rethinking appreciation #14

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

rethinking appreciation #13

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

rethinking appreciation #12

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

rethinking appreciation #11

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 

rethinking appreciation #10

we are constantly chasing bigger and better. 

more features. louder bells and whistles. 

we are obsessed with fastest, hottest, newest, latest.

which is why the humble paperclip is worthy of appreciation.

the gem paperclip, named after the gem office products company in britain, has been unchanged since the 1890s. 

you couldn't make it better if you tried. 

because the gem is already really good at what it does.

you can't connect it to the internet. 

you can't increase its sex appeal.

or make it more aerodynamic. 

i suppose you could make one out of space age polymers, but that would not increase the ease or efficiency at which it clips your papers.

in this ever changing world, you have to appreciate anything that's resisted our insatiable urge to make everything better, even when better is just a marketing tool.    

the paperclip is a model of understated reliability. 

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