Are you new to meditation? If so, perhaps you’re looking for meditation tips because you can’t find a good jumping-off point. As meditation’s slowly lost the stigma as an "out-there" practice for hippies and religious devotees, meditation's benefits have been studied and touted as important for mental health self-care. Perhaps you’ve become aware of these benefits of meditation, but feel frustrated after trying it a few times. These three meditation tips will help get you off to a great start.

Eye movement desensitization and reprocessing (EMDR) is a therapy technique initially developed to treat trauma. There's been a lot of research conducted on this treatment modality over the last several decades. In addition to effectively resolving traumatic experiences, eye movement desensitization and reprocessing has shown to be useful in helping people overcome addictions, change negative core beliefs, and reduce emotional distress. But what exactly is EMDR?

Most people have hobbies they conditionally participate in, but striving toward full participation in a new hobby can provide a different sense of fulfillment. For many of us, our hobbies have just ‘ended up’ in our lives. We experience them as routine, no longer providing joy. This is potentially because we no longer fully participate.

It is difficult to avoid burnout because it's difficult to know if our stress levels are typical or problematic. The emphasis on success and achievement in our culture encourages us to push to our breaking points in the name of productivity. If you value your mental health as much as I do, you might struggle with the conflict between meeting expectations at work and maintaining a healthy personal life. I've found there are ways I can avoid burnout with good self-care practices.

Income and health, especially mental health, often correlate; a side gig could potentially increase your levels of both health and income. According to the Money and Mental Health Policy Institute, a high majority of respondents stated that money issues like debt made their mental illnesses worse. While chipping away at debt won’t necessarily change your life, the research supports the conclusion that a side gig may help with health and income at the same time. 

Long before modern-day medicine existed, Eastern approaches to health and wellness recognized the power of the mind/body connection. Meditation, acupuncture, and self-compassion were a regular part of caring for the mind and body. Today, both medical and mental health professionals understand more about the scientific connection between our physical and mental wellbeing. Recently, I've been doing some research on the power of the mind/body connection and was surprised to learn how deeply rooted they are with one another.

If you’re seeking social anxiety help, a party escape route may be for you. Recently, I had a small gathering at my house. A friend who, like me, has depression expressed anxiety about attending. Her partner had already decided to come, so I devised and suggested an escape route plan for her to help minimize social anxiety. Here are the elements of a solid anxiety-reducing party plan.

Negative emotions are a part of life, but why are they important? Nobody wants to feel sad, lonely, angry, anxious, worried, or fearful. Often, people don't understand the purpose of emotions they perceive as bad, and they want to get back to feeling good. The problem with labeling our emotions as "good" or "bad" is that we may assume our negative emotions do not serve a purpose, are purely unhelpful, and should be avoided at all costs. The truth is, our negative emotions have positive life lessons for us if we know how to attune to them properly. 

You can increase your level of being present by making yours a feng shui home. Feng shui (pronounced ‘fuhng SHWAY’), a Chinese tradition that involves arranging a physical environment for the best energy, seems mystical and even scary to those who haven’t learned about its principles, but feng shui boils down to essentially a healthy dose of common sense as well as a set of mindfulness practices to choose from. 

While connecting with a romantic interest or significant other can provide nights of bliss, have you considered going on a date with yourself? A date with yourself might seem unusual, but self-dates are becoming more popular as people seek more powerful venues for self-care.