Mental health is supremely important.<ul><li class="ql-align-justify">Mental health affects your sleep</li><li class="ql-align-justify">Mental health affects your health</li><li class="ql-align-justify">Mental health affects your productivity</li><li class="ql-align-justify">Mental health affects your relationships</li></ul> Mental health affects your life!So read on to find out 6 tips to improve your sleep, health, productivity, relationships, and life!

6 Tips For Mental Health (and how to be an ally)

What is candor? It is the quality of being honest and open.Building candor with the vulnerable builds trust and improves relationship. It also helps you to relief stress and all your bottled up emotions!

Building Candor

What should you do when you feel stressed, anxious, and overwhelm?Try the '478' breathing technique made popular by Dr Andrew Wail.There are only 3 steps involved<ol><li>Breath in deep for 4 seconds</li><li>Hold your breath for 7 seconds</li><li>Exhale slowly over 8 seconds</li></ol>It'll feel much better soon! Give it a shot!

The ‘478’ Breathing Technique

If you listen to your body when it whispers, you won’t have to hear it scream.Be collaborative with your body and mind! If you put your nose to the grindstone for too long (i.e. work too hard for too long), you may cut your nose!Be mindful and collaborative!

Be Collaborative Instead of Forceful

No not that ants but Automatic Negative Thoughts“I am not smart enough”, “Bad things will happen”, “I don’t think I am ever going to succeed”. — these are prime examples of negative thoughts.I believe it may be difficult to completely destroy all ants (pun intended), but if you fill your life with positivity, I promise you’d find yourself in a much better place.Instead of “I can’t do it”, think “I can try”. Instead of “I can try”, think “I will do it”. Take it one step at a time, and overwhelm those ants with positivity and love!

Get Rid of Ants!!! (Automatic Negative Thoughts)

In a high-stress environment when the amygdala is active, the prefrontal cortex (responsible for rationality & critical thinking) is “switched off.” This means that in an environment where fear and anger are present, people are unable to make rational decisions!So give the '478' breathing technique a shot if you ever feel angry or scared!

Understand The Amygdala (part of brain controlling fear & anger)

There is a clear distinction between “I am anger” and “I feel anger”. In the former, you are subconsciously letting anger consume you. You’d find ways to justify any rash actions because you think you’re anger. In the latter, anger is nothing but another feeling that happens to pass by your body and soulSo try your best to understand, acknowledge, and let go of it!Try saying - "I feel angry. But that's okay and it is normal. I acknowledge it and I'm going go breath and let it go.

Understanding Your Emotions

Thats it! I am positive that this 6 tips would bring tremendous value in your life.To summarize, the 6 tips are<ol><li>Building Candor</li><li>The '478' Breathing Technique</li><li>Be Collaborative Instead of Forceful</li><li>GET Rid of Ants (Automatic Negative Thoughts)</li><li>Understand The Amygdala (part if brain controlling fear & anger)</li><li>Understanding Your Emotions</li></ol>That's it from me! Stay rocking and stay positive!

Summary

I share the 6 best mental tips to improve your sleep, health, productivity, relationships, and life!

Since COVID-19 started on 31 December 2019, many were forced into lockdown and faced isolation for a long time. Schools were closed and everyone started working from home. The effect of COVID-19 on…

Understand yourself and those around you.

psychology

Psychology

personaldevelopment

Personal Development

health

Health

mentalhealth

Mental Health

communication

Communication

Everything I have Learnt About Mental Health | #CrystalizeMyLearning (Feb 2022)

Mindsight is the skill of being able to reflect on the connection that exists between your body and your mind – combining emotional intelligence with self-awareness and stoicism.Done right it can help you deal with trauma, uncertainty, improve your relationships with loved ones and of course, control your emotions.

Mindsight: The Definition

<ul><li>Think of yourself as a river to cultivate a balanced, harmonic self.</li><li>Practice the three pillars of mindsight: observation, objectivity and openness.</li><li>Be receptive, not reactive in your relationships.</li></ul>Out of all the possible jedi mind tricks you could learn, mindsight is by far the best one.

