Do you feel like stress and anxiety are ruling your life? If so, you're not alone. Millions of people around the world suffer from these conditions on a daily basis. While there are many medications available to help treat stress and anxiety, they often come with unwanted side effects. This blog post will discuss four natural ways to beat your stress and anxiety without using medication. These techniques have been shown to be effective for many people and can help you get your life back under control!
5 Natural Ways to Beat Stress and Anxiety
4 Ways to Help Your Teenager With Their Mental Health
Mental health is something that should be taken seriously at any age, but it's especially important to make sure that our teenagers are taking care of their mental health. According to the National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH), one in five teens experiences a serious mental health problem each year. That's a lot of people who could use some help! In this post, we will outline four ways that you can help your teenager with their mental health.
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Talk to Your Teenager about Mental Health
This is the first and most important step. Mental health should be talked about openly and without stigma. Let your teenager know that it's okay to talk about their mental health, and encourage them to do so if they're feeling anything other than 100%. If your teenager is reluctant to talk about their mental health, try asking them questions about how they're feeling in general. How was their day? What's been on their mind lately? Just giving them the opportunity to open up can help them feel more comfortable discussing sensitive topics. You can also bring up mental health in the context of celebrities or public figures who have spoken out about their own experiences. This can help normalize the conversation and make it less daunting for your teenager.
Listen to Your Teenager
Once you've opened up the conversation, it's important to actually listen to what your teenager has to say. This can be difficult, especially if they're talking about something that makes you feel uncomfortable. But it's important to resist the urge to judge or dismiss their feelings. Really try to understand where they're coming from. What might be causing their mental health problems? What can you do to help them? Showing that you care and want to help can make a world of difference for your teenager. If you're not sure how to respond, there are plenty of resources available online or from mental health organizations that can help guide the conversation.
Encourage Them to Get Help
If your teenager is struggling with their mental health, encourage them to seek professional help. This could mean meeting with a therapist or counselor or even just talking to their doctor about what they're going through. It's important to make sure that your teenager knows that there's nothing wrong with getting help. In fact, it can be incredibly beneficial! It's nothing to be ashamed of, and it can really make a difference in their life.
Utilizing Coping Mechanisms
There are many different coping mechanisms that can help people deal with mental health problems. Some common ones include exercise, journaling, and spending time in nature. Encourage your teenager to find a coping mechanism that works for them. It might take some trial and error, but it's worth it to find something that helps them feel better. And if they're struggling to find something that works, there are always professional resources available to help. For example, using the acronym dbt accepts. DBT is a form of therapy that helps people learn to cope with difficult emotions in a healthy way. If your teenager is struggling to find a coping mechanism that works for them, DBT might be a good option to explore.
These are only a few of the many ways that you can help your teenager with their mental health. Just remember to be patient, understanding, and there for them when they need you.
Mental Health Boosting Trips That Can Transform Your Life
In recent years, the number of individuals receiving a mental health diagnosis has increased significantly. This is likely spurred by increased awareness of all mental health conditions, from anxiety to depression, alongside improved access to support services, rather than a spike in mental illness itself.
In some ways, this is reassuring. It means that people are no longer suffering in silence - as even when things feel overwhelming, it's good to know that there are things to do to take control of your mental well-being.
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With that in mind, here are some simple tips that you can use to boost your overall mental health.
Speak to a psychologist.
Speaking to a psychologist is a great way to improve your mental health. This is because it will enable you to take control of your situation, developing a range of coping mechanisms and tools you can use to process (and eradicate) negative emotions.
Focus on self-care.
Practising self-care is another great way to improve your mental health since it encourages you to put your well-being first. This means it's time to dispel the idea that self-care is selfish, as it's simply a way to ensure your needs are met. Furthermore, it's also important to note that self-care means something different to each and every person. For example, while some people find greater clarity through mediation and mindfulness, others prefer to spend time outdoors or re-engage with old hobbies.
Start your day off with positive affirmations.
You’d be surprised about just how influential starting your day with ‘positive’ affirmations can be. This is because they help you to feel your best by dispelling negativity and encouraging you to become more ‘naturally’ optimistic. To get started, stand in front of the mirror and say three things you like about yourself. This doesn't necessarily have to relate to your looks. For example, you could compliment your tenacity, your intelligence, or your drive too. While this may seem difficult at first, you’ll find it easier and easier each time you do it.
Spend more time outdoors.
Spending more time outdoors can also help to boost your mental well-being. This is because exposure to fresh air can “provide greater clarity to the brain, promoting optimal function whilst helping you to think, focus and concentrate better”. It also increases your body’s production of serotonin, which leaves you feeling calmer and happier.
