Darkness to Dialogue: Living Well With Mental Illness

Summary  Do you ever react in ways you later regret? In recovery, the difference between reacting and deciding can define your progress. By learning to pause, reflect, and choose intentional responses, you gain control over your healing journey and build resilience that lasts. Quick Insight Reacting is automatic; deciding is intentional. In mental health recovery, pausing before responding allows you to manage emotions, make healthier choices, and strengthen long-term coping skills. Learning to Pause in Recovery Recovery from mental illness isn’t a straight line. For years, I believed that healing meant suppressing my emotions or never stumbling. But the truth is, emotions are going to happen; they’re unavoidable. What matters is how we respond to them. For me, reacting meant snapping at loved ones, shutting down, or spiraling into shame. These patterns kept me stuck in cycles of guilt and frustration, even as I was making progress in other areas of life. Over time, I realized that...

Mental Health in the Workplace August/September 2025 Edition Welcome to the bi-monthly Mental Health in the Workplace feature.  Have you ever felt your heart race or patience vanish during a meeting, email, or deadline? Workplace triggers can spark overwhelming reactions before you even realize what’s happening. Recognizing these triggers and applying coping strategies isn’t just helpful, it’s essential for maintaining mental health and professional effectiveness. Quick Answer Workplace triggers are cues, such as criticism, tight deadlines, or interpersonal conflict, that activate intense emotional or physiological responses. By noticing early warning signs and using grounding and self-regulation strategies, you can manage stress and respond intentionally rather than react impulsively. My Story: Navigating Triggers at Work For years, I noticed that certain situations at work: unexpected emails last-minute changes tense meetings—would leave me anxious, frustrated, or drained.  ...

Estimated Read Time: 7 minutes Summary Trauma and stress aren’t just in your mind; they live in your body. This post explores somatic psychology, showing how understanding and working with bodily sensations can strengthen emotional healing, reduce relapse risk, and create a more holistic recovery journey. Key Takeaway Somatic psychology connects body sensations to emotional healing, revealing how trauma is stored physically. Recognizing and working with these signals supports mental health recovery and sustainable emotional regulation. When the Body Remembers I remember the days when anxiety felt like a heavy weight pressing on my chest, and exhaustion seemed to settle deep in my muscles, no matter how much I rested. My body held stress and pain I couldn’t name; a silent echo of past trauma. "Healing my mind wasn’t enough; my body needed attention too." It took time to realize that trauma isn’t only a mental phenomenon. Somatic psychology taught me that my nervous system, mu...

🔍 What It  Really  Takes to Rewrite Patterns After Trauma, Diagnosis, or Burnout 🕓  Estimated Read Time: 6 minutes 🧠 Article Summary Reconditioning isn’t just about changing behaviors; it’s about healing your nervous system, rewiring automatic thoughts, and creating real, embodied change.  This post explores what reconditioning actually means and why it’s an essential (and often overlooked) part of sustainable mental health recovery. ✨ From Reaction to Resilience: How I Began to Recondition My Mind There was a time in my recovery when I genuinely believed I was broken, because I kept reacting the same way to familiar triggers, even after I had “done the work.” Journaling, reflecting, celebrating small wins... none of it seemed to stop the return of survival-mode reactions when I felt abandoned or unseen. But what I’ve since learned is this: I wasn’t broken, I was conditioned. And what I needed wasn’t just more insight. I needed  reconditioning . Reconditionin...