3 Lessons that Help You Develop Mindsight

Mindsight is a set of psychological steps we can take to comprehend and mold our inner selves, the way it would be best for our wellbeing.  Meditation is an example of practicing mindsight since it makes us aware of our thoughts and breathing.However, mindsight is much more than just a meditation you can do when you have the time to be alone and reflect. Instead, it is a tool that will help you deal with things when they get overwhelming.

Getting Aware Of Our Thoughts

Mindsight is based on three pillars:<ul><li>Observation is learning to become aware the moment when unwanted thoughts distract your focus.</li><li>Objectivity is an observation of your thoughts and feelings without any judgment.</li><li>Openness is acceptance of your thoughts and emotions as part of your being and not allowing them to stress you out.</li></ul>

The Three Pillars

Extremes are never good. Do not follow anyone’s plan to reach a goal or shape your inner being. Instead, focus on finding your own inner balance.Start by accepting all of your emotions, thoughts, and actions as part of your being.

Find Your Inner Balance

Think of yourself as a gently flowing river. You won’t clash with the people in your life and your environment, but just embrace them, make room for them, flow around them and continue on your original course.This means accepting that it’s normal for your actions, emotions and thoughts to fall into different places on a big spectrum and trying to balance emotional and rational thinking, so that neither completely takes over.

Stay calm and Balanced, Like A River

If you’re reactive, every complaint your partner makes feels like a threat. You instantly go into freeze-fight-or-flight mode, trying to pretend nothing happened and ignore the problem, run away or attack your better half – none of which are good responses and ultimately lead to a big communication problem.But if you manage to stay receptive to your partner’s feelings, you’ll always find a way to talk things through.

Be Receptive, Not Reactive

Mindsight is a repackaging of awareness and meditation, what they now call mindfulness! It is worth reading though.

From a pioneer in the field of mental health comes a groundbreaking book on the healing power of "mindsight," the potent skill that allows you to make positive changes in your brain–and in your life. Foreword by Daniel Goleman, author of Emotional Intelligence • Is there a memory that torments you, or an irrational fear you can't shake? • Do you sometimes become unreasonably angry or upset and find it hard to calm down? • Do you ever wonder why you can't stop behaving the way you do, no matter how hard you try? • Are you and your child (or parent, partner, or boss) locked in a seemingly inevitable pattern of conflict? What if you could escape traps like these and live a fuller, richer, happier life? This isn't mere speculation but the result of twenty-five years of careful hands-on clinical work by Daniel J. Siegel, M.D. A Harvard-trained physician, Dr. Siegel is one of the revolutionary global innovators in the integration of brain science into the practice of psychotherapy. Using case histories from his practice, he shows how, by following the proper steps, nearly everyone can learn how to focus their attention on the internal world of the mind in a way that will literally change the wiring and architecture of their brain. Through his synthesis of a broad range of scientific research with applications to everyday life, Dr. Siegel has developed novel approaches that have helped hundreds of patients. And now he has written the first book that will help all of us understand the potential we have to create our own lives. Showing us mindsight in action, Dr. Siegel describes • a sixteen-year-old boy with bipolar disorder who uses meditation and other techniques instead of drugs to calm the emotional storms that made him suicidal • a woman paralyzed by anxiety, who uses mindsight to discover, in an unconscious memory of a childhood accident, the source of her dread • a physician–the author himself–who pays attention to his intuition, which he experiences as a "vague, uneasy feeling in my belly, a gnawing restlessness in my heart and my gut," and tracks down a patient who could have gone deaf because of an inaccurately written prescription for an ear infection • a twelve-year-old girl with OCD who learns a meditation that is "like watching myself from outside myself" and, using a form of internal dialogue, is able to stop the compulsive behaviors that have been tormenting her These and many other extraordinary stories illustrate how mindsight can help us master our emotions, heal our relationships, and reach our fullest potential.

