Mind Health Development

Anti-depressants - Are they really so evil?

2009-10-14T06:52:00.000-07:00

They get a lot of bad press, those little pills, yet time and time again I see people make remarkable recoveries with the help of them. So I thought I would write a little blog entry on the upside of taking them. But the little blog entry became a bigger blog entry so I posted the whole thing on the main site - Anti depressants 2.

Please come back here to post your comments.
Glyn

The Miracle Question - part 2

2009-07-12T05:00:00.000-07:00

Well there I was talking about the miracle question when a friend and colleague added something very interesting; kind of a sub-division of the miracle question.
She said that she had followed her own motivational mantra for much of her life and to be fair, this lady is very successful, which was this: "If you do what you have always done, you will get what you have always got." Amazing in its simplicity. Don't you think?
Within the field of coaching for growth and improvement or therapies for overcoming stress, anxiety and depression, it is not unusual for us to look for unhealthy behaviours or thought processes that might be at the centre of the difficulty. We then try to facilitate a change.
So, if you have practised a behaviour that locks in stress, change it. If you don't then you will get what you have always got - stress.
Anything you need to change now so that you might get something different? Give it some thought.

The Miracle Question

2009-06-28T03:29:00.000-07:00

Whatever it is that we need to do in life we first need to be motivated. Whether it be to de-clutter a room, make a difficult phone call or put in the effort required to overcome depression, putting in the work can sometimes seem like a Herculean task.
When Rick and I are working with our clients we give them a series of seven questions aimed at motivating them to put in the required work; these seven questions are called Well Formed Outcomes. Well Formed Outcomes can be used anywhere but might be a little cumbersome for everyday use so for me I take one of them out and about and use whenever needed. This I call my 'miracle question'. So what is it? When faced with a task that I just can't seem to jump into I ask myself, 'is the outcome worth the effort'?
If the kids want to go to the park to play football but the couch is very comfortable, I ask myself the miracle question and immediately see them having a great deal of fun kicking the ball around, getting fitter, being happier.
If I have calls to make, I ask the question and see the work that I might earn as a result or the help the call might offer people.
Is the outcome worth the effort? One word of warning; use carefully. It motivates indiscriminately.

What decides your mood?

2009-06-27T07:54:00.000-07:00

Sounds like a big question. Strangely though, it isn't. Your mood is dependant entirely on what DVD you are playing at the time. For a bit more on the minds DVDs you will have to go to the main website to find out what we mean, so follow this link and come straight back Core Skills 1

Great. But now some of you will be arguing that your mood is affected by what is happening in your life, some will argue that dysfunctional assumptions are partly to blame and some will make a case for thinking errors. And you would all be right. But life events and the rest are what contribute to what DVDs we play. The DVD is the what we see above the water like in our pretty iceberg picture. The rest is what we wouldn't normally see unless we went diving.

So, if we want to change our mood, we need to change our DVD. To do this, we might need to do a little diving. The tools are all on the main website http://www.mindhealthdevelopment.co.uk/ or you could buy Rick's book from the site too. Or you could keep your mood as it is.

Simple steps to great goal setting.

2009-06-25T12:10:00.000-07:00

Goal Setting.

Goal setting is an important tool for those who both want to achieve more and recognise those same achievements. The recognition of having things to aim for in all the important areas of our lives gives us a greatly enhanced sense of control over our lives.
Goals can also be linked to Positive DVDs. As we set a goal we can view it as a future Positive DVD and enjoy the anticipation of it coming about.

The Mind Health Development methodology caters for goal setting in a very simple way by identifying the four areas of our lives upon which we can choose to focus. They are:

Personal
Professional
Social
Family

It is easy to see how some of these might overlap, so when setting your goals, simply put them into the one you feel it fits the best. For example you might aim to get fitter and make the plan more measurable by saying that you will run 2 miles in 15 minutes. This would easily fit into Personal goals. But if you are planning to do a fun run for a local charity with your friends from the pub it would also fit into Social. I might choose to break this goal up by saying under Personal I will have run 2 miles, three times under 15 minutes before the day of the race and will complete the race in less than 15 minutes also.
Goals are more manageable when they are measurable, hence the above example. It might be nice to say that you want to lose weight but this seems a little woolly. So set a target that can be easily identified when it is achieved such as losing 7 lbs by a set date.
At Mind Health Development we would also suggest that the goals you set are achievable so you are set for success not failure. This doesn’t mean that they can’t be a little lofty, but if they are quite far reaching break them down into smaller steps so even if the end goal seems elusive you will experience multiple successes along the way.
The last bit of advice is just to go ahead and set them and enjoy achieving them.
Good luck.