Don’t bury your feelings.
Speaking openly and honestly about how we are feeling may seem daunting, but the truth is, negative feelings do not go away if we bury them. While we can find distractions that function as a temporary fix, the emotions will continue to bubble under the surface, and will often worsen. As a result, you must treat yourself with enough grace to embrace your feelings. When you aren’t feeling your best, reach out to a trusted loved one or mental health professional. While instigating the conversation can be tough, these chats will leave you feeling as though you have taken a significant weight off your shoulders.
5 Benefits Of A Growth Mindset
A growth mindset is a belief that we can learn and improve our abilities. It's based on the idea that our intelligence and talents are not fixed traits but can be developed over time through effort, good teaching, and learning from mistakes.
This positive outlook has been shown to boost achievement in everything from school to sports to relationships. People with a growth mindset are more resilient in the face of setbacks and more likely to take on challenging tasks that lead to personal growth.
Here are five benefits of having a growth mindset:
1. You'll achieve more because you're not afraid of failure.
The best way to learn and grow is by doing things that are difficult. If you have a growth mindset, you know that struggling means you're stretching yourself, trying new things, and learning. And when you achieve something great, it only makes the next challenge better!
2. You'll be more self-confident.
Believing in your own abilities and knowing that you can always improve means you will never stop working hard or losing confidence in yourself – even if others start to doubt you. Instead of waiting for someone else to give them permission, people with a growth mindset take charge of their own lives and decide what they want to do. They don't let setbacks or criticism stop them from reaching their goals because they know they can always work harder and get better.
3. You'll be more successful.
People with a growth mindset are more likely to achieve their goals because they believe that their abilities can be developed. They're not afraid of failure, so they're more likely to take risks that lead to new opportunities and experiences. And when they do fail, they see it as a learning opportunity, not a reason to give up.
4. You'll be happier.
People with a growth mindset tend to be more satisfied with their lives because they focus on the things they can control, like their effort and attitude. They're not as focused on things that they can't change, like their natural talents or the approval of others. This allows them to enjoy the process of learning, growing, and improving – not just the results. The current mental health stats indicate that people need to take control of their own lives again.
5. You'll be a better leader.
A growth mindset is important for anyone who wants to inspire others because it means being open to new ideas and willing to consider things from someone else's perspective. Leaders with a growth mindset are more likely to embrace diversity and encourage collaboration instead of trying to impose their views on others or make everything about themselves. They also believe that they can always learn from other people, even if they have less experience or talent than them.
In Conclusion
A growth mindset is a positive and powerful way of thinking that can lead to success in every area of life. If you adopt a growth mindset, you'll be more likely to achieve your goals, be happier and be a better leader. So why not give it a try?
How To Recovery Emotionally After A Serious Accident
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If you’ve recently had a serious accident, it can be a long road to recovery. At first, you are probably concentrating on recovering from your immediate physical injuries and the practicalities around this, but once these urgent things are taken care of, there is a lot more to recovering than you might think. Learning how to deal with these is the key to a full recovery.
Think about the following when planning your recovery.
Cosmetic healing
Depending on the type of accident you had and the severity of it, it can take you a while to heal physically. Your immediate health needs are the most important, but when they are under control, there may be some other, more superficial injuries that you want to take care of. If you had to have treatment from an emergency dentist after your accident, you may still need a cosmetic dentist to restore your smile and your confidence.
It’s important to make time for yourself and indulge in a little physical self-care in order to move the emphasis from your body as something that was injured to an amazing thing that is healing, both inside and out.
Mental healing
After an accident or injury, it’s common to experience lingering trauma or even PTSD. The psychological effects can last long after the physical ones have gone. If you find that your mental health is suffering, then you aren’t alone and should reach out for help. Your doctor should be your first port of call if you don’t already have a therapist you can talk to, they will be able to signpost you to the right service.
It can also help to read about the subject of PTSD and blogs from others who have experienced it and how they coped. Talk with family and friends too if you feel comfortable enough to do so. If you don’t, there are a number of support groups you can join both in-person and virtually.
Accepting a new normal
It’s very rare that you’ll be able to go completely back to normal after a serious accident. You may be left with ongoing physical injuries, which you need to take into account or have a different view on life. Some people can find the experience transformative and put other aspects of their lives into perspective which can encourage them to make real positive changes.
Whatever life looks like for you, it can help to understand what has happened to you and how it can affect you moving forward, either positively or negatively.
Conclusion
Surviving a serious accident is a life-changing event. Healing from it both physically and psychologically is very important to allow you to get on with the rest of your life. Dedicating the time to really work on your own recovery and allowing yourself that time and space is vital.