books

Books

From a pioneer in the field of mental health comes a groundbreaking book on the healing power of "mindsight," the potent skill that allows you to make positive changes in your brain–and in your life. Foreword by Daniel Goleman, author of Emotional Intelligence • Is there a memory that torments you, or an irrational fear you can't shake? • Do you sometimes become unreasonably angry or upset and find it hard to calm down? • Do you ever wonder why you can't stop behaving the way you do, no matter how hard you try? • Are you and your child (or parent, partner, or boss) locked in a seemingly inevitable pattern of conflict? What if you could escape traps like these and live a fuller, richer, happier life? This isn't mere speculation but the result of twenty-five years of careful hands-on clinical work by Daniel J. Siegel, M.D. A Harvard-trained physician, Dr. Siegel is one of the revolutionary global innovators in the integration of brain science into the practice of psychotherapy. Using case histories from his practice, he shows how, by following the proper steps, nearly everyone can learn how to focus their attention on the internal world of the mind in a way that will literally change the wiring and architecture of their brain. Through his synthesis of a broad range of scientific research with applications to everyday life, Dr. Siegel has developed novel approaches that have helped hundreds of patients. And now he has written the first book that will help all of us understand the potential we have to create our own lives. Showing us mindsight in action, Dr. Siegel describes • a sixteen-year-old boy with bipolar disorder who uses meditation and other techniques instead of drugs to calm the emotional storms that made him suicidal • a woman paralyzed by anxiety, who uses mindsight to discover, in an unconscious memory of a childhood accident, the source of her dread • a physician–the author himself–who pays attention to his intuition, which he experiences as a "vague, uneasy feeling in my belly, a gnawing restlessness in my heart and my gut," and tracks down a patient who could have gone deaf because of an inaccurately written prescription for an ear infection • a twelve-year-old girl with OCD who learns a meditation that is "like watching myself from outside myself" and, using a form of internal dialogue, is able to stop the compulsive behaviors that have been tormenting her These and many other extraordinary stories illustrate how mindsight can help us master our emotions, heal our relationships, and reach our fullest potential.

Daniel J. Siegel

Mindsight

When you immediately try and get rid of your anxiety by applying coping skills to make it go away, you teach your brain to view anxiety as dangerous. So stop coping with your anxiety and learn to accept it.

Stop trying to cope with anxiety

If you always outsource your emotional struggles to others, you deprive yourself of the opportunity to be confident.A big part of emotional maturity—and the confidence that results from—comes from taking responsibility for your own feelings.

Avoid reassurance-seeking

3. Put the breaks on catastrophizingEven if you know intellectually that the worst case isn’t likely to happen, if you constantly tell yourself it is, that’s how you’ll feel.﻿It’s difficult to feel confident if you’re constantly worrying and anxious. And catastrophizing is like turbo-charged worry, which means it’s even harder for your confidence to shine through.

Put the breaks on catastrophizing

It’s hard to feel confident in yourself when you’re constantly denying yourself.Some self-denial is perfectly healthy. But if you’ve gotten into the habit of always denying your own wants and needs, it shouldn’t be a surprise that you don’t feel very confident asking for what you want, going after what you want, or even knowing what you want in the first place.

Quit hiding from what you really want

A good way to never feel confident is to always be failing. And a good way to always be failing is to always be trying to control the uncontrollable.Of course, it’s often hard to distinguish what we can control from what we can’t—especially if we really want to be able to control it…

Let go of things you can’t control

<ul><li>Low confidence leads to second-guessing, but second-guessing also leads to low confidence. </li><li>Stop second-guessing yourself in the moment and schedule time to do it deliberately. </li><li>Confidence and humility are not mutually exclusive. </li></ul>

Second-guessing yourself

When you respect yourself enough to maintain good boundaries, confidence is the natural result. Confidence rests on the foundation of self-respect. And self-respect comes from setting (and enforcing!) healthy boundaries that protect your wants, needs, and values. But enforcing your boundaries requires that you tolerate difficult emotions like anxiety rather than making decisions designed to avoid them.So if you want to feel more confident, start setting and protecting healthy boundaries, which means being willing to be with rather than avoid tough emotions.

Compromising on your boundaries

You can be critical without criticizing. When you criticize yourself in response to a mistake, you create an unrealistic view of yourself that’s almost always too negative. And, unsurprisingly, this isn’t great for your confidence.

If you’re constantly reliving past mistakes in your head, it’s going to be tough to feel confident about yourself in the present.Give yourself permission to let it go. And then work like hell to keep letting it go, each time it comes up. Forgiveness is a commitment, not a decision.

