Author Archives: awachter

Aging Hatefully or Gratefully

By Andrea Wachter, LMFT

When you look in the mirror, what do you tend to think?

When you see photos of yourself, what’s the first thing that usually pops into your mind?

When you glance down at your body, what feelings arise?

You are not alone if your responses are on the negative, critical, and painful side. Body dissatisfaction and body hatred are rampant in our image- obsessed culture. While we can’t single-handedly and immediately change the culture, we can work on changing our own minds and upgrading our negative body image soundtracks.

If you are one of the millions of people who dislikes or even despises your body, consider trying a few of these tips.

Upgrade Your Gaze

When you see a child, a dear friend, or someone else you love, how do you tend to view them? Is your gaze filled with critiques and criticisms, or do you see them with eyes of love?

What if you could practice looking at yourself with a kind, loving gaze? Think of how you look at a child or pet you love, and try using that gaze with yourself. Of course, if you’ve been harshly judging your body for a while, this will take some practice. But, since we get better at what we practice, this is an extremely worthwhile endeavor.

Shifting To Acceptance

Think about one body part that you dislike or disapprove of.

Now think or say to yourself, I do not accept my X. (Fill in the blank with your chosen body part.) Repeat this sentence a few times and notice what you feel or if any other thoughts arise.

Now, using the same body part you just chose, say, or think, I accept my X. Repeat this sentence a few times and notice how it feels.

When we stop resisting reality and shift into acceptance, it can significantly help to decrease our stress levels and increase our moments of peace and presence.

Close Pesky Pop-ups

I’m guessing that you regularly see pop-up ads on your devices. I’m also guessing that unless it’s something you’re interested in, you click them closed without a second thought. We can learn to do the same thing with our unhelpful, unkind thoughts.

Some thoughts are stickier than others, depending on your history and personality, but fortunately, we have (and can learn to have) a choice about which pop-up thoughts we buy into and which ones we delete, like unwanted ads.

I know that this is easier typed than done if you’ve been caught in a negative body image trance for some time. But it is possible, with intention and commitment, to quiet and even delete our unwanted thoughts and learn how to be good company for ourselves.

Broaden Your Focus

It can be very enticing to zoom in on one or two body parts that we deem unacceptable and ignore the rest of our bodies. Our minds can get so focused on our areas of dissatisfaction that they can cloud out our bodies as a whole, not to mention exaggerate the part or parts we’re dissatisfied with.

It can help to broaden your focus and notice the many other body parts that also exist. Perhaps there are some areas of your body that you feel neutral about. Perhaps a few that you can even appreciate. Maybe you have some body parts that you accept or even a few that you actually like.

I recently heard from a couple of students in my body image course who benefited from broadening their focus. One is a man who’d been extremely depressed about a bald spot on his head. He told me that he’d been broadening his focus when he looks in the mirror.

Instead of exclusively focusing on his bald spot, he’d been focusing on all the hairs he still has on his head. He said that this shift was helping his experiences of looking in the mirror be much less charged and painful.

Another student wrote that she’d been very unhappy with several body parts. She began broadening her focus and expressing gratitude and appreciation for the body parts she’d ignored when she was only focusing on body criticisms. She wrote this: “I’ve been so hyper-focused on the wrinkles and age spots on my face and the size of my belly, I was literally acting like I had no other body parts! The past few weeks, I’ve been appreciating my legs for enabling me to walk, my arms for enabling me to lift things and hug my children, and my eyes for enabling me to see all the flowers in my garden. It takes practice for sure, but I’m feeling much less obsessed and depressed.”

So, if you find yourself criticizing or insulting your body, or a particular body part, I hope you’ll give these mind-makeovers a try.

As long as we’re alive, our bodies will age and change. We don’t have a choice about that. We have a choice about whether we paddle upstream in the choppy waters of body criticisms and comparisons or if we bathe in the warm waters of acceptance and appreciation for the bodies we live in.

View on Psychology Today

How to Soothe a Worried Mind

By Andrea Wachter, LMFT

Worrying can be extremely draining. If our minds are consistently running off into worst-case “what if” scenarios, it’s not only stressful and unpleasant, but it also tends to cloud our internal wisdom. This makes it challenging to know exactly what we need in any given moment.

Like children, our worried minds need compassion, wisdom, soothing, and redirection. Given that you’re with your mind 24/7, you are the best person for the job.

If you’ve been unable to effectively calm your worried mind, the following words can help. You can read them to yourself and imagine that your wise mind and compassionate heart are speaking to your worries. You can record the following words on your smart phone and listen to them in your own voice. Or you can join me here as I read them to you.

Dear Worried Mind,

I see you. I understand you. There are important and valid reasons why you feel the way you do. I really appreciate you trying so hard to keep me safe and to stay on the lookout for danger. You are so diligent, always factoring in the hard things that have happened in the past, always on the lookout for what might happen in the future.

It’s not your fault, worried mind. You’ve been programmed and you’re just running your automatic programs. I know you’re just trying to help. The problem is that you’re not actually helping. What you are doing is creating stress inside of our system.

You’re thinking about invisible scenarios that don’t even exist right now and you’re making this body feel like these scary scenarios are actually happening when, in fact, nothing is happening right now, other than reading these words and breathing with a supportive surface beneath us. We are safe right now. Can you feel that in this moment we are safe? If something challenging happens that we need to deal with. we will take action, but you chime in when nothing dangerous is actually happening.

