Posts Tagged ‘Mental Health’

In PTSD: 1 No, it’s not all in your head, we talked about the causes and the symptoms of PTSD.

In PTSD: 2 No, it’s not all in your head: The Neuroplatform of Emotion, we talked about the underlying neurobiological emotional platform, that forms the unconscious basis for our emotional responses in everyday life.

Advances in neurobiology – knowing how our brains and nervous systems work – help us understand how PTSD symptoms persist and also how they can heal. The healing of PTSD symptoms is often called, or accompanied by, a phenomena known as post-traumatic growth (PTG).

About 98% of our mental activity…the reasons why we do things…is unconscious (Bargh, 2017). Expressive Art, a right brain activity, is a way to access those wordless emotional messages swirling beneath our consciousness. Wouldn’t it be nice if you could unearth some of your own motivating energy, and channel it towards calmer, more measured responses to the confounding situations encountered in your daily life?

Have a peaceful holiday season, with a side of realism!

How effective are everyday stress management techniques in helping keep a person healthy? How strongly do everyday happy events affect you?

Let’s take  look at one of my favorite studies!

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This heart centered technique is based on Autogenic Relaxation. I’ve created a riff on the original autogenic sequence to be a simple, heart-centered and body-based relaxation technique. Autogenic is too technical sounding for me.

When Ted’s daughter Vivian FaceTimed him from college, she seemed a bit down. He suspected it was because of Anthony, her boyfriend. He didn’t like him very much, but whenever he tried to talk to her about this, she shut him down. But Ted really thought the guy was bad news.

It was a few months before Sarah felt she trusted me enough to reveal what she felt was her deepest internalized shame.

Aromatherapy: Make Your Own Flower Essences

Think of flower essences as the Reiki of the plant world, as they work on the emotional and energetic levels of the body and mind. Flower essences are useful for people with highly sensitive nervous systems. Flower essences can also be thought of the homeopathy of the plant world. They were developed by a homeopath, Dr. Edward Bach. He believed many illnesses and ailments have emotional origins. Dr. Bach believed the health of the body depends on the health of the soul.

Herbal preparations come in different forms: fresh and dried herbs, tinctures, soups, teas, essential oils, hydrosols and flower essences. Essential oils are the most concentrated of the plant modalities, using a large amount of plants to create a small amount of concentrated plant oil. Because of the concentrated nature of essential oils, they must be used in dilution. I use them only in dilutions appropriate for sensitive people. 

You are busy! The office is humming! Things are totally running amok today! The phone is ringing and you’re working to finish details on a project due this week! You have people asking you questions and your boss asking you if things will be done on time….it feels like a tsunami of people, paperwork and computer work, all at once!