Everyone copes differently and there is no right or wrong way to do this. Do what is right for you and don’t feel that you can’t reach out for help.
The Astonishing Benefits Of Indoor-Outdoor Living
Imagine if your home blended naturally into the surrounding environment. Not only would you have more space, but you’d be able to live in a more natural way. You wouldn’t be cooped up indoors all day long. Instead, you’d be out in the open air, catching a few rays and listening to the sound of birds.
For this reason, indoor-outdoor spaces have become tremendously more popular. These days, hardly a single luxury home neglects them.
The form they take can be quite different. Some are, for all intents and purposes, outdoor living rooms, equipped with fireplaces, chairs, recliners, sofas and coffee tables. Others are dining rooms, usually under some sort of shade, while the most extravagant attempts to bring the kitchen outside as well.
If you’re on the fence about indoor-outdoor living, then this post may help to change your mind. We discuss some of the benefits that such arrangements bring and how they can help you live a better, more fulfilling life at home. Here’s what you need to know:
It Makes It Easier To Have a Staycation
Getting away on vacation is not only expensive, but it can be physically difficult as well, thanks to all the international restrictions in place. For that reason, many people are turning to their own backyard, often quite literally, to make the most of their time off from work.
There are many ways that you could give your outdoor spaces more of a vacation feel. One obvious idea is to add a pool. Here, you can mimic what it would be like to be sitting around a hotel pool, enjoying the sunshine and warm air.
Some people turn their outdoor spaces into spas. These are over under cover, just next to their sliding patio doors.
You could also invest in a sunroom. These allow you to experience the warmth of the sun but, at the same time, protect you against the cool breeze. They’re similar to greenhouses.
It Gives You More Options When Entertaining Guests
Standing around with your guests in the kitchen or sitting with them in the living room is okay in the depths of winter. But when the summer arrives, people want to be outside, enjoying themselves in the fresh air.
While a patio will suffice, having a bespoke indoor-outdoor area can make the whole experience so much more enjoyable for your guests. First, you can physically accommodate more people. You might only be able to fit twenty guests into your home itself, but you might have space to entertain fifty outside.
You can also take advantage of outdoor kitchens. These allow you to prepare food and service drinks to guests outside, without having to run in every five minutes to check on your cooking.
Modern outdoor kitchens actually rival those you find on the inside of your home. These days, they’re much more than just BBQs built into a countertop with a few cabinets. Instead, they come with running water, sink with plumbing, dedicated gas lines, and even pizza ovens. What’s more, they’re all protected by suitable roofing and come with options that let you batten down the hatches when the weather turns bad.
It Increases The Value Of Your Home
As discussed in the introduction, indoor-outdoor living is in high demand. Everyone wants to experience it.
Because of this, homes that offer functional exterior spaces are worth more than equivalent properties that don’t. Buyers want opportunities to go outside and enjoy being in nature because they know that it’s good for their health and wellbeing.
Buyers are also looking for properties that offer space. Therefore, if your home doesn’t have much interior square footage, you can add to it in a practical sense by expanding into your garden. What’s more, creating outdoor space is a significantly less costly way to increase your home’s value than adding a conventional extension.
Remember, when it comes to buying a new home, buyers want you to wow them. It doesn’t actually matter how you do this, whether with giant interior rooms at your property, or by increasing the space available to you outside. Remember, something as simple as adding a patio or veranda could be the difference between a buyer choosing your property and the next-best alternative.
It Is Good For Your Health
The average person only spends around 15 minutes per day outside in the open air. Unfortunately, that’s bad for our individual and collective wellbeing. If we’re constantly in built environments, it separates us from nature which is so beneficial.
For instance, NIH studies show that being in nature may help improve your cognition and memory. You may be able to think more clearly and better recall what people have said to you.
Being outside may also reduce stress, something that researchers refer to as “biophilia.” Our natural love of the outdoors appears to have a powerful effect on how our secretory hormones in the brain work, reducing the level of cortisol in the body. It’s one of the reasons why most people feel better after a weekend of camping, even if they’ve been sleeping on the uncomfortable ground.
It Expands Your Living Space
We’ve already alluded to this perk above, but it’s worth repeating. Building an indoor-outdoor area expands your living space. It gives your home more square footage and can make even a small chalet feel considerably larger.
The current trend is towards “multi-use” spaces. Homeowners, for instance, are trying to create “rooms” outdoors that can fulfill all the functions of spaces inside their homes.
With some clever architectural tricks, outdoor living areas can also blend effortlessly into the rest of the home. Creating a common theme between the indoor and outdoor space creates unity and ensures that everything makes visual sense.
