How to improve your mental health

We all know how important it is to follow a regular fitness routine in order to stay fit and healthy. But what about our mental health? Isn’t it equally important to stay emotionally balanced? What are you doing to achieve good mental health? Do you have a daily self-care routine? It can be as simple as doing a regular short relaxation , writing a gratitude list, a 5-minute breathing or tapping exercise or being mindful of your mind’s focus. Remember: energy flows where attention goes. Make time to count your blessings and focus on being calm and feeling safe and grounded.

For many of you, this winter period has been difficult, with so many media messages of fear, hartship and chaos in the world, that can create anxiety and extra worries. It can sometimes almost feel like good mental health and inner peace is a luxury or a privilege that only some people have. It’s easy to feel like that, but there is a lot you can do to help yourself. The first step is becoming aware of how you’re feeling and then intervene if necessary.

For example, one great tool that I use myself is a worry box. I know it sounds bizarre, but I actually schedule my worry time and then write each individual worrying thought down on a seperate post-it note and then I put it into my worry box while affirming “I release this worry now”. Then, every now and then I take my worry box and look at al those worrying thought I had this month and luckily realise that the saying is true: 90% of what we worry about never happens anyway”. Over time this process has helped me to worry less, feel calmer and reduce anxiety.

If you’ve worked with me in the past, you know that I offer effective solutions to help people feel more emotionally balanced and create a good mental health routine. You can check out my tapping and breathing videos and visualisations.

Finally, in order to be able to help more people, I’m in the process of creating a brand new online course to help people who suffer from panic, anxiety and overwhelm, especially those who have had a panic or anxiety attack. I used to suffer from those and am using my personal experience and the tools that helped me best to manage my panic, anxiety and overwhelm in this online course. It’s going to be ready soon! To register your interest, email: sandy@emotionalbalance.co.uk Also, please follow me on Facebook: facebook.com/Sandyemotionalbalance/ and / or Instagram: www.instagram.com/sandyemotionalbalance/

My goal is to help more and more people feel balanced, safe, strong and perhaps even as light and carefree as a feather floating around in the air, without any emotional burden or stress or at least giving them the tools to manage whatever life throws at us. Isn’t that the dream?

It is crucial to take care of ourselves and work on our emotional balance and mental health, because it is our greatest asset! So stop, breath and smile right now. Think of what little step you can integrate into your daily life to reduce stress and feel more balanced!
Contact me sandy@emotionalbalance.co.uk to book a session or register your interest in my upcoming new online course. I look forward to hearing from you.

Take care. Happy Tuesday vibes, love and light,

Sandy x

End of summer reflections

Summer is coming to an end. Autumn is around the corner. For many Sepember stands for new beginnings, a new school year, a new cycle. This might be a good time to look back at what we have achieved so far this year and to set new intentions and goals for the remainder of the year. If there’s something you’d like to work towards, make a plan, otherwise it’s just a wish.

What steps do you need to take to achieve your desired outcomes? Then schedule specific actions and put them into your diary. Also, be clear about the reason why this goal matters, this is a powerful motivation booster.

When looking back at the last few months, I noticed a few positive changes in my dog Charly. He seemed happier almost as if it had finally dawned on this lovely rescue pooch that he has really found his forever home. Somehow our bond is now even stronger. On 26th August is National Dog Day, so we went to celebrate and I donated to the Charity that rescued and brought us our Charly.

Finally, going back to setting intentions, taking actions and schedule them, I’ve done this and have scheduled my next two Reiki trainings in Eastbourne:
Reiki Level I takes place on 3rd-4th September and Reiki Level 2 Practitioner training takes place from 24th-25th September. If you’re interested, please get in touch.

Wishing you all a lovely bank holiday weekend. I hope you use the time for your own end of summer reflections and set intentions for the rest of the year.

Love,
Sandy

Mental health awareness month

In May there’s the official mental health awareness week (9th-15th) and most people view May as a whole month to raise awareness. So do I. This year’s theme is ‘Let’s connect’
We’ve all had moments of feeling lonely at some point but if consistent it can influence our #mentalhealth negatively and we might then tend to isolate ourselves thereby making it worse. Let’s break that cycle and connect. Reach out to a friend, neighbour, family member or therapist. Together we’re stronger! You’re not alone!

If you feel lonely, my heart goes out to you. Let’s talk about it, reflect together and find solutions how to move beyond it. You are #notalone 
Know that behind the clouds the sun is still shining.

Yet also remember this month that if you have a friend or family member who you feel is pulling back and not in touch so much anymore, reach out to them. Tell them they’re important to you and offer a hug, positive vibes or just an ear to listen to how they’re feeling. Let’s reconnect with each other. Reach out to the people in your life. Everyone needs a hug every now and then. Reconnect! You’re not alone, let others know that they’re not alone. Together we’re stronger!

If you do feel like you could do with some support, please get in touch. I offer a free 15min phone consultation as well as online sessions if you’re not in the area (I’m based in Eastbourne). My emails are: sandy@bodymindhealing.co.uk and sandy@emotionalbalance.co.uk

Take care. Big hug.

