The Positive Professional

Psychological safety refers to an individual's perception or belief that they can express themselves, share ideas, opinions, and concerns without fear of negative consequences such as judgment, ridicule, or reprisal. This episode explores how it is a key aspect of a healthy and inclusive work environment.

If you do not have the right mindset for achieving your work-life balance then you will never succeed. It is likely that you will have limiting beliefs that are preventing you from achieving a true work-life balance. This episode explained the need to identify these and replace them with empowering beliefs that will drive you forward to the right work-life balance. If you are interested in "Work-Life Balance" training for your organization email: info@tfordconsulting.nyc

If you truly want to achieve the best work-life balance then it is essential that you know about the most common misconceptions about it. Unfortunately, a lot of people are guided by these misconceptions and this prevents them from achieving their work-life balance. In this episode we will take a look at I'll share the 5 most common misconceptions about work-life balance. Once you are aware of these, you can dismiss them and focus on what you really need to do to achieve the right work-life balance. If you are interested in "Work-Life Balance" training for your organization email: info@tfordconsulting.nyc.

Manifestation meditation is a practice that aims to help individuals manifest their desires and intentions into reality. The purpose of this type of meditation is to focus your mind on your goals and desires, and to visualize them as if they have already been achieved. The idea behind manifestation meditation is that the energy and intention you put out into the universe can help bring your desires to fruition. By focusing on positive thoughts and emotions, you can attract abundance and positive experiences into your life. This type of meditation can be particularly useful for those who are looking to make positive changes in their lives, such as starting a new career, improving relationships, or achieving personal goals. It can also help you develop a more positive and optimistic mindset, which can benefit your overall well-being.

In honor of Social Work History month, I had the honor to interview a fellow Clinical Social Worker and native Queens Diva. Cerene and I attended Benjamin Cardozo High School in Queens NY and we discussed all things clinical social work including how anxiety and depression can present differently in Black/African American women.

Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction (MBSR) is a program that helps people manage stress and improve their overall well-being. MBSR has been shown to be effective in reducing symptoms of stress, anxiety, depression, and chronic pain. It has also been used in a variety of settings, including hospitals, schools, and workplaces, to improve overall well-being and increase resilience. This episode discusses its benefits for teens, adults, and older adults.

Conflicts are bound to happen, whether at home, at work, or in between. Unfortunately, what can start as something trivial can quickly escalate to something much more serious in a matter of minutes.That’s why it pays to know how to effectively resolve any conflict you find yourself in. This way, you can create some healthy boundaries and balance your emotions without creating unnecessary stress and anxiety.This episode provides five tips for more effective conflict resolution that will help you out of any jam.

Meditation is good for your mind, but sometimes your body needs a little tweaking to get it to cooperate. This episode explains steps you can take before and after meditating and during your session to relieve physical discomforts and make it easier to concentrate.

Mindful Leadership is a style of leadership that emphasizes awareness, attention, and presence. It involves being fully present in the moment and actively listening to others, being aware of one's own emotions and reactions, and practicing non-judgmental acceptance of oneself and others. By practicing mindful leadership, leaders can create a more positive workplace culture that fosters creativity, innovation, and collaboration. This episode explains some ways that mindful leadership can improve workplace/organizational culture.

Usually when we hear the word "willpower," we relate it to losing weight or quitting smoking. Willpower is extremely helpful when trying to break those bad habits, but it can also be beneficial in other areas of your life as well. It's important to realize that we're not born with willpower; it's something we must nurture and build in ourselves. Once we strengthen our willpower, it'll provide us an upper hand in achieving our goals. Why? Because we'll develop an unshakeable focus and intensity in purpose! So how do you go about building your willpower? This episode shares four strategies to get you headed in the right direction.

No matter where you are on your life journey, setbacks can cause disappointment and a loss of momentum. Whether it’s a new career you’re working towards or an overall appreciation of life, every step towards fulfillment can seem financially, emotionally, or psychologically draining from time to time. To boost your confidence, this episode shares a list of the top 10 power words and tips to keep you motivated and passionate, no matter what life throws your way.

