#MyEarlyMorningThoughts Blog Posts

When Mental Health Buzzwords Go Viral: The Danger of Over-Identifying with Social Media Content

12/5/2025

You watch a reel, and it hits hard. The language feels like it was made for you: narcissist, toxic, gaslighting, trauma bond. It’s like someone finally turned on the lights and gave you the vocabulary you didn’t know you needed. Suddenly, everything makes sense..... your boss isn’t just difficult, they’re emotionally abusive. That argument with your partner? A textbook case of manipulation. That persistent anxiety? It’s probably unresolved trauma. You feel seen, validated, and empowered. But if you're honest, you also feel agitated. Now that you’ve named it, it feels like you have to act and right now.

Morning Grounding: Breath for Mind, Body & Spirit

11/28/2025

Sometimes, before the cortisol fully rises to wake us...

Before the kids and chaos tumble in…

Before the to-do list starts sprinting through our minds... We need a collective breath, one that unites mind, body, and spirit.

Evolving Through Life’s Seasons: Shifting, Refining, and Transcending for Growth

11/21/2025

Different seasons call for different versions of us, just like different jobs come with different duties. In therapy, we often refer to behaviors that once served a purpose during traumatic or difficult times, but now get in the way of our growth, as maladaptive behaviors.

What you're about to read is an extension of that concept, but with an added layer of self-awareness and emotional intelligence.

Love, Lessons, and the Practice of Curiosity

11/14/2025

There is love all around us—and opportunity in every rupture for repair. However, the repair may not include the parts that were involved in the rupture, whether that be people, places, things, beliefs, traits, etc.

But we can rest assured that repair will happen, whether it’s faulty and temporary or solidly built for future success and fulfillment. The deepest of repairs happen when we not only shift our mindsets, but develop a deep practice of self-assessment.

Kintsugi reminds us: Healing doesn’t mean erasing the damage. It means making something even more meaningful from it.

Order, Chaos, and the Tools We Need Most

11/7/2025

Have you ever felt completely overwhelmed by the noise of life in all areas: emotionally, mentally, or even physically? Maybe you’ve also had seasons where you felt stuck, rigid, overly ordered, or like you were living a life that wasn’t truly your own.

These two extremes (too much chaos and too much order) can quietly drain and confuse us, or make it difficult to connect with ourselves and others. But what if you had the tools to recognize where you are and adjust accordingly?

Sitting in Nature Reminds Me

10/31/2025

There’s beauty and healing in nature and all that surrounds us, in the relationships we build and nurture, the sound of rain tapping on the roof, the birds chirping in the distance. In the low hum of freeway traffic. In the way the blues, whites, and grays find a way to share space in the sky.

Stay in Your Business

10/24/2025

If you find yourself feeling lonely or needy, pause and ask: Whose business am I in?

Am I caught up in the life of someone I wish would fill the void? Am I mentally wrapped up in the actions of people I feel have caused this longing? Am I focused on those I believe should be showing up for me, but aren’t?

Emotional Overdraft: How We Spend Our Connection Bank Accounts Without Meaning To

10/17/2025

I’ve been thinking a lot about connection lately, our capacity to connect, and even more so, our willingness. Psychologist and anthropologist Robin Dunbar once theorized that humans can only maintain a limited number of meaningful emotional and physical connections. That theory rings true when you consider how many of us are emotionally depleted by the time we clock out of work each day, so much that we neglect ourselves and those we do live with, including ourselves.

“Preserve your capacity for what truly matters.”

Who Are We Without the Stories We Tell Ourselves?

10/10/2025

We can spend days, weeks, and even months in the suffering our thoughts create. You know, the thought that we should have a different life. The thought that we are not enough. The thought that we are alone, sad, or not well.

Sometimes, we get so entangled in our thoughts that we begin to treat them as facts. This experience, what therapists call cognitive fusion, can make it feel like our thoughts are running the show. Instead of seeing them as passing mental events, we hold on tightly, believe them fully, and allow them to shape how we see ourselves and the world around us.

Cutting Out the Noise: Finding Simplicity in a Loud World

10/3/2025

Cutting out noise in your life can make a huge difference. A lot of times, we think that means changing our environment... turning things off, avoiding people, staying away from chaos. But the most impactful shift starts inside.

The noise in your own head is often the loudest. And quieting that requires intention.

Trusting the Bloom: When Growth Isn’t Instant

9/26/2025

This morning, while sitting on my back porch and eyeing my small flower garden, I noticed something seemingly profound. Some of the flowers were open and radiant, standing tall in their full bloom. Others were still closed, some barely opening, and a few still appeared as though they had never grown at all. A few had lost their petals but still standing.

It struck me that they were all planted in the same soil. They were exposed to the same sunlight. They were watered at the same time. And yet still, each one was on its own timeline. Some flourished quickly. Others moved slowly, some stayed closed altogether, and others lost their spark.

And this reminded me of life AND it got me to thinking.

