5 Minute Therapies: What Next?

We’ve spent six & a half months working our way through Maslow’s hierarchy as a means of structuring our method aimed at improving our mental health and hopefully working towards you being the best ‘You’ you can be.

Maybe you achieved that, maybe it’s still a work in progress. Whatever your situation and state of progress our mental health will always need care & maintenance. So how do we maintain our state of mental health regardless of how much progress we have made?

Well, there’s no one thing that everyone can do that will answer that problem for us all. But there are some basic things that we can do that can tick both boxes in terms of both promoting personal growth & maintaining it. One of the most important of these is self-care.

Self-care is an umbrella term for those things that we all need to do to look after ourselves as well as the things that we find personally cathartic in some way. There is often, of course, a grey area in between. For example, we all need to eat and move but how we do it & when is more about resources, opportunities & personal preferences.

Self-Care not only addresses our needs for more obvious things like nutrition & rest, but it also speaks of & conveys a message to our degree of self-worth. Taking care of yourself reflects how you value yourself enough to care for yourself, but also, in doing so we express that value to ourselves. It can become a virtuous circle – something that reinforces itself by providing it’s own feedback loop.

Tips for Self-Care:

1. Develop A Self-Care Plan: This is about thinking about what you need to maintain your physical & mental health. It’s a fix the roof while the sun is shinning policy: When things are good or OK, establish effective plans for coping with the bad days. This covers the full range of human experience: Physical, Emotional/Psychological, and Spiritual.
   • Body – Physical: Healthy Body, Healthy Mind!
     • Exercise – There’s an enormous body evidence supporting the idea that regular exercise is great for supporting your mental health. And if you can exercise in the open, out & among nature the positive effects are boosted.
     • Nutrition – What we eat & drink effects our bodily function & moods. Alcohol is a great example of that. But there are foods that are known to be great for our mental health, rather than bad, as with alcohol.
     • Personal Hygiene – Those struggling with their mental health sometimes struggle with personal hygiene. There are many possible reasons for this ranging from lack of motivation to feeling like you’re not worth taking care of. Are you taking care of your hygiene needs?
     • Physical Health – Do you experience pain or discomfort in your body? Do you feel unwell or maybe that some things aren’t working as well as they could be? Consider seeking medical advice.
   • Mind – Psychological: It’s common to find people taking care of themselves physically. They may take regular exercise, watch what they eat, visit the Doctor if they feel unwell. Even visit places like spas for a little pampering. But how many of us pay attention to our psychological well-being and have a clear idea of how we can look after our mental health? Maybe it’s because our minds can seem mysterious and intangible. Somehow, we find ourselves in the ironic situation of being acutely aware of our minds every minute of the day and yet understanding it can feel a little like feeling your way in the dark. So where do we start?
     • Support – What supports do we need to help us recover & maintain our mental well-being?
       • Consider sharing your thoughts & feelings with trusted friends & family. Together you will learn to support each other in a mutual & reciprocal way.
       • Consider the skills, qualities and resources of each confidante and turn to the best candidate, most likely to be helpful.
     • Beliefs – Identify your core beliefs. You may think these serve you well but take the time to reflect & review. For example:
       • If you think that sharing your troubles is akin to burdening others with your problems, ask what’s behind the term ‘burdening’? Perhaps you think that your troubles aren’t worthy of the time & interest of others, or perhaps you feel that sharing makes you feel vulnerable, or you worry what others will think.
       • Where do these beliefs come from? Sometimes the beliefs we hold dear are not our beliefs at all, but those of others that we’ve adopted and it’s only when we question our commitment to them, that we realise the fragility of their foundation. Conversely, looking more closely at our core beliefs can strengthen our faith in them as we understand them more completely.
     • Learning – What have we learned from our experience of therapeutic introspection?
       • Life can be complicated and busy. Sometimes basic principles like breaking down the problems we have into its various components and tackling each of those one step at a time, get lost on us as we grapple with the multitude of stresses we endure.
     • Spirit – Emotional: The human experience is a felt experience. We like to think of ourselves as logical people who make rational decisions – and sometimes we do – but if we look more closely, we’ll see that we are often motivated by our emotions. We do what we think will make us happier. We eat what we like, not necessarily what’s good for us. We socialise & work best with people we are able to connect with. Perhaps the most valued human experience of all is that of being loved & loving. It’s not surprising, then, that our emotional well-being is critical for happier experience of life.  
       • Awareness – To work on our emotional well-being it helps if we have a deeper understanding of how we currently feel. Tips for improving our emotional awareness include:
         • Time – Give yourself time to think & focus on your feelings. Ask yourself:
           • How do I feel?
           • Where do I feel it?
           • Do I want to feel this way?
           • How do I want to feel?
         • Guided meditation & deep relaxation exercises.
         • Practice mindfulness techniques to develop a greater awareness of your experience in the present moment.
       • Emotional literacy – Name your emotions. Focus on them and explore what they feel like and why.
       • Emotional geography – Where do you feel it? Run through a body scan and see if you notice any physical manifestations that you perhaps weren’t aware of. For example, during periods of stress we sometimes hold a lot of tension in our facial muscles which can go unnoticed.
2. Action Plan: You’ve given some thought about Body (Physiology), Mind (Psychology), & Spirit (Emotions) in terms of how well you look after yourself and noted any changes you’d like to make. But let’s not stop there! Let’s plan for the change you want and give your goals the best chance of becoming reality. Plan to feel how you want to feel. This involves identifying the things that trigger unwanted & desirable feelings and planning how you will cope. For example, your plan might include:

If you would like to talk about coping mentally, whether it be for yourself or someone you know, feel free to contact BroadMinds Therapy for help & advice. Call (+353) 0899420568, email help@broadmindstherapy.org , message us via this website, or visit our facebook page http://www.facebook,com/jpbroad for more information.

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Thanks for taking the time to read this article.