Some parts of you work quietly in the background; others carry the show. Today, try giving the hidden part a little light and the visible part a little rest. Both are asking for your care.
Today’s Quick Overview:
🔬Science Spotlight: Poor sleep may age your brain a year faster…
🛠️ Tool of The Week: Name, Notice, Nurture…
📰 Therapist Corner: When inner parts can’t find words…
🙏Daily Practice: Accept where you are today…
Let's notice what's hidden and what's visible within you today:
What's hidden in you this Monday that wants to be seen? Maybe anxiety you're covering with a brave face, or excitement you're keeping quiet. And what's visible that might need rest? Perhaps the productivity you always show, or the strength everyone relies on. Both deserve your attention today.
QUICK POLL
Help Us Choose: Your Depression Journal Title
You spoke, we listened!
Last week, overwhelming numbers of you voted for a depression journal as our next release. We heard you loud and clear – you want something real, honest, and actually helpful for the hard days.
Now we need your voice one more time.
We've narrowed it down to 5 potential titles, but here's the thing: this journal is FOR you, so it should speak TO you. Which title stops you in your tracks? Which one makes you think "finally, someone gets it"? Which would you actually pick up on a tough day?
Vote for the title that resonates most with your journey:
Every single vote matters because we're not just picking a title – we're choosing the words that will sit on thousands of nightstands, offering comfort during 3am struggles and small victories on better days.
The journal you asked for is coming. Help us give it the perfect name!
MENTAL HEALTH GIFT
Shadow Work Wheel
Download your free Shadow Work Wheel — a 20-step self-discovery guide that helps you notice triggers, explore your inner critic, and integrate hidden parts of yourself. Print it or save it on your phone as a gentle reminder that shadow work is about exploration, acceptance, and integration.
THERAPIST CORNER
Answered By: Molly J. Scanlon, LMFT
Lost in Translation: When Inner Parts Can't Find Words
Frustration is often felt when we find ourselves unable to articulate what’s going on internally. It can become overwhelming to try and make sense of the complex, internal system within us. The good news is that acknowledging and integrating the thoughts, feelings, and needs of our parts are skills you can learn.
Difficulty Accessing Parts
Different internal parts communicate differently, and each needs a truly safe space to risk being vulnerable. Some parts emerged when we were very young, and they are stuck in that time. We wouldn’t expect the same level of articulation from a 5-year-old as we would from a 40-year-old, and the same goes for parts. They do not have the skills, and we must meet them where they are.
Protector parts sometimes determine a part to be unsafe and threatening to the system. Shadow parts are exiled to our deepest, darkest inner spaces, becoming adept at staying small, hidden, and silent.
Other parts express themselves through behaviors like resistance, people pleasing, escape/avoidance, humor/deflection, controlling, a victim mindset, perfectionism, sabotage, and more. These parts stay hidden or resist expression because of fear and shame.
No matter the reason for a part struggling to communicate, we can find ways to help them feel safe enough to express themselves.
Creating Safe Spaces for Parts
Begin by considering: How is this part communicating? If we only conceive of communication as verbal, then we are limiting the ways in which we can access a part. Parts communicate through emotions, thoughts, urges, sensations in the body, images, or behaviors. Acknowledge the part and then inquire through these 5 approaches:
Presence – Sit with this part and make it clear that you simply desire connection. Check into your body and notice where the part is located, then ask the part to share, “I feel you in my feet, and my body is restless. Is there something you’d like me to know about that?”
Perspective – Compassion means seeking understanding rather than judgment. Consider the various roles in your life (Worker, Partner, Parent, Child, Friend) and take a moment to look at a situation through each unique point of view. Something you might feel confident in as a worker might give you pause as a child.
Playfulness – Creativity is a great way to invite parts to share without the pressure of putting the abstract into words. Peruse a magazine or stock image website and invite the part in to play, “Can you show me an image that reflects what you are thinking and feeling?”
Patience – Let the part know, “It’s okay if you don’t feel comfortable sharing with me right now. I will be here when you do.”
Persistence – Make it a daily-ish habit to check in and hold space for parts. Let them know you will be present and then get curious, “I care about what you’re experiencing. Is there anything you’d like me to know?”
Expressing Parts to Others
Acknowledging our parts is a big step, and one that opens us up to be able to communicate complex thoughts and feelings. Try these techniques next time you want to express yourself with others.
Identify the Need. Do you need to eat, shower, rest, move your body, remove yourself from a certain environment, or something else? Ask and then listen for feelings and sensations.
Name the Inner Conflict with a safe sounding board. “My motherly part is worried about letting my son go to the concert. My teenage part understands his excitement and wants him to have fun, just like I did.”
Ask for Support. Do you need a distraction from intense emotions? Do you need to talk it out? Do you need someone to take a task off your plate? Do you need alone time?
Honor the Part. Even those unfamiliar with parts or shadow work can relate to this language: “Even though I value connection with others, there’s a part of me that needs quiet, alone time, and I need to honor that.”
Buy Yourself Time when making decisions or with time-sensitive tasks. “I’ve been giving this some thought, and I need more time to make sense of it for myself. Can I let you know tomorrow?”
Create and Process. Color it, map it out, give it form, cut and glue it into a collage. Create for the purpose of unearthing thoughts and feelings, rather than for the goal of a finished product.
