Managing RSD in ADHD

In a previous post, we outlined how RSD in ADHD is often related to an underlying sense of shame, which is exacerbated when one is met with judgement or criticism. The resulting emotional response is intense, emotionally dysregulating, and can impact one’s self-worth and self-perception. However, it is important to keep in mind that this reaction occurs after an event is emotionally interpreted and is highly likely to be interpreted based on pre-existing negative beliefs you might hold about yourself. This might make the perceived rejection seem more intense or severe than it actually is. (A reminder from our previous post: RSD is not a formal diagnosis — it is a widely used term for the intense emotional response to perceived rejection that many people with ADHD describe.)

So how do we manage RSD?

Identify the triggers → what situation or event is making you feel dysregulated or questioning yourself? What emotions are coming up for you in response?

Practice Emotional Acceptance → try not to judge or change the emotions that come up for you.

Identify themes in the triggers → when met with rejection, we have a tendency to ruminate to understand the “why” behind it; however, in an emotionally intense state it is easy for an inaccurate narrative to take root. We often end up telling ourselves stories about ourselves riddled with blame and negative self-perceptions. Try to identify the type of stories you are telling about yourself.

Practice Self-Compassion → when you identify a negative thought pattern, try reframing it in a way that you would for a friend; in essence, flip the script on yourself! Some folks also find it helpful to use affirmations to guide them through self-compassion (see below).

To put the above into action, you can use the following tools to support you:

Journaling → write down the thoughts and feelings coming to you; this process forces you to slow down, process, and comprehend your emotions better, which also makes it easier to identify stories you might be telling about yourself.

Deep Breathing Exercises → Box breathing: breathe in, hold, breathe out, and hold again, each for four counts; repeat for several rounds (guided box breathing videos are also easy to find online).

Sensory Grounding → Engage your senses; go be in nature and watch your surroundings; splash cold water on your face; take a warm bath with essential oils; chew on some minty gum.

Use affirmations to practice self-compassion:

I am allowed to stumble and make mistakes, and this does not define me or make me a bad person
I am having a difficult moment, and it will pass
My feelings are real and painful, but they are not facts
Someone else’s mood or feedback belongs to them, not to me

Illustrative Case Example: Emily has started her training at a new job this week, and today is her fourth day on site. Yesterday, she forgot to complete a task during training, which was later corrected by a coworker. This morning, she noted that this same coworker walked past her desk without greeting her. Emily is now feeling a heaviness in her chest and is wondering if the coworker is upset over her mistake from yesterday. She is now worrying that the mistake had bigger consequences that she is unaware of. She is now doubting her ability to succeed at this job and does not feel deserving of it. She is also afraid of being disliked by her coworkers.

Emily’s triggers → Her coworker did not greet her this morning; this has caused Emily to feel shame, anxiety and doubt about her place in her new workplace.

Practice emotional acceptance → Emily notices the shame, anxiety, and doubt without judging them (i.e. does not label them as overreacting). She lets herself feel these emotions and practices some deep breathing to help with the heaviness in her chest.

Identify themes in triggers → Later, Emily journals about her day and finds that she is still ruminating on the morning’s events (even though the rest of the day at work went just fine). She realizes she told herself a story: that she is incapable and inconveniencing others and therefore must be disliked and unable to keep this job. She is able to identify that she assumed an action (no greeting) to be a personal attack.

Practice Self-Compassion → Emily tells herself, “I don’t think her not greeting me was about me. I think she was in a rush getting in and likely tired and stressed from the morning.” She also reminds herself that she is allowed to stumble and make mistakes at work, especially because she is new to the job, and that making mistakes does not make her unworthy of having the job.

November 2, 2026

Creating Boundaries with Social Media

Social media use comes with both risks and benefits; on the one hand, it keeps us connected and informed. A growing body of research suggests that how we use social media can influence mental health, well-being, productivity, and relationships. The effects vary from person to person and depend on factors such as the amount of use, the type of content consumed, and how someone engages with social media. Social media platforms use algorithms that are designed to maximize engagement, which can make it easy to spend more time scrolling than intended; however, there is no real filtering of content that is beneficial to you versus harmful. As such, it is worth considering how to be intentional and set good boundaries with social media use; the goal is not to stop using it altogether, but to use it while preserving the things that matter to you, like your short- and long-term goals and relationships.