It’s true that hard things have happened in the past, and I wish I could guarantee you that no hard things will happen in the future. But what I can tell you is that the percentage of time that hard things have happened and will happen doesn’t compare to how often you worry. You worry when we’re totally safe, lying in a cozy bed. You worry when we’re going about our day, and everything is really fine. I know there are hard things happening in the world, and hard things are part of life. But I also know that you’ve been working overtime. and your efforts don’t actually help.

All your worrying does is cause us to miss out on the actual, factual moment. When you go off into invisible unpleasant mind movies, we miss out on the many moments when everything is actually okay. I want to live in reality, not scary mind movies. The more we live in the present moment, the more prepared and centered we’ll be when life’s challenges arrive. You try to deal with challenges before they even arrive, and all that does is make more moments challenging. I thank you for trying so hard, dear worried mind, but you are totally overworking.

The truth is that nothing actually exists outside of this moment. I know your scared, and it’s not your fault that you worry. The world is moving so fast, and hard things have happened. But if you can rest more and take a back seat while I wisdom, awareness, and compassionlead the way, we will have so much more clarity and peace.

If you have authentic emotions to express, I will welcome them with compassion, but you spinning out on worries is not helping. If you stay quiet, it can make more room for me to hear the intuitive wisdom of my heart.

So, I want you to rest now, worried mind. I thank you for trying so hard to predict, plan, and prepare, but we really can’t figure out life ahead of time.

Let’s bring our focus to the present moment, to what is actually, factually here: this breath… now this breath… this breath… and now this breath. Notice the surface beneath us and all the support of that surface. Let’s loosen our gripped muscles just a little bit more. Let’s notice what’s actually here. Notice the sounds around us. Let’s come home. Let’s spend more time in reality and less time in futuristic, scary mind movies.

You can rest now, worried mind, and when you need me, I will soothe you again and again, just like I would soothe a worried child. I will redirect you again and again, from the world of not-now, back home to now.

View on Psychology Today

When a Feeling Is Not Really a Feeling

By Andrea Wachter, LMFT

One of the most important aspects of healthy communication is being able to share our feelings, thoughts, and needs respectfully. But, what happens when commonly used words are expressed as feelings, but are actually thoughts and assumptions about what someone else did to us?

See if any of the following sentences sound familiar. Perhaps these are words that you’ve said, thought, or heard.

“I feel abandoned.” “I feel manipulated.” I feel betrayed.”

Although statements like these may seem and even claim to be expressing feelings, words, like abandoned, manipulated, and betrayed, are not emotions. They are words to describe what we think another person did to us. Psychologist, author, and founder of Non-Violent Communication, Marshall Rosenberg refers to such words as pseudo-feelings.

In addition to abandoned, manipulated, and betrayed, here are a few additional pseudo-feelings that often get mistaken for emotions:

  • blamed
  • judged
  • neglected
  • unappreciated
  • unloved
  • used
  • rejected
  • ignored
  • misunderstood
  • pressured

This list is not exhaustive, but if you’re new to the concept of pseudo-feelings, perhaps you can see that the words listed above are not emotions. They are assumptions about how someone else treated us.

What often happens when people use pseudo-feelings in a conversation is that it puts the receiver on the defense because the “feeling “it’s about the receiver rather than the speaker.

When we feel an emotion, it’s inside of us. It’s our truth, our experience. Nobody can argue that we feel the way we do because we feel it. (Well, someone might try to talk us out of how we feel, but that’s another story or article.) If I tell you I feel sad, that’s how I feel. That feeling is inside of me.

But, if I tell you I feel judged, now I’m telling you/assuming/accusing you of judging me and this significantly decreases the chances of connection, clarity, or resolution.

In general, when we express our emotions to someone, we have a deeper need that’s connected to those emotions. Since pseudo-feelings tend to put the listener on the defensive, they usually don’t help us get our needs met. They often do just the opposite.

So, what’s the alternative to a pseudo-feeling? This would be to identify your true feelings and needs. For example, if you’re thinking you “feel abandoned,” this might mean that you feel hurt, angry, or afraid. These feelings could indicate a need for support, mourning, or hope. If you’re thinking you “feel manipulated,” you might feel angry or confused and have a need to be understood or to understand.

If you find yourself focusing on what someone else did to you or how someone else “made” you feel, try tuning inside and identifying your authentic emotions and needs instead. Here’s a list if you get stuck.

Naming our feelings and needs often brings a sense of clarity, especially if we do it with self-compassion. Once we get clear on our needs, we can see if there’s something we can offer ourselves or perhaps there’s a need we can respectfully request from someone else.

Keeping an eye out for pseudo-feelings and shifting our focus to authentic emotions and needs can have a profoundly positive impact on our relationships with ourselves and others.

Respectful communication requires intention, awareness, and for most of us, lots of practice, but it’s well worth the effort. Once we’re fluent in this most important language, it significantly increases the chances of both people feeling heard and connected. And after all, isn’t that what we all want?

View on Psychology Today

13 Ways to Quiet a Worried Mind

By Andrea Wachter, LMFT

Our minds are basically recorders that play (and replay) their soundtracks all day long, sometimes all night long too. Some people have recordings that tend to be more pleasant and present. Some people’s thinking patterns lean towards the optimistic or realistic side. Others, not so much. Many people are plagued with worrisome thoughts that lead them to feel chronically stressed, anxious, depressed, or pessimistic. This is where compassionate awareness and regular upgrades come in.