Boosting Self Esteem

2009-06-23T08:48:00.000-07:00

Positive self esteem strategies
In Rick’s book – The Promised Land, he writes, ‘into every life a little rain must fall’ and this can lead to us feeling less than confident and watching our self esteem diminish minute by minute, hour by hour, and day by day.. Your self esteem and mine for that matter is linked to the way we see ourselves and how we interact with the wider world and having poor self esteem can be seriously debilitating, leading to psychological distress and under achievement.Your poor self esteem can be overcome however if you can accept the role your own thoughts play in locking the negativity in place and work to change them.
If we go back to the opening statement in this article we can begin to overcome low self esteem by simply accepting that in everyone's life there will be good days and bad days, happy moments and sad ones and that all of these experiences are mostly unavoidable and necessary when living life to the full.

How to guide.
Positive Listing.
Take time to write down all of the things that you are good at or have achieved in your life so far. Do you check on an elderly neighbour or relative? Are you good with children or great at cooking? Is your garden a bright spot in the neighbourhood or do you compliment people on their good points?
This list could go on forever so I’ll stop there and give you time to make your own long list. If you are reticent to write stuff down then you must challenge this and give the exercise plenty of time. Add to it each day for a week and then review it as often as you can, adding to it continually as you see fit. This is another reason why keeping a journal is a good as you should record them in this and review them each and every day.
Proper Selfishness.
It was Charles Handy who first coined the above phrase. Put simply it is having time to engage in your own pleasure giving activities. If you find it difficult to accept that you should have enjoyable time to yourself then ask why. Are other people more important than you? The answer is no! Now plan something pleasurable for yourself. If you need more convincing, consider the surgeon who is about to operate on you. Would you rather he had just worked for twelve hours without a break or anything to eat or drink, or would you rather he had enjoyed a stress free day with a good meal and friendly conversation before he scrubs up? The fact is the surgeon would be better able to help you if he had helped himself. Put this analogy to good use.
Reviewing Failure.
It is necessary to accept that we will not always succeed or win first time and how we view this when it happens is key to maintaining good levels of confidence and self esteem. If we do fail at something we might do well to consider if eventual success here is going to feed into our self esteem before we continue. If it is, then it would be wise to learn from our mistakes and carry on. If we honestly think that we could be spending the time more productively elsewhere then we should not hesitate in moving onto this instead. The danger is in moving onto the new project and creating justifications for this. See the article on Cognitive Dissonance on the main website.

Social Circle.

Consider for a moment who are the people that you spend most of your time with. Think of your friends, your family and your work colleagues. Now ask yourself which of these people you consistently enjoy the company of. Which of these irritate you? Which of these freely engage in criticism of you and others? Which of these leave you feeling less of value after spending time with them than you felt before? Now consider the opposite. Which of these folks that you are close to bring enjoyment to you when you are together? Which of them compliments you with no agenda of their own? Which of these people are happy for you to be the centre of attention and for you to hold court once in a while? It shouldn’t be difficult after doing this exercise to recognise who you should be spending the most time with and you should be expending your valuable time and effort upon.

Self Referential Behaviour.

Begin to examine the way you talk to others about yourself and how you talk to yourself. This can be most enlightening. First of all try to notice each and every time you use words like ‘I’ and ‘me’, or ‘mine’. This only helps you to lock in the focus you have on yourself and the attention and time you spend making yourself your own centre of attention. Try to aim this focus elsewhere and communicate without the need for these self references.
Then look at how you talk to yourself. Do you criticise yourself in a way that you wouldn’t accept from others or make insulting remarks that you would never say to anyone else? It is important to begin eliminating this by noticing it as it happens and changing this internal dialogue.

Use this article as a guide to measuring your own self esteem and adopting the right changes to boost the same.