How to Set Boundaries with Social Media:

Becoming More Aware & Intentional:

Assess your relationship with social media: What benefits do you get from it? Are there ways that it’s becoming inconvenient or even harmful? Assessing this allows you to set goals about what you want your social media use to look like.

Curate your feed: every “like” and view feeds information toward an algorithm. You can choose what content you want to engage with. Engage with content that leaves you feeling informed, inspired, or connected, and consider skipping content that leaves you feeling anxious, discouraged, or drained.

Audit your following list: You may have started following certain accounts because they might have aligned with certain goals or ideas at one point in your life, but it’s possible that these accounts now make you feel anxious or discouraged. If unfollowing is not an option, the mute button can also be helpful!

Reducing Distractions:

Keep your phone away when out with friends and family in an effort to be more present with those around you.

When trying to get work done, use apps like Freedom, AppBlock, One Sec and Cold Turkey to block apps/sites that are distracting and prevent you from working toward your goal.

Build a Routine/Habits around Use:

Build your tolerance for being “screen-free”: Start small by choosing one time of the day (e.g., evening) each week to be screen-free. As this becomes easier, consider increasing to several evenings per week. Another option is to dedicate one full day each week to minimizing recreational screen use.

Set a daily reminder to be away from your phone 1 hour before bed.

Prevent Doomscrolling: Avoid bringing your phone into bed as that is where it’s easiest to doomscroll. If you want to scroll, set a timer for 10–20 minutes beforehand. When the timer goes off, put your phone away and transition to another activity, such as reading, stretching, or preparing for sleep.

November 2, 2026

Deep Breathing: Why Does It Work for Anxiety?

If you have ever been to therapy, you might have noticed that your therapist teaches you different breathing techniques to help manage challenges with stress and anxiety. But why do we do this? How are these breathing exercises different from normal breathing? And why does it work?

First, we need to understand that one way our autonomic nervous system regulates itself is through breath:

Our “normal” breath at rest is usually pretty steady, and we don’t typically think about it since it’s automatic. If you were to observe your normal breath, you would notice that you feel it in both your chest and belly.

When we get stressed, our breathing automatically becomes fast and shallow and is felt most in the chest; this is why many people complain about feeling their chest tighten when they feel anxious! This is part of sympathetic nervous system activation, also known as the fight-or-flight response.

Calm breathing, on the other hand, is deeper and slower than both stressed and normal breathing and can be felt deep in the belly. This response is automatic when we are entering any type of resting state, for example, after eating or during sleep.

This system for regulating our breath evolved to allow for whole-body coordination that allowed our ancestors to use energy based on the demands of their environment, whether that meant fighting off a threat or resting after surviving the threat.

In the present day, however, we are not fighting off threats the way we used to; however, our biology remains unchanged. This is why, when you are anxious about more abstract stressors like negative events you see in the news, your body perceives it as a threat akin to a tiger in the wild. We end up overestimating danger and ignoring the cues that tell us we are actually safe. One of the ways in which our body responds is with rapid, shallow breathing when a threat (big or small) is perceived. When you practice intentional deep, slow breathing when under stress, what you are doing is calming down the body’s automatic stress response and teaching your brain and body that you are actually safe.

The next time you are anxious, you can attempt to slow your breath using one of the following simple strategies:

Box Breathing: Follow a pattern of inhale > hold > exhale > hold… for four seconds each. You can visualize tracing four sides of a square as you do this. Do this for at least four cycles, or until you feel yourself relax.

4-7-8: Inhale through your nose for four counts. Hold your breath for seven counts. Exhale through your mouth for eight counts. Repeat this cycle four times, or until you feel yourself relax.

Note: If you feel dizzy/lightheaded, short of breath, chest pain, or start to feel confused, stop the exercise immediately. If you are pregnant or have a heart or lung condition, check with a healthcare provider before practising exercises that involve holding your breath.

November 2, 2026

6 Questions to Ask a Therapist Before You Start Therapy

When considering starting therapy, it is important to acknowledge the vulnerability that comes with the therapeutic space. One of the best things to do beforehand is assess, to the best of your abilities, whether a therapist is a good fit for you. Think of the initial consultation as an interview for you to assess if this is someone you can trust and work with toward your goals.

What experience do you have with my specific concern? → A question like this focuses less on therapist qualifications (which can also be an important question to ask!), and more on their experience and whether they have any familiarity with your concerns, and therefore the appropriate resources to support you.

