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Emotional Health Minute: Being able to ask for help is a show of strength, not weakness.

Vulnerability is scary and for many, it’s easier to go it alone than reach out to others.  In fact, the ability to build a support team and use it, is a hallmark of resilience.  Your Emotional Health Minute“team” could be one person or it could be a slew.  In my work, I’ve experienced men and women (it’s not just the men) who have rigid beliefs around what asking for help means.  Often those who believe it is a sign of weakness learned early on that they couldn’t rely on others so it makes sense that they might turn inside vs outside to cope!

And yes, there can be male/female differences in social conditioning around “asking for help” that might need to be challenged a little.

If you tend not to ask for help, I encourage you to try.  If you practice this new skill and get positive reinforcement from it, neuroscience has demonstrated these new experiences have the power to mute out old and unhelpful beliefs about what is possible.

If asking for help is still something you struggle to do and you feel it’s impacting your emotional health (and possibly relationships), I’ve assisted many people wanting to break the unhealthy belief patterns negatively impacting their lives.

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Skype sessions also available in some cases (CA residents).

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Lisa Brookes Kift, MFT
Lisa Brookes Kift, MFT has a private practice in Marin County (Larkspur), CA., working with individuals and couples in-office or via tele-health for those in California. Lisa is also the creator of LoveAndLifeToolbox.com with articles and tools in support of emotional health and relationships. A frequent media consultant, she has appeared online in CNN, HuffingtonPost, Shape, Men’s Health and others. She lives in Mill Valley, California, loves nature, travel and is an avid tennis player.