Mental Health Training

We tend to expect perfection from every situation in this day and age, and nothing else will do. But the key to getting off the perfection roller coaster is to unchain yourself from the shackles of expectation completely.

Sometimes the very idea of lowering expectations can be a trigger for a perfectionist, believing that anything less than perfection is judged a failure.

Perfectionism is a scourge upon humanity that convinces you that you’re never good enough, no matter how much effort you put into things. You’d think we would avoid this kind of thinking just because it’s so much work, but in truth, we’re raised to believe that if you can’t do something right, perhaps you shouldn’t be doing it at all.

However, ‘perfect does not exist, so if we seek something unattainable, then there will always be a disappointment when it is not achieved.

So often, an expectation of how something ‘should be’ can ruin what could be a joyous occasion. If we can work towards accepting that life is not scripted, that it’s often messy, and the intention is more important than the outcome - then life would be so much more manageable.

Perfectionists tendencies can lead us to become very harsh and judgmental, especially toward ourselves. When you’re ready to embrace imperfection, this is the first thing you need to tackle.

Seeking approval

Stop seeking approval from someone (a parent, boss, child or a social media following) that is not forthcoming will always be a fruitless exercise. If you have to force approval out of someone who is not genuine, will that make you happy?

https://mentalhealthtraining.info/news/motivation/perfection

You’ve probably heard at some point in your life that being mindful is an essential part of a healthy and happy life. But you may be wondering just why this is. And this is because being mindful has the power to change many aspects of your life.

Mindfulness Helps With Mental Health

When you spend your entire life running around, worrying about all the things which may be happening in your life at present and in the future, you’re likely to run into mental health problems. When you aren’t mindful of yourself and how you feel, you become stressed, which can have numerous effects on your mental health. To take care of your mental health and lower your stress levels, it’s crucial to be mindful of your environment and how you feel and respond. This will help you be more at peace mentally and keep your brain feeling fresh. 

Mindfulness Boosts Creativity

Not only does mindfulness help preserve your mental health, but it also nurtures your creativity. This can be especially important when you face challenges in your life, as creativity is a part of learning to overcome challenges. According to various studies, mindfulness has even been discovered to improve brain function and memory, which can also help an individual navigate the twists and turns of life more easily. And those who were more mindful in their everyday life didn’t tend to suffer the same memory loss issues later in life as those who weren’t mindful.

Mindfulness Keeps You Healthy

Besides just mental benefits, mindfulness also has several physical benefits for your body. It works to improve immune function so that you can stay healthy and fight off infections more quickly when you do get sick. One study even discovered that being more mindful increased enzyme activity in the body which slowed down the ageing process (Accelerated telomere shortening in response to life stress, Epel et al.). This means that mindfulness is scientifically a part of leading a longer, healthier life.

Conclusion 

Mindfulness is an integral part of leading a happy and healthy life, no matter how you look at it. Mindfulness helps to keep you mentally sane, boosts your creativity, and works in several ways to keep you physically healthy as well. So, if you want to live your best life, it’s time to start being more mindful today. 

If we sit down and think about it, most of us have goals. The problem is, they are often undefined thoughts just sitting in our subconscious.

In reality, these are more daydreams than goals. If you are ready to set a goal that can change your life, then follow these tips:

1. Figure Out What You Want to Change

If you could change one aspect of your life, what would it be?

Would you focus on your career, family or health? It doesn't matter what you choose, and you simply need to figure out what area of your life you need to change. 

1. Know Why You Want to Change

Why do you want to change that area of your life?

Think about this a lot. This is essentially your motivation. Take some time to brainstorm all the benefits of changing this area of your life. Go back to the list often, especially when motivation starts to wane. 

1. Dare to Dream Big

SMART goals are essential. Specific, measurable, achievable, realistic and timely goals should make up the majority of our goals.

That said, don't fear dreaming big. Sometimes it takes a big goal to motivate us. What may seem unrealistic now might not be as far out of your reach as you think. 

1. Write Your Goal Down

Keeping your goal in your head is only worth the paper it is printed on. You can't set reasonable goals without writing them down.