Dwelling on past mistakes

Your feelings will lead you in the wrong direction at least as often as the right one. Listen to your emotions, but don’t trust them blindly. Treat your emotions like a friend. When they give you advice, listen to it. But be prepared to reject it or ignore it if it’s not good advice.Like a friend, emotions are close to you and worthy of your respect and attention. But that doesn’t mean they’re infallible and that you just follow them blindly.

Trusting your feelings

If you want to feel more confident, start thinking about what habits you have that are interfering with your confidence, then work to remove them.<ul><li>Coping with anxiety</li><li>Reassurance-seeking</li><li>Catastrophizing</li><li>Not asking for what you really want</li><li>Trying to control things you can’t control</li><li>Second-guessing yourself</li><li>Compromising on your boundaries</li><li>Criticizing yourself after mistakes</li><li>Dwelling on past mistakes</li><li>Trusting your feelings</li></ul>Don’t try and do all of these at once. Pick one that applies to you and your life especially well and focus on making small improvements there first.

All You Need to Know

Self-confidence is a feeling of trust in your abilities, qualities, and judgment. Research suggests that confidence is important to health and psychological well-being. Learn how to be more confident and some of the benefits of increasing your trust and belief in yourself.

If you want to feel more confident, focus on eliminating habits that interfere with the confidence you've already got.

10 Habits You Should Give Up to Feel More Confident

From OCD to agoraphobia and PTSD, there are almost as many types of anxiety disorder as things to worry about. Here’s how to spot the signs and find the relevant support.Many people will be familiar with the dry mouth, intrusive thoughts, and fluttering heart and stomach that are the hallmarks of anxiety. Often a temporary, and completely natural reaction to threat, these responses can be helpful in certain situations, sharpening the mind and sending blood to where it is needed faster.

Many Types of Anxiety Disorder

But whereas stress usually resolves once a concern has passed, anxiety persists and is often disproportionate to the challenge faced. If it continues for months, and starts to interfere with everyday activities, an anxiety disorder may be diagnosed.Even before the Covid-19 pandemic, an estimated five in every 100 people in England were experiencing regular or uncontrollable worries about multiple things in their lives – a condition known as generalised anxiety disorder (GAD).

The introduction of the first UK lockdown in March 2020 saw the prevalence of generalised anxiety among the general population soar to 31% according to one recent study, as a consequence of social isolation, uncertainty about the future and the perceived threat of illness or death many people felt. This is a challenge that “cannot be undone overnight”, according to the study’s lead author Dr Gemma Taylor of the University of Bath.

A Challenge

A separate study, conducted in the summer of 2021, found that a fifth of participants continued to suffer from what the researchers called “Covid-19 Anxiety Syndrome” – a heightened state of worry, excessive symptom checking and avoidance of public spaces due to fears about contamination.A diagnosis of anxiety is usually made by a GP, based on a patient’s symptoms and how long they’ve had them. In the case of GAD, diagnostic criteria include at least six months of excessive worry about everyday issues that is disproportionate to any inherent risk and causes distress to everyday life.

Covid-19 Anxiety Syndrome

Symptoms may include restlessness or nervousness, becoming easily fatigued, poor concentration, irritability, muscle tension or sleep disturbance – and tend to be present most of the time. However, anxiety is, in fact, a general umbrella term that that can describe a number of different anxiety disorders, including some less common conditions, such as phobias and panic disorders.

A General Umbrella Term

One group of anxiety disorders is characterised by repetitive thoughts or compulsions, of which obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) is probably the best known. About 1 in every 50 people suffer from OCD at some point in their lives, and unlike GAD, which is roughly twice as common in women as in men, OCD affects men and women equally.

Those affected repeatedly experience unwelcome thoughts, images, urges, worries or doubts (obsessions) that can make them feel very anxious or uncomfortable. They also tend to engage in repetitive activities (compulsions) to reduce their anxiety, such as repeatedly checking medical symptoms on the internet, or whether a door is locked.Related to OCD are disorders where people experience obsessions and compulsions related to illness; or body dysmorphic disorder, with obsessions and compulsions related to their physical appearance.