The way forward

2009-06-22T02:45:00.000-07:00

As you can see by the new banner title, we at The Promised Land have rebranded our company.
Hopefully this will give new friends and clients a clearer picture of who we are and what we do from the get go.
Our website is changing too. From today you will be able to find us at www.mindhealthdevelopment.co.uk and www.mindhealthdevelopment.com. Should you go to our old address, you will be immediately re-directed.
The process of change however, won't be rushed and we will still be the same team with the same values doing the same work.
Our new logo is entering the final phase and we have shortlisted three. If you would like a say on the final decision then email and request to see them. Your input will be much appreciated.
Have a great day.

Nutrition and Mental Health

2009-06-04T03:07:00.000-07:00

Anyone who suffers from stress, anxiety or depression and genuinely wants to improve their quality of life will turn to strategies that will help them in their quest such as CBT, counselling or self help methods amongst others. Whilst this is of course an approach to be applauded, we can too often overlook our general well being.
A person who adopts a healthy lifestyle will undoubtedly find their bodies working with any psychological techniques employed making the whole endeavour easier.
Nutrition is of course a big part of well being.
Vikki Gotham, one of our partners, has supplied us with an enlightening article on Nutrition and how mental health can be improved by a good diet. Find the article at http://www.the-promised-land.co.uk/nutrition-and-mental-health-z-37.html?chapter=0&zenid=5700bcb62c0d71452ecba9d6343e10be

Never Disqualify the Positives.

2009-03-07T06:01:00.001-08:00

I had a real tough journey the other day. You know the type; going somewhere new, unfamiliar roads, tolls to pay, sat nav playing games. And at the end of it I was giving a lecture to a group of highly respected professionals in my field who would have been expecting me to turn up looking as fresh as a daisy as though I'd walked there from next door.
But one of our golden rules here at The Promised Land is to never disqualify the positives, to search for them everywhere in fact.
My journey was to the great and historic city of Liverpool, famous for The Beatles and the tunnels under the Mersey as well as a myriad of football teams that have graced the world stage.
One of my first mistakes was to go through a tunnel toll and then take a wrong turn meaning I was going through it again the wrong way only to have turn around and do it for a third time. But I decided not to jump to the conclusion that they wouldn't be helpful or magnify my mistake by thinking I was the first 'foriegner' to do the same and would be seen as some kind of idiot. So I explained my error to the lady at the booth whereupon she asked some polite questions, radioed for assistance and a friendly man in a high vis. jacket came and escorted me through a 'bonus' gate for folks doing much the same as I had. He then gave me directions and wished me a good day. While he was doing this, a policeman was slowing down the steady flow of locals to let me through. No honking of horns or two fingered salutes, just people who seemed glad to help.
When I arrived at my destination, a small but busy community hospital in Birkenhead, there were a lack of signs pointing to my final destination. Another local came to my help in the form of a very important looking gentleman in an expensive suit. He appeared at first, too busy to put himself out for the likes of me but I couldn't have been more wrong. Not only did he show me the way but actually took me there, opening the doors for me all of the way, obviously recognising that I was a visitor to his hospital and I was going to be afforded the courtesy that this deserved. A difficult journey was now only a small part of a very good day.
The people I lectured to were great and I made my travels a part of the talk. At the end they had written down some driving directions to make my life easier for my journey home.
The point here is that too often we look for the negatives in a difficult situation when positives are staring us in the face. I had a great day in Liverpool and can't wait to go back just because I wasn't going to disqualify the positives.

Is fear holding you back?

2009-02-23T08:09:00.000-08:00

"Cowards die many times before their deaths, The valiant never taste of death but once."
So says Caesar in the Shakespeare play.
How many times in your life have you experienced a dream but held back long enough to watch it wither on your mental vine? Or perhaps worse; allowed someone else to poison the first growth of your hope and turn the fertile soil of your aspirations into worthless dust?
If you are familiar with this turn of events, then pound to a penny you will keep on looking at yourself in the mirror as you grow older dreaming less and less and becoming even less happy with the decisions you make. As the quote suggests, if we live our lives in fear we will die every time one of our dreams or hopes passes us by. We were bested by fear!!!
I often dream and of late have acted more and more upon it. Many times, nothing has come of my dreams but I find it is easier on me to look back and tell myself that I tried rather than looking back and saying 'what if?' I now feel more in control of my destiny and the sense of being a victim to the whims of the world no longer hangs in the air. I am just that little bit more in control.
Think of a dream now and identify one thing you could do this minute to bring it that little bit closer. What next? Do that one thing. Go on. Get out and do it. Don't click on another blog for more inspiration or read another entry here. Just stand up and get moving.
Let me know how you get on.

