Michael Mantell

Perhaps you’re exasperated with many of the behavior and habit change schemes aimed at helping you overcome these types of demoralizing thoughts. Diets, exercise programs, meditation practices, gratitude journals, medication, the latest “therapy” procedures, vacations and even drugs and/or alcohol. Nothing helps, right? Perhaps you’ve got a bit too much “nah” going on. “Never accepting hope.” OK, OK, had to get at least one acronym in this article. [Michael R. Mantell, Ph.D]

Can you think of anything that you disturb and harm yourself with more than your persistent negativity? Negativity eradicates whatever energy you’ve got left while sheltering-at-home. It diverts indispensable attention that you need to even hope to achieve goals that you have (you DO have goals, right?). And, of course, it weakens your overall morale.  Oh, and your gray sky, cloudy outlook that kills any rainbow? Well, that similarly pollutes those close to you as well. [Michael R. Mantell, Ph.D]

How has the coronavirus shelter-at-home mandate impacted a cornerstone of your healthy lifestyle, physical activity? In a very recent study of nearly 13,000 people from 139 countries looking at how the coronavirus outbreak impacted exercise, the researchers found that folks are exercising at a greater frequency than before this pandemic. [Michael R. Mantell, Ph.D]

Quite some time ago I wrote about my WAM program for personal success, What About Me? I wrote about three steps to “me,” to self-compassion, including: Welcoming yourself as a friend. Acknowledging your strengths and successes, and recognizing that, Mindfulness promotes it all. [Michael R. Mantell, PhD]

We are witnessing an escalating, strengthening, swelling mental illness pandemic, one that may well exceed the scale of COVID19, according to The Lancet. We can prevent this by applying what we’ve learned from how to successfully mitigate the spread of COVID19. [Michael R. Mantell, PhD]

I have a millennial client who said in a recent tele-emotional education session, “This at-home bullshit is driving me effing crazy and it completely sucks! I can’t go play video games with my friends and that sucks. My parents are driving me insane and they suck. Everything in my life sucks. Life sucks.!!!” [Michael R. Mantell, Ph.D]

Small spaces with little way out 24 hours a day, seven days a week, present a real test to any marital relationship. Will sheltering-at-home result in increased marital strain and divorce in America as it has in China, where divorce rates have already increased sharply during the COVID19 pandemic? Iran has witnessed significantly increasing marital detachment since the quarantine went into effect in that country. The UK is also vigilant with the British Parliament warning to expect a spike in divorce. The chatter among matrimonial-family law and relationship experts in the United States is to anticipate similar tribulations in marriage during this country’s extended confinement. [Michael Mantell, Ph.D]

Seems that with WAZE, Google Maps, and other similar apps everyone these days has their own “navi” system. Only problem is, the other day I plugged “Happiness” into one of these and the app exploded! I asked Siri, Alexa and even my Apple watch…no help. Could COVID19 have infected my course-plotting devices? Of course not. But during these sheltered-at-home days, any journey out needs to be swift, calculated and well-planned. That’s when it hit me. I needed to rely a better GPS system, one that’s guided me well in the past and surely would do so during these emotionally strained times. [Michael R. Mantell, Ph.D]

Simple annoyance, fiery rage, and loss of temper, with its emotional and physiological mayhem, so mess with your life that it’s time to prevent, not just manage the thunder. Sure quarantine, masks, gloves, hand washing, that itch on your cheek you aren’t supposed to scratch, kids at home all day long, and the ever-present threat of catching COVID19 can get to the calmest of us. Lashing out in anger over even the smallest slight or obstacle only makes sense if your goal is to strip yourself of peace while inflaming your bitterness and indignation. [Michael R. Mantell, Ph.D]

Henry David Thoreau once shared that he had three chairs in his home, “…one for solitude, two for friendship, and three for society.” Doesn’t that provide you with remarkable insight into the value of a chair?  Chairs provide comfort, stability, relaxation, style and for Thoreau, “…solitude, friendship and society.” During this time of emotionally charged home quarantine, I’m concerned that a chair for many may also pose a corner of isolation, inactivity and ultimate gloominess. You see, as Benjamin Franklin observed, “The discontented man finds no easy chair.” [Michael R. Mantell, Ph.D]