Tina Gilbertson's Blog, page 7

8 Ways to Treat Yourself Right

Have you ever thought of volunteering in order to feel happier? I’ve definitely heard this idea from clients who are feeling stuck and miserable. “I tried volunteering, but it didn’t make me feel better,” they tell me after the fact. This doesn’t surprise me. You can’t give water from a dry well. We all need […]

Forgiveness Tips If You’ve Been Wronged

If you’re nursing a grievance, you’re not alone. Without a heartfelt apology (which isn’t always available), or even with that apology, sometimes it can take a long time to feel better. Being wronged is like being injured physically. Healing takes time. No one expects a broken bone to heal overnight, nor should we expect ourselves […]

Notes from a Book Tour

I was sharing a meal with a friend recently and she asked me how the book tour’s going for my newly-released book, Constructive Wallowing. I told her about the travel, the bookstore signings and the radio and TV interviews, and she responded with an interesting question. “Why haven’t I read about any of this on […]

6 Tips for Better Boundaries

Today’s post is essentially a letter to myself, in that it’s about something I struggle with personally: Boundaries. Check it out. It’s like I wrote myself a boundaries to-do list, and you just happen to be reading along. If you have trouble with boundaries sometimes and can relate, that’s awesome. But basically I’m writing for […]

Early Experience Affects How We Deal With Feelings

“Why do we find it so hard to sit with our own emotions?” asked one of the audience members at a talk I gave last Tuesday about constructive wallowing. I think there are two reasons: 1. We’re hard-wired to avoid pain. If a feeling is unpleasant, we automatically try not to pay attention to it […]

4 Tips for Dealing With Stubborn People

Have you ever offered perfectly good advice to a loved one and been baffled as to why it fell on deaf ears? I have. When the best course of action is clear and yet remains ignored by the person who most needs that knowledge, what’s going on? This week I had the privilege of reading […]

Left Out? 3 Survival Strategies for the Fifth Wheel

Have you ever been with two other people and felt like the odd one out? Did it seem like nobody would notice or care if you weren’t there? In that case you know what it’s like to be the fifth wheel. Huh? Don’t I mean the third wheel? Not unless you experienced yourself as a […]

Are You Emotionally Available?

“If only my partner were more emotionally available.” Have you heard this before? Have you said it yourself? Whenever emotional availability becomes an issue in a relationship, it’s wise to take stock of both partners’ emotional styles. Why? Because if you’re with a person who’s emotionally unavailable, it’s an inescapable fact that, well … you’re […]

6 Tips for a Good Cry

Have you had a good cry lately? How about a bad one? Tears can definitely go either way. Sometimes you feel better when you’re done, but other times you just feel drained. Not all tears are healing, it seems. While crying does have some observable physiological benefits, the way you talk to yourself when you’re […]

Good Enough is Sometimes Best

I recently did my very first TV interview as part of my Constructive Wallowing book tour. As the date of the interview approached I felt nervous; I wanted to make the most of my appearance on the show, and I was worried I wouldn’t. I pictured stumbling over my words, failing to make myself understood, […]