Couplespeak™ Blog

“The Amazing Impact of Being Intentional in Your Marriage” – don’t miss the podcast!

Hello Reader, Earlier this week I did a BlogTalk Radio podcast about being intentional in your marriage, and in all your close relationships.

This episode was about how when we live on purpose everything can change – our pleasure and happiness levels, our experience of connection with a partner and close friends, expectations can be adjusted more realistically, grievances can be alleviated, and forgiveness can be more possible.

Tune into the podcast for ideas about how to be more intentional in your life, using rituals and mental rehearsal to become effective at it. Go to The Couplespeak™ Relationship Forum  You’ll get some useful ideas and tools in this quick, 15 minute podcast!  

Boost Your Confidence and Live Life on Your Terms With This Guide

You Got This Quote Painted on Asphalt — Portsmouth, N.H — Susan Lager

“Once again, Cheryl Conklin from WellnessCentral.info has hit the mark with her latest insights about how confidence can be enhanced through specific attitudes and behaviors. (I like to tell my clients that it’s a myth to think that confidence is a born trait, or that you only have it if you were on the right line at the right time). Instead, as Cheryl indicates, it’s something that can be boosted intentionally.”

Like many people, you may be looking for ways to feel or look better, or to improve your career by finding a better-paying job. Don’t stay stuck in a rut waiting for a lucky break; take control of your life and make some changes that will help you boost your confidence so you can reach out and grab what you want. To jumpstart your journey toward success, psychotherapist and relationship coach Susan Lager presents several valuable tips that will help you along the way.

5 Signs Your Coronavirus Anxiety Has Turned Serious, Threatening Your Mental Health, and What To Do About It

CNN Health: “5 Signs Your Coronavirus Anxiety Has Turned Serious, Threatening Your Mental Health, and What to Do About It”

Here is an excellent CNN Health article which I’m reprinting, because it deals very thoroughly with the potential impact of the Coronavirus pandemic on our mental health. The writer discusses several tools we can all use to offset some of the negative effects of living in lockdown, “hiding from death,” as I think of it. CNN Health:  by Sandee LaMotte Enforced lockdowns. Isolation from friends and loved ones. Loss of job, income, economic stability. Grief and loss on so many levels — from missing milestones such as birthdays and graduations to severe illness and death. Difficult times made worse by the fear of an invisible, deadly enemy who strikes via the very air we breathe. pastedGraphic.png Coronavirus symptoms: 10 key indicators and what to do Such is the anxiety-ridden reality of living in the age of coronavirus for many people around the world. While some of us may be coping well right now, experts worry our emotional resilience will begin to fray as the threat of Covid-19 drags on. “We’re living constantly with a level of fear, a heightened state of arousal, much like Vietnam vets and Iraqi vets live with every day,” said trauma counselor Jane Webber, a professor of counselor education at Kean University in New Jersey. “And our sympathetic nervous system can only stay in that overwhelmed, almost frenetic state for so long before we crash,” said Webber, who counseled survivors and families during 9/11’s tragic aftermath. “I call it ‘chronic threat response’ — the continued state of being in a hyper-aroused survival mode,” said trauma psychologist Shauna Springer, who has spent a decade working with military veterans suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder, also known as PTSD. pastedGraphic_1.png Why soap, sanitizer and warm water work against Covid-19 and other viruses “Chronic threat response is an escalation of many of the same symptoms associated with post-traumatic stress — sleep problems, floods of anxiety, irritability, difficulties concentrating and a hair-trigger startle response,” Springer said. What are some of the signs that our coping skills are becoming threadbare and our anxieties may turn dark and more dangerous?

1. Poor sleep

“When nightmares become a regular thing and our sleep quality is consistently bad, that is often the first sign that we may need to take action to improve our mental health,” said Springer, author of a new book called “Warrior: How to Support Those Who Protect Us.”