Health Anxieties

Phobias involving a person’s fear or anxiety being triggered by a particular situation or object, eg dogs, flying, clowns or injections. An estimated 10 million people in the UK have phobias. Simple phobias, such as a fear of heights or spiders, usually start during childhood, whereas complex phobias tend to start later in life. For instance, social phobia (also known as social anxiety disorder) often begins during puberty, and is associated with intense fear or worry in social situations – including before or after a social event has happened.

Phobias

Agoraphobia, meanwhile, tends to first strike in a person’s late teens to early 20s, although complex phobias may continue for many years. Agoraphobia is more than just a fear of open spaces; those affected may feel anxious about being in places or situations that could be difficult to get out of, or where they may not be able to get help if they have a panic attack – a sudden episode of intense fear that triggers severe physical responses, and sometimes for no apparent reason.

Agoraphobia

If someone regularly has panic attacks apparently out of the blue, without any obvious trigger, they may be diagnosed with panic disorder. It often coexists with agoraphobia, and in some cases, the fear of having a panic attack can itself trigger an attack. In the UK, the prevalence of panic disorder with or without agoraphobia is estimated to be 1.7%.

Panic Disorder

There are many other types of anxiety disorders, but a final one of note is post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), which stands out because it strikes after experiencing or witnessing a traumatic event or serious injury. Roughly 50% of people will experience a trauma at some point in their lives, but only a fifth of them will go on to develop PTSD. Symptoms usually begin within three months of the traumatic event, but in some cases they begin years afterwards, and may include flashbacks or nightmares which can feel like you are reliving the fear and anxiety you experienced at the time.

PTSD

Like other anxiety disorders, PTSD can severely impair a person’s ability to function in social or family life, sometimes resulting in relationship problems or job instability.The good news is that effective treatments exist for all of these anxiety disorders, so it is important to seek help.

Effective Treatments

If you think your anxiety, or that of a friend or family member, is becoming problematic, seek help by approaching a GP, who may be able to provide treatment and/or a referral to a therapist through the NHS. Private therapy is another option, although this can be expensive.Various charities and community organisations run peer support groups, where individuals share their own experiences of anxiety and coping strategies in a supportive environment, including Mind, Anxiety UK and Rethink Mental Illness.

Where to find help

From OCD to agoraphobia and PTSD, there are almost as many types of anxiety disorder as things to worry about. Here’s how to spot the signs and find the relevant support

How to recognise the symptoms of anxiety and get help

Most of us prefer to avoid feeling angry at work (and, really, in any other area of life, such as relationships, family, sports, and even social media). However, this doesn’t help us in achieving that goal. In fact, unless you are not human, you will find that there are many situations that can trigger your anger, <a href="https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1111/jopy.12214">including some</a> that seem absolutely justified: unfairness, <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0149763419302167">provocation</a>, the realization that people are trying to take advantage of us; not to mention incompetent drivers, <a href="https://hbr.org/2020/03/how-to-spot-an-incompetent-leader">bad bosses</a>, annoying work colleagues, and, of course, a slow internet connection.

Anger At Work: The Premise

Psychologists have studied anger for over 100 years. Like any universal behavior, it is clear that there must be at least some rational reasons, and even justifications, for anger to be so pervasive and dominant in every society, and across all walks of life. From an evolutionary perspective, anger is best understood as a neuro-cognitive adaptation <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S1090513821000908">“designed to bargain for better treatment.”</a> In other words, anger is a demand for help, change, and action.

Studying Anger

Anger is both a common defense tactic, as well as a universal offense strategy. We get angry to show power, status, and to intimidate, even if this also shows we are unable to manage a situation well. In many ways, anger is an attempt to gain control when we have lost self-control.

Functions Of Anger: Showing Status or Strength to Others

Anger is cathartic, which is why repressing or suppressing it has <a href="https://psycnet.apa.org/record/2018-61519-001">been linked</a> to a wide range of psychological and physical well-being deficits. As Mark Twain famously noted, “Anger is an acid that can do more harm to the vessel in which it is stored than to anything on which it is poured.”

Functions Of Anger: Venting

Anger is a signal that the status quo must be changed, and it can fuel moral outrage, which is often a force for good.And yet, there’s no question that anger is also corrosive.

