General

Your Mind is a Muscle   Here at Mental Fitness, we believe the mind is a muscle. It can be trained. It can be conditioned.   Just like we’re not born overweight, we’re not born stressed or depressed either. We’re conditioned to be that way; but just like one can lose weight with the help…

  Relationship Tip: The Opposite of Little Finger Rule   For those who may not be familiar with the character, “Little Finger,” he is one of the many villainous characters in the HBO series, Game of Thrones.   Knowing that, here’s how he ties into therapy!   Yesterday in a session, I was talking with…

UBI Now: We Can’t Afford to Wait   As a society, we grossly underuse the resources we already have at hand, and instead try to implement social programs that, quite frankly don’t work well. For example…   Millions of Americans went to food banks for the first time in 2020 as grocery stores in some…

  Doing Mental Health Therapy is Actually a Lot Like Being a Masseuse   Just like people come see a masseuse when their posture is poor and their muscles have knots, people come in to see us at Mental Fitness because their mind is kinked and their path is unclear.   Whereas a masseuse works…

Allegheny County has been awarded a $21.8 million grant to help reduce homelessness. The county says the 65 projects will be funded representing 20 different agencies. Now, don’t get me wrong. I’m a social worker. I’m all for helping the homeless. The question for me is, is this really the best way to go about…

Valuing Intent Over Impact As a society, we ought to assume good intent in people more often. It’s 2021. It’s easy to misspeak. We’re all doing the best we can to keep up with the newest way to be politically correct, but we need to stop overvaluing subjective individual impact. Rather, let’s spread more love,…

Why I Don’t Like Being a “Boss”   I don’t know about you, but I’ve always felt weird about the terms “leader,” “boss,” or “supervisor.” To me, they suggest a power dynamic that creates a self-fulfilling prophecy of grandiose importance, or on the other side, dependence.   Perhaps mentor/mentee is a bit better in its…

  As a professional substance abuse counselor who has worked with thousands of people working to achieve recovery, I do believe we should regulate and legalize all drugs. We’ve been fighting and losing the war on drugs for years and we need some new approaches.   The truth is, only about 25% of people who…

Maybe Imposter Syndrome never fully goes away… For those who may not be familiar with the term, Imposter Syndrome refer to “an internal experience of believing that you are not as competent as others perceive you to be.” Well said, Google.   Still, as much as it pains me to admit, it’s true… I’ve been operating…

Trying to Eliminate Anxiety is the Wrong Goal Did you know? Trying to eliminate, reduce, or manage anxiety is the WRONG GOAL and will actually get you worse results. Rather it’s better to view any feelings of anxiety as a temporary companion and one of life’s greatest teachers!   Don’t believe me? Think of it…