6 Ways to Process Your Emotions Through Writing

9/19/2025

As a therapist who encourages journaling as both a clinical tool and a personal practice, I often remind people that therapy doesn’t just happen inside a session. Sometimes, the deepest breakthroughs begin on paper...quiet, reflective moments where we give ourselves the space to be honest. Below are six writing practices I’ve seen help people regulate emotions, clarify their thoughts, and move toward healing.

The Power of Negative Space: Why Your Brain Needs Breathing Room

9/12/2025

by Frankie Alisha

We’ve filled our lives to the brim.

There’s always something playing in the background. A podcast in our ears while we walk. A text message to respond to between meetings. A to-do list that keeps growing. It’s no wonder silence feels strange. Like we’re wasting time if we’re not consuming or producing something.

But, when every moment is occupied, nothing really stands out as important. Everything becomes noise. And the things that actually matter? They get buried in the background.

The Neuroscience of Connection: How Relationships Build (or Break) Resilience

9/5/2025

by Frankie Alisha

Have you ever walked away from a conversation feeling more energized, hopeful, or clear-headed than before it started? Maybe you talked through a difficult situation with someone who truly sees you, and afterward, you felt like you could breathe a little deeper and move forward with more strength. On the other hand, maybe you've spent time with someone who was emotionally draining, negative, or unpredictable, and you left that interaction feeling anxious or unsettled.

Trust me, that’s not just your imagination. There’s a growing body of research explaining why some relationships leave us stronger, while others leave us depleted. It all comes down to the way your brain is wired. Your brain is literally built for connection.

The quality of your relationships directly influences how well you regulate your emotions, how you handle stress, and how resilient you are after hardship. In other words, connection isn’t a luxury. It’s a biological necessity for emotional health.

Write the Vision and Make It Plain

9/1/2025

Why Life Can’t Align with What You Haven’t Shared with It

One of the things I often ask people, especially when they're feeling stuck, lost, or in a season of frustration, is: Have you actually shared your vision for your life with life itself?

Not just in fleeting thoughts or wishful daydreams, but intentionally. Have you shared it out loud, on paper, and in full detail.

It sounds simple, but foundationally shifting.

We get disheartened when we don't see what we desire manifest in our lives, but many times, we haven’t fully fleshed out what that desire even is. We have scattered ideas, unmet longings, vague comparisons to what others have, but no real moment where we’ve sat with ourselves and said:

“Okay, what do I want this life to feel like? Look like? Sound like?”

Avoidance Is Not Rest: The Mental Load of Unfinished Business

8/20/2025

We often talk about stress as though it’s something that simply happens to us, something we have to manage or push through. But more often than not, stress is a signal, not a symptom. And it’s asking us to stop ignoring the things that quietly gnaw at our peace.

Return to Your Confident Energy

8/16/2025

by Frankie Alisha

I've been reflecting on what true confidence really is, and here's my take on it: confidence is regulation, not about perfection or always getting it right. It’s about feeling safe in your body, especially when you mess up or are on a detour in life.

We live in a world that tells us confidence comes from doing more, becoming more, being better. But I believe confidence comes from being regulated from the inside out.

While our nervous systems learn regulating skills in childhood, I believe that despite unpleasant earlier experiences, we can create safety with simple things, like routines and where we place our energy.

A dysregulated nervous system clouds clarity, breeds self-doubt, and makes us question our own competency and energy. That doesn’t mean you’re broken. It means your body has been trying to keep you safe, and now it might be time to teach it a new baseline.

If you’re in that murky middle where healing, uncertainty and evolving exist, this post is for you. You don’t need to have it all figured out to re-up that confident energy. You just need presence. You just need to connect to your center.

When Your Mind Won’t Stay in the Present

8/6/2025

By Frankie Alisha (inspired by Dr. Tracy Marks)

You sit down to work, but your mind has other plans.

First, it takes you back to yesterday’s awkward conversation. You replay it word for word, analyzing your tone, your timing, your facial expression. Then it catapults you forward into tomorrow’s big meeting or the text you haven’t gotten back yet. You start imagining everything that could go wrong.

Twenty minutes later, you’ve bounced between the past and the future... and haven’t done a single thing in the present.

Sound familiar?

Keep Going Anyway: The Quiet Power of a Growth Mindset

7/31/2025

By Frankie Alisha

There’s a mindset I return to often, especially on the days that feel heavy or just not feeling as confident in myself or what the day may bring. It sounds like this:

"I can be anxious and still take the next step.
I can be doubted and still believe in myself.
I can be grieving and still show up for others.

When We Center Ourselves in Other People’s Lives

7/9/2025

By Frankie Alisha

There’s a subtle but powerful emotional habit I’ve been noticing...in myself, in clients, in just being human. It’s the tendency to center ourselves in someone else’s life, and then build entire emotional narratives around how we believe they should show up for us.

It sounds like this:

“They didn’t speak to me when they passed. I must have done something wrong.”