing the boundaries of what a board game can be.
generally speaking, i'm a big fan of exploring options and asking what if.
what if we get rid of the board?
what if it's a game for only one player?
what if it's about cooperation instead of competition?
what if we throw in some zombies?
i could have written about any of the artistic endeavors. but i spent a lot of time this summer down the board game rabbit hole, so here we are.
you'd be hard pressed to think of an idea that hasn't been turned into a board game.
you can be a fisherman in 19th century new england.
or a wine maker.
or a medieval gem broker.
there's a game about roasting coffee!
and zombies everywhere.
i appreciate the innocence of board games. it's nice to know we still have entertainment options that don't involve countless batteries and increasingly faster blinking lights.
i lean towards simpler games. the fewer rules and pieces, the better. but i appreciate that there's a board game for every person and every interest.
even for the zombie people.
for information on individual therapy, contact me at bradleyjabel@gmail.com
i am a minimalist.
i aspire to own less stuff.
i'm sure my wife is tired of me reminding her of this.
and asking if we can get rid of _________.
which is why i was surprised when she gave me a big box on my birthday.
and inside was a hammock.
I appreciate having a wife who doesn't listen to me.
because a hammock is not something i would have bought myself.
even if it came from the aldi's aisle.
you know the aldi's aisle.
where the slogan is "it's only $8. whatever."
she always says she knows me better than i know myself.
and she's right.
again.
she knows how much i appreciate every opportunity i can get
to lounge in the sunlight,
listen to the frogs and birds chirp,
marvel at the canopy of trees
and enjoy relaxing
on my new hammock.
for information on individual therapy, contact me at bradleyjabel@gmail.com
