Creating Midlife Calm: Coping Skills for Stress & Anxiety in Family, Work & Relationships

What the heck is Psychological Intelligence? It's the great connector. The skill set that helps us understand, feel heard and come to know others. Why have you not heard of this skill set? I have no idea.  It's the Rodney Dangerfield of Mental Wellness and I am on a campaign to increase our knowledge of what Psychological Intelligence is as well as how to apply it in everyday life. Who doesn't want their relationships at home, work and the coffee shop to be more fulfilling?  Check out the one pager that visualizes this episode: https://mjmurrayvachon.com/one-pagers/.  U Can Do This!Creating Midlife Calm is a podcast designed to guide you through the challenges of midlife, tackling issues like anxiety, low self-esteem, feeling unworthy, procrastination, and isolation, while offering strategies for improving relationships, family support, emotional wellbeing, mental wellness, and parenting, with a focus on mindfulness, stress management, coping skills, and personal growth to stop rumination, overthinking, and increase confidence through self-care, emotional healing, and mental health support. Send us Fan Mail****About the Host:MJ Murray Vachon LCSW is a Licensed Clinical Social Worker with more than 48,000 hours of therapy sessions and 31 years of experience teaching her Mental Wellness curriculum, Inner Challenge. Four years ago she overcame her fear of technology to create a podcast that integrated her vast clinical experience and  practical wisdom of cultivating mental wellness using the latest information from neuroscience. MJ was Social Worker of the Year in 2011 for Region 2/IN.Creating Midlife Calm is a podcast designed to guide you through the challenges of midlife, tackling issues like anxiety, low self-esteem, feeling unworthy, procrastination, and isolation, while offering strategies for improving relationships, family support, emotional wellbeing, mental wellness, and parenting, with a focus on mindfulness, stress management, coping skills, and personal growth to stop rumination, overthinking, and increase confidence through self-care, emotional healing, and mental health support. 

Isn't it grand that Social Intelligence has nothing to do with how many likes or friends you have on social media? Are you one of the many people trying to figure out how to increase human connection after lock downs and hours scrolling on TikTok? Humans are social beings so it might seem weird that we need to up our smarts when it comes to Social Intelligence--but, we do.  The information MJ shares in this podcast is her most requested workshop (more than 8000 people) and when taught to College Football Players, one jumped up and exclaimed, "I get it, I get it--this is really what humans want!  Yep! Go to: https://mjmurrayvachon.com/one-pagers/ for a fabulous one pager!  You can do this!Creating Midlife Calm is a podcast designed to guide you through the challenges of midlife, tackling issues like anxiety, low self-esteem, feeling unworthy, procrastination, and isolation, while offering strategies for improving relationships, family support, emotional wellbeing, mental wellness, and parenting, with a focus on mindfulness, stress management, coping skills, and personal growth to stop rumination, overthinking, and increase confidence through self-care, emotional healing, and mental health support.Send us Fan Mail****About the Host:MJ Murray Vachon LCSW is a Licensed Clinical Social Worker with more than 48,000 hours of therapy sessions and 31 years of experience teaching her Mental Wellness curriculum, Inner Challenge. Four years ago she overcame her fear of technology to create a podcast that integrated her vast clinical experience and  practical wisdom of cultivating mental wellness using the latest information from neuroscience. MJ was Social Worker of the Year in 2011 for Region 2/IN.Creating Midlife Calm is a podcast designed to guide you through the challenges of midlife, tackling issues like anxiety, low self-esteem, feeling unworthy, procrastination, and isolation, while offering strategies for improving relationships, family support, emotional wellbeing, mental wellness, and parenting, with a focus on mindfulness, stress management, coping skills, and personal growth to stop rumination, overthinking, and increase confidence through self-care, emotional healing, and mental health support. 