Functions Of Anger: A Force For Change

Everybody can learn to manage their anger more effectively, and that there are clear benefits to doing so. Here are some tools and approaches that can with anger management:<ul><li>Cognitive behavioral therapy.</li><li>Mindfulness.</li><li>Empathy.</li><li>Rational compassion.</li><li>Reducing exposure to stressful situations.</li></ul>

Anger Management

There are many ways to self-coach and get better at managing our anger, and they will generally pay off. The point is not to eliminate it from our lives, which would not make us human, but to learn to control it and even display it in strategic ways, so as to mitigate its downside and leverage its upside. Ultimately, the best way to judge anger is by its particular effects, both on ourselves and others.

The Bottom Line

The point is not to eliminate it from our lives, which would not make us human, but to learn to control it and even display it in strategic ways.


Science explains that anger at work has a bright side. Here’s how to manage it

As the felt response to a given situation, emotions play a key part in your reactions. When you’re in tune with them, you have access to important knowledge that helps with:<ul><li>decision-making</li><li>relationship success</li><li>day-to-day interactions</li></ul>

Emotions control reactions

“Emotions make our lives exciting, unique, and vibrant,” Botnick says. “Strong feelings can signify that we embrace life fully, that we’re not repressing our natural reactions.”Emotions that regularly get out of hand might lead to:<ul><li>relationship or friendship conflict</li><li>difficulty relating to others</li><li>trouble at work or school</li><li>an urge to use substances to help manage your emotions</li><li>physical or emotional outbursts</li></ul>

Take a look at the impact of your emotions

When you suppress or repress emotions, you’re preventing yourself from experiencing and expressing feelings. This can happen consciously (suppression) or unconsciously (repression).Either can contribute to mental and physical health symptoms, including:<ul><li>anxiety</li><li>depression</li><li>sleep issues</li><li>muscle tension and pain</li><li>difficulty managing stress</li><li>substance misuse</li></ul> Healthy emotional expression involves finding some balance between overwhelming emotions and no emotions at all.

Aim for regulation, not repression

<ul><li>What am I feeling right now? (disappointed, confused, furious)</li><li>What happened to make me feel this way? (They brushed me off with no explanation.)</li><li>Does the situation have a different explanation that might make sense? (Maybe they’re stressed, sick, or dealing with something else they don’t feel comfortable explaining. They might plan to explain more when they can.)</li><li>What do I want to do about these feelings? (Scream, vent my frustration by throwing things, text back something rude.)</li><li>Is there a better way of coping with them? (Ask if everything’s OK. Ask when they’re free next. Go for a walk or run.)</li></ul>

3. Identify what you’re feeling

Emotions get the best of everyone sometimes, but there are a few things you can do to take back control.

How to Control Your Emotions: 11 Strategies to Try

Anxiety is a roadmap that points us to a real or imagined threat, pain from the past or something in the present that needs our attention. While anxiety can be debilitating and must be managed, we need it. If we disable or mute our anxiety indicators, we won't know where the problem is.

We need anxiety

Thoughts can help shape behaviour and therefore reality. But motivation is mostly a physiological issue, not a mind issue. The "fight, flight, or freeze" response is activated by a physiological mechanism inside the nervous system. When you are stuck in fight or flight, such as panic or racing thoughts, you are not able to think your way out. Turning the amygdala response off is the key to motivation. The amygdala is your panic button in the brain. If your brain is perceiving a threat, it will shut down your system (procrastination) or put it in hyperarousal (motivation).

You can't think your way out of stuck

"Mental" health has very little to do with our minds. A nervous system stuck in a fight, flight, or freeze response will show the exact symptoms as clinical depression or pathological anxiety. The nervous system is not an illness or disorder. It is doing exactly what it is designed to do. When a brain is stuck in fight, flight, or freeze it is misattuning to safety and danger in the environment. If we see mental health as an actual physical process, then we have a greater chance of finding our way to tools that can get ourselves unstuck.

Mental health is a physical process

The actions that destroy our plans and relationships are a suboptimal effort at self-protection. What we call “self-sabotage” often happens because if you achieve a goal, things will need to change. All change involves some degree of loss. Any change to our status quo can trigger a threat response as change requires risk.

