A Wonderful World

                                                  UNDERSTANDING STRESS AND OUR RESPONSE ‘Stress’ is a physical, mental or emotional factor that cause bodily or mental tension. At times this response is necessary. When we are faced with a potential threat, stress can initiate the ‘fight or flight’ response, which is our body’s involuntary response to help prepare us for any necessary action that may need to be taken in order to survive.  When our brains perceive what they believe to be a threat, this response and our alertness is activated, our breathing and heart rate increases, hormones adrenaline and cortisol are released, blood flows away from where it’s not needed to assist muscles and the heart. As this response is initiated, we can take action. Ultimately, stress is what happens when our equilibrium is disturbed by what we call ‘a stressor’, this ‘stres...

                                                   'Taking a minute to reflect on how you're getting on, can help you cope when getting through.' Amidst the news, current affairs and global pandemic, despite being stuck in our homes it can often feel we're stuck on a hamster wheel. Whether that's physically or not, it can certainly have an effect on us mentally. With a lot of unknown regarding when lockdown will end and specifics surrounding definite deadlines, vaccinations and transmission rates, our minds may be finding it difficult to switch off. Whilst it's helpful to take a minute to stay updated, it's just as important to take a minute for yourself. Just you. No kids, no news, no work, no social media or external distraction. Allowing yourself to just be with you and you thoughts to really tune into how you're feeling. With an inability to meet up with ...

'Starting a new calendar or diary with so little routine and plans to fill it with.'                                         2021 has begun and we're all hopeful that this year will be better than the last, as the vaccine is distributed and Tier 4 guidelines are followed, we're all holding on for cases of Coronavirus to fall and allow restrictions to eventually reduce, resulting in reunions with families and friends and having our freedom restored. For many January is a difficult month anyway, let alone with a global pandemic continuing to influence our choices and daily lives. It's usually a month of challenges regarding starting up work after the celebrations and time off over Christmas, cold, dark and getting ourselves back into routine, perhaps with new goals and new year resolutions. So despite the difficulties that usually come with January and the post holiday blues, there is ...

              Perhaps we should reframe the phrase 'New Year, New Me'. Every year as we get closer to New Years Eve on the 31st of December, considering our 'New Year's Resolutions' becomes a common tradition, thinking about what we would like the New Year to bring us, or perhaps certain behaviours or habits we would like to alter or work on. Personally, I have always found a certain pressure comes with this outlook, and instead of being something to question optimistically, it can often become stressful and slightly anxiety inducing as our minds can focus on what we may view as negatives regarding ourselves and set certain goals for the New Year to change ourselves as if we are magic or superhuman, setting our standards too high. Sometimes, with this mentality comes the term 'New Year, New Me', the idea that we are going to become someone new as one year ends and another starts, someone better or perhaps closer to the 'ideal, perfect human'. However...

                    'Further restrictions for London and South East resulting in a Tier 4 Christmas.'  On the evening of the 19th of December, Boris Johnson announced that due to rising cases and level of infections there will be further restrictions in place for London and South East areas from Midnight, resulting in the original plan of a little more relaxation and mixing households over the Christmas period to be cancelled. You must remain with only the people in your household when indoors, or those in your existing bubble. Outdoors, you can only meet one person from another household. Three households are able to mix on Christmas Day alone, rather than the original plan of 5 days (23rd to the 27th.) Further details are on the Government website:  https://www.gov.uk/guidance/tier-4-stay-at-home . Of course, this is extremely frustrating and upsetting for us all. Christmas will not be the same this year, and unfortunate...

You Don't Compare The Sun and The Moon.  Both the sun and moon shine and have their time. They’re both beautiful in their own right, and so are you. You don’t need to compare yourself to someone else, it’s both unhelpful and unnecessary. It’s a standard belief within our society that comparison can be used for a positive effect, many believe that at times, comparing yourself to the circumstances of someone else may in fact allow you to come to terms with all the things you do have rather than the things you do not, to be grateful due to the belief that there is always someone ‘worse off than you’. Years in the education system, yet we are never taught to love ourselves. Where could you be? Where should you be? What more could you have? How could you better yourself? What should you look like? What diet should you be on? What beliefs should you have? Questions that are constantly racing in our heads, plastered on our walls and displayed on our televisions. Those questions have some ...

The Reality of Mental battles and Stigma.   Suicide is happening now.    It’s real and it’s killing. When we experience pain on the inside, it’s not always evident to others and can be hard to accept we’re really not alone. The festering or pain that the silence of one’s suffering can cause, is something we don’t have to ignore, reject or judge. We should never have to suffer in silence when no matter how challenging it may feel to reach out, with this many other humans in the world, we always can. We can and be listened to and heard without judgement. When enclosed in the cape of darkness, you believe that the only solution to the seemingly unsolvable suffering is to end it all by ending oneself. A quick ‘fix’ which in fact is a sudden ‘break’, the only thing that is unfixable. When feeling trapped it can be viewed as the only escape. But it doesn’t have to be that way when we work to remove stigma attached to reaching out when suffering, when we choose kindness....

Changing our view on therapy and displaying emotions?  We have a range of emotions and potential feelings we can experience as a consequence of what's happening in our lives, around us or in our minds. Displaying, sharing, or experiencing them are human, not  weak.  We are conditioned to hide our feelings from an early age, ‘be strong’, particularly men, ‘man up’, and you’re weak if you show any form of vulnerability.  We feel bad about feeling a certain way because of what we’re taught to associate with particular feelings. But all feelings are valid.  Crying is a release, vulnerability is a strength, a willingness to open yourself and truly give yourself the opportunity to feel and not block, stunt, or suppress what’s inside. As powerful as we are as individuals, we cannot do everything alone. It’s can be scary to reach out at times, especially when you don’t understand what’s going on and you can’t even explain how, why and what you’re feeling. It takes cour...