Empower Counseling

12/18/2025

End-of-year reflections hit differently.
So much “problem-solving” is really just distraction.
The longing underneath is where the real information lives.
What’s something you’ve been ignoring?

12/15/2025

You showed up. You paused. You practiced. That’s a win. With trauma recovery, nervous system healing, or just life-in-2025, we celebrate every tiny win.

12/09/2025

12/08/2025

Mindfulness isn’t one more thing to perfect—it’s a practice. Start with something small: a post-it on your mirror, a mindful sip of coffee, one deep breath at every stoplight.

12/01/2025

Productivity isn’t always progress. Sometimes rest is the most revolutionary thing you can do. Especially if your trauma made you feel like resting was lazy.

11/25/2025

Okay, so… I’ll try anything that helps my nervous system chill.
Meditation? Sure. Weighted blankets? Absolutely. Laying on the floor like a Victorian child fainting? Weekly.
So when Grounding Well sent me this grounding mat, I thought… why not? Worst case scenario, I check out something new.
But y’all—this thing surprised me.
It comes with simple instructions, a plug-in cord that even I could figure out, and the texture? Sensory people… you know how some surfaces feel like punishment? This one’s actually soothing. My inner five-year-old was like: ‘finally, a fabric that isn’t trying to fight me.’
And grounding has a wild list of benefits—like reduced inflammation, improved sleep, reduced stress and anxiety, better mood … basically the whole ‘please let me function like a human today’ starter pack.
So I rolled it out, sat down, and immediately felt that little drop in my shoulders. The nervous system sigh. The ‘okay… we’re safe’ moment.
I’ll keep trying it this week, but first impressions?
Grounding is giving ‘regulated main character’ energy.

11/25/2025

If I could tap my younger self on the shoulder in 1986, right as she was lugging that rifle across a college campus she barely knew how to navigate, I’d whisper the same thing this trend keeps saying:
“You’re going to get the chance to join colorguard. It’s very important that you say yes.”
Even though they’ll tell you it’s “just 10–2 on Sundays” (a lie so bold it deserves its own uniform), say yes anyway.
Say yes even when you have no idea what you’re doing.
Say yes even when your brain is screaming that you’re too shy, too weird, too unsure, too… everything.
Because that yes is going to change your entire life.
That yes is where you learn discipline that isn’t punishment, but pride.
Where you discover what it feels like to be part of something bigger than yourself — something that requires your presence, your effort, your heart.
Where friendships form in sweat, chaos, laughter, and bus rides that smell like a mix of hairspray, Gatorade, and teenage adrenaline.
Where you learn to count, trust your body, trust your people, and trust that you can do hard things long before any therapist (even future-you) would have the language for why it mattered so much.
Colorguard was never just spinning flags.
It was identity formation.
It was community.
It was safety and challenge in the same breath.
It was the first time I felt both seen and capable.
Forty years later, I’m still proud of that girl.
Proud of the risks she took.
Proud of the stages she stepped onto.
Proud of the way she said yes to something that felt bigger than she believed she was allowed to take on.
So this trend is right:
If you ever get the chance to say yes to something that scares you in the best possible way… say it.
It might just become the thing that builds your whole future self.

11/24/2025

If I could pull 20-something me aside for just one minute…
I’d tell her the truth she was working way too hard to avoid:
You don’t have to shape-shift to fit into other people’s comfort zones.
You don’t have to audition for belonging.
You don’t have to abandon yourself to keep the peace.
The moment you show up as your actual self — the real one, the messy one, the honest one — your entire life starts shifting into place.
Not because the world gets easier…
but because you stop disappearing inside it.
If you’re in your 20s (or honestly any decade), here’s your sign:
Start practicing being the you that feels like home.
Not the you that feels “acceptable.”
Your future self is already cheering.