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10 ways to fall asleep fast | Hayden Finch, PhD | Psychologist/Therapist | | Des Moines, Iowa | Little Rock, Arkansas

10 Ways to Fall Asleep Fast

Anxiety, Blog, Burnout, Depression, Stress /

When you don’t sleep well, it makes it so much harder to get anything done…including manage your feelings.  When we’re tired, we’re more irritable, more anxious, and more depressed.  Last week, I shared with you 12 things that make it harder to sleep.  This week, it’s time to replace those 12 sleep disruptions with 10 strategies to help you fall asleep faster.  

 

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

  • 10 strategies to help you fall asleep faster
  • Resources for implementing those strategies in your life
  • The reasons these 10 strategies work

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12 Things Making It Hard for You to Sleep | Hayden Finch, PhD | Psychologist/Therapist | | Des Moines, Iowa | Little Rock, Arkansas

12 Things Making It Hard for You to Sleep

Anxiety, Blog, Burnout, Depression, Stress /

Disrupted sleep is one of the most common symptoms of just about every mental health condition.  The more anxious you are, for example, the worse you sleep.  But the frustrating thing is that it just perpetuates itself: the worse you sleep, the more anxious you get.  You can really get stuck.  But it’s possible to reverse this spiral.  This week, let’s take a look at 12 things that are making it harder for you to fall asleep.  Are you making any of these mistakes??  

 

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

  • 12 things you might be doing that are actually making it harder for you to sleep
  • The reasons these 12 simple things interfere with your sleep

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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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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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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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15 Coping Mechanisms That Are Keeping You Stuck| Psychologist Dr. Hayden Finch

15 Coping Mechanisms That Are Keeping You Stuck

Alcoholism & Substance Use, Anxiety, Blog, Burnout, Depression, Imposter Syndrome, Panic Attacks, Procrastination, Self-Criticism & Perfectionism, Stress /

Hey, we’re all doing our absolute best to just get from day to day and from week to week.  And over the years, we develop coping mechanisms to help us do just that. Sure, not all of those coping mechanisms are healthy, and we know it.  Of course smoking and drinking and spending too much are helping us feel “better,” and we know they’re not actually fixing the problem. But today, we’re diving deep into 15 coping mechanisms that you might not even realize are keeping you stuck.  Have you adopted any of these habits?

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9 Ways to Manage Anxiety Without Medication | Psychologist Dr. Hayden Finch

9 Ways to Manage Anxiety Without Medication

Anxiety, Blog, Panic Attacks, Stress /

Whether you’ve got occasional anxiety or it’s an all-day-every-day part of your life, having some high quality strategies for managing it is key to keeping it from taking over.  Medications can be helpful for some people in some situations, but some people prefer to keep things natural or don’t have anxiety that’s severe enough to warrant taking medication…and most people who take medications still have occasional anxiety.  So just about everyone who experiences anxiety needs a healthy repertoire of all-natural coping skills to maximize their wellness. Today, I’m bringing you 9 of my personal favorite strategies to manage anxiety without medication.  

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Anxiety vs. Fear vs. Panic: How to Tell the Difference | Psychologist Dr. Hayden Finch

Anxiety vs. Fear vs. Panic: How to Tell the Difference

Anxiety, Blog, Panic Attacks, Stress /

Anxiety, fear, and panic are such similar emotions and experiences that we often assume they’re just the same thing. But actually they’re different, and knowing the difference can help you communicate better with your doctors, know what information to actually be researching on your own, and hopefully finally find the right strategies to manage your mental health. In this week’s article, I’m telling you the key differences between anxiety, fear, and panic. Plus, I put it all together in a chart in case you’re a visual learner like I am. Charts are the best.

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14 Ways to Get the Most Out of Your Therapy Sessions | Psychologist Dr. Hayden Finch

14 Ways to Get the Most Out of Your Therapy Sessions

Alcoholism & Substance Use, Anxiety, Blog, Depression, Panic Attacks, Self-Criticism & Perfectionism, Severe Mental Illnesses, Stress, Therapy /

So you’ve gone through all the steps of getting a therapist — it wasn’t easy, but you did it! Congratulations! Now you want to make sure you get the most out of your therapy sessions. In today’s post, I’ll tell you what to do before each therapy session, what to do during therapy sessions, what to do after therapy sessions, and what to do between your therapy sessions to make sure you’re squeezing every ounce of juice out of your therapy that you can. Plus, I put together a worksheet to help you organize it all and maximize your therapy sessions.

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