What's your superpower? If it's managing your phone, skip this episode. If you're like most of us this little bit of tech wizardry is managing you more than you're managing it. Skip the dismal statistics, forget the doomsday predictions and listen to this episode. Don't underestimate your ability to put your phone in its proper place. MJ offers her 5 step solution, teenager approved, that helps you use your phone to improve your mental wellness. Another great one pager at: https://mjmurrayvachon.com/one-pagers/.  Includes wallpaper for your phone to help you remember the process.  Instead of feeling less than, lonely or pissed that you spent 90 minutes looking at sand castles you too can have a superpower!Creating Midlife Calm is a podcast designed to guide you through the challenges of midlife, tackling issues like anxiety, low self-esteem, feeling unworthy, procrastination, and isolation, while offering strategies for improving relationships, family support, emotional wellbeing, mental wellness, and parenting, with a focus on mindfulness, stress management, coping skills, and personal growth to stop rumination, overthinking, and increase confidence through self-care, emotional healing, and mental health support.Send us Fan Mail****About the Host:MJ Murray Vachon LCSW is a Licensed Clinical Social Worker with more than 48,000 hours of therapy sessions and 31 years of experience teaching her Mental Wellness curriculum, Inner Challenge. Four years ago she overcame her fear of technology to create a podcast that integrated her vast clinical experience and  practical wisdom of cultivating mental wellness using the latest information from neuroscience. MJ was Social Worker of the Year in 2011 for Region 2/IN.Creating Midlife Calm is a podcast designed to guide you through the challenges of midlife, tackling issues like anxiety, low self-esteem, feeling unworthy, procrastination, and isolation, while offering strategies for improving relationships, family support, emotional wellbeing, mental wellness, and parenting, with a focus on mindfulness, stress management, coping skills, and personal growth to stop rumination, overthinking, and increase confidence through self-care, emotional healing, and mental health support. 

Sleep: The New Skill Set. This how a former client of mine categorized sleep after he went from 5.5 hours a night to 7.5 hours a night. He begged me to teach people the value of what he called a new skill set.  I did not tell him that sleep is the oldest skill known to humans but I did agree to share what he learned with all I met along the way. Join me for this absolutely essential piece of the Mental Wellness puzzle. Don't forget to download the one pager, this one is my favorite, at Go to https://mjmurrayvachon.com/one-pagers/. You Can Do This!Creating Midlife Calm is a podcast designed to guide you through the challenges of midlife, tackling issues like anxiety, low self-esteem, feeling unworthy, procrastination, and isolation, while offering strategies for improving relationships, family support, emotional wellbeing, mental wellness, and parenting, with a focus on mindfulness, stress management, coping skills, and personal growth to stop rumination, overthinking, and increase confidence through self-care, emotional healing, and mental health support.Send us Fan Mail****About the Host:MJ Murray Vachon LCSW is a Licensed Clinical Social Worker with more than 48,000 hours of therapy sessions and 31 years of experience teaching her Mental Wellness curriculum, Inner Challenge. Four years ago she overcame her fear of technology to create a podcast that integrated her vast clinical experience and  practical wisdom of cultivating mental wellness using the latest information from neuroscience. MJ was Social Worker of the Year in 2011 for Region 2/IN.Creating Midlife Calm is a podcast designed to guide you through the challenges of midlife, tackling issues like anxiety, low self-esteem, feeling unworthy, procrastination, and isolation, while offering strategies for improving relationships, family support, emotional wellbeing, mental wellness, and parenting, with a focus on mindfulness, stress management, coping skills, and personal growth to stop rumination, overthinking, and increase confidence through self-care, emotional healing, and mental health support. 

Self-Care...Blah, Blah, Blah. We hear about it all the time and most of the time it just makes us feel we are not beautiful enough, skinny enough, rippled enough, organic enough or just plain-- enough. This episode changes the focus from outside to inside. Join MJ as she asks you to think about Self-Care using the lens of  Mental Wellness. Go to https://mjmurrayvachon.com/one-pagers/ for a great one pager summarizing  this episode. It's time to build your NESTS so you actually feel better about YOU! Creating Midlife Calm is a podcast designed to guide you through the challenges of midlife, tackling issues like anxiety, low self-esteem, feeling unworthy, procrastination, and isolation, while offering strategies for improving relationships, family support, emotional wellbeing, mental wellness, and parenting, with a focus on mindfulness, stress management, coping skills, and personal growth to stop rumination, overthinking, and increase confidence through self-care, emotional healing, and mental health support.Send us Fan Mail****About the Host:MJ Murray Vachon LCSW is a Licensed Clinical Social Worker with more than 48,000 hours of therapy sessions and 31 years of experience teaching her Mental Wellness curriculum, Inner Challenge. Four years ago she overcame her fear of technology to create a podcast that integrated her vast clinical experience and  practical wisdom of cultivating mental wellness using the latest information from neuroscience. MJ was Social Worker of the Year in 2011 for Region 2/IN.Creating Midlife Calm is a podcast designed to guide you through the challenges of midlife, tackling issues like anxiety, low self-esteem, feeling unworthy, procrastination, and isolation, while offering strategies for improving relationships, family support, emotional wellbeing, mental wellness, and parenting, with a focus on mindfulness, stress management, coping skills, and personal growth to stop rumination, overthinking, and increase confidence through self-care, emotional healing, and mental health support. 

