Everybody has a brain

[everybodyhasabrain]

I uploaded a guided, healing the inner child meditation: https://youtu.be/5YDMMcZQnjw for experiences you might be carrying around from the past when you felt hated or rejected. Get in there and melt that scar tissue so it’s not fucking up your relationships in the present. Get some emotional mobility and flexibility back in your life. 💙

[everybodyhasabrain]

View this post on Instagram

Brains love googling and googling and googling and googling and googling and then, oh, just maybe one more time, or a few more times... And what about that?! Or what about this? Oh, no, I didn't mention this specific thing. That could change everything. I'd better do it all over again! #mentalhealthskills #recovery #checking #google #googling #reassurance #anxiety #uncertainty #fear #dae #psychology #digitalhealth #internet #video #reality #judgment #unicorn #brains https://www.instagram.com/p/BqnT1engvvl/?utm_source=ig_tumblr_share&igshid=150gd8dxv9aoh

[everybodyhasabrain]

One of the drawbacks of old-school CBT is that it gets people to add up evidence against the stuff in your head. You engage with those thoughts and feelingsand you prove them wrong and irrational! In theory. Unfortunately, this can just turn into a never ending debate-a-thon. It encourages your brain to come up with increasingly terrifying and complex uncertainties until it finds one you can't prove wrong. You can always come up with some worry or an insecurity firmly rooted in your past experiences that will outweigh and overwhelm any evidence to the contrary. It can be much more useful to work on learning to accept uncertainties and fears instead of spending your life trying to win a debate competition you've already lost simply by signing up. https://www.instagram.com/p/BqkSJ_6HXUd/?utm_source=ig_tumblr_share&igshid=1tdmfb3374dn4

[everybodyhasabrain]

Look at what you're struggling with in your head and approach it from a skills and fitness perspective: What do you need to learn? What do you need to build? If somebody told you they were avoiding yoga because they're not flexible, or they don't lift weights because it makes them feel weak, what would you tell them? How can you apply that same knowledge about how the body changes to your own challenges with change around mental health? https://www.instagram.com/p/BqVSuJunPZE/?utm_source=ig_tumblr_share&igshid=1jddvin9lyfxr

[everybodyhasabrain]

This was from a slide for an OCD conference presentation I gave but you could really throw any mental illness label there on the left. We just get stuck in this loop of having experiences we don't like, trying to control them in the only ways we know how, which leads to more experiences we don't like, and more unhelpful controlling... Learn new ways to interact with experiences. Don't get caught up in the superficial topics or judgments. Break the cycle. https://www.instagram.com/p/BqALxpWnl71/?utm_source=ig_tumblr_share&igshid=c0ccjjohenrq

[everybodyhasabrain]

If you see success as solving the problem of you, don't be surprised if you've always got a problem. https://www.instagram.com/p/Bp7bIluHnNZ/?utm_source=ig_tumblr_share&igshid=dkvladd2vrkm

[everybodyhasabrain]

You can make the switch away from doing everything as a reaction to fear, and towards living your life proactively aligned with your values. And you can do that today. YOU ARE NOT A ROCK available here: bit.ly/youarenotarock Fall leaves available on the ground now (in the cold northern hemisphere). https://www.instagram.com/p/BprVskzHxL8/?utm_source=ig_tumblr_share&igshid=1m56c1l0aeswg

[everybodyhasabrain]

See that smile on the person that's getting lost just off the path? It really helped me to recognize that I loved doing all sorts of things that contributed to poor mental health. I thought my compulsions were necessary and part of my personality. . If you find yourself drowning in a swamp, be open to the possibility that you liked the steps that took you there. So maybe it's time to like different steps. https://www.instagram.com/p/Bpo8vBlHhFL/?utm_source=ig_tumblr_share&igshid=4ggagbodavgt

[everybodyhasabrain]

Whenever you spend time and energy in life, you're nourishing something. Maybe you're nourishing many different somethings. What are they? Will you be happy with the fruit they produce? Will you be happy with the somethings that grow much larger than the other somethings because of the water and fertilizer you gave them? Are you planting the seeds you want to plant? Are you even in the garden? #practice #nourish #growth #mindfulness #mentalhealth #fitness #health #recovery #self #selfcare #goals #work #transformation https://www.instagram.com/p/BpaCepSnjgN/?utm_source=ig_tumblr_share&igshid=o641xbqfsium

[everybodyhasabrain]

You don't have to chase the unicorn fart of motivation to get shit done. There are better fuels for life. https://www.instagram.com/p/BpScu09nkGX/?utm_source=ig_tumblr_share&igshid=k0pathy10i0r

[everybodyhasabrain]

Three principles to help you design a self care practice that's actually about self care and not just a new set of compulsions fuelling the mental health issues you're trying to address.

[everybodyhasabrain]

We've created this strange crisis-first approach to mental health, where we pretend like mental health isn't something you need to consider--it's for other people that have sick and disordered brains. But that's just not true. YOU have mental health and if you're not actively taking care of your mental health, it's not improving and it's not staying the same. Like anything else in your body, if you're not proactively taking care of it, it's falling apart. And it might eventually degrade to the point that somebody sticks a label on it, or you might just keep shrinking your life to avoid the experiences with which you're struggling. Either way, it doesn't need to be like that. You can take care of your mental health, you can improve it now before you're in a crisis and forced to care for it, you can build mental health skills proactively because they help you do more of the things you want to do in life. Make that mental health pizza! https://www.instagram.com/p/BntazEkH5br/?utm_source=ig_tumblr_share&igshid=1uqa86g7adaov

[everybodyhasabrain]

No rock will ever relapse, it'll never struggle with urges, won't deal with regret or guilt, never question reality or the purpose of existence. But no rock can grow like you can. You can build and create. You can learn. You can practice. Whether it's mental health or physical fitness, set goals that take you places, not trying to do less or be less, but adding to the practice of being. https://www.instagram.com/p/BnbzDeBAtoQ/?utm_source=ig_tumblr_share&igshid=8v0n9t10z4u

[everybodyhasabrain]

Anxiety is a natural experience on the journey to the shit you care about. https://www.instagram.com/p/BnXSFy6Aq2B/?utm_source=ig_tumblr_share&igshid=e51hpyw480eh

[everybodyhasabrain]

People generally seem to understand that improving physical fitness requires difficult, consistent work. But with mental health, as a society, we're still desperately searching for instant quick fixes and any way possible to avoid the emotions we need to learn how to handle. You would never tell somebody that exercise doesn't work because you tried it and it made you sore but I hear comments like that all of the time when I mention mental health skills to people. The brain is part of your body, it changes in the same way any other part of your body changes. https://www.instagram.com/p/BnOPLKNgkvw/?utm_source=ig_tumblr_share&igshid=ymdaf76grvzf

[everybodyhasabrain]

If you hadn't learned how to swim, and you struggled to swim, wouldn't that just be natural? Of course you can't have a skill you haven't learned, even with something like water, which is hardly a new thing. So why is it strange or disordered to struggle with emotions and experiences in your head that you haven't learned the skills to handle? You can pick up new skills and practices to handle that stuff, the same as any other practice you bring into your life to handle challenges.

[everybodyhasabrain]

We know how to help people recover from mental health challenges. You can recover from even extremely severe and distressing and terrible and difficult ones. The issues to solve are about accessibility and support.