Jessie Sholl

Adam had never been to therapy — and he wasn’t sure he needed, let alone wanted, to be here. He was meeting with me at the insistence of his wife, who, according to Adam, “thinks I have anger issues.” Adam cares deeply for Sara, his wife of 10 years, and their three young kids. (The family’s names have been changed to protect their privacy.) He recognized that his angry outbursts scared them. The outbursts scared him too. “I don’t know what comes over me,” he told me.

By Jane McCampbell Stuart, MA, LMFT, CPCC, RMFT | Experience Life The notion that we can’t help being hijacked by our emotions is a common misperception. By repeating the following heart-coherence exercise daily, you may find you can recover from upsets more quickly, reduce your susceptibility to other people’s emotional states, and even help improve the regulation of those around you.

In my last Editor’s Note of 2025, I shared that I was feeling burned-out and overwhelmed by the fast pace of life. Some of you might recall my story about packing my daughter’s tennis shoes instead of my own for a trip and, upon realizing it, being reduced to tears (you can read it here). It wasn’t that big of a deal, really, but it was the wake-up call I needed to start making some much-needed changes for my physical and mental well-being.