Help you, Help Yourself

How can we start to take the steps to look after our body and mind?

Here are some simple changes that you can make that will have a huge impact on how you feel. Life is a wonderful roller-coaster and we need the ups and downs in order to feel pushed and strive for the next step. But sometimes it can all get on top of us. Hypnotherapy, CBT & NLP can help you to learn techniques to deal with stress and give you tools to cope with and enjoy life in the future.

Try out some of these today and start to take control of how you feel.

Talk about your feelings: talking isn’t a sign of weakness; it is part of looking after your mental health. So often, when we talk to friends or loved ones, we realise that we are not as alone as we felt. So many people are going through the same thing but are scared to talk about it too. By you opening up you suddenly realise that your world is full of people who care for you.

Eat healthy: it has been proven that there are links between what we eat and how we feel. Foods like caffeine and sugar can have an immediate effect on us, but food can also have a long-lasting effect on our mental health. It can affect the nutrition our mind is getting. Think of your body like a machine that needs looking after, what we put in needs to be able to nourish it.

Keep in touch: just as talking isn't a sign of weakens, keeping in touch with friends and family can make you feel included and cared for. Often people have different views from you and they can help you to look at things from a different perspective. With the world growing and technology progressing we are more connected then we have ever been yet we feel more lonely and isolated than ever. Pick up the phone and talk to people, you will be amazed how much better you feel.

Take a break: take regular breaks, as little as 5 minutes. Get up, change the scene (break the state), walk around, take three deep breaths. By the time you come back you will feel calmer; it is a chance for your mind to unwind.

Accept who you are: you are you and that is a wonderful thing. You are a unique person, even if you are one of a pair of identical twins, you are still you. Good at different things. Accept that, for example, maths may not be your strong point. But where you thrive others struggle and vice versa. Understand your strengths and build on them.

Keep active: exercise is so important for our body and mind. It helps to release chemicals in your mind that eat up the stress hormone and make you feel good. Exercise boosts self-esteem and can help you concentrate, sleep well and look and feel better, helping you have a clear outlook on life. Exercise doesn’t have to be a session in the gym, it can be built into your day, like walking up the escalator or getting off the bus one stop earlier and walking briskly to and from work.

Listen to music: if you are feeling low put an upbeat song on and if possible sing along. Allow the rhythm of the music to flow through you. By the end of the song I am sure you will feel better than when it began. You are breaking the state and changing the rhythm within your body.

Sometimes in life we need a little extra help to let go of stresses and situations that we can’t seem to get past. Ask yourself, how much time do I spend de-stressing in the day? Life is good at putting the stress in, now it is time to learn how to take it out again. To see how Hypnotherapy, CBT & NLP can help you do this, please contact Erika.

© EKTherapies

Summer Time!

Well, summer is nearly here and we have already had some amazing weather. With the summer wardrobe out and beach holidays booked, a lot of people start to feel the pressure to tone up and look good. Summer has that way of making us want that perfect beach body, but exercise is important all year round, not just for the health of your body but also your mental health. Exercise releases endorphins and expels the stress hormones.

When we think of exercise we tend to imagine a gym. A lot of people love the convenience of the gym, but you don’t have to go to the gym to get your daily exercise. Now that the weather is on our side it is even easier to incorporate exercise into our daily routine. The longer nights make it safe to enjoy walking home from work, allowing the stress of the day to leave you so you walk through your front door feeling refreshed and free from work. If you don’t live near enough to walk from work then try getting off the bus one stop earlier, or taking a longer route home, or even going for a walk at lunch time to soak up some of those precious rays of sun and get some vitamin D into your body. One of the main reasons why we feel better in the summer is that we are out and about more, taking exercise naturally, getting fresh air into our lungs. Get yourself into the habit now, while the weather is nice, of exercise being part of your daily routine so that when the winter comes you crave the exercise and continue getting out to enjoy the winter sun too. With this week being Walk to Work Week there couldn’t be a more perfect time to start enjoying the outdoors.

The sun also has an amazing way of making most of us feel good, although some people will prefer other seasons more. The effect the sun has on our mind shows us how powerful our minds are. How can something so simple - the weather - change how we feel? We still have the same jobs and lives but somehow in the sun it all seems brighter. There are many reasons why people feel better in the summer: the heat, longer days, windows open allowing fresh air in, taking exercise naturally, looking at things differently. Changing the way you look at things and approach situations can help you to find that inner calm and happiness in life - often life is better than you think it is, just we forget to appreciate the things we have and our achievements; things that we once craved for so much that we now take for granted.

Hypnotherapy, CBT & NLP can help you challenge your negative beliefs and get that summer feeling more often, throughout the year. It can help you to be in the moment and enjoy the good things in life, while feeling motivated by the challenges life through at you. Summer is such a good time to deal with the winter demons.

To find out how Hypnotherapy, CBT & NLP can help you to feel happier, more content, less stressed and find the enjoyment in life and your achievements please call Erika for a no obligation chat.

© EKTherapies