Glyn Morris.

Every cloud has a silver lining.

2009-02-18T02:08:00.000-08:00

Every cloud has a silver lining - or a dozen things to do for free (or nearly free) in the credit crunch.
It’s a slightly hackneyed phrase but most clouds do have a silver lining if we make the effort to look for it, and the current economic difficulties that most of us are facing definitely have some silver linings. Winston Churchill once said “The pessimist sees difficulty in every opportunity. The optimist sees the opportunity in every difficulty.” As we start to feel the financial pinch many of us are probably thinking that we ought to cut back on our expenditure, but what a great opportunity to re-discover the things we used to do when we didn’t have any money in the first place! A dozen things to do to beat the depression:
1. OK it’s not terribly original but who said it had to be….go for a walk in the countryside. The UK has some of the best and most accessible countryside in the world. Miles and miles and miles of it – get your old boots or trainers on and re-discover it, whether it’s the Peak District, the Lake District, the South Downs, the Moors, or the Highlands I bet there is some fabulous countryside within 20 miles of your front door.
2. Re-discover your local library. Reading has to be one of life’s great pleasures. There is nothing quite like getting so wrapped up in a story that you can’t put the book down because you just have to know what happened next. Feed your imagination, get lost in a book.
3. Buy a lottery ticket, or have a small bet at decent odds. Peter O’Sullivan the famous BBC Horse Racing commentator who is still going strong at 91 maintains that you’ll never die as long as you’ve got an ante-post betting ticket in your pocket. No, I’m not trying to turn the nation into a country of desperate gamblers, but let’s inject a little bit of excitement into our lives with a small wager. The bet doesn’t even have to involve money, there are all kinds of wagers you could have with friends or family that could add a little bit of spice to your life.
4. Write a letter……..no not an e-mail! Write a good old-fashioned letter, send it to a friend you haven’t seen in ages, maybe someone living in another country. I know you could call them or email them or text them or MSN them, but there’s something really special about a letter coming through your door. Do it, today!
5. Let’s flip round number 1 on the list – go for a walk in the city. One of the great benefits of living in this country is that we have history coming out of our ears. Every city in the country has some great architecture, wonderful local historical characters, terrific museums, and beautiful art galleries. As per number one…within 20 miles of your front door there is a great city waiting to be discovered.
6. Make your own Desert Island disc. Trawl through your music collection and make a CD with your favourite 20 tracks on it. Music is a great way of positively affecting our mood – then share it with someone!
7. Bake banana bread – here’s a recipe: 180g self-raising flour; 40g oats; 200g brown sugar; 55g dried cranberries; 55g dried apricots; 2 eggs; 8 tablespoons of oil; 1 tsp of vanilla extract; 6 mashed bananas. Pre-heat oven to 180; grease and flour an 8x4 inch loaf tin; sieve flour into a bowl; stir in oats, sugar, cranberries and apricots; mix together and make a well in the centre; mix eggs, oil, vanilla and bananas; pour into the well and blend everything together; pour mix into the loaf tin; bake for about an hour until well risen and golden brown; remove to wire rack and cool. – if you haven’t got some of the ingredients who cares, substitute and experiment (probably best not to substitute the bananas…unless you change the name!).
8. Get down to your local park with a frisbee, football, bat and ball or anything you can run after. Don’t worry about falling over and making an arse of yourself – I think it was Mark Twain who once said “We wouldn’t worry what other people think about us….if we realised how rarely they do.”
9. Make love…………. enough said!
10. Watch your favourite film on DVD – find someone who has never seen it before and watch it through their eyes. It’s amazing how you’ll see things in the film that you’ve never noticed before, despite the fact you’ve watched it loads of times.
11. Play charades. They always seems to be funnier and everyone gets better if you’ve had a glass of wine or a beer. As per idea number 3, I’m not trying to turn the nation into a country of alcoholics……as per idea number 8, don’t worry about making an arse of yourself…..
12. If you’ve read my book The Promised Land, you’ll probably remember the story of the black water pumps. Visit the village of Brewood in Staffordshire and walk round the village and see how many black water pumps you can find! It’s a wonderful world if we can be bothered to make the effort……..

