From “The 100 Simple Secrets of Happy People”
Don’t ignore one part of your life.
We are happier when all the pieces of our life are generally in good shape than when one area we care about is perfect and everything else is falling apart.
Hmmmm, though I think this is very true, I believe that we have clients who would not be able to understand this. Their parents probably REALLY get it though!
Often children/teens with anxiety issues (common for those on the spectrum especially!) become fixated on one thing to the exclusion of all else. They may be perfectly happy (or at least a lot less anxious) in their own little world, but those around them despair. Listening to the same song, eating the same food, wearing the same clothes, driving the same way to school can get very old for those who don’t share the fascination or when a meltdown occurs because of an unavoidable change.
A couple of the things we would work on with this type of client are being more open to change and developing coping/self soothing skills for when change is unavoidable. The horses are great teachers for both of these lessons…
In research on a large group of college students, those who were less likely to link the attainment of a specific goal to their overall mood were 19% more likely to be satisfied. Smith 1997