Self-sabotage is a misnomer


Not all behaviour is acceptable, but all behaviour is functional. Behaviour modification without understanding behaviour will almost always make us inert. You don't need to make giant behavioural transformations to get unstuck-getting unstuck requires tiny micro-shifts, and those shifts compound rapidly. Once you're in motion, your cognitive work suddenly becomes powerful.

All behavior is functional

A psychotherapist insists, “‘Mental’ health has very little to do with our minds.”


There’s no such thing as self-sabotage. A psychotherapist debunks the most common concepts that keep us stuck

1. Speak with integrity.2. Say only what you mean.3. Avoid using the Word to speak against yourself or to gossip about others.4. Use the power of your Word in the direction of truth and love.

The 1st Agreement: Be Impeccable With Your Word 

Be careful about your Word i.e. your inner dialogue. They may be invisible, but they are seeds that will take root and grow into your life.

• What others say and do is a projection of their own reality, their own dream.• You start to get depressed and unhappy because you start to believe those negative things about yourself.• When you are immune to the opinions and actions of others, you won't be the victim of needless suffering.• Once you stop taking things personally, you will be much happier.

The 2nd Agreement: Don’t Take Anything Personally

"You never responsible for actions of others, whatever happens around you don't take it personally.. nothing other people do is because of you. It is because of themselves.”

• We often jump to conclusions and make assumptions that are wildly wrong. When you have trouble understanding something, you assume you know what it means. When things become clear, you can see that it means something else entirely.• Find the courage to ask questions and to express what you really want. • Communicate with others as clearly as you can to avoid misunderstandings, sadness and drama.

The 3rd Agreement: Don’t Make Assumptions

• When you always do your best, taking action because you love it, not because you're expecting a reward.• then you really enjoying life. You are having fun, you don't get bored, you don't have frustrations.• If you truly commit yourself, you will find that there is absolutely no reason for you to judge yourself, and you will eliminate the feelings of guilt and blame from your life. Plus, you will be a lot more productive!

The 4th Agreement: Always Do Your Best

1. Start noticing the beliefs you have, which are based on fear and make you unhappy. 2. Learn to forgive the people who hurt you, most of all yourself.3. Remember that each day could be your last to stay in the present.

three ways to break old agreements

In The Four Agreements, bestselling author don Miguel Ruiz reveals the source of self-limiting beliefs that rob us of joy and create needless suffering. Based on ancient Toltec wisdom, The Four Agreements offer a powerful code of conduct that can rapidly transform our lives to a new experience of freedom, true happiness, and love. • A New York Times bestseller for over a decade • Translated into 46 languages worldwide “This book by don Miguel Ruiz, simple yet so powerful, has made a tremendous difference in how I think and act in every encounter.” — Oprah Winfrey “Don Miguel Ruiz’s book is a roadmap to enlightenment and freedom.” — Deepak Chopra, Author, The Seven Spiritual Laws of Success “An inspiring book with many great lessons.” — Wayne Dyer, Author, Real Magic “In the tradition of Castaneda, Ruiz distills essential Toltec wisdom, expressing with clarity and impeccability what it means for men and women to live as peaceful warriors in the modern world.” — Dan Millman, Author, Way of the Peaceful Warrior

problemsolving

Problem Solving

loveandrelationships

Love & Relationships

In The Four Agreements, bestselling author don Miguel Ruiz reveals the source of self-limiting beliefs that rob us of joy and create needless suffering. Based on ancient Toltec wisdom, The Four Agreements offer a powerful code of conduct that can rapidly transform our lives to a new experience of freedom, true happiness, and love. •  A New York Times bestseller for over a decade •  Translated into 50 languages worldwide   “This book by don Miguel Ruiz, simple yet so powerful, has made a tremendous difference in how I think and act in every encounter.” — Oprah Winfrey “Don Miguel Ruiz’s book is a roadmap to enlightenment and freedom.” — Deepak Chopra, Author, The Seven Spiritual Laws of Success “An inspiring book with many great lessons.” — Wayne Dyer, Author, Real Magic “In the tradition of Castaneda, Ruiz distills essential Toltec wisdom, expressing with clarity and impeccability what it means for men and women to live as peaceful warriors in the modern world.” — Dan Millman, Author, Way of the Peaceful Warrior

Don Miguel Ruiz is an accomplished writer whose work has resonated with readers around the world. Don Miguel Ruiz has published several books that explore a range of topics, from fiction to nonfiction, and has received critical acclaim for the ability to weave compelling narratives. Don Miguel Ruiz's writing style is known for its depth and authenticity, and has earned quite a loyal following of readers.

