WellnessTalks

What are the goals and scope of counseling?  Why should you go and why is counseling important?  Join Todd Schmenk as he walks through a quick explanation of what the process is all about, what the goals are, why you should go, and what you should expect to get out of choosing to go.

You can watch this here:  https://youtu.be/RfRkIAjPEGU

You can find other support materials here: https://www.youtube.com/c/ToddJSchmenkLMHC

You can get downloads and support this support program here: https://www.patreon.com/toddschmenk

Join Todd Schmenk for another Monday Morning Mindfulness practice for how to deal with boredom and loneliness.  This version is a simple ten minute exercise that was designed to just simply be listened to.  There are three practices within this one presentation. 

I often hear a common myth about anxiety when I meet for the first time with someone in session and they explain to me that their goal is in getting rid of it.  Problem with this is simple:   We can't.    You cannot get rid of anxiety.    

You can learn what it is, how it becomes activated, how to manage it, and lessen its effects.  

In this episode, I explain why we cannot get away from anxiety, what the function of it is, and ways to manage your psychological flexibility so you can learn how to use anxiety to your advantage.

As stated in the introduction, mindfulness does not have to be sitting on a pillow and focusing on your breath. It can also be applied to simple everyday activities and that is exactly what I am going to walk you thought this morning.  One activity you can add mindfulness to is drinking a hot beverage each morning at breakfast, something you might already do.  So join me as I walk you through a short and simple exercise to help you develop a your mindfulness skill (being able to notice when you mind jumps in) doing something a good deal of people enjoy.

Adding mindfulness to your daily routine doesn’t have to be some momentous undertaking. You don’t need to sit on a round pillow in some weird pose, with a silly special chant, choking on incense, and special world music.

In fact, all you pretty much need to be able to do is listen to this podcast released on Mondays and follow along as I lead you through practical, simple, follow along mindfulness exercises. Some with more a focus on the practicing, others with a focus on the "how to" and other important concepts to consider. All you need is your breath.

Join Todd Schmenk as he walks through the theme of this past week in struggling with consistency and the overall effect it has on feeling disconnected and like life has no direction.   

Covered in this presentation: 

Trend of the Week: Feeling Disconnected, No Direction  

Skills and Tools: 

Awareness: Identify Your Roles 

Openness: Assess the Situation 

Engaged: Step with Purpose

In order to thrive and not just survive, we need to have a base understanding of our core values, or prime values (in that they cannot be boiled down any further.  We need to understand core values in order to feel more confident, to have a direction.  In this video series, Uncovering your core values, I will take you on a journey to look at what personal values are, why we need them, how to discover your core values, and what to do with these personal values in order to live a meaningful life and ensure continued personal growth.

Given that we are all destined to fail, in this video "How To Regain Confidence After Failure", join Todd Schmenk as he walks through this common question, looking at it from multiple angles along with offering some exercises you can use to move your way through the experience.   

 Covered in this presentation: 

rend of the Week:  Confidence Shaken  

Skills and Tools: 

• Awareness: Your Left Foot (Grounding) 
• Openness: Checking the Facts 
• Engaged: Good Memories

Join Todd Schmenk (LMHC) and guest, Darlene Darezzo (LMHC) as they talk about what it takes to raise confident kids with several strategies and concepts in addressing behavioral, mental, and emotional health with a special look at what it takes to be the mindful parent.

Join Todd as he takes another look at a thought or thoughts that just won't go away and offers a process you can use to identify that thought and name it to tame it.  

Starts off with a grounding presence mindfulness practice, introduces a thought spotting technique, then plays around with a new way to relate to these types of thoughts.  

Trend of the Week: 

"I Can't Seem to Get Away From This Thought"  

Skills and Tools: 

• Awareness: Inhale on Three 
• Openness: Is This Thought Helpful? 
• Engaged: Name it to Tame It

Join Todd Schmenk as he interviews Dr. Mark Forman in taking a closer look at healing trauma and spiritual growth in Mark's new book, "The Monster's Journey:  From Trauma to Connection".    

Overview of interview and time stamps: 

• 1:02   Introduction to the book and author 3:07   The Hero's story 
• 4:30   The Monster's story 6:37   Author's personal experience 
• 10:00 Trauma assessment 
• 15:17  Who will benefit from the book 
• 17:40  Overview of symptoms of trauma 24:18  A closer look at the cover art 
• 27:16  Main goal of the book 
• 28:36  Comparison of the Hero's and Monster's Journey 
• 31:46  Geeking out with Star Wars and Lord of the Rings  

You can listen to this on www.wellnesstalks.org here: https://open.spotify.com/show/1mXk1f2WCm62stEENxvlOk  or here on BeTeamPositive.us https://open.spotify.com/show/4z8LH3aOpYeZwNksrlnlX2  

You can order the book here:  https://www.amazon.com/Monsters-Journey-Trauma-Connection/dp/B08DC5VTRR  

You can find more topics, worksheets, and support materials here: https://www.wellnesstalks.org/    

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Join Todd Schmenk as he walks you through how to manage dealing with what ifs, that if focused on for too long increase levels of stress and anxiety and what to do instead.   

