Search Results for: blog seven goals for good mental health

Dogs, Unconditional Love and Mental Health

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I read in the recent weekend paper where our local animal shelter had registered an alarming increase in the number of dogs and other pets being handed in because the owners could no longer keep them. Skyrocketing pressures on the family budget appear to have claimed yet another victim: The family pet. A spokesperson for the animal shelter said that the people who were surrendering their animals claimed that the increased cost of living was making it impossible to pay for the costs involved in keeping a pet. As well as an increase in the number of animals being dumped, … Continue reading →

The Old Wives Were Right: Tea Is Good For Stress

Remember in those old movies where the hero or heroine would undergo a trauma or suffer a terrible shock and some motherly type would step in with the classic line: “How about I go put the kettle on?” The next scene would demonstrate the apparent miraculous qualities of tea to perk up our hero or heroine (it was usually a woman) and step back into the fray again. But this merely echoed what was going on in everyday homes in everyday neighborhoods. No matter whether a house caught fire, a child was sick, or an aging parent died, the catch-cry … Continue reading →

New Year’s Mental Health Resolutions

Whether you suffer from a pre-existing mental health condition or just plain-old garden variety stress, why not try a different type of New Year’s resolution this year? The resolution to improve your mental health. There isn’t anyone who couldn’t benefit from taking steps to improve their mental health, just as we could all benefit from a fitness regime makeover from time to time. So what types of activities should we include on our Mental Health New Year’s Resolution? Number One would have to be a commitment to better sleep habits. Poor sleep underlines and exacerbates many health problems, both physical … Continue reading →

Stress: Always Look for the Bigger Picture

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It’s a strange fact, yet I encounter it over and over again. The people who have relatively minor worries in their lives often stress more than those who have genuine life-threatening or life-destroying illnesses. Now this doesn’t seem to make sense. Yet, as stressed as many of my clients are, in general, they worry a lot less than those who live more seemingly carefree lives. As a psychologist, I have over the years heard some terrible stories of extreme hardship, and yes, these people are often chronically depressed and anxious. And yet, the majority of the so-called “normal” and “healthy” … Continue reading →

The Power of Laughter

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They say that laughter is the best medicine and they’re not wrong. Not only is laughing fun to do but it has long-term health benefits, especially for mental health. And it also contributes to you leading a longer (and happier!) life. Dr. Tim Sharp, a psychologist from the Happiness Institute in Sydney, Australia maintains that laughter has positive benefits, both physiologically and psychologically. Sharp claims that: “People who see the funnier side of things tend to be more resilient. These people are also able to see things from a different perspective.” Laughing clubs have sprung up around the world as … Continue reading →

Using Food to Change Mood

Prefer a natural alternative to changing your state of mind? While major chronic mood disorders require counseling and intermittent drug treatment, often we can make small but significant changes to our diet and lifestyle to assist us to get out of a bad frame of mind. Try these simple tips next time you have a case of the “blahs”. 1. Feeling Irritable? Maintaining steady blood sugar levels will help stave off sugar swings that can lead to irritability. Eating 5 to 6 small meals throughout the day and never missing breakfast can make for a much more stable mood. Supplementing … Continue reading →

Are You Running the Show or is the Show Running You? (2)

In Are You Running the Show or is the Show Running You? we looked how having an external locus of control, i.e. feeling that you are at the mercy of people and events, can make for increased anxiety and depression levels. Having an internal locus of control, which simply means that we feel that we have some control and choices over how we live our lives, results in lower stress levels and a sense of happiness and purpose. Tips to increase your sense of personal control: 1. Become aware that in every situation, no matter how dire, you do have … Continue reading →

Are You Running the Show or is the Show Running You? (1)

There are all sorts of formal definitions for what stress is, but one of the basic criteria that characterize stress is: do you feel in control of your life, or do you want the world to just stop while you catch your breath? When we feel a sense of control in our lives, we experience much less stress. It is when we feel that events are spiraling out of our control that those familiar symptoms start creeping into our lives. Stress headaches, indigestion, palpitations, a sense of dread, endless worrying, an inability to sleep well, loss of appetite and plain … Continue reading →

Music Therapy

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Music as a form of therapy is a powerful aid to stress release and is useful for a number of conditions including anxiety disorders, depression, post-traumatic stress disorder, even autistic spectrum disorders. The value of music therapy was first documented after WWII when doctors serving at medical outposts noticed that shell-shocked soldiers recovered more quickly and to a greater degree when exposed to the calming sounds of music. Researchers have also used music to help the developmental progress of autistic children, but the field of music therapy has expanded from its initial narrow application to include many forms of mental … Continue reading →

Sing Your Way to Calm

Anyone who has suffered from debilitating anxiety will know that correct breathing is one of the principal weapons against anxiety and panic attacks. There are countless references to the importance of breathing correctly in many schools of relaxation therapy, including yoga. While all of these methods are excellent and should be pursued, it can take a considerable length of time to make correct breathing your everyday style. Patterns of quick, shallow breathing which promote anxiety due to the changing oxygen/carbon dioxide ratio in the blood, are often firmly entrenched. It can take a lot of conscious effort to make correct, … Continue reading →