While we don’t have a say in the type of mind we were born with, or developed as a result of our life experiences, we do have the option of staying aware of our thoughts and pressing pause, delete, or re-record. We do have choice about how often we become aware of the nature of our thoughts and how we respond when we realize that our thoughts are unhelpful, unkind, or untrue.

If you realize that you’ve been lost in a trance of worrisome thoughts, praise yourself for breaking the trance and then try some of these mind quieting tools.

Come to Your Senses 

If you become aware of worrisome thoughts, shift your attention to actual, factual reality: your body breathing, the surface you’re sitting, standing, or lying on, any colors or shapes you see, the sounds you hear. Shifting into sensory mode is a wonderful way to redirect an overactive mind.

Notice Who’s Noticing 

Once you become aware that your mind has been playing an unpleasant, scary, or stressful soundtrack, you now have two different internal parts: your thoughts, and the part of you that is aware of your thoughts. They are not the same thing. Your awareness is like the vast, open sky and your thoughts are like clouds. Try tuning into that vast awareness. Ask yourself: Who or what is noticing my thoughts? See what that feels like. Sometimes, it can feel like we are our thoughts, but if that were true then when our thoughts passed, we would pass too. Our thoughts come and go, but this vast awareness is always here and we can get better at tapping into it and spending more time in it.

Air Out Your Mind

Try picturing an imaginary window or door on top, behind, or on the sides of your head. Then see or sense yourself opening those windows and doors and airing out your mind like you would air out a room.

Tropical Breeze Breathing 

Take a few slow deep breaths and imagine that your breath is like a soothing tropical breeze blowing through your body.

Spreading Calm

Locate one body part that feels either neutral or calm. (It could even be the tip of a toe!) Tune into that sense of neutrality or calm and visualize it spreading throughout your entire body.

Compassionate Connection

Imagine that your worries are like a frightened child and your wise mind and compassionate heart can connect to that child in a compassionate manner. You can do this in writing, verbally, or in your imagination.

Thank Worry

It can seem counterintuitive to thank worry, but the truth is that our worries are only attempting to help. They’re trying to prepare, plan, or prevent. The system glitch, however, is that in most cases, worry doesn’t actually help. It just makes our nervous systems feel like whatever we’re worrying about is already happening. Thanking worry for trying to help, as opposed to letting it take over or berating yourself for worrying, can help soften and shift out of a chronic worry loop.

Reassure Worry 

When we’re feeling unsafe or in danger, we don’t generally have time to worry. We take action or we deal with the situation as best we can. Worry usually occurs when we’re thinking that we (or someone or something) won’t be safe or okay in the future. Try reassuring yourself that in this moment, you are safe. You can even repeat that to yourself: “In this moment, I am safe.” Then notice if, how, or where in your body or your environment this feels true.

Check Your Responses

How do you tend to speak to yourself when you’re worried? Is your internal soundtrack harsh and critical or kind and empathic? Even if you realize you’ve been berating yourself, you can still be kind to yourself about that. Any moment you can drop the internal criticism and pick up some inner kindness.

Wonderful What Ifs

Oftentimes, worried thoughts take the form of, What if… What if this horrible thing happens? What if this doesn’t happen? Ideally, we spend most of our time in the present moment rather than future What ifs, but if your mind is stuck in a worrisome What if loop, try a What if upgrade: What if this works out really well? What if my test results are good? 

Worry Inventory 

Reflect back on some of the things you’ve worried about in the past. Chances are, in many cases, the things you worried about never even happened. In some instances, they may have, and you’re now on the other side of the situation. Either way, it can help to acknowledge that it’s not our worries that help us through our challenges, it’s action when needed, time, support, and acceptance.

Action Inventory 

If your mind is spinning with worries, ask yourself if there’s anything that needs to (or can) be done. If there is, you can write down your action plan and free up your mind. If there aren’t any actual steps to take, let your well-intentioned mind know this and then redirect yourself to something calming, uplifting, present, or practical.

Trust Your Future Self

Oftentimes, when we’re worried about something in the future, we don’t have the information and intuition that we’ll need (and have) if our worried scenarios ever come to pass. We can’t know what we’ll need in the future because we aren’t there yet. Of course, if you get an intuitive sense about how you can take care of a future situation, honor that. But, if your mind is stuck in worry mode and there’s nothing you can do in the present, try trusting your future self. Tell yourself: If that happens, I’ll deal with it then. I’ll have information and intuition that I don’t have now because it’s not happening now. Then come back to the actual, factual present moment and take the best care of yourself that you can. This will pave the way for strength and clarity to help you face whatever the future may bring.

View on Psychology Today

Stepping Off the Diet/Riot Roller Coaster

By Andrea Wachter, LMFT

If you’ve been battling with ineffective diets and uncontrollable eating (I call this riding the diet/riot roller coaster) and are ready to find solid ground, consider these tips.

Natural Eating

For decades, there’s been an unnatural paradigm when it comes to appearances and food. Most of us have been told (or have decided) what size our bodies should be based on cultural programming. Then, we set out to eat in a certain way that will supposedly get us to this magical size. Or, we feel bad because we can’t. So, we give up and ignore our body’s needs. These patterns of restricting and feeling out of control with food not only leave us feeling obsessed with food and disconnected from our bodies, but unwell in our bodies.

