Jon Nelson, USAF(Ret)/MSSI/MS-CMHC

Understanding Personality: Conscientiousness

By Jon Nelson, Counselor | Educator | Veteran / April 1, 2025

Personality is often viewed through the lens of the Big Five traits of Openness, Conscientiousness, Extraversion, Agreeableness, and Neuroticism (OCEAN). Understanding these traits can help us better know ourselves and others. What is Conscientiousness In the constellation of personality traits, conscientiousness is the factor which helps us understand how an individual might interact with the […]

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Be the Pond

By Jon Nelson, Counselor | Educator | Veteran / March 31, 2025

After spending the weekend on the road I decided to keep it simple today and just share one of my favorite guided meditations. Enjoy! Thanks For Reading If you found this helpful, you can read all of my Daily Reflections at www.tacticstotalwellness.com/blog You can also sign up for my weekly newsletter to get a simple

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Exploring Emotions: Disgust

By Jon Nelson, Counselor | Educator | Veteran / March 28, 2025

Disgust is an important safety mechanism that protects us from harm by warning us of potential biological hazards or the crossing of moral boundaries. It can also drive compulsive behaviors or cause social challenges if we don’t learn to regulate it. This is Disgusting Disgust is an emotional response that drives us to avoid harm

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What is Necessary

By Jon Nelson, Counselor | Educator | Veteran / March 27, 2025

A lot of time and money is spent on frivolous things in the vain hope that they will help us feel “good.” Here’s a shocker. This will not work… and feeling “good” might not be what you actually need. Pushed & Pulled to the Un-Necessary The basic idea used in marketing is to establish a

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Understanding Personality: Openness

By Jon Nelson, Counselor | Educator | Veteran / March 26, 2025

Personality is often viewed through the lens of the Big Five traits of Openness, Conscientiousness, Extraversion, Agreeableness, and Neuroticism (OCEAN). Understanding these traits can help us better know ourselves and others. Let’s start with Openness What is Openness? Openness is a generalized way of expressing how receptive you are to new experiences. I can be

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You are Free to Choose Freedom

By Jon Nelson, Counselor | Educator | Veteran / March 25, 2025

Few of us will ever face the harsh realities of being imprisoned or enslaved, but we are at risk of being captured by the undue influence of others through emotional targeting of our needs and desires. Let’s talk about how to protect ourselves from this type of maligned influence. Needs and Desires Everyone has basic

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Emerging from Shadow Part 3: The Warrior’s Path – First Steps

By Jon Nelson, Counselor | Educator | Veteran / March 24, 2025

Welcome to the part 3 of this 12 part series that explores my journey from warfighter to mental health professional. This week I will explore Identity formation and the emotional control required in the warrior culture. Off We Go, Into the Wild Blue Yonder When you are homeless and unemployed waiting to ship off to

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Exploring Emotions: Fear

By Jon Nelson, Counselor | Educator | Veteran / March 21, 2025

We are alive today because of fear, and we might not be living the life we want to live today because of fear. While these ideas are at odds with each other they can still both be true. Let’s explore. One of our Oldest Survival Instincts Neuroscience, along with evolutionary biology and evolutionary psychology have

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Ready for War

By Jon Nelson, Counselor | Educator | Veteran / March 20, 2025

Being ready for war is a good analogy for being prepared for fighting through the struggles of your daily life. If you are ready for the fight, you’ll be able to overcome challenges and live the life you want to live. The warrior who is prepared starts with developing a moral conviction. They say to

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The Responsibility of Self-Control

By Jon Nelson, Counselor | Educator | Veteran / March 19, 2025

In our house we avoided assigning chores and instead focused on teaching our kids to be responsible for their fair share of the work as a “duty.” We can also try to frame our responsibility to develop self control as a duty we owe to ourselves and to those around us. Self-control can be defined

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