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Mental Health, Young Adults Lena McCain MA, LPC 0017723 Mental Health, Young Adults Lena McCain MA, LPC 0017723

Understanding Mindfulness: Self-Distraction vs Self-Awareness

After school activities to get to, tests to prepare for, papers to write. Deadlines to make, social expectations to meet, bills to pay. Chronic illnesses to battle, emotions to process, the world to face. The pressure, the stress, the frustration, the pain, is on. We fly from one thing to the next, hardly able to breathe. We know we need to slow down, to take a moment in the moment, but we can't seem to make ourselves, because what does that even mean anyway?

Maybe, we think, this is the only way we're able to handle all these things, by just pressing on absent-mindedly, numb to what our bodies and minds may be trying to tell us. Or maybe we did try to slow down, to connect with the present, but it seemed to make things worse. It compounded those uncomfortable and painful feelings.

Mindfulness, it turns out, is a double-edged sword.

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Breakups: Finding Love for Yourself After the Fallout

Breakups. Sometimes they creep--a slow, terrible fracture between people who once really loved each other. Sometimes they happen suddenly, seemingly without notice, leaving you suddenly alone and heartbroken. However breakups happen, they almost always leave you with a slew of emotions: grief, sadness, anxiety, fear, loneliness, and maybe even, some guilt and shame.

So how do we navigate these feelings? Especially when we're feeling incredibly vulnerable, broken and, well, just down right shitty? We might even think How do I learn to love again?

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