Easy strategies for dealing with the near-universal experience of stress. Stress has become a near-universal experience as well as a rising public health concern. According to many measures, people today are dealing with stressors that are greater in number and severity than in the past several decades, and this stress is taking a toll on our collective wellness. Bringing considerable content from her popular stress management Web site on About.com, Elizabeth Scott distills information about stress management into central ideas and strategies for consumers. These include learning to reduce the stress response and stressors, practicing long-term resilience habits, and putting positive psychology research into action. These various perspectives provide a multilayered framework for understanding stress and approaching stress management that is inspirational, action-oriented, and backed by foundational and recent knowledge in the field. The quick-to-read “8 keys” format of the book can be utilized on many levels so that busy readers can quickly find relief from stress.

Take-charge strategies to heal your body and brain from stress and trauma. Understanding how our brains and bodies actually work is a powerful tool in mitigating the anxiety generated by unpleasant physical and emotional symptoms that we all may experience from time to time. Here, Robert Scaer unravels the complexities of the brain-body connection, equipping all those who are in distress with a plausible explanation for how they feel. Making the science accessible, he outlines the core neurobiological concepts underlying the brain-body interface and explains why physical and emotional symptoms of stress and trauma occur. He explains why “feelings” represent physical sensations that inform us about the nature of our brain-body conflicts. He also offers practical, easy-to-implement strategies for strengthening motor skills, learning to listen to our gut to gauge our feelings, attuning to the present, and restoring personal boundaries to relieve symptoms and navigate a path to recovery.

Inspiring strategies from a wellness expert for keeping fit, relieving stress, and strengthening emotional well-being. We all know that exercise is good for physical health, but recently, a wealth of data has proven that exercise also contributes to overall mental well-being. Routine exercise alleviates stress and anxiety, moderates depression, relieves chronic pain, and improves self-esteem. In this inspiring book, Christina Hibbert, a clinical psychologist and expert on women's mental health, grief, and self-esteem, explains the connections between exercise and mental well-being and offers readers step-by-step strategies for sticking to fitness goals, overcoming motivation challenges and roadblocks to working out, and maintaining a physically and emotionally healthy exercise regimen. This book will help readers to get moving, stay moving, and maintain the inspiration they need to reap the mental health benefits of regular exercise. The 8 keys include improving self-esteem with exercise, exercising as a family, getting motivated, changing how you think about exercise, and the FITT principle for establishing an effective exercise routine.

Guidance for dealing with this common and frustrating form of behavior. Many people often say “yes” to something when they’d rather say “no.” They offer cooperation through words but follow up with how they really feel—in actions that contradict their words. That’s passive-aggression. At its heart, passive-aggression is about being untrue to oneself, which makes it impossible to have a clean relationship with others. Passive-aggression as a communication method doesn’t make someone “bad.” It is simply a strategy learned in childhood as a coping mechanism, a hard-to-break habit. Changing passive-aggressive behavior requires knowledge, tools, and practice, as outlined here. The book offers effective methods for transforming passive-aggression into healthy assertiveness to communicate in constructive ways through eight keys: Recognize Your Hidden Anger; Reconnect Your Emotions to Your Thoughts; Listen to Your Body; Set Healthy Boundaries; Communicate Assertively; Interact Using Mindfulness; Disable the Enabler; and Problem-Solve for Better Outcomes. Hands-on exercises are featured, enabling readers to better understand themselves.

A practical guide by the man Time magazine has called “the forgiveness trailblazer.” While it may seem like a simple enough act, forgiveness is a difficult, delicate process which, if executed correctly, can be profoundly moving and a deep learning experience. Whatever the scenario may be—whether you need to make peace with a certain situation, with a loved one or friend, or with a total stranger—the process of forgiveness is an art and a science, and this hands-on guide walks readers through it in 8 key steps. How can we become forgivingly “fit”? How can we identify the source of our pain and inner turmoil? How can we find meaning in what we have suffered, or learn to forgive ourselves? What should we do when forgiveness feels like a particularly tall order? All these questions and more are answered in this practical book, leading us to become more tolerant, compassionate, and hopeful human beings.

Compassionate and effective strategies for raising a child with ADHD. Parenting children with ADHD, whether diagnosed or undiagnosed, can be challenging and complex. But just as a child who struggles with reading can learn to decode words, children with ADHD can learn patience, communication, and solution-seeking skills to become more confident, independent, and capable. This book, rich with optimism, tips, tools, and action plans, offers science-based insights and systems for parents to help cultivate these skills. Combining expert information with practical, sensitive advice, the eight “key” concepts here will help parents reduce chaos, improve cooperation, and nurture the advantages—like creativity and drive—that often accompany all of that energy. Based on author Cindy Goldrich’s seven-session workshop entitled Calm and Connected: Parenting Kids with ADHD©, this book focuses on developing and strengthening effective interpersonal skills in both parents and children as a way to improve conflict resolution. Following the parenting principle to “Parent the child you have,” Goldrich offers advice to help readers tailor their parenting to meet the needs of their unique child. The book also leads parents to recognize the value of being a leader and a guide to children, building parents’ confidence in their decision-making, and giving children a sense of safety, security, and confidence. The principles outlined in 8 Keys to Parenting Children with ADHD are appropriate for parenting kids of all ages—until they have “launched” and are on their own.

Bridging the gap between neuroscience and clinical therapy. In this handbook, clinical psychologist and bestselling author Jennifer Sweeton details the eight main areas of the brain affected by mental illness, how brain changes show up in the therapy room as symptoms and behaviors, and the types of therapies and psychotherapeutic techniques research has shown can heal the brain. Areas covered are the thalamus, amygdala, hippocampus, insula, nucleus accumbens, anterior cingulate, ventromedial prefrontal cortex, and dorsolateral prefrontal cortex. No longer will you need to feel unsure when referencing basic brain functions related to behavioral health. After reading this book, you will feel confident and excited about your ability to take a client-centered, strategic, brain-based approach to treatment planning. Chapter summaries and tables of brain region, mental health condition, and therapeutic approach are included for easy reference.