Blog for Better Living

Navigating Mental Health Advice

By: Kamaljit "Sonya" Virdi, Ph.D. | August 23, 2024

How to Identify What Works and What Doesn’t   Mental health has become a prominent and widely discussed topic since the pandemic, and there is currently more information on the subject than ever before. This change has benefits like de-stigmatizing mental illness and helping people feel more comfortable accessing services. However, the sheer amount of […]

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Anxiety, Depression, Personal Improvement, Stress, Therapy

How to Reduce Anxiety During Medical Appointments

By: Kamaljit "Sonya" Virdi, Ph.D. | April 26, 2024

If you worry about meeting with a medical health provider, and find yourself avoiding scheduling medical appointments, you’re not alone. Going to the doctor can be nerve-wracking for everyone, and for some, medical visits can produce overwhelming fear and anxiety. This article provides strategies to help you reduce anxiety before and during a medical appointment […]

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Anxiety, Stress

Faulty Connections: How Constant Communication is Ruining Dating

By: Kamaljit "Sonya" Virdi, Ph.D. | August 18, 2023

Most people today connect with romantic interests virtually, in one form or another. We are more connected now than we ever have been with text messages, phone calls, videocalls, social media apps (Instagram, TikTok, Snapchat) and the ability to share our location. In therapy, I frequently hear people say, we text all day, so I […]

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Personal Improvement, Relationships, Stress, Therapy

Strategies to Help You Receive Feedback

By: Kamaljit "Sonya" Virdi, Ph.D. | May 19, 2023

Feedback is an important exchange that happens between friends, colleagues, relatives, and romantic partners. When successful, feedback is an opportunity to feel more connected and better understood by another person. Positive feedback can be reassuring because it highlights our contributions, underscores our strengths, and appreciates our thoughtfulness. However, constructive, or critical feedback is harder to […]

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Anxiety, Personal Improvement, Relationships, Stress

Indian Parenting: The Cost of Keeping Up Appearances

By: Kamaljit "Sonya" Virdi, Ph.D. | November 11, 2022

What happens when the approval of others comes at the cost of your child’s well-being and mental health? And would you recognize that it was happening? If you are an adult child of Indian origin, your parents likely encouraged you to become a doctor, lawyer, or engineer. You may have pursued a career in one […]

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Anxiety, Family, Parenting

Finding Belonging in the Workplace for Women of Color

By: Kamaljit "Sonya" Virdi, Ph.D. | March 25, 2022

Recognizing the experience and contribution of women of color in our society is important. This is especially true in honor of Women’s History Month. Many women of color, especially those from historically marginalized groups, don’t see professionals from their backgrounds represented in their respective career fields. This lack of representation leads to feeling inadequate, a […]

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Career, Racial Justice

Let Go of a Timeline and Create Your Own Path

By: Kamaljit "Sonya" Virdi, Ph.D. | January 14, 2022

From the time we are born, our developmental milestones are closely monitored, from walking to talking to our social behavior. In school we are compared to a cohort of kids of similar age until we graduate high school. We are primed to live by a timeline, to plan, and to compare ourselves to others. While […]

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Anxiety, Personal Improvement, Stress

Surviving This Holiday Season

By: Kamaljit "Sonya" Virdi, Ph.D. | November 5, 2021

The end-of-the-year holidays are meant to be a time of joy and togetherness. For some of us, it may be the first time seeing extended family and celebrating the holidays with others since the coronavirus pandemic. During this time popular movies, ads, and TV shows depict the holidays as a magical time where friends and […]

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Family, Holidays, Relationships

Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion: The Basics

By: Kamaljit "Sonya" Virdi, Ph.D. | July 2, 2021

Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) are not new concepts, but you may have been hearing more about them in your office over the last few years. Employers are prioritizing DEI in response to the Me Too movement that exposed gender inequities and the protests that shed light on racial inequities following George Floyd’s death in […]

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Bullying, Racial Justice, Stress