No matter where you are on your life journey, setbacks can cause disappointment and a loss of momentum. Whether it’s a new career you’re working towards or an overall appreciation of life, every step towards fulfillment can seem financially, emotionally, or psychologically draining from time to time. To boost your confidence, this episode shares a list of the top 10 power words and tips to keep you motivated and passionate, no matter what life throws your way.

In our society, the default answer to nearly every question is “Yes.” Advertising is all geared towards getting us to say “Yes - I need that.” We phrase our inquiries looking for yes: “Would you like more coffee?” “Would you be interested in joining me for dinner?” “Would you help me move next week?” “Would you mind if I asked you a personal question?” “Do you love me?” With such a powerful default answer ingrained in us it can be very difficult to say anything else - often leaving us feeling trapped, guilty, or frustrated as a result. With such an expected and requested default answer “No” becomes one of the most powerful words we can use - if we can manage it! With all the pressure though, overcoming this momentum for “Yes” can be incredibly difficult sometimes. While it is still very important to make sure we are clear about what we want to say yes to it is equally important, if not more so, to be clear about when to say no. Specifically, the issue here is to be clear about what is important to us. Yes and no are equally viable and relevant answers in the appropriate circumstances - but may yield dramatically different results. This episode explores the most important step in figuring out which answer is right is to start off by understanding what is important to us.

Welcome to Season 4!! At this time of year, you may be considering whether you're going to make a NewYear's resolution. Maybe you've made them in the past and lost interest over time. Or perhaps you buckled down and followed through. Either way, you're now facing the beginning of another new year. Even if you're less-than-thrilled with your follow-through in prior years, the new year brings amazing opportunities to challenge yourself in all kinds of ways. This episode provides ideas to help you set up your resolutions so you'll be successful during the coming year

Last Episode of Season 3 Season 4 will start Jan 15th, 2023

Have you been having trouble achieving a specific goal? Are you allowing other less important things to get in the way of accomplishing what you really want? Then, it’s time to do a VISION check. Just as it is important to get our eyes checked regularly to assure that we will be able to see clearly, it is equally as important to do a VISION check to be certain that our goal is on track. This episode provides helpful tips on how to do so.

From time to time, each of us will find ourselves in a rut of boredom and disinterest. We seem to lose our zest for life and feel tired, irritable, and unmotivated. We want to hide under the covers rather than face the day. Perhaps you're feeling overwhelmed by work, or sad about the pain and suffering in the world, or just bored with the routine of your daily life. You are not alone. We all go through periods like this at some point. The good news is that we can do something about it. This episode provides some tips to help break out of the rut and feel excited about life again.

Would you like to live abundantly full of happiness and contentment? How about a life with excellent physical and mental health? Greatly increase your chances of that happening by showing and sharing gratitude. That’s right, something as simple as practicing thankfulness and expressing how grateful you are for the people and things you have in your life has a powerful impact. This episode provides some simple things you can do starting today to show your gratitude.

One of the most destructive effects of procrastination is the fact that it makes you feel out of control. Procrastination is like an ‘invisible force’ that keeps you from doing the very things you know you must do. With the increasing demands on our time and attention, there seems to be an increase in procrastination as a chronic problem, especially among those people that want to succeed the most. Procrastination usually sets in when you feel overwhelmed by all the ‘have to's in life and instead of making steady progress, you take on too much without ever getting any of it done. Feeling out of control takes away all your power to shape and direct your own life. It’s true that there are many things over which you have no control, but you always have full control over what really happens to you – and what really happens to you is a mental process independent of the circumstances and events of the outside world. Being empowered means that you realize that you already have the power and this realization also gives you the ability to take action. This episode provides five empowering procrastination tips that can help you to reach this realization and become empowered to effectively deal with procrastination and inaction.

Are you one of those people who can’t seem to stop “doing?” I have yet to meet anyone who hasn’t felt overwhelmed from time to time. We often deny we are overwhelmed because we do not know how to stop the frenetic behavior that leads to this feeling. So we do nothing. Our employers, colleagues, or friends often do not help support us to stop overworking. This episode provides strategies immediately diminish feelings of being overwhelmed so you can refocus and make some work/life balance decisions.