Dr Rick Norris

PS. To buy one of Rick's books, follow this link - http://www.the-promised-land.co.uk/the-books-z-31.html?chapter=0&zenid=a637e9e6a891e7455a8e49219822886f

The Secret of Happy Kids.

2009-02-14T12:47:00.000-08:00

The Promised Land Methodology plays on a few core skills which includes the concept of Positive DVDs - Follow this link for more on those - http://www.the-promised-land.co.uk/core-skill-no-1-z-15.html?chapter=0&zenid=d2672c89336d762a0b6c1b6c37f09e21.

After you have read that article I want you to consider creating Positive DVDs for your kids. Set some of those in place now and you give yourself every chance of raising children that have the necessary armour to fend off the kind of negative introspective thoughts that are at the very heart of stress, anxiety and depression.

Below is a list of five activities that families love. Fit these or similar regularly into your family life and fill the DVD library of your family with joy.

1 - Movie night.

Every Saturday, my family and I sit down with hot chocolate and marshmallows and watch a family movie. Because this is now a regular habit with us, the kids can really look forward to it. All week they are thinking of what we might be watching on Saturday night.

2 - The match.

One of my lads and I have cultivated a real love of watching our team on a Saturday afternoon. We share the highs and lows with 28000 others and it gives us real common ground. We chat all week about the game just gone and the game we are going to play next. Fantastic.

3 - Garden centres.

What? Garden centres? What kids love garden centres? Well garden centres now often have parks which the children really love; playing in ear shot of mom and dad who are looking at the plants. Get the kids to pick the plant for you, measure it when you plant it and they will love watching it grow. Buy them some seeds. Loads of seed companies do a kids range with information aimed at them on the packets. Most of them will go in a pot on the patio if you don't have a large garden.

4 - Hobbies.

Kids love hobbies and enjoy them even more if you share it with them. If you are into bird watching take the little 'uns exploring in the forest and get them a sticker book. Or maybe try out Geocaching, Google it, and go treasure hunting every weekend.

5 - Reading.

But don't just say the words; act them out. Remember that you are creating a DVD after all. Try it with a poem such as The Jabberwocky or Bumbly Bumbly Boo. You can hardly fail to get into the spirit with these children's classics.

This is a great start for their DVD libraries and watching their faces will add a few to your own.

I was Irritated Today!

2009-02-10T09:16:00.000-08:00

I really was. I like to think that I ghost around the world in a zen like state, but today I was definitely irritated and just because a friend hadn't taken the time to converse with me in a manner that is normal for our relationship. So what's going on then?
To be perfectly honest, I wasn't so irritated, but it is easy for these situations to throw us into a wobble and when they do we can all to easily find ourselves making judgements about the person frustrating us. We blame them or their personality without regard for the situation which is most likely impacting upon them and their behaviour enormously. When we do this, the psychologists call it a Fundamental Attribution Error and the effect it can have on our mood is enormous.
Click the link to find out more.
http://www.the-promised-land.co.uk/fundamental-attribution-error-made-simple-z-34.html?chapter=0&zenid=ed6f319a7d0fb946e8e0708424022ca7

Glyn Morris

A Review - Sharon Collins

2009-02-09T12:45:00.000-08:00

Sharon Collins is a clinical psychologist who currently specialises in the field of occupational health. We took a deep breath and invited her to review our website.

It is refreshing to read a site which is written as it is intended for the approach to be practised: with positivity! The site is easy to read and de-mystifies complex conditions and is matter of fact.
The list of 'in the news' shows how Rick and Glyn have managed to bring their concepts alive and link them with real world events such as athletic performance and grieving parents.
Perhaps one area which the TPL (The Promised Land) may like to consider is how their approach links with the Gov't agenda on IAPT as the new expansion sites start to be rolled out in 2009-10. Will their approach and message complement or differ from CBT the IAPT way with its more stringent emphasis on measurable outcomes and value for money?

Sharon Collins.

