rethinking social justice

Camping philosophy says you leave the campsite better than how you found it.

Maybe the bottle cap

or bag tie

or old sock isn't yours.

But you pick it up, throw it away and make the area better for the next camper.

Even if you do not know who the next person might be.

It's what you hope others would do for you.

This is social justice.

Make the world a better place for the next person, no matter who that might be.

Nobody benefits when children go hungry.

We all benefit when every child has enough to eat.

A well-fed child is more focused and less agitated.

This increases the quality of education for every child in a classroom.

We are all better when everybody is better. 

Social justice means working to improve the lives of people you have never met,

and probably never will meet,  

because nobody benefits from a trashy campsite.

for information on individual therapy, contact me at bradleyjabel@gmail.com

rethinking the human experience

Some people question the cost effectiveness of growing fruits and vegetables in a home garden. 

They say it's cheaper simply to purchase your produce at the grocery store. 

I'll put this as politely as possible: those people can't be trusted. 

Yes, a home garden requires prepping the soil,

buying seeds,

setting up netting to keep out the critters,

owning various diggers and other garden related tools.

and watering daily,

Lots of stuff, time and money money money.  

But life is not always about quantifying and calculating and measuring effectiveness.

You cannot, and should not, attempt to empirically validate the experiences that make life great. 

In fact, I would argue that the people desperate to quantify every human endeavor are missing out on the joy of digging in the dirt,

and watching produce grow and change colors as they ripen,

and the feeling of sunlight on skin.

Whether my humble tomato plants produce 3 or 30 or 300 juicy red beauties, I know it happened because I made it happen...with my own two dirt covered hands.  

Someone else might, but I will never try to calculate the satisfaction of a job well done. 

While the number crunchers are busy quantifying and counting and measuring our humanity, I will be in my backyard,

listening to the birds,

staring at the trees,

and eating the best damn tomato sandwich I've ever had.

You can count on that. 

for individual therapy, contact me at bradleyjabel@gmail.com

Rethinking AI

The more we trust artificial intelligence, the less we trust ourselves.

This is the most chilling consequence of the inevitable AI revolution,

and the major plot point of countless future dystopian novels.

We are eagerly turning our lives over to AI, asking questions we could answer ourselves.

I read a case study in which a social services agency used AI to identify senior citizens at risk for loneliness.

I worked in a nursing home for five years. I've volunteered with senior citizens for almost 20 years.

Believe me when I tell you it doesn't take an algorithm to identify lonely senior citizens. 

But we are conditioned to treat AI as if it's the all-seeing eye, revealing the deepest mysteries of the universe. 

Senior citizens get lonely?

And it's bad for their physical and mental health?

THIS IS BRAND NEW INFORMATION! THANK YOU AI!!!

Our society is at a point of collective critical insecurity. 

It is scary how willingly we give up our humanity for the promise of what we believe to be better answers than we could ever provide. 

We are allowed to have deep insights.

And make observations.

And trust our own judgement.

And we don't have to wait for AI to quantify and validate our ability to do so.

for information on individual therapy, contact me at bradleyjabel@gmail.com

rethinking exercise

i'm no fitness guru.

i can't show you 47 essential exercises to unlock tight hips.

or 83 must-use movements to reverse aging.

what I do have is one simple tip to help you make the most of your workout.

it's good for whatever you do. wherever you do it. whenever you do it.

home gym. gym gym. yoga mat in the park. airport terminal waiting for your flight.

best of all, it requires zero equipment. 

here it is.

stop crying about what your body once could do.

appreciate what it still can do.

i lied. that's two tips.

but the second one is the important one.

APPRECIATE WHAT YOUR BODY CAN DO!!!

no matter what you are doing, your body is doing something amazing.

and not just the countless combinations of bending and stretching and lunging.

think of how much harder it all would be if you didn't sweat. 

you don't even have to put it on the calendar and set reminders. 

your body sweats automatically.

because your body is amazing and does amazing things. 

get up.

get active.

let your body do amazing things.

and appreciate what it's doing. 

for information on individual therapy, contact me at bradleyjabel@gmail.com

rethinking self esteem #6

I attended the graduation ceremony of the alternative program at my school. Seven students gave speeches. The unofficial theme was "I had no confidence."

I didn't like myself. 

I had no self esteem.

I thought I was a bad kid.

Speech after speech, they described learning to care about themselves before they could care about schoolwork and attendance. 

If you don't care about yourself, of course you don't care about grades or any future life prospects contingent upon those grades. 

This makes sense. If you don't care about yourself, you don't care what happens to you. 

Self esteem should be the star of the show and we treat it as if it's a bit player. 

How you feel about yourself is not a byproduct or a symptom of some larger issue or diagnosis.

It IS the issue.

Self esteem is the foundation upon which all mental health is built. 

  

It should have its own diagnosis.  

Self esteem deficiency 

I have been in this field long enough to know most people aren't good at recognizing their strengths. 

They don't like who they are.

They lack the confidence to try and fail. 

Their sense of self is entirely dependent on what others think of them.

We need a diagnosis to help people directly confront the real issue holding them back from being their real, true self.

Self esteem deficiency 

for information on individual therapy and feeling better about yourself, contact me at bradleyjabel@gmail.com

rethinking anxiety

A client has been working through multiple forms of anxiety/stress/fear/worry.

One of his triggers is thunderstorms and heavy rain.

What if the power goes out? What if it stays out for days? 

During a recent storm, it was raining with no end in sight.

Normally, his anxiety only ends when the rain stops.

Not this time.

He says he simply got tired of feeling anxious. 30 minutes was enough. He was not going to suffer through another storm, worrying for an unknown number of hours.

Instead of channeling his focus into multiple weather apps, he chose to move on with his life and resume regular activities. 

He called this anxiety fatigue.

He was tired of feeling anxious.

Tired of feeling physically exhausted from the worry.

Tired of missing out on life. 

So he chose to feel something else.    

And do something else.

And be something else. 

He's working on being the guy who lives his life because whatever happens, he has the confidence to deal with it.

That mindset is the blueprint he's using to tackle other fears and worries.

Having the confidence to face life's challenges.

He says he won't get tired of being that guy. 

for information on individual therapy, contact me at bradleyjabel@gmail.com

rethinking better

you don't have to be perfect to be better.

we know this.

nobody goes to therapy hoping to be perfect.

everybody goes to therapy hoping to be better.

the problem is the negative thoughts creep in.

what if things don't go perfectly? 

what if I mess up? 

I better not try.

MENTAL HEALTH IS NOT THE SAME AS MUSCLE MEMORY!

you don't have to remind yourself how to walk.

or use a spoon.

or ride a bike.

you DO have to remind yourself that you don't have to be perfect to be better.

it's not instinct.

it's not autopilot.

it takes deliberate, conscious effort.

remind yourself as many times as you need to.

you do not have to be perfect to be better.

you do not have to be perfect to be better. 

for information on individual therapy, contact me at bradleyjabel@gmail.com