We experience a lot of stress! Whether it’s acute stress or chronic stress – you know exactly what someone is talking about when they say they’re stressed out. Stress affects your mood, body, thoughts, and even […]

Stress is something everyone knows about and you probably have a lot of experience with it. But there are different types of stress – acute and chronic.

Acute stress is usually short in duration and results f […]

Trauma is an umbrella term for any event that is deeply distressing or disturbing to an individual. We can think of big events – like 9/11 or the SPU campus shooting, and easily see how that can be classified as t […]

Behavioral activation might sound fancy, but it’s really just getting yourself to do the things you already want to do so that you experience more positive emotions. When we’re feeling sad, down, or unm […]

The past two weeks we’ve covered depression and bipolar, both of which have to do with impairing mood symptoms – like feeling very down or feeling over-the-top elevated (for no reason). If you’ve noticed you’r […]

Anxiety and depression may be more talked about, but bipolar is also prevalent among college students. There are two types of bipolar disorders. Bipolar I involves a manic episode, while bipolar II consists of a […]

Check out the flier below for details on this quarter’s free Mindful Yoga classes!

Most people have heard of depression. You’ve seen it depicted in movies, books, or maybe you or someone you’re close to has experienced depressive symptoms. Depression is often thought of as being sad, tea […]

Many of us look forward to winter break and the holidays. Maybe we get to spend time with family or friends – or we simply enjoy the relief of no deadlines and less work. For some of us though, the holidays can b […]

This week wraps up talking about interpersonal effectiveness skills, including DEARMAN, FAST, and GIVE. In a perfect world, we can use these tools in all situations to better communicate with those around us. What […]

Anxiety is one of the primary reasons undergraduates visit college counseling centers. In 2017, the Association for University and College Counseling Center Directors reported that 51% of students receiving […]

The FAST skill from last week focused on helping you make sure you’re maintaining our self-respect and sticking to your values. This week, the last interpersonal effectiveness skill, the GIVE skill, prioritizes m […]

While using the DEARMAN skill from last week can help you get what you want, it’s also important to maintain your values and prioritize your self-respect. The FAST skill does exactly this, however, it’s imp […]

Interpersonal effectiveness skills can give you the tools you need to communicate better with others. While there are several skills that prioritize different objectives, one of these skills, DEARMAN, focuses on […]

Mindfulness has all sorts of benefits, including decreased stress and anxiety and increased attention and focus and feelings of connectedness. This month we focused on the skills of mindfulness – the WHAT skills o […]

Mindfulness has gained popularity in recent years.  Mindfulness, the skill of non-judgmentally paying attention, has been shown to be beneficial for both emotional and physical health among undergraduate […]

Wise mind is the balance of emotion and reason. The emotion mind can be characterized by urges, desires, and strong feelings. In contrast, the rational mind can be thought of as the part of you that focuses on […]

Last week we talked about how to practice one-mindfully, one of the HOW skills of mindfulness. The last two HOW skills, non-judgmentally and effectively, in combination with one-mindfully and the WHAT skills, give […]

The WHAT skills of mindfulness (observe, describe, and participate) allowed us to examine what is happening in the present moment. The HOW skills give us the tools to use our WHAT skills.

The first HOW skill, […]

Before we jump into mindfulness skills, what is mindfulness? Mindfulness is nonjudgmental awareness of the now. It’s being able to choose what to focus on – this gives you the chance to plan and respond to wha […]