Simply writing your goals down will differentiate you from the vast majority of people. Please choose your destination and write it down. It is simple as that. 

1. Break Your Goal Down into Smaller Goals

If you took the above advice, you dared to dream big. That has probably left you with a big goal that may overwhelm you.

The best way to deal with this is to break this larger goal down into smaller, more achievable goals. These smaller goals can be considered your action plan. 

1. Set Deadlines

Every goal you set should have a deadline. You don't need to be cut throat here, but you should be aggressive.

If you struggle with hitting deadlines, then consider building a reward system. If you meet a goal by the deadline, reward yourself in some way. 

1. Take Action

Achieving your goals comes down to you. Are you ready to not only set goals but take action upon them?

Taking action is the only way you will ever achieve a goal. If you are struggling with where to start, choose the most straightforward task and start there 

Have you considered changing your life?

Reflect and Adjust

There is real value in taking time to reflect on your goals. Setting goals should be considered a fluid undertaking.

Every once in a while, you need to stop and think about working and what isn't working. You also need to check in with yourself to see if your wants/needs are still the same.

Taking some time to reflect on your goals and adjusting where needed will make sure you stay on course 

1. Don't Stop

Did you reach your goal? Perhaps, you reached an obstacle or impasse?

Whatever the case - you keep going. Once you reach a goal you set, plan another one! If you get stuck on your goals, you either deal with the obstacle, or you move on to a new one.

You can't change your life overnight, and it takes persistence and dedication.

Long-term over-sensitivity can lead to intermittent tearfulness, tension, nervousness, and social anxiety because they get overwhelmed when they have too much “people time.” and overthinking.

Sufferers may fear being observed by others or worry that others may be talking about them behind their backs. They may be over-sensitive to innocent comments or questions and become withdrawn. These types of thoughts are called “cognitive distortions” in psychology – a term that means that the way you are thinking about something doesn’t necessarily match up with the reality of what’s going on.

Sensitivity and anxiety tend to go hand in hand, and more seriously, over-sensitivity can develop into depression, mainly if there are constantly worrying about what others think.

It can also lead to seri­ous problems within families or at work. If someone constantly bursts into tears or takes comments too seriously, others may become unwilling to talk to them. This can lead to social difficulty, making it hard to be relaxed and friendly when meeting new people, or preventing rela­tionships and friendships from developing.

https://mentalhealthtraining.info/health-and-wellness/over-sensitivity

Meditation is something that we’re constantly being encouraged to use. Every self-help guru, every highly successful individual and even many athletes trumpet its many benefits and the research too seems to back up its value.

So why don’t more people practice it?

The main problem for most of us is that it’s really rather daunting, obtuse and complicated. Meditation is ultimately about reaching enlightenment and inner peace right?

Sounds a bit heavy for a Friday evening!

The real question for many people then is where to start. This article will provide you with a good starting point and help you with your first meditative experience. From there, you should feel a little more confident to try it again in the future…

Some Tips to Begin With

The first tip is to set yourself a timer for 10 minutes. 10 minutes is a short enough amount of time that most of us will be able to fit it into our busy schedules and by setting an alarm you prevent yourself from having to keep checking the clock to see how much longer you have – this is not conducive to meditation as you might imagine.

The next tip is to sit comfortably in a chair or cross-legged. You don’t want to lie down for fear of falling asleep, but you should be comfortable.

Focus

The next thing you’re going to do is to focus. This can mean focusing on your breath or repeating a mantra (a word of your choice) over and over. This will be your ‘anchor’ and you will come back to this whenever your mind starts to wander.

If you struggle with these anchors, another option is to watch a flame. Lighting a candle and watching it can be a surprisingly effective form of meditation.

Just ‘Be’

Now just ‘be’ for 10 minutes. The mistake many people make here is to try and force themselves to have a ‘still mind’ devoid of thoughts. This is almost impossible for a beginner and will lead to nothing but stress.

Instead, we’ll take the mindfulness approach of simply letting the mind wander.

When it does, make a note of it and simply focus back on your anchor. This removes the stress and gives you a safe environment in which to practice directing your attention inwards.