Trend of the Week: Dealing with What Ifs  

Skills and Tools: 

• Awareness: Taking a Purposeful Breath 
• Openness:  Unhooking from thoughts 
• Engaged: Finding a Guide

This end of week reflection builds upon past videos with similar titles but with more emphasis on application to all situations, not just personal growth during covid-19.  This series will continue to focus on current weekly trends while introducing and/or reviewing new concepts, skills, and themes designed to supporting your mental health with greater psychological flexibility.  This series will always focus on a current trend and an openness, awareness, and engagement skill or concept.    Topics in this presentation are: Openness:  Half-Smile Awareness: Mindful Eating Engaged: Personal Values Assessment - a further exploration.

Recording of a recent Anxiety Q&A session with Todd as he explored ways for those asking questions to get a better handle on their anxiety and increase their psychological flexibility in dealing with these questions and more.  Broken into three parts due to the length of the Q&A Session.  This is part 1.  

Principle to live by: Compare Yourself To Who You Were Yesterday Not To Who Someone Else Is Today since the only person you can compare yourself to is you.  Quick overview of why we compare, who we compare ourselves against, and who we should be comparing ourselves to.

A quick overview of cognitive fusion and diffusion and how knowing this is useful in developing psychological flexibility.

Consider that Failure Is A Part Of Success.  The fear of failure often associated with higher levels of anxiety.  This short talk walks through some of the reasons why failure is essential and how we could not succeed without failing.

Join Todd as he walks through what the thinking mind is, what its job is, and how this sometimes gets in the way and causes us to become stuck, especially when dealing with a problem that is, for the moment at least, unsolvable and\or out of our control. 

In this episode, Todd Schmenk walks listeners through a series of the most common answers he has been focusing on with those in his practice as well as friends and family in being able to refocus and reset ones mindset in dealing with the stay at home orders in response to Covid-19.  

What is the ratio of positive to negative interactions needed to maintain a good relationship?  How does one go about figuring out what the ratio is in your relationship?  Join Todd as he walks through what it is, where it came from, why it's important, and most importantly, how to use the idea to improve and maintain your own relationship. 

In this video, I answer the question "does social anxiety reduce openness to experience" which I received in an email request to answer.  It addresses how our behaviors can affect our openness and how, if we are willing to experience some modest discomfort, it is possible to increase our confidence to be more open.

One of the considerations of how to build a chronic illness support group is in learning how the mind works in order to come up with ways of dealing with distress.  This podcast looks at the thinking mind and observing mind for strategies to be able to distance yourself as well as highlighting the importance of managing your energy.  It is designed for both the patient and for anyone in a supportive role.  It is broken into three parts due to its length, one coming out each week, and each one provides an effective coping skill you can try immediately.  A special focus of this episode is in managing your energy levels to ensure you can use the other tools outlined in this series. 

In this episode in dealing with distress, Todd focuses on two more techniques in being able to better manage stressful situations, thoughts and emotions.  The first technique looks at a way to look for and find exceptions to your usual rules or ways of responding.  This provides you with two practices within a practice, identification, and defusion from a thought and the ability to test the situation for the thought's truthfulness and its usefulness.  In doing so, this frees you up to act on something that truly matters to you.  It allows you to find the exceptions to situations which often look more dire than they truly are.  The second half looks at the S.T.O.P. technique, which allows you to create some space so that you can find the exceptions and choose what you will do/become next.  

One of the considerations of how to build a chronic illness support group is in learning how the mind works in order to come up with ways of dealing with distress.  This podcast walks through the topic of the thinking mind and observing mind for strategies to be able to distance yourself as well as highlighting the importance of managing your energy.  It is designed for both the patient and for anyone in a supportive role.  It is broken into three parts due to its length, one coming out every other week, and each one provides an effective coping skill you can try immediately.

Designed in support of the book:  "Team Positive: How to Build Support for Someone Coping with Chronic Illness" 

Listen in as Todd walks through the "Dirty Dozen",  the 12 most common cognitive biases that we all experience along with tips on how to detect them and why it is important to do so.

An exploration of why it is so enticing, what occurs when we spend too much time on social media including higher anxiety levels, and some strategies for what to do about it. 

Ever witnessed something dumb?  Something that annoyed you?  This little exercise helps you to step back, take a breath, observe what's going on and move in a direction of compassion.