Thanks to movements like Intuitive Eating and Health at Every size, we now have a different paradigm. Instead of trying to eat in an unnatural manner in an attempt to attain a body size that may not even be natural for you, you instead learn to eat in a way that is non-restrictive and respectful and practice accepting and perhaps even appreciating your body. I know this is no small task in a culture that’s literally brainwashed most of us to think that we need to eat and look a certain way and that dieting will get us there. Contrary to the promises we’ve been sold, dieting leads most people to a sense of deprivation, food and body obsession, and chaotic eating.

When someone struggles with chronic and uncontrollable eating, they generally vacillate between two internal voices when it comes to food. One voice is what I call the “inner dieter.” This internal part sees foods as good, bad, right, and wrong. It’s important to know that you can have an inner dieter voice even if you don’t actually diet, but you think you should.

The second internal voice is what pops up for many people in response to the internal dieter. I call this the “inner rioter.” The inner rioter convinces us to eat everything the inner dieter and diet culture tells us not to eat.

Many people think the dieter is the good voice and the rioter is bad. In truth, the dieter leads to the rioter. It’s part of the problem.

The third internal voice is one that usually needs to be developed if you’ve been riding the diet/riot roller coaster for a while. This voice is wise, loving, and respectful. It knows when, what, and how much to eat.

If you have a history of dieting, feeling out of control with food, or body shame, this wise inner voice might be hard to hear. But rest assured, you have it inside of you. You were born with it. And with intention and practice, you can learn to identify your hunger, fullness, and satisfaction cues as clearly as you know when you’re tired, cold, warm, or need to go to the bathroom. These are your body’s natural signals. You can get back what the diet industry took from you and learn how to have a natural, enjoyable relationship with food.

Tip: If you’re unsure how to feed yourself in a non-restrictive, respectful manner, you can ask yourself the following questions when you’re approaching a food choice:

How would I feed someone I love who doesn’t diet or riot?

What feels like the most loving thing to do right now? 

Natural Movement

Another important aspect of departing the diet/riot roller coaster is having a healthy relationship with movement and rest. The fitness industry has given us so many rules about “working out” and burning calories that it can make it very challenging to know how we truly like to move and rest our bodies. But, just like feeding ourselves, we can restore our innate clarity that knows exactly how our bodies want to move and rest.

Tip: If your relationship to movement and rest feels problematic, you can try on these questions:

If you found out your body size could not change no matter how much you exercised, how do you think your body might like to move and rest?

If you felt comfortable in your body and allowed yourself to follow your natural rhythms for pleasurable movement and guilt-free rest, what do you think that might look like?

Natural Emotions 

Many of us have been taught that there are good and bad feelings. Happy is good. Sad, mad, and scared, not so good. You may have been told as a child to “quit crying” if you were sad or to go to your room if you were mad. You may have been handed a cookie whenever you had feelings that your caregivers didn’t know how to handle. These responses can give our little brains the message that expressing painful emotions is not okay and we should keep them down.

Since our emotions are natural and need to be welcomed in order to move through us, the only alternative to allowing our emotions to come up naturally is to stuff them down unnaturally. When we get the message that we should be happy all the time and keep our painful feelings down to a minimum, we must find ways to keep those feelings down. This is where food and body obsession or various substances, behaviors, and thoughts can arrive on the scene as attempts to quiet and quell our emotions.

It’s not easy to sit with, tolerate, or safely express our painful emotions, but then neither are the consequences of unnaturally stuffing them down. Those are our only choices. We either feel the feelings that naturally arise in our bodies, or we feel the feelings we have as a result of trying not to feel our feelings.

Tip: If welcoming emotions is a challenge for you, one of the best places to start is with self-compassion. If you become aware of sensations in your body that feel uncomfortable or unacceptable, try welcoming those sensations with acceptance and compassion.

You can also identify any unhelpful thoughts that might be contributing to painful emotions and see if they need to be questioned or upgraded.

Practice identifying your emotions with one word, like sad, mad, scared, lonely, etc. Then offer compassion to whatever emotions you are aware of. Compassion might sound like Of course I feel this way. Or It makes sense that I feel this.

Not only does compassion feel better and kinder, it helps us alleviate the need to stuff our natural emotions down in unnatural ways.

Natural Needs

Just like we all have various emotions that need regular tending, we also have a variety of needs. For many people, body obsession, food restricting, and chronic overeating are attempts to get some of our needs met. But, if these mindsets and behaviors truly met our needs, we would feel better from them and that is rarely the case, long-term.

When we get our needs met in healthy ways, we usually feel better afterwards; we feel satisfied. We don’t need obsessive thoughts or behaviors to try fill those empty spaces. Food can return to its original intended purpose: nutrition and pleasure.

So, what are our needs? Obviously, we have our basic physical needs, like food, water, shelter, and sleep. We also have our emotional and spiritual needs, like comfort, connection, equality, respect, love, play, and balance. These are needs that no amount of food and no particular body size will ever truly fill.

Of course, most of us don’t get every single need met every single moment, but when we are aware of our needs and meet them (or get them met) on a regular basis, we don’t need to turn to unhealthy thoughts and behaviors in an ineffective attempt to meet our needs.

