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How to Unwind After Work | Hayden Finch, PhD | Psychologist/Therapist | | Des Moines, Iowa | Little Rock, Arkansas

How to Unwind After Work: 7 Proven Strategies

Anxiety, Blog, Burnout, Depression, Panic Attacks, Stress, Time Management /

Whether you’re working from home or you’re back in the office, chances are you are spent at the end of the day.  Tension builds throughout the day, and we end up carrying it home with us.  You want to relax, but it’s almost impossible — like you’re too stressed to de-stress.  Or maybe the only way you can unwind is with alcohol.  If this is you, I’m here with 7 proven (non-alcoholic) strategies to help you unwind after work.  

 

In this week’s article, I’ll share with you 

  • 7 proven strategies for unwinding after work
  • The reasons the strategies work
  • Ideas for how to incorporate them into your life
  • A checklist to make sure you’re implementing the strategies in your life — after all, they don’t work if you don’t do them!

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10 Questions to Ask Yourself to Stop Overthinking| Hayden Finch, PhD | Psychologist/Therapist | | Des Moines, Iowa | Little Rock, Arkansas

10 Questions to Ask Yourself to Stop Overthinking

Anxiety, Blog, Imposter Syndrome, Self-Criticism & Perfectionism /

Overthinking is a real issue for many of my clients.  They tell me that they think about the same issues, problems, fears, or worries far too much or for far too long, and they realize it creates unnecessary anxiety.  But they’re not sure how to stop it.  Today, I’ve got 10 questions to ask yourself to stop the overthinking.  

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Four Classes of Anxiety Disorders| Hayden Finch, PhD | Psychologist/Therapist | | Des Moines, Iowa | Little Rock, Arkansas

Four Classes of Anxiety Disorders

Anxiety, Blog /

There are at least 20 distinct anxiety disorders in the official diagnostic manual.  It can start to get overwhelming to try to figure out where your personal anxiety fits into all that.  But in a lot of ways, the anxiety disorders are more similar than they are different.  So rather than having 20 different distinct labels, it’s helpful to have a broader classification.  In today’s article, I’ll share with you four different classes of anxiety disorders that relate the conditions based on the anxiety’s primary focus.

 

In this week’s article, we’ll chat about 

  • Four different types of anxiety disorders: Catastrophic, evaluation, loss of control, and uncertainty
  • Common thoughts that are typical in each class of disorder
  • Examples of anxiety disorders that fit in each class

 

Dive in!

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How to Rewire Your Anxious Brain| Hayden Finch, PhD | Psychologist/Therapist | | Des Moines, Iowa | Little Rock, Arkansas

How to Rewire Your Anxious Brain

Anxiety, Blog /

Therapy that is based in psychological science has the power to actually change your brain.  In fact, psychologists use brain imaging and neuroscience to develop the techniques, interventions, and coping skills that help treat mental health conditions.  

 

In this week’s article, we’ll cover

  • How your brain changes when you have high-quality therapy
  • A 7-step intervention to rewire your anxious brain
  • Exactly how that 7-step intervention rewires your brain

 

Plus, grab a free PDF download that gives you a worksheet to practice rewiring your own brain!

 

Dive in here.

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ow Anxiety Affects Your Brain| Hayden Finch, PhD | Psychologist/Therapist | | Des Moines, Iowa | Little Rock, Arkansas

How Anxiety Affects Your Brain

Anxiety /

Last week, we talked about how anxiety affects your body and exactly why it has these effects…things like why it makes your tummy hurt or why it causes cold sweats.  In this week’s article, we’re talking specifically about how anxiety affects your brain.

 

In this article, we’ll cover things like

  • Identifying the two main areas of the brain that cause anxiety 
  • Why you remember things that were scary better than you remember things that were pleasant
  • How the brain processes involved in anxiety make anxiety worse over time

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How Anxiety Affects Your Blood Pressure (And Other Effects of Anxiety On Your Body) | Hayden Finch, PhD | Psychologist/Therapist | | Des Moines, Iowa | Little Rock, Arkansas

How Anxiety Affects Your Blood Pressure (And Other Effects of Anxiety On Your Body)

Anxiety, Stress /

Why does anxiety raise your blood pressure or make your tummy hurt?  Every symptom of anxiety actually serves a clear biological purpose.  

When something happens that triggers anxiety, a part of your nervous system called the sympathetic nervous system is activated.  You’d think that being called “sympathetic” that it’d be a nice experience to have this system activated, but it’s not.  The sympathetic nervous system is otherwise known as your fight-or flight response and gets activated when it thinks you’re in danger.  It’s actually really helpful.  Imagine you’re checking your makeup in the rear-view mirror and suddenly get aggressively honked at.  You (ok, me) feel a jolt of fear that makes you sit up straight and get your car in the correct lane.  If that fight-or-flight response didn’t get activated, you’d just keep swerving all over the road.

When the fight-or-flight system is activated, and our bodies respond in a predictable way.  And this response is what causes the physical effects of anxiety.  Here’s what happens:

 

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4 Steps to Stop Stress Eating | Hayden Finch, PhD | Psychologist/Therapist | Little Rock, Arkansas

4 Steps to Stop Stress Eating

Anxiety, Blog, Stress /

If I’m honest, I’m just like you, and sometimes I fall victim to emotional eating, too.  That’s why, in our pantry at all times, my husband keeps an emergency supply of what he refers to as “anxiety brownies.”  Being a psychologist, I’m loaded from head to toe with the world’s greatest mental health tips and strategies, so fortunately, I seldom need to grab those emergency anxiety brownies.  So I’m here today to share with you what I know and tell you how to stop emotional eating.  

 

HOW JUNK FOOD AFFECTS YOUR BRAIN

HOW YOU’VE TRIED TO STOP STRESS EATING BEFORE

SOMEONE FAMOUS TELLS US HOW TO STOP EMOTIONAL EATING

STEP 1 OF HOW TO STOP STRESS EATING: STIMULUS

STEP 2 OF HOW TO STOP STRESS EATING: RESPONSE
STEP 3 OF HOW TO STOP STRESS EATING: SPACE

STEP 4 OF HOW TO STOP STRESS EATING: CHANGE

ALL TOGETHER: HOW TO STOP STRESS EATING

 

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7 Key Differences Between Everyday Anxiety & an Anxiety Disorder| Psychologist Dr. Hayden Finch

7 Key Differences Between Everyday Anxiety & an Anxiety Disorder

Anxiety, Blog, Panic Attacks /

Anxiety is a normal part of everyday life.  Fear and anxiety and even panic have evolved as useful survival tools.  If there’s a threat to our survival, it behooves us to be able to activate our fight or flight system and GTFO.  Know what I mean? But fear and anxiety and panic that bleed into our everyday lives can sometimes push beyond what’s normal and become a disorder.  How do you know whether what you’re experiencing is anxiety or an anxiety disorder? I’ve got 7 key differences between anxiety and anxiety disorders for you.

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5 Ways to Get Motivated After Work| Psychologist Dr. Hayden Finch

5 Ways to Get Motivated After Work

Blog, Burnout, Procrastination, Stress, Time Management /

There’s more to do than can ever be done, and sometimes that reality really sinks in and can be paralyzing.  We realize we can’t actually fit everything in, so we just end up doing almost nothing at all.  Plus, we’re just so tired by the end of the day that it doesn’t seem like we really can do anything.  Maybe it’s true that you can’t do it all, but I’m here today with 5 ways to get yourself motivated after work so at least you can do some of it.  

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