How will we decide when the therapy is enough? → Although this question may seem odd because it is asking about the end of therapy before it has even started, it is a good question to ask to get a sense of what the therapist deems as progress, and whether that matches up with your own goals going into sessions. While there is no right answer (as most therapists vary in their approach), common themes to look for include a therapist who views progress as goals-based and collaborative between the two of you. This is also a good way to discuss how the therapist tracks progress, whether they are open to changing treatment goals over time, and if, once you reach treatment goals, they are amenable to reducing session frequency or prefer to stop treatment altogether.

What treatment approach, modalities, or strategies do you use? → Asking this question might prompt your therapist to list terms like CBT, DBT, ACT, among many others and based on the concerns you are presenting with. Should they identify a specific modality they practice, it might be good to ask what that looks like in practice for your specific concerns coming into therapy.

What does a typical session look like with you? → To understand what sessions might actually feel like, a question like this can help you identify the therapist’s in-session process. Do they have a more structured approach/are more strategy-based? Or do they let you, the client, lead? Are there specific life areas they like to focus on? Every therapist will have a different approach.

What do you expect from me as a client? → Related to the last question, this might be a good question to ask to know if the therapist regularly prescribes any type of homework between sessions, such as skill exercises or thought records. If the therapist feels this is an integral part of their work with you, and you’re not amenable to it, that is good information to have when deciding whether that therapist is a good fit for you.

How will we know if we are a good fit? → Given the personal nature of therapy, this might be one of the most important questions you can ask your prospective therapist. There are a lot of great therapists out there, but even the “best” are not the right fit for a number of people. For a question like this, pay most attention to how the therapist responds and how it makes you feel: does their response show respect? Honesty? Empathy?

November 2, 2026

People-Pleasing & Boundaries

A popular term many use to describe themselves is a “people-pleaser”; usually, when one uses this term, it’s used to describe behaviour that is centred around making others happy. Some even use it synonymously with selflessness. If you identify with this term, you might even assume that by people-pleasing, you have the power to make everyone happy. However, this is a distorted view of relationships, because usually different, often conflicting things make different people happy; as a result, someone is usually bound to become disappointed by your choices. The hard part is being able to tolerate the discomfort that comes with having disappointed someone, particularly if we have always been taught to fear upsetting people, yearn for the approval of others, or associate our self-worth with our ability to be of service to others.

Here are some common ways in which people-pleasing behaviour shows up:

Saying yes to everything to the point of overcommitting yourself
Excessively apologizing, even for minor things
Moulding your opinions and feelings based on what everyone around you is saying
Making excuses for others’ bad behaviour to avoid conflict
Feeling responsible for someone else’s feelings
A strong need for external validation to feel good about yourself (and difficulty with self-validation)

There are real mental health implications to people-pleasing, such as emotional exhaustion, loss of identity, and resentment. This is usually because the people-pleasing behaviour comes at a personal cost to one’s own needs and values. This indicates a lapse in boundaries, or personal limits, in a given relationship. When our boundaries are too loose, we become overinvolved, often at the expense of our own feelings; this is common in people-pleasing. Conversely, when our boundaries are too rigid, we risk isolating ourselves from emotional connection. The goal is to find a balance: to be able to honour our feelings while remaining emotionally open.

Breaking away from people-pleasing tendencies and setting boundaries can take time and practice; we can think of the process in three stages:

Building Self-awareness ⇒ When a request or demand from someone comes up, notice your tendency to gravitate to responding with a “yes” immediately. Take a pause and ask for some time to think about your decision (“maybe”). Check in with yourself about where that immediate “yes” is coming from: do you genuinely want to? Or is there a fear of upsetting the other by saying no?

Setting Boundaries ⇒ If you decide to say no, you can provide a simple, gentle answer. Resist the temptation to immediately show your reasoning for your decision, or to excessively apologize for your decision. You can also think of a loose “script” you want to follow for your response. If this develops into a bigger conversation about the matter, ask yourself is there any sort of compromise you would be open to? Or is your decision to say no a firm one?

Tolerating Discomfort ⇒ it is likely you will experience some guilt or shame about setting a boundary; try to remember that it is not a sign of you being wrong or bad, but just some normal discomfort because you know someone else is not pleased with your choice, which is unfamiliar territory for you.