Tip: If you’ve been battling with your body and food, rather than berating yourself for your behaviors, try looking for the unmet needs that the behaviors might be indicative of.

Complete the following sentence starter as authentically as you can:

I need…..

If you identify one or more unmet needs, see if there’s at least one that you can either meet yourself or get met in some way. If that’s not possible right now, you can offer yourself compassion and praise yourself for the courage it takes to dig deep.

Author and neuroscience educator, Sarah Peyton says, “We can literally see in functional MRIs, that brains calm when emotions, and the meaning behind them, are named accurately. When we can understand the ecosystems of our emotions and deep needs, then we can also understand that we make sense. That there’s nothing wrong with us. That we are feeling the way that we feel for very good reasons.”

If you’ve been stuck on the diet/riot roller coaster, you can learn how to feed yourself non-restrictively and respectfully. You can practice moving your body in ways that feel good to you, and resting in ways that truly fill you up. You can learn how to identify and welcome your emotions and needs and meet them with deep compassion. I wish this for you.

View on Psychology Today

How to Deal with Morning Anxiety

By Andrea Wachter, LMFT

If you commonly wake up in the morning filled with anxiety, you are not alone. Many people wake up with fight-or-flight sensations and feel baffled as to how they can already feel anxious when their feet haven’t even touched the floor yet.

A variety of factors can play a part in morning anxiety: excess stress, low blood sugar, medication side effects, poor sleep, and hormonal changes, to name a few.

Let’s say you just woke up and are greeted by a flood of anxious sensations. What do you do?

Consider the following two scenarios of a parent responding to a child with morning anxiety. As you read these scenarios, imagine that the child is the anxiety you feel and the parent’s responses are you responding to your anxious feelings.

Which scenario seems most familiar?

Scenario one

Susan’s daughter, Chloe, struggles with anxiety. Chloe often wakes up with a busy mind that spins with all the worst-case scenarios of the day. This morning, Chloe climbs into bed with her mom and says she feels like there’s a rock in her chest and butterflies in her tummy.

Susan responds by telling Chloe these feelings are not okay and she agrees that a lot of scary things can happen. She tells Chloe to focus on the anxious feelings and watch as they get even bigger. Susan tells Chloe she might not ever feel any better. Then Chloe starts to panic. Susan tells her even more scary things that could happen and how something might really be wrong.

After a little while, Susan grabs her smartphone and mindlessly surfs the internet for a few hours. Finally, she tells Chloe she needs to just get it together. She tells Chloe to get in the shower and grabs her a bottle of juice on the way out the door.

Scenario two

Kelly’s son, Jake, struggles with anxiety. Jake often wakes up with a busy mind that spins with all the worst-case scenarios of the day. This morning, Jake climbs into bed with his mom and says he feels like there’s a rock in his chest and butterflies in his tummy.

Kelly responds by wrapping her arms around Jake. She tells him that it’s okay to feel afraid. She asks him to tell her all the things he’s afraid of. After hearing his list, she is able to offer him compassion and reassure him that the scary thoughts in his mind are made-up stories and that none of those things are actually happening right now.

Kelly points out several things that are real and true in the moment. She asks Jake to focus on the softness of the blanket as she snuggles him up even closer. She asks him to focus on the pillow and the mattress under his body. She softly suggests that he try to relax his body as he focuses on his breathing.

Then Kelly asks Jake to tell her several things that he can see with his eyes, hear with his ears, and feel with his hands and feet. She reminds him of many times in the past when he felt anxious about things that either never happened or that he got through and hardly even remembers.

Kelly opens up one of her favorite guided meditations on her phone and asks Jake to listen to it with her. She tells him it’s totally fine if he still feels scared in his tummy while he’s listening. He can just breathe and follow along with the teacher’s voice as best he can.

Then Kelly makes her son a mug of warm tea and, even though he tells her he has no appetite, she makes him a delicious, nutritious breakfast and asks him to eat as much of it as he can.

Kelly plays Jake’s favorite songs while he takes a warm shower and gets dressed for school. On the way to school, she reminds Jake that hard things pass and that he can and will get through this. She teaches him that we are all born with different types of personalities and that some of us have to work a bit harder to quiet our minds. She says there are good things about being the way he is, even if he can’t feel or know it right now. Kelly tells Jake she loves him and reminds him that he is very lovable.

Does either scene resemble how you usually speak to or treat yourself when you’re experiencing challenging emotions?

While it might be hard to imagine speaking to a child like the parent did in the first scene, that is sadly how many people speak to themselves when they’re anxious.

If you struggle with morning (or anytime) anxiety, imagine the anxious feelings are your child and your wise, compassionate mind and respectful actions are the parents. Offer yourself compassion and comfort. Anchor yourself in the present moment. Give your sensations permission to exist while questioning their accompanying stories. Treat yourself like a loving, conscious parent would treat their child. Reassure yourself that all sensations, emotions, and thoughts pass, and notice the effects of your own comfort.

View on Psychology Today

← Return to blog entries

Tips for Sleep Support

By Andrea Wachter, LMFT

If you struggle with insomnia, you know only too well the effects it can have on your quality of life. Consider the following tips from a therapist who used to toss and turn the nights away and, with a few simple adjustments, developed a peaceful relationship with sleep. May these practices bring you the rest you seek and deserve.

