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By Joy Reichart, guest contributor, New Ventures West

“I have nothing left.”

It’s a sentiment that’s been in our shared consciousness for a long time, and recently I’ve started to hear folks actually name it. Maybe you have too. 

World events have taken their toll, and many of us find ourselves with very little energy, resources, spirit left in us. The pandemic fomented a sudden shift in pace and orientation that revealed much of what is outdated and imbalanced in our lives, and in the world.…

By Due Quach, guest contributor

1. Accept that anxiety is biological

The first step in managing anxiety in a healthier manner is to make peace with the fact that having anxiety is natural and normal. According to evolutionary psychology, human psychological traits like anxiety exist because they serve a function. Anxiety signals that we believe the outcome of a situation in which there are factors beyond our control, is very important to our survival, social status, happiness, or well-being. A…

By Kathlyn T. Hendricks, guest contributor

“The enemy is fear. We think that it’s hate, but it’s fear.”

- Gandhi

How did we get so scared?

I’ve gotten pretty obsessed with fear over the last few years. I grew up with bomb shelters and “duck and cover” (no one back then thought this was traumatic or would create any long-lasting impact). The vision of the mushroom cloud seeped into dreams and decisions and led to everyone on our block—except us—having a bomb shelter for the annihilation we ex…

For this month’s Round-Up, we explore mindfulness in schools, how mindfulness regulates pain, finding meaning in life by appreciating the little things, the cognitive benefit of self-reflection, and why the serotonin theory of depression might not be as compelling as we think. We have summarized the main ideas and key takeaways below with links to the full articles.

School Mindfulness Programs: Why Some Work and Others Don’t    

In an updated meta-analysis, researchers of the My Resilience in …

by Dr. Tracy Brower, guest contributor

Great leadership has never been easy, especially if you’re doing it well. But it’s arguably harder now than it’s been in the recent past, and it requires a great amount of emotional labor. There are reasons for this—from the climate outside of organizations to mental health issues and the competition for talent. The impact is significant: Leadership requires more skills, capability, finesse, nuance, judgement and art today.

Emotional labor is the work peo…

By Max Strom, guest contributor

Why is it that so many people in urban environments across the world are now experiencing exponential growth in anxiety and depression? What can we make of the fact that anxiety is now an epidemic in America? It’s also alarming that suicide was the second leading cause of death among people between the ages of 10 and 34. 

Most of us are thankful that we live in a time when we have medications for anxiety and depression, but I haven’t met anybody who wants to liv…

By Michelle Maldonado, guest contributor

I love historic novels; especially ones that explore the plights, triumphs, and transformation of humanity. Today, as we are both participants and witnesses to what is happening in our local and global communities, I can’t help but be reminded of the Charles Dickens quote from A Tale of Two Cities: “It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness... it was the season of light, it was the season…