November 2, 2026

Engaging in Intimate Relationships — Rupture & Repair

Humans are wired to crave relationships; whether platonic, familial, or romantic, this desire runs deep because historically, communal life has allowed our ancestors to survive. In the present day, the desire to be connected is still very much a part of human life for the vast majority of people; and yet, there is a growing conversation around how pervasive loneliness has become, in part due to modern sociocultural shifts emphasizing self-reliance and independence over community, technology use, and working or “hustle culture”. With people burnt out, stressed, and overworked, initiating and maintaining relationships requires much more intention, which can feel like a demand.

In fact, when our relationships come under stress, we might feel like we have less capacity to deal with the conflict than with other types of fires we put out in other settings, like work or school. What’s happening during these conflicts is Nervous System Flooding, where stress or intense emotions become so high that it becomes hard to think or communicate with clarity and intention. This can yield various reactions, but most people fall in one or more of these ways:

Fight: facing the conflict directly to beat it using anger or aggression
Flight: running away from the conflict, walking away from the conflict
Freeze: shutting down or feeling stuck and unsure how to deal with the conflict
Fawn: attempting to deescalate the conflict by appeasing or pleasing the other party

When communicating in a flooded state, it becomes hard for either party to try and repair the rupture or conflict. While conflict itself is normal and a part of all relationships, without repair, it is exceptionally difficult to address the problem, prevent resentment, and build intimacy and safety with one another.

So how do we repair?

Take a pause from the conversation but agree on when you will return to it. When things escalate, this is a good indicator to separate for some time to de-escalate the nervous system flood. When engaging in a flooded state, you are more likely to engage in destructive communication patterns during conflict, which impacts your ability to repair. The Gottman Institute defines four negative communication patterns that are commonly at the heart of prolonged relationship ruptures (i.e., what to avoid):

Criticism → attacking the other’s character rather than voicing a complaint about the specific issue at hand
Contempt → can be expressed both verbally and through body language; reacting with disrespect, mocking, sarcasm, name-calling, mimicry, scoffing, eye-rolling
Defensiveness → making excuses or playing the victim, reversing blame onto the other; this is typically a response to criticism or when we feel accused of something
Stonewalling → tuning out and moving away from the conversation or disengaging in other ways; typically a response to contempt

Set an agreed-upon time to return to the conversation when feeling safe and stable again.

During time apart, spend time self-soothing like going for a walk, meditating, stretching, or listening to calming music.

When re-engaging in conversation, avoid coming in with any of the four communication patterns above. Come in having reflected on your own contribution to the problem instead of trying to identify all of the other person’s mistakes. The goal is to get on the same team.

Use “I” Statements → focus on your own feelings rather than trying to make accusations or blame the other person.

Listen fully to the other person without interrupting or planning a reply; once they are done, acknowledge and validate their feelings, even if your perspective is different.

Apologize for your part without making excuses.

These strategies work best when both people are willing to engage respectfully and take responsibility for their part. Repair means taking responsibility for your own actions, listening with curiosity, and working toward understanding rather than winning. The goal isn’t to prove who’s right; it’s to strengthen the relationship by getting back on the same team.

A note on safety: these strategies assume a relationship that is fundamentally safe and respectful on both sides. If a relationship involves abuse, coercion, control, or fear, repair is not the priority — safety and support are. Please reach out to a trusted person or a mental health professional for help.

November 2, 2026

Sleep Management

In the wake of our busy lives, it is increasingly easier for sleep to take less priority; this isn’t usually intentional, but most likely a response to environmental pressures: Maybe the idea of rest when there is so much to do feels impossible… or your days are so busy that it feels more intuitive to stay up late and recover “me time”, even if it means you lose out on a little sleep… or you prefer to work hard during the week and then reward yourself with sleeping in on the weekends. Maybe you feel like no matter how hard you try to “fix” your sleep, you just can’t quite get to the recommended amount of 8 hours. People also differ in their natural chronotype, or biological preference for when they feel most alert and sleepy. Some people naturally wake earlier (“larks”), some later (“owls”), while many fall somewhere in between.

Because of all these factors, prioritizing sleep can feel complicated, even when we know it’s important for our physical and emotional health. To help demystify some of the pressures around sleep, we can debunk some myths about it:

Everyone needs exactly 8 hours of rest a night → while 7-9 hours is a general recommendation for most adults, individual sleep needs can vary from this norm based on genetics, age, and lifestyle. A more useful way to measure if you are getting enough sleep is if you actually feel rested when you wake up.

More sleep is always better → Oversleeping is not considered better for your health and is actually linked to both physical health issues (e.g., cardiovascular health) and mental health issues (e.g., depression).