Attitude Adjusting

Ironically, one of the biggest contributors to insomnia is worrying about insomnia. Most people who have difficulty falling or staying asleep have thoughts along these lines: Uh oh. What if I can’t fall asleep?I have to get back to sleep. How am I going to function tomorrow? Another hour has passed. I need to get to sleep!

Though completely understandable, thoughts and questions like these do nothing to quiet our minds and calm our nervous systems. They usually generate anxiety, which is the opposite of sleep-inducing. Imagine shifting to thoughts like It’s okay. I can practice mindfulness by tuning into what is actually, factually, here right now. This is an opportunity to rest. Rest is the sibling of sleep. 

It’s amazing what happens when we turn down the pressure to sleep and turn up the intention to rest.

Soothing the Mind 

Sometimes physical factors contribute to insomnia, but oftentimes it‘s worrisome thoughts that keep us awake. Many people spend hours swimming in a swirl of anxiety, which of course, does nothing to help them rest or fall asleep. What if you could tend to your worried mind as you might tend to a scared child? Imagine a child came into your room in the middle of the night and told you they couldn’t sleep. My guess is you would soothe and comfort them. We can do the same thing with our minds. If worried thoughts keep you up at night, try soothing and comforting your mind like you would an anxious child and notice the calming effects.

Screening and Scrolling 

The pull of screens can be fierce and lead many people to spend their pre-sleep time scrolling on their devices. Using screens right before sleep can throw off our systems and have the opposite effect of winding down, which is precisely what we need to be doing to prepare for rest and a good night’s sleep. Turning off screens and devices at least an hour before sleep can positively affect our ability to fall asleep faster, sleep deeper, and wake up feeling more rested.

Since it’s much easier to start a new behavior rather than stop doing a habitual one, if going screen-less before sleep is something you’d like to try, consider creating a list of calming practices that could take the place of screening and scrolling. Breathing practices can be very calming, like keeping your laser-focused attention on your breathing or counting your breaths. Many people count backward from 100 to zero and report that they rarely make it all the way to zero.

Repeating a soothing word or phrase can also help keep the mind focused and elicit relaxation. One of my favorites is, Mind-Quiet, where you mentally say Mind as you inhale and Quiet as you exhale. If your mind wanders, as minds will do, you gently shift back to your chosen phrase as soon as you become aware that your mind has wandered. I also like Deep-Peace or Deep-Rest. You can experiment with words or phrases and find ones that feel calming.

You can also download sleep meditations on your device to listen to a calming guided meditation without Wi-Fi. There are countless ones available. If you want to join me, I have several free sleep meditations. It’s actually the only time in my life when someone tells me that they fell asleep while I was talking, and I consider it a good thing!

Belly and Bladder Balance 

Another important aspect of sleep support is taking care of our physical needs. This means making sure that you’re not going to bed hungry or overly full. Also, make sure that you haven’t had caffeine late in the day, and trying not to drink too much water right before sleep so you don’t have to get up for too many bathroom breaks, but also be hydrated enough that you don’t wake up in the middle of the night, parched. Of course (and thankfully!), this doesn’t have to be perfect, but if we do our best to balance our hunger and thirst, we can better support our rest.

Shhhhhh

Many people find great benefits from white sound and earplugs. White sound machines are easy to find, as are white sound apps that can be listened to in airplane mode. Doing your best to ensure a quiet space can really assist in creating a cozy and peaceful environment.

Lights Out

Even with lights and devices off, many people still surround themselves with small lights that can adversely affect sleep. I have found black duct tape extremely handy to cover up all the little lights in the bedroom. Some people enjoy wearing a soft eye mask to block out any light. Additionally, the blue light from screens can convince our bodies that it’s daytime instead of nighttime, so you might consider changing the blue light on your devices to a different color and adjusting the brightness on your screens when the sun goes down to help you shift from daytime energy to nighttime relaxation.

Check In for a Check-Up

While many people attribute their sleep disturbances to mental, emotional, or environmental factors, it’s also important to rule out or address any potential medical conditions or medication side effects contributing to sleep problems. Hopefully, you have a health practitioner who can help address any physical factors that might adversely impact your sleep.

Sprinkling Subconscious Seeds 

Right before sleep or in a state of deep rest are wonderful times to plant seeds into our subconscious minds. Consider what thoughts to plant and grow in your pre-sleep garden. Thinking about things we love, appreciate, or feel grateful for can make for a wonderful bedtime ritual. We can also imagine ourselves being how we wish to be. For example, if you are someone who wants more confidence, you could come up with a scene or a feeling where you feel confident as you drift into deep rest or sleep. If you want more peace, you could envision yourself on a peaceful vacation. You can picture or think of any image or feeling that conjures a state you wish to have or have more of.

As Thomas Edison said, “Never go to sleep without a request to your subconscious.”

View on Psychology Today

← Return to blog entries

How I Stopped Hating My Body

By Andrea Wachter, LMFT

I began hating my body when I was a teenager. I spent years lost in self-criticism and the unhealthy behaviors I turned to in an attempt to quiet those constant criticisms.

I know now that my unkind mind was really just trying to help. I thought that if I could attain the body size I was programmed to believe I should I be, I would live happily ever after.

What a faulty system that was.

The only way to attain and maintain a body that is not naturally meant for us is to live in an unnatural manner. There’s no happily-ever-afterness in that.