Well...are they? In this episode, MJ basically offers you the M & M's method of managing emotions. MJ asks you to observe if you use an external mindset or an internal mindset when something triggers an emotional reaction. Knowing the difference helps you to quickly learn how  to name, tame and aim your emotions. This  helps you build healthy connection to yourself and others be it at home, work or even in a coffee shop. There are few skills that cultivate mental wellness like learning to managing our emotions.  Don't forget to check out the one pager for this episode which will really help you solidify this mental wellness skill. Go to: https://mjmurrayvachon.com/one-pagers/ . YOU CAN DO THIS!Creating Midlife Calm is a podcast designed to guide you through the challenges of midlife, tackling issues like anxiety, low self-esteem, feeling unworthy, procrastination, and isolation, while offering strategies for improving relationships, family support, emotional wellbeing, mental wellness, and parenting, with a focus on mindfulness, stress management, coping skills, and personal growth to stop rumination, overthinking, and increase confidence through self-care, emotional healing, and mental health support.Send us Fan Mail****About the Host:MJ Murray Vachon LCSW is a Licensed Clinical Social Worker with more than 48,000 hours of therapy sessions and 31 years of experience teaching her Mental Wellness curriculum, Inner Challenge. Four years ago she overcame her fear of technology to create a podcast that integrated her vast clinical experience and  practical wisdom of cultivating mental wellness using the latest information from neuroscience. MJ was Social Worker of the Year in 2011 for Region 2/IN.Creating Midlife Calm is a podcast designed to guide you through the challenges of midlife, tackling issues like anxiety, low self-esteem, feeling unworthy, procrastination, and isolation, while offering strategies for improving relationships, family support, emotional wellbeing, mental wellness, and parenting, with a focus on mindfulness, stress management, coping skills, and personal growth to stop rumination, overthinking, and increase confidence through self-care, emotional healing, and mental health support. 

Listen to find out how potty training and emotional regulation have more in common than you might think. Managing our emotions is probably the most underrated skill since the beginning of time.  In Part 1, MJ gives some facts about feelings as well as the 8 basic emotions each of us should know in order to up our emotional intelligence. Go to https://mjmurrayvachon.com/one-pagers/ for a great one pager summarizing this episode. Remember if you don't potty train your emotions you'll end up in a lot of shit.Creating Midlife Calm is a podcast designed to guide you through the challenges of midlife, tackling issues like anxiety, low self-esteem, feeling unworthy, procrastination, and isolation, while offering strategies for improving relationships, family support, emotional wellbeing, mental wellness, and parenting, with a focus on mindfulness, stress management, coping skills, and personal growth to stop rumination, overthinking, and increase confidence through self-care, emotional healing, and mental health support.Send us Fan Mail****About the Host:MJ Murray Vachon LCSW is a Licensed Clinical Social Worker with more than 48,000 hours of therapy sessions and 31 years of experience teaching her Mental Wellness curriculum, Inner Challenge. Four years ago she overcame her fear of technology to create a podcast that integrated her vast clinical experience and  practical wisdom of cultivating mental wellness using the latest information from neuroscience. MJ was Social Worker of the Year in 2011 for Region 2/IN.Creating Midlife Calm is a podcast designed to guide you through the challenges of midlife, tackling issues like anxiety, low self-esteem, feeling unworthy, procrastination, and isolation, while offering strategies for improving relationships, family support, emotional wellbeing, mental wellness, and parenting, with a focus on mindfulness, stress management, coping skills, and personal growth to stop rumination, overthinking, and increase confidence through self-care, emotional healing, and mental health support. 

One of the biggest shocks for many people is that Mental Wellness is an inside job. So often we feel that if things  went our way  we would be happy, peaceful and calm. To some degree this is true, but the problem is that lovely state is fleeing and before we know it we're back to worrying or annoyed by the next thing our mind focuses on. This episode will help you understand the relationship between our brain and mind and how a little training and tending goes a long way in cultivating a mental state that can remain peaceful, calm and happy in the good times as well as the not so good times. Go to https://mjmurrayvachon.com/one-pagers/ for a great one pager summarizing  this episode.Creating Midlife Calm is a podcast designed to guide you through the challenges of midlife, tackling issues like anxiety, low self-esteem, feeling unworthy, procrastination, and isolation, while offering strategies for improving relationships, family support, emotional wellbeing, mental wellness, and parenting, with a focus on mindfulness, stress management, coping skills, and personal growth to stop rumination, overthinking, and increase confidence through self-care, emotional healing, and mental health support. Send us Fan Mail****About the Host:MJ Murray Vachon LCSW is a Licensed Clinical Social Worker with more than 48,000 hours of therapy sessions and 31 years of experience teaching her Mental Wellness curriculum, Inner Challenge. Four years ago she overcame her fear of technology to create a podcast that integrated her vast clinical experience and  practical wisdom of cultivating mental wellness using the latest information from neuroscience. MJ was Social Worker of the Year in 2011 for Region 2/IN.Creating Midlife Calm is a podcast designed to guide you through the challenges of midlife, tackling issues like anxiety, low self-esteem, feeling unworthy, procrastination, and isolation, while offering strategies for improving relationships, family support, emotional wellbeing, mental wellness, and parenting, with a focus on mindfulness, stress management, coping skills, and personal growth to stop rumination, overthinking, and increase confidence through self-care, emotional healing, and mental health support. 

