Pillar Three: Mental Wellbeing, self awareness, nourishment of the mind
A huge part of our well being is considering how we are emotionally?
Do we gift ourselves space and time each day to allow what we are feeling to come up?
This can look as simple as taking 3-10 minutes each day to breathe, to sit quietly with no distractions, to write down our thoughts, to meditate. Whatever works for you!
We are learning more recently about the power of the breath. The breath is our constant through life, it is always with us do you take time to notice it? Is it shallow is it quick are you holding it? Tuning into your breath and taking slow deep breaths has the ability to switch us from the stressed state operating in our sympathetic nervous system to our parasympathetic nervous system-our rest and digest state.
It is in our rest state rather than our stressed state that we operate best! We have all bought into the idea about “it’s good to be on the go”, “aw he’s doing great sure he’s busy”, we’ve told ourselves “when I get to the end of the to do list I’ll take time for myself”.
The truth is the list will always be there and the more you go go go the less we achieve because as we all know in our stressed states things tend to work against us rather than for us. Gift yourself a few minutes each day to quiet the mind and cultivate inner peace with the breath and the rest of your day will have a sense of ease. When stressful things happen as we know they do being able to come back to your breath will be the greatest gift allowing you to deal with anything in calm collected manner!
Link for breath work
Youtube has lots of useful breathing exercises available
Meditation can be a beautiful way to come back to breath and take time to quieten the mind.
- Guided meditation can take as little as 10mins, try out one of these apps;
calm app - headspace
Or check out Jay Shetty’s 20 day guided meditation for free on youtube; 20 Days of Live Meditation with Jay Shetty: Day 1 - YouTube
Or Ireland’s wonderful meditation teacher Miriam Hussey; Meditation for Calming the mind, Meeting the Fears & Creating inner Ease - YouTube
Caring for your mental wellbeing is an excellent way to self-care, making sure areas such as life satisfaction, self-esteem and optimism are all in a positive place. If one or more are struggling, self-care is using your knowledge and skills to take action to change! This could mean seeking help from a professional, conducting your own research, or using tools you already know to improve your overall well-being.
Reading self help books can be an incredible way to improve your mental wellbeing.
Have you heard of the Reading Well scheme available at local Libraries? Reading Well supports you to understand and manage your health and wellbeing using helpful books which are all recommended by health experts, as well as people with lived experience of the conditions and topics covered and their relatives and carers. They have specific booklists for children, long-term conditions, dementia and carers.
Find out more here; https://reading-well.org.uk/books/books-on-prescription.
Podcasts are another incredible and free resource to learn more about health and improving mental wellbeing.
Check out Just One Thing Michael Mosley, Feel Better Live More Dr Chattergee, Delicious Ways to Feel Better Ella Mills, On Purpose Jay Shetty, Healing Soundboard The holistic Psychologist, SuperSoul Oprah, The Good Glow Georgie Crawford,
As a practice we are committed to helping you improve your mental well-being if you feel you would like to discuss this with a doctor please get in touch.
There is a counselling service we can refer you to or if required to the mental health team.
Please also access the link below which provides a directory of Services to help improve emotional health and wellbeing for the Western Trust. There are contact numbers for services that deal with mental health, eating disorders, addictions, domestic violence, family support, student support, sexual health, bereavement, children & young people, carers support, employment and training, housing and benefits and many more!
Directory of Services