This is the third in a series of blogs about stress and looks at effective ways of managing stress. If you search online for stress management tools, you will come across a huge variety of suggestions. These include progressive muscle relaxation, biofeedback, emotional freedom technique (sometimes called tapping), guided imagery,…
This is the second of two blogs looking at the grief and loss associated with loss of health - this blog looks at ways of adapting to loss of health. My first blog is here. A serious health problem can disrupt all aspects of our lives, whether it’s a chronic…
This is the third in a series of blogs about loss, focussing on loss of health. When we talk about loss we often mean the death of someone that we love. But actually our lives are full of small and not so small losses and we can experience grief when…
We are familiar with the public grief rituals such as funerals, cremations or memorial services, but smaller more personal grief rituals also have their important part to play in the healing process. The tradtional Irish wake The tradition of holding a wake is one of the most ancient of our…
This blog, in a series looking at different aspects of the grieving process, looks at grief and minding ourselves. There may be times, when we feel we have entered a state of freeze and stuckness. Carrying on with normal every day life feels pointless at times - so we might…
My previous blog looked at how the nervous system states of fight, flight and freeze are involved in how we feel from moment to moment - including strong emotions like anxiety, fear, panic and anger, OCD and phobias, even trauma and PTSD. This blog will focus especially on the freeze…
Most of us have heard of the terms fight, flight and freeze, but exactly how do these states relate to how humans feel? This is the first of a series of blogs about how understanding how our nervous system works can be a powerful step towards managing our feelings 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…
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…
Reduce Stress by Managing Uncertainty When we are no longer able to change a situation, we are challenged to change ourselves. —Victor Frankl This blog looks at ways we can reduce stress by managing uncertainty. As I wrote in my previous blog, human beings crave security. We need to have…
When we are no longer able to change a situation, we are challenged to change ourselves. —Victor Frankl. During 2020, managing change and uncertainty has been a constant challenge for us all. Today we wait for the new lockdown restrictions to be announced in Ireland, and it's hard to keep…