Wilson Counseling: The Armchair Chronicles

image:laweekly.com Sometimes I like to pass along things that I find inspiring. If you have spent time with me, you know I encourage people to learn to live authentically and to embrace and celebrate the person they were created to be. Researchers who study happiness consistently have found that people who live authentically are more likely to experience happiness and feel a general sense of wellbeing. When I talk about living authentically, I am talking about living in line with your values, ideals, sensibilities, creative instincts, etc. image:advancedstyle.blogspot.com I recently watched a documentary entitled Advanced Style . "Advanced style" It is a term used by photographer/blogger Ari Seth Cohen about the stylish older women whom he photographs. The pictures on this post are from the women in the documentary or from the blog of the same title. These are women in their late 50's to 90's.  In our society, we have so few images of beautiful ...

image: punditforhplanet.com Take this quiz to find out if you have a healthy relationship with food.

image: refinery29.com I was invited to speak with radio host  Dr.Carolyn Clansy Miller on Monday at 9am . Tune in to the show to hear more about how to embrace your body at any size and start feeling confident and strong.

During that "time of the month" it can sometimes feel like you are under an evil spell. The circumstances of your life look grayer, people are more irritating, and nothing seems interesting. Some months it is more severe than others. But, even though it happens every month, many of us are taken by surprise every month . We fall into the depressed mood and negative thoughts as if they are the reality of our lives. I had a client who came in this week looking down and agitated. The spark she normally has in her eyes seemed to have dulled. After sharing the long list of things she was upset about, it came out that she was about to start her period. She had not realized how much this had affected her mood and general outlook on life.  People often buy into their negative feelings as if they are facts. For this particular client, she felt like she woke up feeling ugly and fat, and so she was sure she looked uglier that day. She did not want to see people or have them...

image: http://artilleri.blogspot.com/2011_11_01_archive.html I had a client, Sandra (not her real name) who came in this week feeling particularly down about her weight. She is anorexic, and at least 25-35 pounds under what most doctors would consider a minimum healthy weight. She avoids looking at herself in the mirror, afraid of looking at her "fat body." When Sandra gets in the shower, she checks herself out to see how far out her ribs stick out. It never feels like enough.  Frantic to know that she was skinny enough, she weighed herself and found that she was "only" about 25 pounds underweight. Considering how little she eats, she was sure she would weigh less. Sandra was crushed to see the number on the scale. She ruminated for days feeling disgusted about how much she weighed. I had a second client who came in this week, Claire (not her real name),  also feeling down about her weight. She had started exercising regularly and eating better. Yet, wh...

In a culture obsessed with thinness, it was sort of surprising at first to see a sport that encouraged women to embrace whatever body type they had, but that is exactly what happens in the sport of roller derby . If you ever go to a roller derby game, you will notice there are thin girls, short girls, amazonian girls. It is a wonderful motley crew. Each of these body types carries some advantages in the sport. If you are short and small, you may be able to get low enough to get past your opponents, whereas being bigger may give you extra-strength to block or hit your opponents.   Roller derby turns all of the regular conventions of the "right" body type on its head. A prime example of this is a player named Beyonslay. She learned to use her larger size to her advantage. She is pretty amazing as the video link below attests. And because she is so amazing at using her larger body, it starts to subtly change the way everyone on the team looks at wei...