New Year, New Life!

By Valeria Vilar, MA, BEd, LMHC

A new year has begun, and with every new beginning comes also renewed hopes, expectations and the desire to achieve those goals which have not yet been reached. Once the emotional Profits & Loses of the last year has been settled, each one of us can look into the future with the commitment to improve our life.

For some individuals turning their goals into reality tends to seem a much harder task, and they postpone their well being for a lifestyle that they are used to, but that they really don't want. In order to achieve the changes that we commit we need to be tooled with the right instruments, understand the difficulties involved in what we try to accomplish, and design a plan to make wishes come true.

True happiness

By Valeria Vilar, MA, BEd, LMHC

Happiness is an emotion that in the time we are living, the 21st century, has become difficult to achieve for many people. It is paradoxical to see how in this time people strive for costly material things and are not able to obtain happiness, which is free.  We live at a very rapid pace, we assume many activities, responsibilities and daily obligations, to the point where even the recreational activities end up generating stress.

People began to associate happiness with the accumulation of things that came from the outside, providing a momentary feeling of joy but that was neither complete nor lasting.

• So how can we achieve true happiness?

Develop your self-esteem

                                                                By Valeria Vilar, MA, BEd, LMHC

How we usually feel about ourselves affects directly our experience in life, our job, love life, friendships, and the possibility to progress in life in the direction of our dreams. The way we respond to the challenges of our lives comes from our perception of who or what we think we are.

Self-esteem is the measurement system we employ to value ourselves. Since self-esteem is based in our own perception of us, it is subject to the quality of our insight into our own emotions and thought, and could sometimes be misleading.  Like an accounting Profits & Losses report, self-esteem measures on a daily basis the balance of our positive and negative image of ourselves, constantly updated by our experiences and the impact of our self-evaluation and the evaluation of the people we interact with produce.

The power of freedom

By Valeria Vilar, MA, BEd, LMHC

In the month of July we celebrate Independence Day. The 4th of July of 1776 the United States of America was born, through the Declaration of Independence from Great Britain.

This is a date of patriotic celebration, and family gathering. The holiday is celebrated with parades, fireworks, and family reunions.

For a country, been free is an representation of power. For the human being, it represents power as well. An individual is able to reach his autonomy as an adult, when he becomes independent from his parents.

To move out of one’s parents’ house is not an easy step for many. It means reaching emotional and economical independence. And often, achieving the emotional independence is much harder that doing it in the economic aspect.

Why is it so hard for some people to become emotionally independent from their parents?

The most wonderful time of the year

By Valeria Vilar, MA, BEd, LMHC

We hear holiday songs all around us; there is cinnamon scent in the air; houses, streets and shops gleam with lights; and a sense of magic pervades our emotions.

Shop windows entice us to buy attractive gifts. Radio, television, multiple tourist offers, attractive destinations, cruises, etc., delight us and invite us to experience amazing holidays, the best and most unique holidays in our lives, that will remain in our memories forever.

This magical ambience promises both joy and plenitude that may lead some people to build up high expectations hard to achieve.