by Susan Albers, Psy.D.

Clients with eating problems often develop a number of mindless eating routines. Eating in the car on the way to work, snacking at their computer, or munching during their favorite TV show each night are a few common examples. Help your clients identify the mindless eating behaviors that have simply become habitual. These behaviors are often much easier to tackle than emotional eating behaviors.

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by guest blogger Melissa Kirk, co-author of Depression 101

I remember the moment I realized my rumination was contributing to my chronic low mood and sense of frustration with life. I lived about a mile away from my job, and in nice weather I would walk to work through neighborhoods of beautiful homes and lush gardens. People in Berkeley love their gardens! On my walk, though, I tended to ruminate - to obsess over what was wrong in my life, to replay difficult incidents and conversations, to worry about what I was missing: the right relationship, the perfect body, the "right" personality. By the time I got to work, I would often feel more tense or distracted than when I had started out, and often I would have missed the beauty of the homes and gardens along the way.

I always thought there was something inherently wrong with me that I got depressed and sad; I figured that somewhere, way back when, I hadn’t learned some vital lesson that others - the ones who didn’t get depressed - had learned. In the back of my mind I always figured I was flawed in a deep, core way that meant that I would never have the things that others had: marriage, successful career, physical beauty, the ability to connect easily with others. This is what I would ruminate over on my walk: why can I never seem to be able to do the things others do? What was wrong with me?

Excerpt from The Mindful Path through Worry and Rumination

Do you become more easily aggravated, frustrated, irritable, or angry than you would like? Do you find yourself driven to tears, feeling overwhelmed or exhausted by things that seem to feel minor to other people? If you’re prone to rumination and worry, you prob¬ably do. Your stress response and your inner critic feed off each other, spending all of your emotional energy so that there’s none left for happiness and joy. One of the things that emerges with both secure attachment and regular mindfulness practice is a skill that psychologists call distress tolerance, which refers to the degree to which you can maintain your peace of mind, equanimity, and focus in difficult situations.

excerpt from The Bipolar Workbook for Teens

A chronic condition like bipolar disorder can be so overwhelming that it seems like it defines who you are. But you are not bipolar disorder, and bipolar disorder isn't you! You're a lot more than just someone with bipolar disorder.

Excerpt from Five Good Minutes®

Setting an intention is a way of pointing yourself in a direction, toward an important value or goal. It is a way to identify a quality you wish to nurture in your life.

A skillful intention is more like a friendly guide. Acknowledge from the beginning that important changes take time. You, like everyone else, must make the effort to return repeatedly to the goal you seek.

Excerpt from Five Good Minutes®

You will work with a variety of approaches in your five good minutes. They include the following:

• Mindfulness
• Meditation
• Imagery
• Acting wholeheartedly

Excerpt from Five Good Minutes®

As you experiment and practice with the five good minutes exercises, you will learn to apply consciously your attention, intention, and wholeheartedness. You will see for yourself the power of being present and acting with intention while doing specifically guided exercises. Beyond the exercises, you may even discover more ways to apply these same principles throughout your life.