CONTACT US

Now in Colour

My WordPress Blog

  • Now in Colour
  • Home
  • Services
    • ACT (Now)
    • Anxiety
    • CBT
    • Clinical Hypnosis
      • Smoking Cessation
    • Creativity
    • Grief & Loss
    • Hair Pulling
    • Mentorship
    • OCD
    • Skin Picking
    • Sleep
    • Video & Telephone Counselling
  • Providers
    • Ms. Katherine Schurer
      • Services
      • Philosophy
    • Dr. Corrick Woodfin
      • Services
      • Philosophy
  • Getting Started
    • Process
    • Appointment Request
    • FAQs
    • Rates & Insurance
  • Resources
    • The Reading List
    • Mental Health Links
    • Mental Health Apps
    • Physical Health Links
    • Workplace Health Links
  • Blog
  • Contact

May 12, 2022 by Corrick Woodfin Leave a Comment

How Your Diet Can Affect Mood, Cognition, And Sleep

Most of us are aware that what we eat can affect our waistline. But did you know that the foods you eat can also impact your brain, which means they can affect your mood, cognition, and sleep?

Think of Your Brain Like an Expensive Car

Cars need fuel to operate. Some cars do fine no matter what type of gas you put in the tank. But expensive cars typically only do well when you fill the tank with premium gas.

Your brain is like an expensive car. You can try and feed it what YOU want and what YOU think is delicious, but it probably won’t operate optimally. In fact, your brain can actually become damaged if you feed it the wrong foods. For example, many processed and refined foods are harmful to your brain, causing inflammation and toxic overload. Diets high in refined carbohydrates not only promote inflammation but also oxidative stress and worsen your body’s regulation of insulin. 

All of this damage affects how your brain operates. That means when you eat poorly, you increase the risk of developing a mood disorder such as depression and anxiety, a cognitive impairment (making it hard to think clearly or remember information), and sleep issues.

And then it becomes a vicious cycle, because once our sleep takes a hit and our mood takes a hit and we can’t focus well, we intuitively want to reach for comfort foods that are usually unhealthy, and the cycle starts all over.

Making Lifestyle Changes Your Brain Will Thank You For

Life is easier and just feels better when our brains are working for us, not against us. With that in mind, here are some lifestyle choices you can make that will keep your brain working optimally:

Skip the Soft Drinks

One of the easiest changes you can make is to stop drinking soda, even sugar-free sodas, which can still impact your insulin levels. Opt for water instead. 

Eat Plenty of Healthy Fats

Your brain is 60% fat. It needs fat to thrive. But not all fats are created equally. Stay away from trans fats. These are fats made in a laboratory and are found in processed foods. Seed oils, vegetable oils – these are bad fats!

Healthy fats are those from grass-fed or pastured animals as well as nuts and avocados!

Take Care of Your Gut

Your gut health directly impacts the health of the rest of your body, including your brain. To be healthy, your gut needs a lot of good bacteria – AKA probiotics. So be sure to eat foods rich in probiotics. This can include sauerkraut, kimchi, Greek yogurt, kefir, and any fermented veggies you like!

Your brain does an awful lot for you. Isn’t it time you start paying more attention to what it needs? Eat right and you will experience a big change in your mood, how you think and how your sleep!

RESOURCES:

  • https://www.psycom.net/how-diet-impacts-mood/
  • https://chronoceuticals.com/how-your-diet-affects-sleep-and-mental-health/
  • https://www.health.harvard.edu/blog/nutritional-psychiatry-your-brain-on-food-201511168626

Filed Under: Nutrition

April 28, 2022 by Corrick Woodfin Leave a Comment

Top 5 Ways to Reduce Anxiety

It’s rare that any of us will get through life without experiencing anxiety at some point. But some people have the burden of dealing with anxiety on a daily basis. Whether it’s over something big or insignificant, anxiety stops us from living a normal life full of joy and potential.

Here are 5 ways you can begin reducing your anxiety:

1. Recognize You Are in Control

When you are in the grips of anxiety, it feels very much like it has total control over you. But the reality is, you are in control. While external events can trigger our emotions, ultimately, we have the choice whether we feel those emotions or not. So the good news is, you don’t have to suffer with anxiety, you simply have to decide to show it who’s really boss.

2. Diaphragmatic breathing

This physical strategy is very helpful to relax in stressful situations. While breathing, focus on breathing into the belly while keeping your shoulders down and relaxed. As opposed to expanding your chest, focus on letting your abdomen expand while inhaling.

3. Move Your Body

Exercise is a great way to alleviate the muscle tension that goes along with chronic anxiety. Plus, exercise releases feel good chemicals in your body like serotonin. But don’t sweat it, you don’t have to do a grueling workout at the gym to gain these benefits. Just a half hour a day of walking, biking, swimming or yoga can significantly help reduce your anxiety.

4. Start a Gratitude Journal

Get into the habit of writing down three to five things you are grateful for each night before retiring. This is a simple way to train your mind to focus on all of the good that surrounds you.

5. Speak with a Professional

The cure for any physical or psychological ailment is to get to the root cause of it, not simply manage the symptoms. A psychologist can help you access your inner world to uncover what is triggering your fear and also offer coping tools and strategies.

If you or a loved one is interested in exploring treatment, please contact either of us today. We would be happy to speak with you about how we may be able to help.

Filed Under: Anxiety

April 14, 2022 by Corrick Woodfin Leave a Comment

Have You Suddenly Lost Your Confidence? Try These Tips to Regain Your Swagger!

A lot of people talk about coping with low self-esteem, but less is said about self-esteem that comes and goes. The truth is, when it comes to self-esteem, most people fit in the middle of the spectrum, feeling fairly self-confident one minute and then anxious the next.

