Author Archives: Melissa Todd, Ph.D.

Strive for What You Want

Striving for what you want has significant benefits over avoiding what you dread. To make choices based on fear creates a state of motivation that inhibits growth. It is tantamount to living your life looking over your shoulder, running away … Continue reading

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Take Control of Your HealthCare: Buying Your Own Insurance

The Affordable Care Act (ACA), also known as “ObamaCare,” put into place many provisions to help protect consumers and make health insurance more accessible. However, purchasing your own insurance from the national marketplace or your state marketplace can be intimidating and overwhelming, not … Continue reading

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Do You Have a Mental Health Problem?

This post is for all of you who don’t think you have a mental health problem. Probably. Most likely. I mean, you’re basically fine. You get by. It’s really no big deal. There are a lot of people who are … Continue reading

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Take Control of Your HealthCare: Mental Health Parity

Why do you need to know about mental health parity? Because it is a law that was fully implemented in 2014 that directly affects just about everyone who has health insurance, but only 4% of Americans surveyed were aware of it. Read more … Continue reading

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How to Set Effective Goals

Reaching a meaningful goal is one of the best feelings in life. However, many people struggle to work toward and achieve their goals, leaving them feeling disappointed and defeated. In my last post, I listed Five Common Goal Setting Mistakes to … Continue reading

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Five Common Goal Setting Mistakes

The purpose of setting goals is to create success, whether small or large. When done effectively, goal setting is a beneficial tool that increases your motivation, gives you direction, moves you forward, and provides positive reinforcement. When goals are set ineffectively, they can decrease your motivation, … Continue reading

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Take Control of Your HealthCare: The Language

I have a confession. I never fully understood how health insurance works until I became a health care provider. As a consumer I often relied on my providers to tell me what was my responsibility to pay, or I just waited to receive … Continue reading

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Do you control your destiny?

If you believe that you do, then you may have an Internal Locus of Control (LOC). High achieving athletes and professionals are likely to have a strong Internal LOC, and it has been associated with numerous psychological strengths.  The good news is … Continue reading

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About RunnerShrink

Welcome to RunnerShrink. The purpose of this blog is to share information from the applied science of psychology to a wider audience than I could possibly reach in my professional work. FYI, a discipline is referred to as an applied science when … Continue reading

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A Runner and a Shrink

I am a Runner and a Shrink. Running became a passion of mine sometime around the age of 13, when my middle school started a track & field program. I was immediately good at it, and it took on an importance in my life above … Continue reading

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