Some property owners, for instance, keep the indoor and outdoor floor heights the same, eliminating any need to step down. Others use sliding glass panels for doors that make it feel like indoor and outdoor spaces are one and the same. When there are minimal visual boundaries, outdoors areas feel like a natural expansion of your home.
How To Deal With Problems Associated With Getting Older
Unfortunately, it is inevitable that you will get older. There will always be issues associated with this and it is up to you how you tackle them. You are far more at risk of developing health related problems such as arthritis and dementia when you are over the age of 60. Here is a list of ailments you may find yourself worrying about and how to overcome them.
Mental Health
This is vital to keep watch over, when you get to a certain age you are far more at risk of developing cognitive problems such as memory loss associated with dementia or Alzeihmers. It is thought that once you stop keeping your brain busy and active it simply starts to decline. Previously your brain would have been kept active through work or going out with friends. Once you get to retirement age this happens less often. You need to make a conscious effort to keep your brain healthy, this can be done through word and number puzzles such as sudoku and crosswords.
Diet & Exercise
As you get older you may find it heartbreaking that you can’t eat all the wonderful things you could before. Once you are in your prime your body starts to need less calories, you may find that you need to eat little and often rather than three meals a day. This is due to your metabolism slowing right down, this usually happens around the age of 50. If you continue to eat as you did before you may find that you are putting on more weight around your middle, this is known as middle-aged spread but it can happen in old-age as well.
You should also be aiming to complete at least 30/45 minutes of exercise each day to keep away any weight-related conditions such as diabetes, heart disease, and strokes. Exercise should be gentle and not too strenuous on your joints. Swimming and yoga are great examples of this.
Physical Health
You may notice your physical health taking a turn for the worse as soon as you reach the age of 40, it doesn’t get much better. You might find that your joints are getting stiffer and it takes you that bit longer to get out of bed each morning. You need to be aware of various physical health complaints when you get older as they can be a sign of something more serious. One thing that will be slightly more noticeable is your need to pee more often. As you age your bladder and the muscles you use to hold your wee get weaker, this means you are far more susceptible to incontinence. This is nothing to be embarrassed about and it affects a high percentage of the older population. There are ways you can manage this, incontinence briefs and pads for example. There are more serious cases where you could consider surgery.
We hope you found this article helpful and it gives you some top tips on how to deal with common ailments you may struggle with when you reach a certain age. Remember, to always consult your doctor if you are worried.
How To Journal For Mental Wellness
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A journal can be whatever you want it to be. For some people, it’s a record of each day. For others, it’s a creative outlet. For others, it’s a way to manage their mental wellness. Journaling for mental wellness has gained a lot of focus over recent years (especially since the pandemic). If you’re thinking of trying it, here are three points to consider.
Journal on paper
You can journal electronically if you really want to. It is, however, a good idea at least to try paper journaling. Many people find it a very different experience from journaling electronically and a better one for mental wellness.
Apart from anything else, journaling on paper, by definition, takes you away from screens. It can also help to force you to slow down. Even if you’re a slow typist, using a keyboard is still often much quicker than writing. That’s fine if you just need to get a job done but sometimes there’s a case for going slowly and mindfully.
Journaling on paper also provides a high degree of privacy and security compared to journaling electronically. You don’t have to deal with tech fails or cybersecurity issues. There’s also less danger of you accidentally publishing something you meant to keep private.
Balance structure with freedom
Even though the names are similar, bullet journaling and regular journaling are different. You can, however, draw inspiration from bullet journaling. In particular, you could look at its balance of structure and flexibility as a guide for your journaling. For example, you might want to include prompts and trackers alongside blank space for you to use as you wish.
You can also keep a “temporary” journal as well as a proper one. Your temporary journal can essentially be your “catch-all” for whatever thoughts you want to record. This can literally mean anything from basic to-dos to your thoughts on the Yelp extortion issue. You would then distill these down into your proper journal.
This approach is particularly useful when you’re still figuring out what you want from your journal. Even once you do have an established journaling process, it can still be handy to have an “overflow” notebook.
Push your creative boundaries
As previously mentioned, your journal can and should be whatever you want it to be. If, however, you’re journaling for mental wellness, then you may find it very helpful to push your creative boundaries. At the very least, it’s worth trying and seeing how you feel about it.
Pushing your creative boundaries will mean different things to different people. Basically, it will depend on where your starting point is. If you’ve never considered yourself to be creative then you might want to start with the likes of stickers and stamps and doodles. If you are more artistic, then use your journal to try out new techniques.
Regardless of your previous artistic experience (if any), you might want to try exploring neurographics. This is a technique for drawing out your inner feelings and expressing them on paper where you can address them. Many people find it very soothing and relaxing.