| Cognitive Behavior Therapy Center of Silicon Valley |
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Finding Peace & Joy |
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 Greetings!
Happy New Year!
Like most people, you may have made some New Year's Resolutions a few weeks ago. This newsletter is focused on helping you set realistic and achievable goals. We have an article by Laura Johnson about how to set smaller goals and get bigger results. Caitlyn Oscarson follows up on this theme with tips for parents on how to help your teen set and achieve goals.
We are also launching our Mindful Eating Group Program in February. In this small group program, you will learn skills to reduce emotional eating and use mindfulness to eat in response to your body's needs. Read more about this group below.
If you have feedback about the topics in the newsletter, feel free to email me at laura@cbtsv.com.
Warmly, Laura |
| Smaller Goals for Bigger Results | | Baby Steps Can Lead To Success
 Set smaller goals and get bigger results? This might seem counterintuitive to you. And if it does, you are not alone. We're all used to hearing about stretch goals, and when you feel empowered, stretch goals are inspiring and motivating. But when you feel overwhelmed, stretch goals can create paralysis and result in procrastination. When you set your goals too high, you might find it overwhelming and too time consuming. You just give up or keep on changing your goals instead of slowly and steadily working through the baby steps to a bigger goal.
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| Mindful Eating Group | | Skills for Managing Emotional Eating
 Mindfulness involves learning to focus your attention on purpose, in the present, with non-judgmental awareness. It is being aware of your thoughts without having to buy into them and being aware of your emotions, urges and cravings without having to act on them. It is learning to slow down to savor and appreciate the moment with all of your senses. Emotional eating is when you eat for any reason other than hunger or energy. It includes eating when you are bored, stressed, lonely, anxious, sad or happy. In contrast, mindful eating is being able to enjoy food without judgment in a balanced, healthy way. It involves treating your body with respect and neither restricting food excessively nor overeating to excess. If you are eating mindfully, you eat to nourish your body, you allow yourself to enjoy the taste, smell and look of your food, and you do not use food for emotional reasons.
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| Help Your Teen Set Goals | | 5 Ways to Help Your Teen Succeed
 In addition to having goals for yourself, if you are the parent of a teenager, you may also hope for your teen to change behaviors or make improvements in the new year. Whether your teen wants to learn to drive, improve his or her grades, go to bed earlier or learn to play a new sport, you can help your teen create goals that make sense and are likely to lead to success. |
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I hope you enjoyed this newsletter and found at least one idea that will help you make some positive changes in your life. Feel free to forward this newsletter to others who may benefit.
Warm regards,
Laura L.C. Johnson, MBA, MA, LMFT, LPCC
Director, Cognitive Behavior Therapy Center of Silicon Valley
Diplomate, Academy of Cognitive Therapy
Cognitive Behavior Therapy Center of Silicon Valley provides counseling and therapy for adults, children and teenagers with anxiety, OCD and eating disorders. |
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