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Get Emotionally Fit 
The Mental Gym
Greetings! 

Welcome to The Mental Gym's monthly newsletter, filled with quick tips designed to help keep you happy and healthy.   

If you are receiving this, you've gotten acquainted with
Bill Benson,
LMFT through counseling or community.

Bill is a licensed clinician, coach and consultant excited to share his simple, nuts-and-bolts approach to getting and staying emotionally fit.
 
Please take a moment to enjoy Bill's workout for February.
 

Bill's Tip for February: True Reflections
 

Gazing into mirrors, we comb our hair, apply moisturizer, shave: Practices aimed at making us presentable and acceptable to ourselves and others. 

 

So often, however, these daily rituals become opportunities to confirm our gray hairs, wrinkles and sallow complexions. Eyes ablaze, we scour our reflections for flaws - all too often scrutinizing what's staring back. We then mix these unsavory findings into long-simmering beliefs that we are "not quite enough" or that we must "change" in order to succeed in life.

 

Fictionalizing our Lives

 

We become selective about what we remember and apply only shortcomings to our unfolding story-lines. Distracted with these assessments, we become preoccupied with social posturing and approval, neglecting life's unfolding moments. Our concern with how we are doing then keeps us from truly enjoying what we are doing. In essence, we find ourselves authoring our days with emotionally incomplete sentences and, over time, reworking the potency of  life's passages. 

 

Alice Doesn't Live Here Anymore

 

Sadly, we close the book on ourselves when we "judge our book by its cover." Whatever the theme we assign our struggles: Good vs. Evil, Truths vs. Lies, Self vs. Ego; clarity can only come when we open our eyes and read between the lines.

A more accurate barometer of our well-being lies not through the Looking Glass, but in our abilities to review life circumstances and distinguish fact from fiction.

 

The following chart dissects one's inner-focus; separating fact from fiction:

 

Fact

<= vs. =>

Fiction

We

 

Me

Responsibility

 

Blame

Friendliness

 

Hostility

Forgiveness

 

Resentment

Love

 

Pride

Gratitude

 

Judgment

Happiness

 

Jealousy

Spiritualistic

 

Materialistic

Wise

 

Foolish

Peace

 

War

Now

 

Past/Future

Acceptance

 

Intolerance

Simplicity

 

Complication

Being

 

Doing

  

Write a Non-Fiction Bestseller

 

Scan your days for inaccurate content and delete it from consideration. Make your life a page-turner by focusing on the powerful messages life is actually presenting you.

 

Live voraciously: Enjoying every word, paragraph, page and chapter - Please remember, most often it's the tattered cover that indicates a well-lived story.

 
About The Mental Gym

The Mental Gym is founded with the understanding that professional psychological perspectives can help those looking to achieve important goals or work through life challenges.

Similar to building physical strength at a gym with the help of a personal trainer, our clients work to increase their emotional growth through the guidance provided by our licensed clinicians.

  PPO insurance plans accepted. Credit cards welcomed.
All newsletter material � 2013 The Mental Gym.

7985 Santa Monica Boulevard - Suite 207 - West Hollywood, CA 90046

(310) 849-9399   

 

 

The Mental Gym