If you can identify with swings in your confidence, here are some ways to cope:

Understand Emotions Are Your Friend

Though it’s not always easy dealing with uncomfortable emotions, understand that they are part of our evolved warning system. We all have emotions for a reason, and they can be used as helpful guides in our lives, reminding us how we feel about things. Sometimes, however, this system can break down (as in the case of depression and panic attacks), but generally speaking, our emotions are there to help us.

Sometimes a Loss of Confidence is Justified

Sometimes when we have a sudden loss of confidence, it is completely justified. For example, you may have started a new job and don’t know all the ropes or players on your team. One day you pitch an idea to your new boss and colleagues. Most of them react favorably, but one or two people have a negative reaction. That negative response is likely to rock you disproportionately because you feel you have a lot to prove and want to keep your job.

Our psyche has been designed to react to any kind of uncertainty or mixed signals with anxiety. If it weren’t for our ability to find and react to possible dangers, human beings would have gone extinct a long time ago.

The moral of the story is, don’t make your loss of confidence even worse by chastising yourself for feeling less confident. In many situations, it is a common reaction.

A Loss of Confidence Can Help You Make Better Choices

Often when we feel a sudden loss of confidence, it is a signal that we need to make better choices. Our intuition is trying to get our attention and let us know, “Pssst, you’re not doing it quite right,” or “This wasn’t what you had in mind.”

Instead of panicking about your lack of confidence, listen to it to hear what it’s trying to tell you.

Some common things it might be trying to say are:

  • Finish what you started
  • Test your strategies to see if they are really working
  • Ask for feedback

Typically, our self-confidence comes back as quickly as it left us. But for some, this might not always be the case. Some people struggle day to day with low confidence because they have underlying low self-esteem. These individuals would greatly benefit from working with a psychologist to uncover where these feelings stem from, and how to manage them in the future.

If you or someone you know lacks self-confidence because of low self-esteem and would like to explore treatment options, please contact our office. We’d be more than happy to discuss how we may be able to help.

Filed Under: Self-Esteem

March 31, 2022 by Corrick Woodfin Leave a Comment

How To Stop Beating Yourself Up

When was the last time you heard from your inner critic? You know, that voice in your head that constantly judges you, puts you down and compares you to others. The one that tells you you’re not good enough or smart enough and says things you would never dream of saying to another person.

Now you may think this inner critic, while annoying, is relatively harmless. But this is not the case. This inner critical voice limits you and stops you from living the life you truly desire. It hinders your emotional well-being and, if left unchecked, can even lead to depression or anxiety.

Here are some ways you can silence that inner critic and stop beating yourself up.

  1. Give it Attention

That’s right, in order to gain control over your inner critic you have to know that it exists. Most of our thinking is automatic. In other words, we don’t give our thoughts much thought. We barely notice a critical thought has passed. Give attention to your thoughts, all of them. This will help you recognize the critical voice.

Here are some emotional clues the critic has reared its ugly head: whenever you feel doubt, guilt, shame, and worthlessness. These are almost always signs of the critic at work.

  1. Separate Yourself from Your Inner Critic

Your inner critic is like a parasite, feeding off you. You were not born with this parasite but acquired it along the way. Your inner critic hopes it can hide and blend in, and that you’ll think ITS thoughts are your own.

You have to separate yourself from this parasite. One way to do that is to give your critic a name. Have fun with this naming. You could call your inner critic anything from “Todd” to “Miss. Annoying Loudmouth.” It doesn’t matter.

What matters is that you learn to separate it from your authentic self.

  1. Talk Back

In order to take the power away from your inner critic, you’ve got to give it a taste of its own medicine. As soon as you recognize your inner critic is speaking to you, tell it to be quiet. Tell it that the jig is up, that you know it is a big, fat liar, and that you want it to go away. If you want to really make this voice recoil, tell it you are choosing to be kind to yourself from now on.

Self-compassion to an inner critic is like garlic to a vampire.

  1. Create a New Inner Voice

If you want to defeat an enemy, you need to have a powerful ally on your side. It’s important at this juncture to create an even more powerful inner voice. One that is on your side and acts as your BFF.

To create this new voice, start noticing the good things about yourself. No matter what that nasty critic said about you, the truth is you have fantastic traits and abilities. Start focusing on those. Yes, it will be hard at first to let yourself see you in a positive light, but the more you do it, the easier it will get.

Life is short. To have the most fulfilling one possible, we have to stop wasting time on beating ourselves up. Take these 4 steps and learn to quiet that inner critic. Your best you is waiting to be celebrated.

Some people’s inner critic is stronger than others. Sometimes the greatest ally you can have in your corner is an impartial third party, a psychologist who can see you for who you really are.

If you or a loved one could use some help defeating your inner critic and would like to explore therapy, get in touch with us. We would be pleased to speak with you about how we may be able to help.

Filed Under: Self-Esteem

  • 1
  • 2
  • 3
  • …
  • 22
  • Next Page »

Now in Colour Psychological Services Inc.


katherine@nowincolour.ca corrick@nowincolour.ca

Serving all of Alberta



Contact

Send A Message

By submitting this form via this web portal, you acknowledge and accept that risks of communicating your health information via this unencrypted email and electronic messaging and wish to continue despite those risks. By clicking "Yes, I want to submit this form" you agree to hold Brighter Vision harmless for unauthorized use, disclosure, or access of your protected health information sent via this electronic means.

Our Office Hours

Monday to Thursday: 9:00am - 6:00pm
Friday: 9:00am - 4:00pm
Weekends & Statutory Holidays: Closed

Request An Appointment

Serving all of Alberta

Contact Information

Katherine Schurer: |

Corrick Woodfin: |

  • Facebook
  • Instagram
  • LinkedIn

A Therapist Website by Brighter Vision | Privacy Policy | Terms and Conditions