Year after year, I obsessed over my body, restricting my food intake, overeating, bingeing, even abusing drugs and alcohol. On the outside, I’m sure people thought I was the life of the party. On the inside, I suffered severely. My mind played and replayed a near-constant internal soundtrack that told me I was not good enough but that if I somehow changed my appearance, I would be.

After many years of riding what I refer to as the “diet/riot roller coaster,” I finally found help. Only this time it wasn’t counterfeit help, in the form of a new diet or exercise regime. It was deeper help for my emotions, thoughts, needs, communication skills, and endless food and fitness rules.

I learned that critiquing and criticizing our bodies is not natural. These are adopted patterns resulting from a massive hypnotic spell of body perfection. I learned how to challenge my unkind thoughts and put self-kindness and peace of mind at the top of my priority list. I learned how to speak to myself kindly and treat myself respectfully.

I had always thought that if I ate what I truly wanted, I’d never stop eating. But that was only the case when I never let myself eat what I truly wanted. I always thought that if I treated myself kindly, I would never get anything done. But that was before I tested out kindness as my home base. I thought that if someone had what I thought was a perfect body, they must have a perfect life, but that was only because I was lost in society’s cultural programming and didn’t know how to question its faultiness. And I always thought I needed to change my body in order to be lovable, but it turned out that I needed to change my thinking. I know now that changing my body will not make me feel loved; only loving myself will.

Occasionally, I come across a picture of myself as a teen. I remember how dreadfully uncomfortable I felt in my skin, in a bathing suit, and at parties. I can see now that I was a precious adolescent with a healthy, changing body. If I could only tell her, “You’re fine, sweetheart. Eat whatever you want. Your body will tell you when it’s had enough. Don’t believe everything you think or what others say. Move your body in ways that feel good and then rest, a lot. Speak your truth. Hang out with people who hear your truth and want to tell you theirs. Seek to know your heart’s desires. Go for balance. Go for self-love.”

I know I can’t save that young girl from the years of suffering, dieting, bingeing, comparing, and despairing. But I can prevent myself from looking back on pictures 20 years from now and having to say, “Oh honey, you’re a lovely woman. Welcome aging, wrinkles, spots, and sagging skin. Don’t lose an ounce of precious time criticizing your body. Thank it for all it does for you every single minute. Thank those limbs and systems. Thank those lungs. Thank that heart. Thank those miraculous senses that enable you to see, hear, feel, taste, and write. Don’t waste another minute hating your body. Feed it, move it, rest it, appreciate it. And help others do the same.”

If you are struggling with your body image, I hope you will try on some body appreciations and see how they feel. Seek support if you need to. Don’t miss out on years of your life berating your body like I did. If the cultural programming of perfectionism has led you to turn against your body, look for ways to say no to those programs and see your body through eyes of compassion, acceptance, love, and appreciation.

View on Psychology Today

← Return to blog entries

Trying Not to Try

By Andrea Wachter, LMFT

If you are someone who has struggled with disordered eating and body image, there’s a good chance you have also struggled with perfectionism. If this is the case for you, you’re likely no stranger to the concept of trying.

Back in the days of my eating disorder, my trying looked something like this:

  • Trying to change my appearance
  • Trying new diets
  • Trying to recover from a binge
  • Trying not to binge
  • Trying to work out
  • Trying to work out more (Pull up a chair, this could take a while!)
  • Trying to improve my looks
  • Trying to get a boyfriend
  • Trying to look good
  • Trying to fit in
  • Trying to do well in school
  • Trying to be perfect

Next up were my early years in recovery: 

  • Trying to listen to my body
  • Trying to eat intuitively
  • Trying to get it right
  • Trying to be perfect
  • Trying to let go of being perfect
  • Trying to be balanced
  • Trying to be healthy
  • Trying to be a good person
  • Trying not to beat myself up
  • Trying to get a career
  • Trying to get “likes”
  • Trying to let go of caring about “likes”
  • Trying to do the right thing
  • Trying to know what the right thing was
  • Trying to look good
  • Trying not to care how I looked

In recent years, it’s more like this:

  • Trying to let go
  • Trying to be more present
  • Trying to surrender
  • Trying to live in acceptance
  • Trying to quiet my mind
  • Trying not to get injured
  • Trying to be kinder to myself
  • Trying to find my glasses
  • Trying to have a balanced life
  • Trying to be peaceful
  • Trying to welcome all emotions
  • Trying to age well
  • Trying to surrender to aging
  • Trying to practice gratitude
  • Trying not to lose my keys
  • Trying to practice mindfulness
  • Trying not to beat myself up
  • Trying not to try so hard (I told you this could take a while!)

Recently, while on a lovely walk in the redwood forest, (my personal place of worship), I started thinking about all this trying. How for as long as I can remember, I have been trying, and then more recently, trying not to try so hard. I’d set out to take a lovely, quiet walk and commune with nature, yet that day, my mind was as busy as ever. I decided to call order in the court.

Hey! Can we give it a rest? Can we just stop trying? Can we stop trying to stop trying? Can we admit that the only reason we ever try to get or get rid of anything is because we think we will feel better if we did? Can we step off the mental treadmill and simply be?

And then, perhaps being witnessed by the majestic trees, the swaying ferns, and the glistening creek, or perhaps because I made a conscious decision to drop trying (the new stop, drop, and roll), something inside me gave way. My little tryer said, “Uncle,” and I began to steer my mind to the breeze, my feet on the ground, my arms moving in time, my breathing, a bird song. Much like pointing a tantruming child back to something soothing in the present moment, I steered my busy mind back home, back to reality.