The same goes for itching and coughing – just let it happen and then return.

Try to repeat this three times a week for a couple of months and see what happens… You’ll be glad you did!

As much as many of us choose to overlook it, there is a lot of wrong with the way most of us currently live our lives. We evolved in an environment completely foreign to the world we live in now and adapted to gain abilities and traits that in many ways leave us unsuited for our current environment.

We sit in chairs all day long gaining weight, we eat processed foods, and we face constant stresses from work, from our relationships and from our finances.

What’s more, we are constantly in demand and constantly ‘plugged in’ and ‘stressed out’. Our phones are always ringing, texts are always coming in, we get a new e-mail every two minutes… And even when most of us aren’t working or being bothered, we have a near addiction to technology that means we’re still unable to really decompress.

Is it any wonder that mental health problems are so rife?

Using Mindfulness to Escape Modern Stress

This is probably a big part of the reason that mindfulness is so popular right now. Mindfulness simply means directing attention purposefully. Sometimes this will mean focusing on our thoughts (in an objective and non-judgemental way) but in other cases it will mean simply being more present and focusing on our breathing and our environments.

Either way, the idea of mindfulness is to enjoy a calmness and to stop the incessant chatter of our minds. When you are completely engaged with the world around you, or when you decide to disengage with your thoughts, it provides you with relief from stress and from fear – and instead allows you to simply relax and recover.

Mindfulness for Concentration

What’s more, practising mindfulness is also the perfect tool for improving concentration. Mindfulness forces you to develop a ‘mental discipline’ that is sorely lacking for many of us today. Too often, most of us have 20 things vying for our attention. While we have allegedly become better at multitasking as a result, we’ve also become much worse at focusing on one thing for extended periods. This makes it harder for us to read a large passage of text for instance, or to work without feeling the need to continuously check Facebook.

Again, mindfulness is the perfect tonic. Here, you are tasked with focusing on your environment, your thoughts or your feelings for an extended period of time. And as such, you improve your own focus and mental discipline.

Meditation is often associated with bells, chants and gongs. The reality is Meditation can help everyone because we all have one thing in common, our “busy” mind. Meditation brings focus and quietens the mind.

In some states in America, Yoga is banned in schools due to its religious beliefs but, there is no study to show yoga exercise converts people to Hinduism. Yoga is commonly practised initially to prepare and oneself for meditation and self-realization.

Many meditation techniques commonly practised today originate from ancient Buddhist meditation texts, which continue to be used by followers of the religion today.

Meditation can be used as a form of prayer in the 

Christian faith to connect with and reflect upon the word of God. It commonly consists of focusing on a series of thoughts, such as a passage from the Bible and reflecting on its meaning.

It differs from other forms of meditation that originated in the East, as it does not utilise mantras that are repeated to help in the process of enlightenment. Instead, it is believed to deepen the personal relationship with God.

Bring mindfulness into your daily activity

In its simplest form, mindfulness is about being completely present in whatever you are doing. It means giving your mental focus solely to the activity you’re taking part in, which can be a lot more complicated than it sounds for many of us.

For example, how simply drinking water can become mindful. When you awaken, or just before you go to bed, you may like to explore the process of sipping a glass of water mindfully.

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As we currently pass the first anniversary of the Covid 19 and then learn, there could be two more mutations possible, making it even more contagious even though the previous 12 months have been arduous for most of us.

Who hasn’t felt anxious during this period?

Who hasn’t needed to retreat from the World in a blink of an eye? Lockdown restrictions required you to remain housebound during COVID-19 in an attempt to make you and others all feel safer — and in lots of locations.

You now start to feel much less secure in public areas; continually, seeking reassurance.

This uneasiness could be attributed to a dysfunction, often called agoraphobia?

If you’re questioning whether this worry is normal, you may need to seek help from a professional if it influences your daily life.

What is agoraphobia?

People with agoraphobia progress into anxiety when they feel helpless, uncontrolled, trapped or judged.

Someone who has agoraphobia may keep away from areas where they may feel confined (similar to a workplace assembly)

or placed on the spot and evaluated — maybe during a chat at a party. Still, it would help if you didn’t disregard social anxiety either.

