Okay, let’s face facts: we all procrastinate sometimes.  There are things we dread doing, things we like to “put on the back burner” because they’re no fun, and so on.  A lot of times, we even fool ourselves into thinking that the task we put off will be completed by magic somehow, requiring no thought—and certainly no effort—from us!  I’ve done it.  You’ve done it.  We all do from time to time.  Often we aren’t even aware that it is procrastination preventing that particular thing from being done.  So what’s going on?

Although someone has probably made a life’s work out of studying procrastination, I am inclined to put off extensive exploration into the topic… That was a joke.  Honestly though, we can understand procrastination quite easily by recognizing that it comes out of a few basic human attitudes and that it can be overcome with specific self-management techniques.  The trick to it all, like in a lot of things, is to increase awareness of when it is happening, and to substitute something new.  Understanding why anyone might procrastinate could be a beginning point: (more…)

Borrowing a line from Mad Magazine’s Alfred E. Newman might bring a laugh, but of course most of us DO worry from time to time.  It’s only natural to have moments of concern and uncertainty when a child is late getting home, while awaiting the outcome of medical tests, or in times of great financial upheaval such as those we’ve seen in the past couple of years.

Is it natural to worry? Yes.  Comfortable? No.  Effective? Probably not.   When patients come into my practice describing worry that wrings the pleasure out of life, it does them no good for me to say, “Relax! Don’t worry!”  The cycle of thinking and emotion driving the experience we call “worry” is not so easily disassembled as all that, but with new skills the intensity of worry can be much reduced. (more…)