Dr. Nydia Conrad

01/18/2026

Do you eat when you’re stressed? Learn about emotional eating and what psychologist call distress intolerance.

https://www.casalucida.net/post/emotional-eating-and-distress-intolerance-what-you-need-to-know

01/11/2026

Why New Year’s Resolutions Still Matter for Mindset Change

Every January, the same message shows up everywhere.
Most people will not stick to their New Year’s resolutions.
Motivation fades.
Why even try?

From a psychological perspective, that narrative misses something important.

New Year’s resolutions are not about perfection. They are about permission. Permission to pause, reflect, and intentionally choose what deserves your attention.

Yes, research shows many people do not follow their resolutions for a full year. But nearly half of adults still set them anyway. That tells us something meaningful. Even knowing the odds, people continue to believe change is possible. That belief matters.

There is a reason January first feels powerful. The mind responds to fresh starts. A new year creates psychological distance from past attempts and allows the brain to imagine a new chapter. That sense of a clean slate reduces shame and increases hope, which are essential for change.

Social media often frames resolutions as all or nothing. Either you stay perfectly consistent or you have failed. But real change is rarely linear. Motivation fluctuates. Life interrupts. Growth happens in starts and stops, not straight lines.

If you are focused on mindset change, a resolution is not a contract. It is an experiment. A way to learn how you respond to structure, discomfort, progress, and self trust.

And January first is only one option. Any meaningful moment can be a reset. A birthday. A new month. Even today.

New Year’s resolutions still matter because they reflect something deeply human: the willingness to believe in yourself again. They are an act of hope, not a promise of perfection. Even when goals shift, even when you pause, even when you start over, the intention to grow is still alive. Choosing to try again is never wasted. It is how real change begins.

01/09/2026

Be Careful With the Company You Keep

The saying “you become most like the five people you spend the most time with” is not just cultural wisdom. It is grounded in well established psychological principles.

Humans learn primarily through social modeling. From early childhood, we observe others to understand how to think, behave, regulate emotions, and interpret the world. The people closest to us become our most powerful reference points. Their habits, emotional responses, and belief systems are continually modeled, often without conscious awareness.

There is also the role of behavioral reinforcement. Behaviors that are rewarded socially tend to increase. If your environment reinforces avoidance, pessimism, or emotional reactivity through validation, laughter, or shared narratives, those behaviors become more likely to repeat. On the other hand, environments that reinforce accountability, growth, and emotional regulation strengthen those patterns instead.

Normative influence plays a role as well. Over time, the group establishes what feels normal. Your nervous system adapts to that baseline. What once felt uncomfortable can start to feel familiar, and familiarity is often mistaken for safety.

Through emotional contagion, moods and stress responses spread between people. Chronic anxiety, cynicism, or calm focus are not just individual traits. They are relational states that circulate within close social systems.

Finally, repeated exposure leads to cognitive schema formation. The beliefs and narratives held by those around you shape how you interpret your own experiences, your sense of possibility, and your expectations of yourself.

This is not about blaming or judging your circle. It is about understanding how proximity shapes psychology. The mind becomes efficient at what it is repeatedly exposed to and reinforced for.

Your inner circle is not just social. It is behavioral conditioning.

Choose it intentionally

01/02/2026

Mental health care requires training, ethics, and safeguards. When wellness culture ignores this, vulnerable people pay the price. Here is why it matters.

In recent years, the line between personal coaching, wellness work, and mental health treatment has become increasingly blurred. Retreat leaders, life coaches, spiritual guides, and wellness facilitators are often offering trauma focused sessions, emotional healing experiences, or psychological inte...

12/27/2025

Feeling up one day and down the next does not mean you are bipolar.

Mood changes are a normal response to stress relationships sleep hormones trauma and life events. That is emotional reactivity, not a disorder.

Bipolar disorder involves intense and prolonged episodes that significantly disrupt daily functioning. It is not the same as everyday ups and downs.

Social media has made mental health labels feel fast and simple, but real diagnosis is nuanced and contextual.

Stress and trauma can look like mood instability without being bipolar disorder.

Before self diagnosing, pause. Labels should bring clarity, not anxiety.

If your moods feel extreme persistent or disruptive, talk to a qualified professional who can look at the full picture.

Not every struggle needs a diagnosis to be valid.

12/26/2025

How to stop scrolling and start living 

Most of us are not addicted to our phones in the way we think. We are conditioned.We reach for our phones out of habit boredom stress and emotional avoidance. It is automatic. In psychology this is called behavioral conditioning. Over time the brain learns that screens provide quick relief from disc...

12/25/2025

Feeling left out? Small acts of participation build friendships, confidence, and opportunities. Show up, and life shows up back.

Most people do not notice this at first. It usually becomes clear after a stretch of feeling stuck or disconnected. Something is missing, and the instinct is to wonder why life is not delivering it. But eventually, it becomes obvious that very often, what we receive reflects what we put out.Think ab...

12/24/2025

Not feeling that holiday cheer?

Let’s be honest. The holidays are not joyful for everyone. For some people, they bring up sadness, loneliness, stress, or a sense of emptiness that is hard to explain. And when everyone around you seems happy and busy celebrating, it can make those feelings feel even worse.If the holidays are hard...

12/14/2025

Ever heard of financial infidelity? It happens more often than you think and is more damaging than you may realize. 

12/14/2025

'Focus on understanding yourself instead of blaming others.'

12/14/2025

Ever feel like you’re watching life instead of living it? This may be depersonalization 
or derealization. Learn more about it here.

Sometimes life can feel…weird. Not just “stressful” or “tiring,” but like you’re watching yourself from the outside, or like the world around you isn’t real. Your hands look strange, your voice feels distant, even familiar places seem dreamlike. If you’ve felt this way, you might be ...