When a person suffers from a mental health illness, such as depression or anxiety, the first-line treatments are usually mental therapies and medicines. What isn't always talked about are the variable lifestyle choices that affect our mental health. Making beneficial life choices can be uplifting. While time and financial constraints may restrict a few people's capacities to make such choices, we all can make small but significant changes. This episode provides five lifestyle choices to get you started.

Confidence is vital for supporting the health, success, and happiness that you deserve to find. How you approach troubles, goals, and even new experiences are all impacted by the level of belief that you have in yourself. Thankfully for everyone, confidence isn’t just a trait that you’re born with, it’s a muscle that you train. Taking the time now to nurture your self-worth will reap benefits for your personal and professional life for years to come. This episode explains 10 of those benefits you will find while building confidence.

Self-respect means you believe in yourself – in your ability to achieve, contribute, and learn. You believe your opinions, ideas, and feelings are as important as everyone else's opinions, ideas, and feelings. It's a state of mine and it's one that allows you to celebrate strengths, challenge weaknesses, and have an overall positive feeling about who you are and what you're doing. So, what are the greatest benefits of self-respect? There are many, but I've narrowed it down to ten in this episode.

Life is a balancing act and most of us aren’t great at channeling our inner Simone Biles. From our personal lives to the office and all the way back home to our communities, the bad news is that it’s hard to be all and do all. The good news is that no one expects you to! Life balance is a journey, not a destination, this episode provides a few of these tips to enjoy the ride.

Each day brings with it its own set of new possibilities and choices. But we shun many of them for fear of risking leaving the familiarity of your comfort zone, or that you’d rather not rock the boat and that your life is just fine the way it is now. But what if these opportunities could be what you need to be happier and live better lives? To reach somewhere you’ve never been, you have to do something you’ve never tried before. You may fail, true, but either way, you’ll come out on top because something will have happened to your character, a change for the better. You may not see it at first, but it’s there. And with each new eye-opening challenge, you’ll believe more and more in your abilities and inner strength than ever before. You’ll finally realize that you can break through that glass ceiling hovering over your head - that there are no limits to what you can accomplish. As you face new challenges, you become stronger and more excited by the prospect of life itself. This episode provides tips on how you can get started.

For many of us, the mere thought of setting goals and then subsequently achieving those goals successfully can be overwhelming and intimidatingly daunting because of the fear of the possibility that we might fail at the task of accomplishing our aspirations efficaciously, however, the concept of setting goals need not be so exhausting, as long as we remember to set realistic expectations for ourselves and not become overly ambitious or set goals that are ultimately unattainable. The process of setting goals can be achieved through organized thinking and through a “baby step” style of approach where smaller goals are set first, and our confidence builds with each goal that is realized successfully. Alternatively, the endeavors embarked upon that did not succeed can be viewed as learning opportunities rather than esteem diminishing failures. This episode provides tips on how to set goals in such a way as to optimize your success.

Your comfort zone. It’s your safe haven from the crazy outside world. You’d be insane to leave that, right? Wrong. While being in our comfort zone is important, it won’t really lead you anywhere but right there in the same place you’ve always been; safe, but not really going anywhere. And while that may be fine with some people, others believe they owe it to themselves to break through the glass ceiling and find their true potential. It’s how you respond to these ups and downs that is a measure of your character and inner strength. Ideal situations do not test your resilience. Then when the tides are against you, that’s when you must have an inherent desire to prevail, motivation, and a strong sense of self. This episode provides some lessons you will gain once you step outside your comfort zone.

Being in your comfort zone isn’t a bad thing, provided that you are able to move out of it when advantageous. Moving outside of your comfort zone isn’t always necessary, but sometimes it can allow you to see or take advantage of new opportunities. Sometimes it can be hard to tell when you are just resting in your comfort zone and when you are stuck there. This episode explains 5 reasons why you may be stuck.

When it comes to getting things accomplished, motivation can be hard to come by. Yet, motivation is exactly what is needed. A small amount of motivation is required to do small, simple things, like brushing your teeth. Bigger tasks require more motivation to complete. This episode provides helpful tips doon how to manufacture motivation when you have none.