You can catch up on sleep on the weekends → having an inconsistent sleep schedule will disrupt your body’s internal clock, which then makes it harder to resume a sleep schedule once the weekday restarts. Also, the sleep loss from the weekday cannot be fully recovered by sleeping in more on the weekends; it actually has been shown to be associated with decreased cognitive performance and negative impacts on metabolic health.

The body can learn to function on less sleep → the human body does not adapt to the actual loss of sleep; it only normalizes the feeling of tiredness. The downstream impact on cognitive and physical health may not always be immediately noticeable.

It does not matter what time of day I fall asleep → your internal body clocks prefer to align into a regular cycle; irregular sleep will disrupt this.

If I can’t fall asleep, I should stay in bed until I do → doing this may actually trigger some anxiety about not falling asleep; this will likely make you feel less tired and more awake, which will further prevent falling asleep.

Good sleep habits

Commit to a sleep schedule: Try to wake up at the same time every day, including weekends, and even if you stayed up late that one time, to help reinforce the body’s sleep-wake cycle. Over time, consistency with the schedule will help retain the cycle, and it will begin to feel more natural. What you might notice with time is also that you feel more rested after sleep, which is a better metric of sleep quality than the quantity of sleep acquired.

Don’t stay in bed if you can’t sleep: If more than 20 minutes have passed and you are still wide awake, leave your bed and go do something else that is low impact/relaxing (e.g., listen to music, read a book, draw, craft or knit, stargaze, meditate). When you feel tired, go back to bed.

Keep your room cool: This helps the body naturally drop its core temperature, which helps us fall asleep faster and enjoy deeper sleep.

Limit screen time before bed: Our screens emit blue light, which stimulates the brain into assuming it is still daytime and time to stay awake; staying away from screens an hour before bed allows for sleep hormones to do their thing and help you fall asleep.

Limit naps to 30 minutes or less: napping past the 30-minute mark pushes you into deep sleep territory, which may impact your nighttime sleep quality and impact your overall sleep cycle. Shorter naps also prevent the confusion and sluggishness that happens after a long nap.

Get morning sunlight: Being exposed to natural light within the first hour after waking helps regulate your circadian rhythm.

November 2, 2026

Gratitude Practice

Think about the last time you felt genuinely grateful. Perhaps someone helped you unexpectedly, you received good news, or you appreciated a quiet moment in your day. Two components likely characterized this gratitude: (1) Affirmation that a good thing was happening/present in your life, (2) Recognition that this good thing was coming from somewhere outside of you.

Now, imagine that gratitude was not a transient feeling, but a way to live your life, where you can learn to feel and experience gratitude more intentionally. According to psychologist Dr. Robert Emmons, one of the leading researchers on gratitude, cultivating gratitude as a habit can help people experience greater well-being, resilience, and hope over time. He emphasizes that when gratitude becomes habitual, we feel hopeful and appreciative, even in the face of hardship and conflict. Gratitude is not the same as “thinking positively” or ignoring difficult emotions. Rather, it is a way of recognizing that, alongside pain and challenges, there are still things, people, or moments we can appreciate. In acknowledging this, we can better overcome the “negativity bias” that most humans have (our tendency to notice and remember bad things, memories, or words more than good ones; this is a survival mechanism that has helped our ancestors identify threats in the environment).

Consider these 5 ways to practice gratitude below and see what you are drawn to:

Gratitude Journaling: Find a notebook or app to be your gratitude journal; pick a time either in the morning or evening to write (you can also set a timer for this). Keep the journal visible so you can access it every day. Each day, write 3-5 specific things that you are grateful for and why; try to focus on things that other people have done to make you feel this way.

Express Gratitude to Others: Use verbal and written words to express gratitude with someone (e.g., a handwritten note detailing your feelings). You can also express this through acts of service or kindness like helping someone with a task or errand or giving them a compliment.

Gratitude Walks: Go on a walk without your phone (or on silent); go for the walk without any destination. While walking, pay attention to your senses: what do you see? What do you smell? How does the air feel? What catches your attention and what do you appreciate about these things?

Mindful Meditation: You can use apps like Insight Timer that offer various gratitude-based meditations. Or you can follow these steps: Sit or lie down in a quiet space, close your eyes, and relax your body. Take slow, deep breaths. Notice the air moving in and out of your body. Think of three simple things or people you appreciate today. Notice where you feel thankfulness (e.g., warmth in your chest or softness in your heart). If your mind wanders, softly bring your focus back to your breath and gratitude.