Sandy

Mental health and diet

Did you know that what you eat can influence how you feel, not just physically but also mentally?

I’m sure you’ve heard the common phrase ‘you are what you eat’ but have you ever really thought about it? If what we ingest becomes part of our physical body then perhaps it’s a good idea to pay more attention. You wouldn’t put the wrong or a very bad fuel into your car, would you? Well, our brain is part of the body and needs a certain amount of nutrients to function properly and produce neurotransmitters to make us feel balanced, such as dopamine and serotonin. If there’s too many toxins in our system (e.g. from bad food, stimulants or the environment, such as pollution), the body will need a lot of energy to deal with them and withdraws it from other non-life threatening areas. As a result we might feel tired, lethargic, anxious, depressed or are unable focus and concentrate and are not sleeping well.

For years I’ve been talking about a balanced diet with my clients, how to avoid the ‘blood sugar rollercoaster’ and how to feed your body and brain. Now, I’ve recently read a lot of studies and saw documentaries that claim a vegan diet can promote a better mental health. So, I thought I’d try this myself and experiment with this. For the last three weeks, I’ve been on a healthy vegan diet, have avoided all stimulants (sugar, coffee, alcohol), no processed food, I just made everything from scratch with whole foods. Apart from really enjoying the lovely smoothies, soups and vegan dishes I made, I’ve started noticing some interesting changes. I normally eat well anyway and feel relatively balanced, so I’ve not really been suffering from any particular issue, yet I’ve still noticed that I feel a lot more balanced, am able to cope much better with stress, I have loads of extra energy, more mental clarity and I sleep like a baby. It’s remarkable! I can’t remember the last time I had slept through the night without waking up at least 3-5 times. Now I sleep through most nights and feel refreshed and energised in the morning. I know not everybody is up for it and some people just can’t imagine a life without meat, fish, cheese or dairy, but I would certainly recommend trying something similar, even just for a couple of weeks as an experiment, and watch what happens. If you’ve got sleep problems, struggle with being tired or can’t concentrate at work, this might be the easiest way to get back into balance. Of course, if you are taking any medication, check with your doctor and see if they need to be adjusted.

Right, so I just wanted to share this little experiment of mine. I hope at the very least I’ve given you a bit of ‘food for thought’ (excuse the pun) and perhaps you can become a bit more aware of what you eat and how it makes you feel. If you suffer from cravings or emotional eating, get in touch. I’ve got some great techniques to overcome these.

Have a lovely day. Thanks for reading.

Lots of love,

Sandy x

Increase your energy

It can be easy to forget to take breaks and look after ourselves. We may feel we don’t have time or energy to do something else, even if it’s just self-care. The days are just too long and filled already. Sound familiar? Well, here’s the thing, if we keep giving and providing for others and ignore our own needs we will eventually end up feeling depleted. We can’t give what we don’t have. If everything we do already requires making an effort and we’re low in energy, then perhaps it is time to stop and find a way to increase our energy. Take a break, take a few deep breaths, daydream, stop and smell the roses. There’s alway going to be things on your to-do list. Don’t miss the precious moments, don’t lose yourself in the chores. Take time to nurture yourself.

There are many way to increase your energy. One way is to ‘cut your spending’. Less is more. Is every single chore really a top priority? Can anything wait or can you get someone to help you? Remember the saying “Life’s too short…” don’t get bogged down with the details, stop being a perfectionist. Just think for a moment, are these small things that take up so much of your time and energy still going to look important in a year from now?

One of the biggest things that take away our energy is negative emotions. We keep thinking about the past, are angry at people, events or even the weather and worry about the future. No wonder we feel low in energy. Learn techniques to let these thoughts and feelings go. This may be something as simple as writing things down in a journal so you don’t have to think about them anymore, do a breathing exercise, use EFT tapping to let things go or any other method that you find helpful. Or even just looking how easy it is for nature to let things go by watching the autumn leaves being released by the trees around us this time of the year.

Finally, a great way to increase your energy is to have an energy healing session, such as Reiki healing. The word Reiki is Japanese and means ‘Universal Life Force Energy’. A Reiki practitioner has been attuned by a Reiki Master and is therefore able to channel this specific universal healing energy and pass it on to the client which then activates their self-healing powers, creates balance and rejuvenates the person receiving it.

If you feel you don’t have the time to go to regular sessions, why not just spend one single weekend learning how it works and then you have a life time to recharge your own batteries with Reiki energy for self-healing whenever you need it. In fact, I’m running a Reiki training for self-healing next weekend in Eastbourne. If you’re in the area, feel free to sign up or register your interest for the next one: www.emotionalbalance.co.uk/events/
sandy@emotionalbalance.co.uk

Reiki Eastbourne

In summary, the best ways to increase your energy is to do less of what’s taking up your energy and is not important, to let go of energy robbing thoughts, feelings and patterns and do things that nuture you and help you feel good, such as daydreaming, enjoying moments in nature, hugging someone or count your blessings.

Thanks for reading. I hope you’ve found this helpful. Big hug, love and angel blessings.

Sandy x