Inspirations

With levels of anxiety currently sky-high around the world I felt it was time to put together this little ‘toolbox’ of tips to reduce stress and ease some of the worries many people are facing.

I’m not a GP, I don’t have a qualification in psychology, and I’m not a therapist. Nor am I one of those cool, unflappable souls that breeze through calamities without getting a hair out of place.

I’m a stress-head by nature.

But over the last ten years I’ve learned some incredibly effective tools for staying calm – even when life is very, very tough.

My hope for you, if you are struggling with anxiety and stress in these uncertain times, is that you find some of these ideas helpful in maintaining a calm, resourceful state – for yourself and those around you.

I’ve also included details of a free web class and resource site that my wife and I will be running throughout the pandemic. This will provide the means to expand on strategies outlined in point ‘7’ below, as well as provide additional...

There are moments in life that are hard, painful, scary and difficult to endure. There are times when we feel anger, anxiety, grief, embarrassment, stress, remorse or other negative emotions. In this post, Melli O’Brien from www.mrsmindfulness.com gives a 6-step process for using mindfulness to deal with negative emotions…

In these trying times we often want to escape the pain, drown it out or push it away somehow. We may begin a mental struggle with the pain trying to mentally talk our way out of it, or we distract ourselves with activities or drown it out with food or drink or something stronger.

All these ways of avoiding pain only perpetuate it in the long run. Avoidance creates suffering and keeps us from living fully this miraculous and precious life that we have.

Through mindfulness you can learn to turn your negative emotions into your greatest teachers and sources of strength.

How?

Instead of ‘turning away’ from pain in avoidance we can learn to gently ‘turn towards’ what...

Working life is stressful – you don’t need me to tell you that.

Regardless of what job you do, in any one busy day you face pressures of all kinds. People, technology, traffic, bureaucracy, deadlines and sheer workload all add to the energy-draining frustration of trying to get by in today's busy world. And that’s in addition to the demands we must manage in our private lives – relationships, financial matters, health issues, children, running a home, the list goes on and on.

Like I say, you don’t need me to remind you how much stress these things can cause, but are you aware of the damaging effect this can have on your health?

You see, every time you experience a stressful event or situation you become flooded with what is effectively a cocktail of toxic stress hormones. Over time, the effect of these on your body can be devastating.

Just in case you’re not familiar with the Fight or Flight process I’ll explain it briefly here because it is the very reason why so many of us are su...