How To Remember Your Dreams I often work with people who dream frequently and are interested in their dreams. Many suffer from nightmares and night terrors which they remember vividly. I will be exploring these in a later post. But a lot of people don’t remember...
Outside Activities and Mental Health
Dreaming
Photography by Gregory Pappas on UnsplashPsychotherapy and Dreams During an initial consultation with a potential client, I often ask about their dreams. Do they dream regularly? Do they have significant dreams from childhood? Do they have recurring dreams? This is...
Time for a Mindset Spring Clean
March is a hopeful month. Officially the first month of spring with emerging colour, bulbs bravely shooting through the ground and trees starting to sprout buds. A couple of years ago in the UK we had a mini heatwave in March. With the unpredictability of the climate,...
Cyber Bullying
Cyber Bullying When researching this subject, I was shocked to see the number of people who had taken their lives due to cyber bullying and sextortion. Between March 2019 and March 2020 19% or one in five children between the age of 10 and 15 in England and Wales...
Male Influencers
The MeToo movement has been wonderful for women’s rights and furthering awareness of sexual harassment and abuse. I know very few women who haven’t experienced sexual harassment at some point in their life and there is now an ability for women to have a voice, be...
What’s Your Online Persona?
Who Do You Think You Are? How Do You Want To Come Across Online? We all know someone who exaggerates their life online – we see the ‘official’ glitzy positive image they put on social media. For example, posts of holiday snaps look amazing but, when we meet to hear...
Striking the Balance – Parenting Children on Social Media
Children and social media: It can be a thorny issue for many parents. There is a common conflict. On the one hand, if you let your child engage in social media they can feel part of their friendship group and won’t feel left out or left behind, whilst on the other...
Phone Addiction – Are We Losing the Art of Being Able to be With Ourselves?
At a comedy show recently I sat in my seat during the interval and studied the art deco theatre. I was admiring the intricate ceiling and the décor and looked across from where I was sitting to see three people engrossed in their phones. They seemed oblivious to the...
Social Media Anxiety and How To Manage It
Social media can be a fantastic way of keeping in touch with people and a source of inspiration, support, and connection to wider conversations online. It can also link us to people we would otherwise not have access to, for example, brides and grooms who’ve invited...
Social Media Anxiety
This is the first in a series I’m writing about social media. Over recent years, and especially since the pandemic social media has become more prevalent in our lives. Benefits of Social Media There are fantastic sides to social media like the ability to keep in touch...
Outside activities and mental health
Research has proven that being outside can improve our mental health. If that’s coupled with exercise then this combination is a winning formula for improving our mood.
There are so many ways we can get outside in our local area. In Dorset we are lucky to live near the coast and countryside and are spoilt for choice in the activities we can choose.
Why not try something new?
On land: You can choose between walking, running, skateboarding, climbing, biking, motor biking and 4×4 driving to name a few. There are clubs for all of these where we can take some lessons or meet likeminded folk with a similar interest.
On sea: Living on the coast there is no excuse for us not getting up close and personal with the water and the beach.
Open water swimming is growing in popularity. The Bournemouth Pier to Pier Swim had nearly 2000 entrants last year. Poole harbour is the largest natural harbour in Europe. Subsequently it’s perfect for learning a new water sport because the area closest to the inner shore is very sheltered and shallow. There are also several schools teaching windsurfing, kiteboarding stand up paddle boarding and kayaking.
In the air: The cliffs are a designated area for Wessex Paragliding Club. Dorset also has at least 8 private landing strips and five flying clubs whilst Hampshire has at least 10 private landing strips and 3 flying clubs. Whether we fancy being a passenger or trying to fly a light aircraft or microlight, the facilities and tuition are easily available.
gardening
Gardening can be a therapy in itself. Historically, residential homes for people with mental health problems had gardens for the patients to work and relax in.
Being active outside in the fresh air is always good for us. But the process of looking after something else other than ourselves is extremely healthy and soothing too.
To nurture a plant (or an animal or child for that matter) is to be responsible for something other than yourself. This sounds obvious but the positive effects can be powerfully rewarding. Caring for something outside of ourselves removes our focus from our internalised thoughts and worries. It gives us a broader perspective on our immediate environment.
CONNECTING WITH THE NATURAL WORLD
There is something almost spiritual about nature. It can engage all of our senses, especially when we work with soil, water and plants. Using our bare hands to touch the soil and plant seeds or plants can be very fulfilling. However in these health and safety aware times of antibacterial gels and gloves some of us rarely get our hands dirty in our daily lives.
Gardening can give us a good excuse to literally roll up our sleeves and get our hands dirty. We can even get childlike enjoyment from getting messy, perhaps remembering the mud pies or sand castles of years gone by.
STOPPING TO SMELL THE ROSES
Time can stand still when we water a plant or weed a flower bed. We can become immersed in what we are doing and it can even become a mindful activity when we concentrate on the task we’re carrying out and how it feels at that moment.
Watching our hard work grow and flourish can literally root us in time in a healthy, rewarding way. Thus alleviating the feeling that we’re always chasing the clock and helping us to feel connected with the seasons.
GET INVOLVED
There are so many ways we can get involved in tending plants, even if we don’t have a garden of our own:
- House plants: there is some famous NASA research which highlights exactly which house plants and how many are needed to improve the air quality where we work and/or live
- Window boxes
- Herb gardens
- Allotments
- Garden shares
- Community garden projects
- Offering to help an elderly or infirm neighbour with their garden
Mental health; other resources
Mind – How nature benefits mental health
Mind – Physical activity and your mental health
National Geographic – Outdoor fun + Mindfulness
Taking up a new sport or hobby can be very rewarding and usually opens up possibilities for making new friends and acquaintances. Not only do we give ourselves a much needed boost of Vitamin D, we may well increase the amount of exercise, fun and happiness in our lives at the same time.