Many thanks for that Sharon. I believe IAPT (improving access to psychological therapies) is something of a mixed blessing. We absolutely agree with the idea but not with the application. It has long been my belief that occupational health nurses who are often the first to see people suffering from psychological difficulties are the best people to train up to meet the demands of this collossal problem. And when we take into account that most occupational health staff are already highly trained and highly skilled health care professionals we can see that the training of these would be much easier than training thousands of people from scratch.
But I will still happily support anything that might bring relief to the millions of sufferers of stress, anxiety and / or depression.

Glyn Morris

Christian Bale lets fly!

2009-02-08T05:40:00.000-08:00

Most of us will have heard by now, about Mr. Bale's outburst at the director of photography on the new Terminator movie. Many of us will have listened to it on Youtube. Most newspapers covered it and barely a news organisation in the western world dare miss out on the opportunity to comment on the latest big stars flashpoint. So what is this anger thing all about? And why do people like Mr bale succumb?
Anger is a regular, everyday emotion that some of us are more likely than others to give into. Witness Christian Bale's tirade. You can see how he explodes and then begins to justify his anger with the idea that he is trying to get the unfortunate victim up to his level; to raise the standard of professionalism on the set. Straight away we see that even the angry person doesn't even believe that allowing his emotions to take over is fair without justification. Allowing such free reign to our darkest feelings always seems to come with some guilt; guilt that we feel we can assuage if we can offer up a good reason for it. Bullying at work is much the same. The bully argues that the bullied needs to 'pick themselves up' or 'raise their game'. Much the same with the incident we are all now familiar with.
Anger, like stress, anxiety or depression can be dealt with in most cases with a cognitive behavioural model, so if you find your own anger levels sometimes building up and taking over, perhaps with justifications for the same, then don't despair - Help is there for you.
Have a look at our other article on anger on the main website - http://www.the-promised-land.co.uk/anger-the-misunderstood-emotion-z-30.html?chapter=0

Glyn Morris

Stress Down Day.

2009-02-06T04:18:00.000-08:00

The Samaritans are today promoting a ‘Stress Down Day’ in recognition of the worry that people are facing more stress at work than ever probably due to uncertainty about job security and reduced work.
Some of these problems are of course, very real and that is why it is more important than ever for us to remain calm and productive, giving ourselves a greater sense of control and empowerment. If we give into the feelings of despondency we will fall prey to a sense of victimisation, stress will increase and the likelihood of depression will gather at a pace.
Ask yourself here if you really want these psychological difficulties to worsen at a time when we need to be at our best. With Charles Darwin’s work in the news again the phrase ‘survival of the fittest’ couldn’t be more apt, even if he didn’t say it himself.
I know it is hard to pick ourselves up when times appear difficult but now, more than ever, we cannot afford the luxury of a negative thought.

The Skilled Helper's Secrets.

2009-02-05T08:31:00.000-08:00

A lot of people pay to see a counsellor, therapist, nurse or coach with the hope of gaining an advantage that cannot be found in a self help book or on a website or blog.
Well while the magicians, Penn and Teller, revealed the secrets of magic, we are going to reveal the secrets of the expensive therapists.
It is no secret that most therapists and the like get their clients to keep a diary and this has proved very useful to both parties for a number of reasons, one of which is the clearly journalled description of activities undertaken by the person with stress or depression on the days that they felt reduced difficulties. Those of us in the know, have noticed a pattern to these 'good days' and actively recommend that our clients participate in them. We call them Plus Fours.
Full details of Plus Fours can be found at this link:
http://www.the-promised-land.co.uk/plus-fours-z-29.html?chapter=0&zenid=55acf9968d893ac8e8806d4c36bd51de.
Have a look over them and discover one of the secrets to having a great day.

Glyn Morris

Keep Calm and Carry On!

2009-02-04T08:58:00.000-08:00

Some of you will have read about the war time poster, never used and recently discovered that simply states 'Keep Calm and Carry on'.

Maybe we could put it back into print and post it in every office and home in the country.

Personally I would replace the King George VI crown with the Promised Land logo. What do you think? Don't answer that.

Glyn Morris

Is it really that bad?