The promises of attainment, achievement and accomplishment will pop up again and again, I’m sure. Many of us have been raised on way too much Disney and happily-ever-afters. But I’m onto it now. I am onto my mind’s seductive nature. Our minds seduce us into thinking if we just got this fill-in-the-blank, we would be happy, but all we have to do is remember the last several hundred things we were convinced would bring us happy-ever-after-ness to see that it’s not the case. If it were, we would have just lived happily-ever-after.

So, if you struggle with a busy little tryer inside of you, see if you can reel it back in now and then. Notice the simplicity of the moment. Remind your mind that anything you acquire will have pros and cons and ups and downs so there really is nowhere to get. This is the best news of all.

In any given moment, we all have a feast of temptations to take us away from this moment. And then we have this moment. Reality. Right here. Right now. We get to choose… fantasies and fears or that which is actually, factually here. This breath. This surface. This sensation. This sound. I’m willing to give it a whirl if you are.

View on The Huffington Post

← Return to blog entries

Tips to Support Conscious and Balanced Screen Use

By Andrea Wachter, LMFT

The average American spends 7 hours and 4 minutes a day looking at a screen. Digital burnout is a growing problem that’s taking a toll on people’s physical, emotional, and mental health.

If your screen use habits could use an upgrade, consider the following menu of tips. Perhaps one or more can provide you with a realistic and helpful opportunity.

  • Postpone picking up your phone first thing in the morning. You can use this time to envision how you’d like your day to go, practice mindfulness, or recite or do a gratitude list.
  • Turn off any unnecessary notifications and alerts.
  • Postpone checking a text immediately. You can even use the text chime as a reminder to take a deep breath or have a mindful moment.
  • Leave a room without your phone.
  • If you always take a device outside with you, consider going out without a screen, or taking it but turning it off for a little while. You can use the opportunity to practice being present with your body and your surroundings.
  • Set reminders, alarms, or an intention to check in with your body when you’re screening or scrolling. See if your posture needs adjusting or if your body is ready for food, water, movement, or fresh air. Notice if your brain is feeling foggy. Our bodies and our intuition will tell us what we need if we pay attention.
  • Look for opportunities to put your devices on airplane mode with wifi off. These windows of time can help you practice getting comfortable with unstimulated moments.
  • Avoid multitasking. Although doing more than one thing at a time can appear to be productive, it can actually do more harm than good. Multitasking can lead to excess stress, memory problems, and ironically, decreased productivity. Stay on the lookout for double or triple screening and know that your nervous system will benefit from you slowing down and doing one thing at a time.
  • Consider deleting any apps that you find depressing or depleting.
  • Move apps that you consider time killers to the second or third page on your devices so you don’t see them as frequently.
  • Set digital limits with yourself. Some devices have settings that allow you to choose when certain apps will automatically close. This can help if you tend to get caught up screening and scrolling and lose track of time.
  • Set a timer to be online for a certain amount of time and then take a screen break.
  • Set a timer to be offline a certain amount of time before you go back on. You can use these breaks to check in with yourself, sit in silence, connect with someone in-person, get some fresh air, or allow for creative ideas.
  • Browse in a craft or hobby store and see if anything looks like something you might want to try. It could be an old hobby you used to enjoy, or a new hobby, craft, or project.
  • Purchase a book or workbook on a topic of interest.
  • If you always eat with a screen, try a screen-less meal, or even part of a meal.
  • If you use screens at night, the blue light can disturb your sleep so consider changing the light on your devices to a different color and reducing the brightness.
  • If you use screens right up until you fall asleep, try turning them off earlier than you normally would. Consider reading a book, journaling, listening to soothing music, meditating, mindful breathing, reciting a calming word or phrase, writing or thinking about things you appreciate or feel grateful for, or imagining yourself accomplishing a goal or a dream. (Right before sleep is a wonderful time to plant seeds into our subconscious minds.)
  • Set reminders to ask yourself if you are time killing or spirit filling. Of course, we get to play or check out sometimes. It’s just helpful to check in about how often we are checking out so it doesn’t contribute to depressionanxiety, depletion, or sleep disturbances.
  • Create a list of healthy non-screen activities that might fill your spirits. Here are some ideas from clients who’ve created spirit filler lists to support themselves having more off-screen time: getting into nature, listening to music, reading a good book, taking a bath or a foot bath, walking, swimming, biking, dancing at home or taking a dance class, playing cards or a board game, meditating or practicing mindfulness, gentle stretching, qigong, playing or learning an instrument, crafting or starting a hobby, resting, visiting with friends and family, laughter yoga, writing or reciting a gratitude list.

Creating an easily accessible list of potentially fulfilling activities can really help since it tends to be easier to start a behavior rather than stop one. So if you’re wanting or needing a screen break, you can try doing something on your list.

If you do decide to cut back on screens, it’s important to know that some feelings might come up, feelings that will definitely need compassion and may need support. Screens might appear to be innocent little devices but they can have an incredibly strong pull on us, and our use of them can sometimes be attempting to distract us from deeper issues. What’s most important is to stay conscious about how and how often you are using screens so you don’t feel used or used up by them.

View on Psychology Today

← Return to blog entries