Don Miguel Ruiz

Janet Mills is an accomplished writer whose work has resonated with readers around the world. Janet Mills has published several books that explore a range of topics, from fiction to nonfiction, and has received critical acclaim for the ability to weave compelling narratives. Janet Mills's writing style is known for its depth and authenticity, and has earned quite a loyal following of readers.

Janet Mills

The Four Agreements

Don’t aim at success—the more you aim at it and make it a target, the more you are going to miss it. For success, like happiness, cannot be pursued; it must ensue, and it only does so as the unintended side-effect of one’s dedication to a cause greater than oneself or as the by-product of one’s surrender to a person other than oneself. Happiness must happen, and the same holds for success: you have to let it happen by not caring about it.

Over 16 million copies sold worldwide 'Every human being should read this book' Simon Sinek One of the outstanding classics to emerge from the Holocaust, Man's Search for Meaning is Viktor Frankl's story of his struggle for survival in Auschwitz and other Nazi concentration camps. Today, this remarkable tribute to hope offers us an avenue to finding greater meaning and purpose in our own lives.

A prominent Viennese psychiatrist before the war, Viktor Frankl was uniquely able to observe the way that he and other inmates coped with the experience of being in Auschwitz. He noticed that it was the men who comforted others and who gave away their last piece of bread who survived the longest - and who offered proof that everything can be taken away from us except the ability to choose our attitude in any given set of circumstances. The sort of person the prisoner became was the result of an inner decision and not of camp influences alone. Only those who allowed their inner hold on their moral and spiritual selves to subside eventually fell victim to the camp's degenerating influence - while those who made a victory of those experiences turned them into an inner triumph. Frankl came to believe that man's deepest desire is to search for meaning and purpose. This outstanding work offers us all a way to transcend suffering and find significance in the art of living.

Viktor Emil Frankl M.D., Ph.D., was an Austrian neurologist and psychiatrist as well as a Holocaust survivor. Frankl was the founder of logotherapy, which is a form of Existential Analysis, the "Third Viennese School" of psychotherapy.His book Man's Search for Meaning (first published under a different title in 1959: From Death-Camp to Existentialism. Originally published in 1946 as Ein Psycholog erlebt das Konzentrationslager) chronicles his experiences as a concentration camp inmate and describes his psychotherapeutic method of finding meaning in all forms of existence, even the most sordid ones, and thus a reason to continue living. He was one of the key figures in existential therapy.

Viktor E. Frankl

Man's Search for Meaning

Man's Search For Meaning

<ul><li>Music therapy is increasingly used to help patients cope with stress and promote healing.</li><li>Andrew Rossetti, a licensed music therapist in New York, uses guitar music and visualization exercises to help calm patients undergoing medical treatments.</li><li>The healing power of music - lauded by philosophers from Aristotle and Pythagoras to Pete Seeger - is now being validated by medical research.</li></ul>

Music Heals

<ul><li>Dr. Rossetti has seen increases in acute anxiety since the onset of the pandemic, making musical interventions even more impactful</li><li>Mount Sinai has expanded its music therapy program to include work with the medical staff, many of whom are suffering from post-traumatic stress from months of dealing with Covid.</li></ul>

Music Therapy

<ul><li>A growing body of research suggests that music played in a therapeutic setting has measurable medical benefits. </li><li>It can also help people deal with longstanding phobias</li><li>Music has also been used successfully to support recovery after surgery.</li><li>Some hospitals have introduced pre-recorded programs that patients can listen to with headphones.</li></ul>

Music To Quell Fear And Pain

Psychedelic Drugs: As studies explore the therapeutic value of substances like MDMA, veterans are becoming unlikely advocates for their decriminalizationVirtual Reality: A treatment using new technology to immerse patients in a simulation of a memory could help them overcome trauma.

Overcoming Trauma

Music therapy is increasingly used to help patients cope with stress and promote healing.

music

Music

The Healing Power of Music

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