The Journey Begins

Thanks for joining me on my blog!

The first time I blogged was in grad school when a group of girlfriends and I got together every Monday night to watch The Bachelor. The next day, I would write about all our funny comments, jokes, and observations while watching this ever-entertaining dating show, and then add in some psychology concepts and terms that connected to what was going on on the show. We were, after all, graduate students getting our doctorates in psychology.

The girls loved it and I had fun taking notes, collaborating with them on our insights, then presenting it to them for us to read and Google-chat about during our grad classes (oops). The next year, the men in our class started a basketball team (appropriately named Pavlov’s Dawgs) and asked me to keep a blog of their games, thinking I might report on stats, scores, and rebounds, but instead I gave my observations about team fashion as status symbol and the etiquette of male athletic behavior.

I have always loved writing, especially writing about psychology and making it accessible and applicable to everyone. I want even those without any knowledge or background in psychology to come away feeling like psychology matters to them and can make a difference in their lives.

Until recently, this blog and my website has been rather empty, as my life was busy with transitioning from a clinical psychologist job to a full-time faculty position as a psychology professor, moving homes, and having a baby.

Beyond that, I have always been nervous about sharing my writing and my thoughts with a large audience. It takes courage and vulnerability to “put yourself out there” and open yourself up to other people’s comments, criticisms, and critiques.

Reading Brene Brown’s work gave my the courage to “get in the arena” and “dare greatly”. I hope to update this blog weekly with engaging articles about psychology, culture, and Christianity. I hope you’ll follow and engage with me about these ideas.

How do you need to “dare greatly”? When was the last time you were vulnerable? I encourage you to think about what you could do this week to embrace courage and put yourself out there!

The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena… if he fails, at least [he] fails while daring greatly. — Theodore Roosevelt