Start a Gratitude Jar: Find an empty, clean jar; slips of paper and a pen. Take a moment each day to write down one good thing, big or small, on a slip of paper. Fold your paper slip and place it inside the jar. Try to set a specific time each day (e.g. morning or evening) to do this. Open the jar and read the notes as you see fit (e.g., end of the month; on a birthday; or whenever you feel down).

Remember: Practicing gratitude doesn’t mean ignoring stress, sadness, or disappointment; it only invites us to also make space for moments of goodness that exist alongside these emotions.

November 2, 2026

Living with Grief

Most of us, when we think of grief, think of bereavement following the loss of a loved one. However, there are many types of loss that can precipitate grief: the end of a relationship or friendship, changes in the family home like separations, divorce, or children leaving the home, declines in health, retirement or job loss, or various other environmental changes. The common theme with all of these is that the predictable nature of life has been compromised by an unforeseen sense of loss, and the natural emotional response is to try and make sense of it. Our brains thrive on making predictions of what comes next; when we experience loss, that usually disrupts routines, habits, or expectations, and our brains struggle to make sense of this change in predictability.

Making sense of our grief, therefore, can take time as we learn to adapt to the loss. A popular model for outlining this adaptability is Dr. Elisabeth Kübler-Ross’s “5 Stages of Grief” model — originally developed from her work with terminally ill patients facing their own deaths, and only later applied to bereavement — which describes denial, anger, bargaining, depression, and acceptance as emotional responses to loss. However, a common misconception is that these 5 stages occur in order and provide a predictable trajectory for how humans adapt to deep loss.

In truth, grief is:

Non-linear ⇒ it is not a series of steps that we “pass” but rather an ongoing process that can repeat itself. You might feel okay for some time and then feel sad again; you might experience joy despite the sorrow; you might reexperience emotions that you thought you had long processed. This is all natural and a part of the grief process and is not something to feel ashamed about.

Has no predictable timeline for dissipating ⇒ the expectation that grief will disappear is flawed. Most of the time, it does not go away, but we do tend to grow around it. This can mean your grief teaches you many things that you would not have considered before, and can change how you see the world.

Looks different for different people ⇒ most of us have a rather unique response to loss, which means there is no correct way to process it.

All of this can sound overwhelming and daunting; this too is a natural process of making sense of this loss. Be patient with yourself, allow your emotions to come and go, and lean on supportive people when possible.

November 2, 2026

The Myth of Happiness & the PERMA Model

At some point, most of us have expressed a desire or goal to “be happy”; however, many of us may struggle to define what that actually means. How do we measure happiness? And is it reasonable to expect to feel happy all the time when humans are capable of feeling so much more? In reality, the expectation of happiness can often come with the dual expectation of avoiding pain, sadness, fear, or stress. However, we need all of these uncomfortable feelings to appreciate when we do feel joy.

Perhaps a more useful framework is not to center happiness as a goal, but consider how we can experience our lives in a way where we are more likely to experience a multitude of “happy” emotions, such as joy, gratitude, hope, and love.

Martin Seligman’s work in Positive Psychology proposes the PERMA Model of flourishing, which states the following building blocks to a more fulfilled life:

Positive Emotion ⇒ to experience joy, gratitude, hope, and love; taking the time to appreciate moments where these emotions do come up.

Ideas to enhance: gratitude journaling; spending time on small hobbies; practicing self-compassion; do small acts of service for others or pay a compliment to someone; exercise; spend time in nature

Engagement ⇒ to become fully immersed in your tasks/activities that involve your personal strengths; also known as “flow”

Ideas to enhance: Removing distractions (e.g., social media, technology); Set small goals for the task at hand; Find the “sweet spot” where the task demands your full attention but is not hard enough to frustrate you

Relationships ⇒ to skillfully build authentic, supportive relationships and community

Ideas to enhance: reach out to family and friends to check in or make plans; join local clubs/classes; volunteer

Meaning ⇒ to find meaning in aspects of life more significant than the self.

Ideas to enhance: volunteering within the community; support someone through mentorship; journal and reflect on what you value and where you find meaning

Accomplishment ⇒ to master your goals successfully and build your confidence and pride.

Ideas to enhance: acknowledge your accomplishments, big or small; plan out goals; break goals into smaller, achievable targets.