Molly J. Scanlon, LMFT, is an outpatient therapist specializing in the treatment of substance use and co-occurring mental health disorders at a community agency in Vero Beach, Florida. She helps clients develop a compassionate, growth mindset that contributes to a recovery lifestyle.
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TOOL OF THE WEEK
The Name, Notice, Nurture Check-In
What it is: A 30-second emotional reset you can do anywhere when something feels off. First, you Name what you're feeling ("I'm anxious"). Then you Notice where it shows up in your body ("tight chest, clenched jaw"). Finally, you Nurture yourself with understanding instead of criticism ("Of course I'm anxious—that meeting was intense").
How to practice it:
When you feel emotionally hijacked or just "off," pause.
Ask yourself: "What am I feeling right now?" Keep it simple: are you mad, sad, scared, ashamed?
Then scan your body: "Where do I feel this?"
Finally, offer yourself the understanding you'd give a friend: "It makes sense that I feel this way because..." or "This is hard, and I'm doing my best."
Why it works: This practice combines two mechanisms. Naming emotions activates your prefrontal cortex and calms your amygdala, which can reduce emotional intensity. Noticing body sensations grounds you in the present, breaking the rumination loop. Nurturing yourself with compassion helps shift from stress to safety.
When to use it: After someone says something that stings. When your mood suddenly shifts. Before responding to a triggering email. At work, when you need a quick reset. During conflicts, when you feel flooded. Any moment you're pushing down feelings instead of acknowledging them.
Pro tip: The nurture step isn't about making excuses—it's about normalizing human emotions. Instead of "I shouldn't feel jealous," try "Jealousy is telling me something I value feels threatened." The more you practice, the faster you'll catch difficult emotions before they take over.
SCIENCE SPOTLIGHT
Poor Sleep Ages Your Brain by a Full Year - And Inflammation Is to Blame
The Research: Researchers analyzed brain MRI scans from 27,500 middle-aged and older adults and discovered that poor sleep patterns make the brain appear significantly older than chronological age. The study scored sleep quality based on five factors: chronotype (morning/evening preference), sleep duration, insomnia, snoring, and daytime sleepiness.
The findings: For every 1-point decrease in healthy sleep score, brain age increased by about six months. People with consistently poor sleep had brains that appeared, on average, one year older than their actual age. Low-grade inflammation in the body explained over 10% of this connection.
Why It Matters: This research suggests that poor sleep doesn't just result from brain disease. It may actively contribute to accelerated brain aging. Understanding that inflammation may mediate this relationship points to potential intervention targets.
Your brain's aging process isn't just determined by time passing; it may be influenced by how well you sleep night after night. Other mechanisms may also be at work: poor sleep disrupts the brain's waste clearance system (which operates mainly during sleep) and affects cardiovascular health.
Try It Today: Assess your sleep quality across all five factors; not just duration, but also whether you experience insomnia, snoring, excessive daytime sleepiness, or fight against your natural chronotype.
The good news is that sleep is modifiable. Improving sleep hygiene, addressing snoring or sleep apnea, and aligning your schedule with your natural chronotype could potentially support brain health.
DAILY PRACTICE
Affirmation
I can accept where I am right now without calling it failure. Progress begins with honest acknowledgment, not with pretending I'm somewhere I'm not.
Gratitude
Think of one quality about yourself that you used to judge but now appreciate. That shift from resistance to acceptance freed up energy you'd been wasting on self-criticism.
Permission
It's okay to be a beginner at something, to struggle, to not have it figured out yet. Starting from where you actually are is the only honest place to start from.
Try This Today (2 minutes):
Complete this sentence honestly, without softening it: "Right now, I am someone who..." Write down three true things, even if they're uncomfortable. Seeing yourself clearly is the first step toward movement.
MENTAL HEALTH NEWS
Psychologists Find Friendship Thrives on Trust, Not Transactions. New research challenges the idea that friendships are based on equal exchanges, showing instead that people help friends out of care and loyalty, acting more like mutual support systems than scorekeeping relationships.
WHO Warns of Worsening Mental Health Crisis Among Europe’s Health Workers. A WHO survey of nearly 100,000 doctors and nurses across 29 countries found one in 10 have had suicidal thoughts, linking long hours, violence, and job insecurity to rising burnout and threats to patient care.
Evening Reset: Notice, Write, Settle
Visualization
Picture a hiker checking their map. Before they can navigate to the summit, they need to know exactly where they're standing on the trail. Pretending they're further along doesn't change reality; it just makes them more lost. Tonight you can honor your actual location without shame, trusting that clarity about "here" is what makes "there" possible.
Journal
Spend three minutes writing: What truth about myself or my situation have I been avoiding, and how is that resistance keeping me stuck in place?
Gentle Review
Close your notebook and ask yourself: Where am I pretending to be further along than I actually am? What would become possible if I stopped performing and started being honest? What part of my current reality am I ready to stop fighting?
"You've got to be what you are to get where you are going. If you resist or deny where you are and who you are, it's hard to move on to where you want to be." — Bill O'Hanlon
Pocket Reminder
You can't navigate to a new place if you won't admit where you're standing now.
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TUESDAY’S PREVIEW
Coming Tuesday: What to say when your family dismisses your achievements as "not a big deal," and how to ask for genuine celebration instead of minimization or comparison.
MEET THE TEAM
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*The Daily Wellness shares educational content only and is not a substitute for professional medical or mental health advice and diagnosis. Please consult a licensed provider for personalized care.