Living More Fully James Guay (LMFT): Licensed Psychotherapist & Psychology Podcaster

How do we cope with pandemic fatigue, seasonal affective disorder, the holidays blues, on top of post-election stress?
Listen to this episode where James Guay, LMFT speaks to AJ Gibson & Mikalah Gordon on We Are Channel Q Radio about mental health concerns during these unprecedented times.

How do we cope with election stress in 2020?  A Harris Poll taken in August, 2020 showed that 2/3rds of US Americans are experiencing distress related to the election, regardless of political affiliation.
Listen to this episode where James Guay, LMFT speaks to AJ Gibson & Mikalah Gordon on We Are Channel Q Radio about ways to cope with this upcoming election.

James Guay, LMFT speaks with AJ Gibson & Mikalah Gordon on Channel Q's The Morning Beat Radio Show about his COVID-19 Mental Health Survivor Guide.
COVID-19 has transformed our world. Not only has it led to spiked infections, it’s also instilled mass hysteria, global grief, worldwide trauma and a huge stop to our everyday normal routines.
Increase Self-Awareness: The first step to managing our COVID 19 stress better is getting ourselves off auto-pilot by increasing our self-awareness. We’re experiencing collective trauma and grief on a worldwide level. Mindful curiosity, without judgment, is the first step to treat what’s bothering us mentally, emotionally, and spiritually. Attend to Thoughts, Feelings & Body Sensations: Attending to our internal landscape, we need to acknowledge what’s there, allowing for whatever exists without trying to force it to be different. When we reject what we find or judge it, it often gets more intense and lasts longer than it otherwise would. Next, by naming what we find we get closer to identifying it and attending to it in ways that are needed. Take Mindful Action: There are lots of great lists out there about what kinds of activities we can do while staying at home. To read my full blog article on this, my list & linked resources, CLICK HERE. Create Down Time: We are at an opportune time for a global reset on how we manage our time. For far too long, we have promoted production and DOING at the expense of balance and BEING. Both doing and being are essential in living a full life but when they’re out of balance we’re more likely to experience illness, burnout, boredom and overall dissatisfaction in life. Spread Compassion: Mindfulness WITH compassion is the antidote for what ails us. When we increase our awareness in the present moment with curiosity, instead of judgment, and bring compassion to whatever we discover, we can navigate our response to real-life threats, like pandemics. We honor our organic response, get to know it, be with it and create space inside for how we can care for it with gentleness, grace and even fierceness. To read my full blog article, list & linked resources, CLICK HERE.

It's been said that mindfulness without compassion is like a bird with one wing.  Both are essential to living an engaged and full life.  When we come from a place of curiosity, openness AND kindness to experiences in life, we have greater awareness and a depth of understanding that creates greater internal wealth.
In this podcast, I'll guide you through a compassion meditation where you first focus on compassion toward yourself and anything in your internal or external environment that naturally arises.  This meditation is like an exercise class that with enough consistent practice can build your muscles to be more compassionate in a variety of circumstances.

Practicing mindfulness through meditation is the training ground for becoming more mindful in your everyday life.  When we train in this way, we can then develop the internal muscles to navigate life's natural ups and downs.
In this podcast I guide you through a mindfulness meditation that incorporates an increased awareness of your body, your breath and your surroundings, using your five senses.  
Enjoy coming back home to YOU!

How can we BREAK BAD HABITS using mindfulness?
Last time, episode 1 in this series, I defined mindfulness and applied it to reducing anxiety and stress.  
Again, mindfulness is the awareness of the present moment from a place of curiosity.  Instead of being judgmental, we become more objective...more curious...and even compassionate with whatever it is we find, even stuff we don’t like.
One of the many reasons people come into my office for counseling, is because they’ve tried to break a bad habit or pattern on their own, and despite their best efforts, they’re still hooked:
This may be a destructive relationship pattern (like always chasing after the unavailable person or finding yourself in one-sided relationships), Or it could be difficulty managing your alcohol or drug use to the point where it becomes self-destructive, despite your best efforts. It ALSO may be yoyo dieting or yoyo exercising...vacillating between two opposite extremes and having an unhealthy relationship with food or exercise.   EXAMPLE:  Yoyo Dieting
I’m gonna use the example of yoyo dieting, wanting to lose or gain weight, as it’s something most of us can relate to at one time or another in our lives.  There’s so much societal pressure to lose/gain weight, get fit, have ripped abs or some other body ideal. It’s challenging to have a good body image in this day and age.
It’s very easy to go drastic, and in ways that are not so healthy.  We may find ourselves in a habitual pattern of searching for the next best diet regime, doing it for a period of time, losing dramatic weight but then finding ourselves unable to sustain it...because ultimately it’s probably not very healthy for our bodies and our mind in the first place.
A natural byproduct of being too rigid, too perfectionistic or too limiting with anything — let alone our food intake — is that we often swing to the opposite extreme and then feel completely out-of-control.
So...what’s the antidote to yoyo dieting?  Using the tool of mindfulness, we can get to know our self-destructive habits, where they come from, and learn to be kinder and more compassionate with ourselves, like we would a best friend.
So let me take you through what this might look like.
Outer Circle:  Mindfulness of External Messages  
Imagine for a moment, circles within a circle, and the outer circle being our external environment while the inner circle represents our inner life.  When it comes to yoyo dieting, I find it useful to start from the outer external environment. I have a helpful graphic about this, so check it out at www.livingmorefully.com/mindfulness/ along with the show notes for this episode.
Look at Past Influences:
While mindfulness is rooted in the present moment, it’s sometimes helpful to look at our past in order to better understand where our current thoughts, feelings, physical sensations and behaviors around dieting come from.  This isn’t about getting stuck in past resentments or regrets but rather about having a deeper awareness of how we got here. This can help us have a greater felt sense of choice IN THE PRESENT MOMENT.
From a place of mindfulness, ask yourself some questions:
Why do you believe you should lose/gain weight?   What messages did you receive about your body’s weight, shape or size growing up?   What messages did you hear from your family of origin, peers, the media and society at large? What actual experiences have you had where you started to believe that a certain body shape/size would get you more attention, love or validation?   Did you get teased for not being society's ideal weight?   Did you get shamed by a medical provider? How often have you heard or told fat jokes? Let’s recognize that the US weight loss market, at the time of this recording, is now worth 66 billion dollars….a record number, so we see dieting fads marketed ALL the time.
Instead of just analyzing these things from an intellectual perspective