2009-02-03T05:38:00.001-08:00

Being positive despite the weather and the way the media report it!
Much of my corporate work involves working in London and I was amazed how badly affected the capital seemed to have been with the recent snow falls. As I sit writing this blog I am in a warm office in the heart of the City. I was due to have met five people for coaching sessions today and none of them have made it to work.
Bizarrely, for those of us who made the effort to travel, particularly by car, bike or foot it could not have been easier. The modes of transport where you are less reliant on others seem to have proved far more reliable! Those of us who stepped up to the challenge found the City a lot less congested than normal.
It's obviously more difficult for working parents who have children at school, although the schools seem to close far more easily than they used to! However, many people seem unduly affected by the way the weather is reported on the media. The media seem to relish the prospect of bad news and deem pictures of huge snow drifts and cars stuck in traffic on icy roads far more newsworthy than a story reporting that actually most people who made the effort got to work ok.
Once again a negative spin by the media seem to have a disproportionate effect on the nations psychological well-being. Too many of us get our weather reports by looking at the TV instead of looking out of the window! It really isn't that bad..........

Dr Rick Norris

Stress, Breathing and Brown Paper Bags.

2009-02-02T05:31:00.000-08:00

Most of us will have seen at sometime in our lives the anxious person given a brown paper bag and told to breathe into and out of it. If we haven't seen it first hand we will almost certainly have seen it on the TV. But is this really an efficient way to reduce our anxiety, or is it just a psychological ploy to redirect the mind of the unfortunate sufferer?
It is important to understand that while we see stress and anxiety as psychological conditions most of the unpleasantness associated with them are physiological and has to do with chemical and gas changes taking place in the body.
One of the things that happens to us in response to percieved threat is for our bodies to engage in rapid breathing which effectively helps to take in more oxygen by reducing the carbon dioxide reservoir in our lungs. The extra oxygen comes in handy if we need to fight or run away from danger but just serves to exacerbate our discomfort when neither option is available to us. Hence the brown paper bag. When we breathe into it the amount of carbon dioxide goes up inside of it and so it is replenished when we breathe from the bag.
Much the same can be achieved by slowing our breathing. Breathe a little more deeply and count as you take the air in. Now try to hold for the same count and then out for the same count again.
There are many techniques to help with breath control and can be found on the internet. Or try a yoga class or meditation with a good instructor.

Glyn Morris

What is Stress?

2009-01-30T11:45:00.000-08:00

A good question and right back to basics.
Stress is the wonderful reaction that kicks in when we are faced with an imminent threat. Imagine our caveman ancestor walking out of his cave in a morning, club in hand, wooly mammoth on the hill in the distance looking like lunch and a great big sabre toothed tiger thinking exactly the same thing. Now picture said tiger seeing our friend there and thinking that he is much easier pray than the huge mammoth.
The feeling that the caveman gets is stress; plain and simple. What he feels next is the classic fight or flight mechanism kicking into gear. We fuel our body with extra oxygen and adrenaline is released in greater quantities to help with our chosen course of action. At this point our loin cloth clad hero decides whether to fight or run off. If he escapes or kills the tiger the threat is gone and the body switches off the stress reaction which has kept him safe (unless the tiger killed him). Today however the story is very different though the reaction is just the same.
You see, society is constantly evolving whereas we haven't changed a great deal in about 100000 years. And that is a big factor in why stress is such a huge problem today. Think about it. How many times that you have experienced stress have you been unable to both fight or flee. The problem at work can't be escaped from as you have bills to pay and the driver who cuts you up can't be killed. When we cannot action our desire to respond to this innate calling we become choked on our stress. This is why most of us can benefit from self help, counselling, coaching, psychotherapy, CBT or what have you.
Let's hope this blog will throw you a few pointers.

Glyn Morris

Emotional Well Being at Home and at Work.

2009-01-29T08:38:00.001-08:00

Rick and I both work in the occupational health arena and see how very important it is for people to be happy at work; after all, it often seems that we spend more time there than anywhere else. But occassionally we become depressed or anxious and the last place we want to be is work.
This is a big problem for us as individuals and our employers. Thankfully there are facilities out there to help all concerned and The Promised Land is a good place to start.
Our website and our blog will hopefully direct you to the help that you need whether you are the sufferer or you have staff who need your help and support. A healthy workforce aren't lying in bed producing nothing and contributing even less.
So here, in the blog we will offer lively contributions to thoughts on improving psychological well being and mental health. We will review books and articles and discuss government policy and even publish your thoughts if they are felt suitable for our website.
And if there is anything that you want us to look over, just point us in the right direction.

Glyn Morris