Picking up where we left off on episode #3, we continue to look at how we answer the question, Who Am I? using  Dr. Erik Erikson's psychosocial model of human development. This episode focuses on  adolescence through old age and all the years in-between. Knowing who we are helps us to make choices that are in alignment with our values, interests and  abilities which helps cultivate mental wellness. So often we focus on Who We Aren't but  this episode encourages us to look at Who Am I?-- using the lens of I'm Enough!  Go to  https://mjmurrayvachon.com/one-pagers/ for a great one pager summarizing  this episode.Creating Midlife Calm is a podcast designed to guide you through the challenges of midlife, tackling issues like anxiety, low self-esteem, feeling unworthy, procrastination, and isolation, while offering strategies for improving relationships, family support, emotional wellbeing, mental wellness, and parenting, with a focus on mindfulness, stress management, coping skills, and personal growth to stop rumination, overthinking, and increase confidence through self-care, emotional healing, and mental health support. Send us Fan Mail****About the Host:MJ Murray Vachon LCSW is a Licensed Clinical Social Worker with more than 48,000 hours of therapy sessions and 31 years of experience teaching her Mental Wellness curriculum, Inner Challenge. Four years ago she overcame her fear of technology to create a podcast that integrated her vast clinical experience and  practical wisdom of cultivating mental wellness using the latest information from neuroscience. MJ was Social Worker of the Year in 2011 for Region 2/IN.Creating Midlife Calm is a podcast designed to guide you through the challenges of midlife, tackling issues like anxiety, low self-esteem, feeling unworthy, procrastination, and isolation, while offering strategies for improving relationships, family support, emotional wellbeing, mental wellness, and parenting, with a focus on mindfulness, stress management, coping skills, and personal growth to stop rumination, overthinking, and increase confidence through self-care, emotional healing, and mental health support. 

From the beginning of time humans have been on the journey of answering the question Who Am I?  As we reflect on mental wellness and self-growth we often hear the word  authenticity.  How does one become authentic? There is no "right way" to become authentically YOU.  Who you are is a dynamic process that  unfolds over a lifetime. When we view our life as a story we naturally start with our  growth and development from infancy onward.   Join MJ as she encourages you to look at this question using the lens of Dr. Erik Erikson Ph.D and his psychosocial model of growth.  Using the tools of self-observation, insight and reflection we  look back in order to move forward with more clarity,  understanding and compassion  which leads to authenticity.  In this two-part podcast MJ will look at the first 12 years of life. As you listen, you will naturally find yourself remembering these years and how they  influence your  answer to the question, Who Am I? Go to  https://mjmurrayvachon.com/one-pagers/ for a great one pager summarizing  this episode.Creating Midlife Calm is a podcast designed to guide you through the challenges of midlife, tackling issues like anxiety, low self-esteem, feeling unworthy, procrastination, and isolation, while offering strategies for improving relationships, family support, emotional wellbeing, mental wellness, and parenting, with a focus on mindfulness, stress management, coping skills, and personal growth to stop rumination, overthinking, and increase confidence through self-care, emotional healing, and mental health support. Send us Fan Mail****About the Host:MJ Murray Vachon LCSW is a Licensed Clinical Social Worker with more than 48,000 hours of therapy sessions and 31 years of experience teaching her Mental Wellness curriculum, Inner Challenge. Four years ago she overcame her fear of technology to create a podcast that integrated her vast clinical experience and  practical wisdom of cultivating mental wellness using the latest information from neuroscience. MJ was Social Worker of the Year in 2011 for Region 2/IN.Creating Midlife Calm is a podcast designed to guide you through the challenges of midlife, tackling issues like anxiety, low self-esteem, feeling unworthy, procrastination, and isolation, while offering strategies for improving relationships, family support, emotional wellbeing, mental wellness, and parenting, with a focus on mindfulness, stress management, coping skills, and personal growth to stop rumination, overthinking, and increase confidence through self-care, emotional healing, and mental health support.