This is my second blog looking at Emily and Amelia Nagoski's an excellent book about stress and burnout, Burnout: The Secret To Solving The Stress Cycle. The Nagoskis offer straightforward solutions based on science but first we have to really understand what is meant by “the stress cycle” and how…
Modern life is complex and stressful and we all suffer mental and physical exhaustion at times. When does exhaustion become burnout? And what exactly is meant by burnout? What is burnout? The term was first used in 1975 by German psychologist Herbert Freudenberger. Much research has been done since and…
This final article about grounding tools and techniques introduces you to my favourite grounding tool! It also looks at mindful distraction and self-soothing. All of us could sometimes do with a little grounding and all grounding techniques are designed to do one thing: to help us to connect with the…
This blog gives a list of powerful physical grounding tools. All of us could sometimes do with a little grounding! Although grounding does not solve the problem that is contributing to your unpleasant emotions, it does provide a temporary way to gain control over your feelings and prevent things from…
This blog looks at ten powerful mental grounding tools. All of us could sometimes do with a little grounding! All grounding techniques are designed to do one thing: to help us to connect with the present in a focussed way which gives both our body and mind a chance to…
What is Grounding? People often use the expression “I need to stay grounded” when they feel themselves being pulled too much into overthinking and worrying about things or being pulled into very strong emotions. As a counsellor, I find that knowing and using grounding tools and techniques can make a…
What is happiness and how can we hope to achieve it? That is I suppose one of life's Big Questions and one that we spend most of our lives trying to work out for ourselves! But I think that the work of American Hungarian psychologist Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi who I have…
What makes a life worth living? What do we really need in order to be happy? If you have ever felt completely absorbed in something, you might have been experiencing a mental state that psychologists refer to as a state of flow. Achieving this state can help people feel greater…
Mid-way through January 2021, it's a tough time for all of us and most of us are just about hanging on in there by our fingertips - keeping small, keeping safe and trying to keep up our spirits and those of the people we love (but whom we may well…
How are we coping with the new lockdown restrictions and worries about the pandemic as we go into 2021? Silly question - it's a tough time for all of us and most of us are just about hanging on in there by our fingertips - keeping small, keeping safe and…
On this second day of 2021, we are all very aware of some tough months ahead as we wait for the Covid vaccine to be rolled out in Ireland. We have undergone exceptional levels of stress over the past year and I think most of us feel that our reserves…
This is the second in a series of articles about resilience - specifically about resilience and getting our emotional needs met. What is resilience? Is it something we are born with? How do we achieve it? Why do we need it? In future blogs I’ll also look at some closely…