Today, we're kicking off a new self-help programme, Mindful Mondays. This week we're providing some background and next week, we'll start looking at some exercises. What is it? Mindfulness is about living fully in the moment. Noticing things like your breathing, your stomach gurgling, your feet hitting the ground as you walk. These are all sensation-based things which take is out of the hectic thought patterns that bother us in daily life. It takes practice It seems easy to be mindful, on the surface at least. However, succeeding in this task is much more difficult. Practice is required, but it is a skill in which most of us can achieve a level of success. If you think mindfulness isn't working, I encourage you to completely immerse yourself in it, and persist. A recognised form of … [Read more...] about Mindful Mondays at Hypnotic Universe
Mental health and mental illness
4 Mental Wellness Activities To Fit Into Your Daily Routine
Living a fulfilled life involves looking after our mental wellbeing. Although this can look different for everyone, there are some common themes, which we can all follow in this endeavour. 1. Take some time to be in the moment Being in the now also known as mindfulness can help with stress, anxiety and depression. Many people have heard of mindfulness, but fewer actually know enough about it to actually practice it, and fewer yet practice it regularly enough to benefit from it. So, where can you start? The first step is to find some mindfulness activities that work for you. Some will find that focusing on different parts of the body at a time works for them, whilst others will find that focusing on their breath works for them. There really isn’t a right or wrong way, so long as … [Read more...] about 4 Mental Wellness Activities To Fit Into Your Daily Routine
How to improve self-esteem
Today we're looking at 5 key ways in which you can improve your self-esteem. 1. Accept yourself Self-acceptance is: The act of accepting yourself and all your personality traits exactly as they are. You accept them no matter whether they are positive or negative. This includes your physical and mental attributes. - Waters 2021 Waters also explains that beyond self-esteem, self-acceptance leads to many benefits, such as: Control of emotions Forgiveness Improvement in self-confidence Helping you be yourself If only we accepted ourselves the way that we openly accept others. I always find it interesting that we often set such high standards for ourselves, compared to others. Don't do it; you owe it to yourself to be kind to yourself. 2. Value yourself If you have good … [Read more...] about How to improve self-esteem
What trauma may look like
Today we're looking at 8 ways in which trauma may present itself. I first came across people dealing with trauma back in the early 90's whilst working at a psychiatric hospital in England. Of course back then, trauma wasn't really something which was understood by the average m'man on the street'. However, fast forward 30+ years later and I don't really have to define it for many of us to grasp what it means. If we haven't endured at least one traumatic experience in our lives, I willing to bet that you know somebody who has. I feel I should start by saying that only a small percentage of people who experience trauma will develop Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD). So that said, what exactly is trauma? Or more to the point PTSD? Post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) is … [Read more...] about What trauma may look like
