Balance, health, happiness, self-healing – these are the potential benefits of conscious breathing, and they’re easily available to anyone. The importance of conscious breathing has been recognised since the start of human history. In many ways, breathing is a real source of physical, mental and emotional benefits. “Just breathe!” Popular wisdom often reminds us that breathing lets us manage stress and anxiety. Conscious breathing is better than happy pills or…
Every day of your life, words alter your consciousness. Every time you are stirred by a speech, moved by a poem, captivated by a story or touched by the lyrics of a song it is human thought, encoded in language and conveyed in written or spoken symbols, that is affecting you. So, as language is essentially thought made manifest, can the way we use our own words have an effect…
or Be grateful and it’ll make you patient! A study by an American psychologist looking for a link between patience and the level of gratitude that people feel towards others has prompted me to do some serious thinking. Here are the main points of the study, and its astonishing conclusion. David DeSteno, a researcher at Northeastern University, asked 105 volunteers to carry out a task using a computer – which…
“The world belongs to early risers”. It’s not by any means a new saying, but it has been developed by Hal Elrod in his book “The Miracle Morning”. According to this American personal development coach, anybody who wants to revolutionise their life and realise their dreams needs to leap out of bed early! Or even very early, because the author urges us to get up at 5.30am. This strategy, which…
The very word ‘mindfulness’ has taken an impressive upward shift in popularity in recent years, even though there is nothing particularly ‘new’ about the concept of being mindful. In today’s somewhat chaotic society, it comes as no surprise that people are turning to the idea of mindfulness as a way to relax, escape, and truly find a deeper meaning within themselves. Once reserved as a sort of ‘yoga slang’ for…
Success thanks to emotional intelligence Looked at as the essential factor for success, IQ or “intelligence quotient” is now getting some competition from emotional quotient (EQ) or emotional intelligence (EI). Could emotional intelligence now be a better predictor of success than IQ? At any rate, that’s what Dr Daniel Goleman proposes in his book “Emotional Intelligence”. He believes that the ability to manage our emotions is synonymous with success and…
Anne-France Huret, a psychologist who specialises in family and couple therapy, has some words of advice on making the transition from emotional dependence on the object of your affections (the intense “us” experienced at the start) to emotional independence; the “me / myself / I” which is more fulfilling in the long term. It’s a process with several stages, but working on your self-esteem is the most important of these….
According to Anne-France Huret, a psychologist specialising in couple and family therapy, the process of building yourself up again after a break-up has several stages. Here’s the advice of our psychologist about coping successfully with everything from the emotional shock to putting yourself back together. The emotional shock We experience every separation, however foreseeable it may have been, as a shock because it turns our daily lives upside down. This…
Heard of bibliotherapy? Surprisingly few people have, yet it’s a remarkably effective healing tool, helping to alleviate anxiety and depression. Expressed simply, bibliotherapy is about reading your way to health. Reading is, to the mind, what exercising is to the body; a means of building and maintaining wellbeing. A good book is engrossing, stimulating and satisfying. Moreover, as all subjects have been covered in book form, bibliotherapy can be informative…
Guest Writer, Donna Gregory—yoga teacher and holistic therapist at Donna Crystal Holistics Addictions are easy to develop but a tremendous struggle to overcome. People typically do not realize they are becoming addicted until after the addiction has already secured a strong grip on their lives. Trying to beat the addiction causes a high level of stress. Willpower alone may not be enough, and sometimes, attempts to quit can lead the…