Agoraphobics might also keep away from situations or locations that feel uncontrolled.

For example, if they cannot manage the schedule and timing of an open, public venue. As an outcome, individuals who have agoraphobia are typically concerned about leaving their homes.

In the U.S., about 2% of adults and youths have agoraphobia, in line with the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, Fifth Edition.

Roughly a third to a half of these individuals have had a panic attack before diagnosis.

What are the signs of agoraphobia?

 Usually, the primary trigger for a panic attack is when individuals are outside of their home or comfort zone and feel vulnerable.

An anxiety attack is an intense bout of anxiety with physical signs of a racing heart, shortness of breath, chest pain, sweating, and dizziness.

This could be confused with a heart attack. Worrying about having another panic attack away from home could also make their agoraphobia symptoms even worse.

Pandemic and anxiety disorders

Agoraphobia is an anxiety dysfunction that makes somebody worried unintentionally and keeps them away from situations that may cause them to perceive as threatening. However, their concern is usually out of proportion to its actual risk of danger. Fearing public areas as COVID-19 continues to unfold, could be considered a normal response or even indicative of coronaphobia, being an excessive response or fear of contracting the virus causing COVID-19, on this occasion.  

In February (2021), a clinical study on mental health’s impact within the Covid 19 pandemic found that their psychiatric status was systematically higher within all anxiety disorders than individuals without any mental health disturbances or a pre-existing illness.

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What is fantasy?

Fantasy is a mental image of objects, people or scenarios, which is not present. Some experts distinguish between conscious fantasies, and daydreams, or unconscious fantasies.

Who has fantasies?

Almost everyone has fantasies, but they are usually experienced most intensely by young children and teenagers. Small children have very vivid inner lives, often inventing imaginary playmates or imaginary best friend. However, in their early years, they sometimes find it difficult to distinguish between fantasy and reality.

Imaginative play is part of their emotional and intellectual development, helping them make sense of new experiences and relationships with family and friends.

The fantasy media has certainty made money by franchising its merchandise to promote this illusion. 

Nevertheless, this has produced some big box office events with fan-engagement with previous films and fantasy television drama box sets in demand. 

Learn more:

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In talking about the importance of kindness, it’s easy to forget that you have to start with being kind to yourself. How does it feel to hear that? Maybe it makes you uncomfortable. After all, you were probably brought up to think of others first, to be unselfish, to put your own needs behind other people’s.

But having genuine compassion means that you treat yourself the same way as you would a friend who was suffering.

There are three fundamental elements of building compassion and learning self-kindness.

Letting go of self-judgment

Listen to your self-talk for a moment. How do you feel about the whole idea of self-kindness? Many people have a negative mixtape inside their heads full of judgment and self-criticism aimed at themselves. A negative loop that uses words they would never dream of saying to other people. 

Developing self-compassion means letting go of perfectionism. It means being okay with making mistakes and even embracing failure.

Self-kindness acknowledges that life is full of ups and downs and that going through hard times isn’t necessarily someone’s fault. By accepting the reality of life and letting go of self-judgment, you will find calm and understanding.

Accepting that it’s not just you

One of the worst aspects of going through a tough time is feeling that you’re alone in your suffering. Be kind to yourself and acknowledge that being human means being imperfect and vulnerable. Bad times come, and bad times go, and you’ll make it through. It happens to everyone because it’s part of the human condition.

So, take a deep breath, take a step back, and treat yourself gently until the storm has passed.

Seeking a middle ground

It can be tempting to fall into negativity when things don’t go your way. But try taking a mindful approach that acknowledges your feelings but doesn’t over-identify with them. Wallowing in your unhappiness or beating yourself up is unhelpful.

Mindfulness means taking a step back and observing what is happening without getting caught up in the emotions, or at the other end of the scale, trying to suppress or deny what you’re feeling.

Acknowledge your emotions and the situation you find yourself in, but also find some perspective. Consider what is happening in your life and compare your experience to what is happening in the world.

To develop genuine compassion, you must acknowledge your pain and come from a place of acceptance for yourself so that you can offer it to other people.