Lindsey Pace, LCSW

We are having a fence installed in our backyard. Its not a privacy fence as we still want to be able to see and interact with our neighbors on every side but at about five feet tall it is tall enough that our dog won't be able to jump over the fence. For the past month and a half, every time the puppy needs to go out to the bathroom, one of us has to go out with him on a leash. Its gotten just a bit annoying (especially on those rainy days). I can't wait to be able to open the back door and send him out knowing that he can't leave our yard and can mosey his little heart all over the place before he finds the perfect spot and all while I'm still indoors! Its amazing how a boundary, whether its a physical fence or another type of boundary can actually bring freedom once its established and maintained. I've been thinking about and speaking on boundaries a lot recently in my personal and professional life. For one, its because I've been doing a lot of landscaping an...

Is anxiety bossing you around and determining every decision or step you take? In the most basic sense, anxiety is a physiological state in our body that is set off by an area of our brain known as the amygdala when our body or our mind perceives some kind of a threat or danger. Before modern times, this internal alarm system would've saved us from predators and prehistoric dangers. If our ancestors didn't have the instinct from anxiety to run or fight we would not be here. In this regard, anxiety deserves our gratitude and respect.  The way anxiety feels in our bodies varies person to person but typically one can expect to feel the following: tightness or heaviness in the chest, butterflies in the stomach, light-headedness, shallow and rapid breathing, tightening of the muscles, increased heartrate and palpitations, sweating, dry mouth, etc. This physiological process is honestly amazing because it allows us to be at peak alertness and readiness to make the next right move tha...