50 little lessons for life
Happy New Year! This month, I’ve adapted a post doing the rounds on Facebook and written some more little rules for life and living: Life isn’t always fair, but it is mostly good. The person you envy most is certain to feel their life is incomplete in a hundred ways. In the centre of your […]
Christmas is coming…
… a time for love, laughter, feasts and gifts. But not always. Christmas is a dreadful time for the recovering alcoholic, surrounded by reminders, triggers and easy access. It’s a poignant time for the bereaved, who remember how Christmases were before. It’s a dismal time for the depressed, who see the contrast between the well […]
Anxiety: healing vs help
“I like to look at anti-anxiety drugs as a form of emotional painkiller. The purpose of pain medication is not to mend the fracture or close the wound that causes the pain, but to make the time it takes to heal more tolerable. It would be denial or plain ignorance if you would drown out […]
Recovering from a Trauma
Have you ever felt traumatised? Trauma, post-traumatic stress and post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) are anxiety responses caused by experiencing or witnessing frightening events. You will probably have heard of PTSD in relation to war and combat, but it is also common after any awful experience. For example, a serious road accident, a natural disaster, a […]
Mood lifters
This month in Good Housekeeping magazine (October issue, page 141), I’ve written about my 3 favourite mood lifters, so I’m sharing then here too: 1. Our own negative self-talk can often kick off a blue mood. If you catch yourself putting yourself down, say ‘Stop that!’ and swap it for a compliment, such as reminding […]
Change
Woman magazine recently asked me why people often dream up big ideas or decide to make dramatic changes to their lives while they’re on holiday. It got me thinking about the process of change and why it sometimes seems so hard to make positive changes in our lives – or to ourselves. It reminds me […]
This crazy little thing called love
When you fall in love you feel wonderful! You may think you have found your other half, someone who really makes you feel good. It’s as though you feel complete at last: smarter, funnier, sexier, happier… and you feel safe. So why is it that months or years later, you can find yourself thinking that […]
PTSD – Post Traumatic Stress Disorder
If you suffer from flashbacks or nightmares about traumatic events, or find yourself avoiding certain places that remind you of bad experiences, no matter how long ago, you may be suffering from PTSD (Post Traumatic Stress Disorder). I use the Rewind technique for safe, fast and effective results for PTSD. I have been trained and […]
Anger management part II
10 ways to release your anger: It is not a good idea to continually suppress negative feelings, such as anger, as this will lead to other problems, such as depression or high blood pressure (there is an old therapy saying that ‘depression is anger turned inwards’). Instead, think of your emotions as like a shaken […]
7 secrets of happy relationships
1. Communication Keep talking, keep listening, keep caring. When couples stop talking to each other the relationship is all but over. Good communicators are able to share their thoughts and feelings honestly, and refrain from criticising, whinging, shouting or nagging. Good communicators are better at resolving conflict, too and are ready to forgive or apologise […]