The term “intersectionality,” originates from Black Feminist thought by way of Kimberlé Crenshaw, a pioneering scholar, and writer on civil rights, critical race theory, Black feminist legal theory and so much more. In 1989, Crenshaw developed the idea of “intersectionality,” as a way to understand the impact and experiences of overlapping and intersecting identities. Intersectionality refers to the convergence of multiple systems of oppression, that negatively impact marginalized groups of people. This episode explores solutions toward implementing an intersectional based approach to mental health treatment.

The term “intersectionality,” originates from Black Feminist thought by way of Kimberlé Crenshaw, a pioneering scholar, and writer on civil rights, critical race theory, Black feminist legal theory and so much more. In 1989, Crenshaw developed the idea of “intersectionality,” as a way to understand the impact and experiences of overlapping and intersecting identities. Intersectionality refers to the convergence of multiple systems of oppression, that negatively impact marginalized groups of people. This episode explores solutions toward implementing an intersectional based approach to mental health treatment.

The Strong Black Woman Schema or Super Woman narrative is essentially a societal view that Black Women are resilient, strong, and therefore can take on anything in life. However, while some may view this narrative as something positive or even empowering, there are levels to this ideology. This episode explains how the idea of resilience can cause others to view Black Women as superhuman and therefore lacking the need for support on an individual and even systemic level.

“The pessimist sees difficulty in every opportunity. The optimist sees the opportunity in every difficulty “ – Winston Churchill An optimist, when faced with a problem, tends to find the upside to the situation and starts figuring out ways to solve that problem or ways to turn it around. A pessimist, however, immediately throws up his hands, and yells, “That’s it; it’s all over. I can’t handle this anymore.” Or he will distance himself from the problem, pretending it doesn’t matter. This is denial, and it never works. According to the world's foremost expert on optimism, Dr. Martin Seligman, everyone is born optimistic. And yet, 95% of grownups are pessimists, not optimists. What goes wrong? Some people see the glass as half empty. Others see it as half full. This episode explores is it really as simple as that? Is it possible to be a bit of both?

If you sometimes feel as though you’re caught in life’s quicksand, you have a lot of company. We work, we struggle, and we try to do everything we possibly can to move on to a higher level of well-being but it seems like the harder we work, the more stuck we get. If you’re approaching a Category 5 frustration level, this episode will provide tips on how to shift your focus to have a more meaningful life.

"Nobody succeeds beyond his or her wildest expectations unless he or she begins with some wild expectations." - RALPH CHARELL What are your expectations for your life? Are you excited about your future or are you facing it with apprehension and fear? For most people, the future holds too many uncertainties and the fear of what might happen tends to overshadow the ray of light that represents the life they ultimately desire. This episode provides tips on how to lift yourself out of your current circumstance and step up to the level of life you desire.

Every day, we fight to maintain a sense of calm as the world around us pushes our patience buttons. We may have heard that patience is a virtue, but why is it so hard to be patient? What factors play into our ability to let go of our frustrations and let things roll off our backs? Our fast-paced society has us frustrated over small things. Even though we know we need to learn how to be patient, we all still struggle; this episode explains some reasons why.

Imagine this: you’re on your way. You’re about to make some serious progress in something which matters deeply to you when suddenly, there it is. A nasty little inner voice telling you all the ways you’re going to fail. The brakes slam on. Wherever you were on this particular road to realizing your goals, you’re parked now and going nowhere fast. All because of some negative self-talk. Nope. You can’t let it end that way. It’s time to re-write the script and get moving again. It’s the negative self-talk that needs to stop in its tracks, not you. This episode provides some methods for quick and easy success.

Have you ever considered you might be overthinking? While carefully considering a new idea can be an excellent thing, there comes a time when thinking about something that needs to give way to action. Sometimes, though, we stall ourselves out by getting so involved in our thoughts, we never act at all. This episode provides helpful tips for decreasing overthinking and worry.

If you have ever been in the middle of a project, task for a client, or trying to organize the household budget and you can't seem to focus then you have experienced the need for mind mapping. Mind mapping helps you take your jumbled mess of thoughts and organize them visually to help you focus on the task at hand and get to where you need to be with the task. If you have never used mind mapping, this episode will provide a few techniques and information about the process to help you get started.