This post continues on what to do during the worry hour, more specifically identifying if your thoughts are productive and/or unproductive, which was introduced in earlier posts. During the worry hour, write down for every theme what is the theme, what the disturbing thought, the what if… and the result/catastrophe that you fear, if it…
Here comes the last parts of the body-scan exercise, in total 10 minutes long. This is the essence/instructional parts of one version of the 3 major meditations within mindfulness. The body-scan usually lasts over 45 minutes with long parts of silence. In my research I have found that even this shorter version, together with 2…
There are 3 important building blocks of stress management: 1) regulate you stress level, se techniques in earlier post 2) handle stress sources and 3) use stress management habits. The second building block, handle your stress sources, is about 2 main components: 1) secure sufficient recovery and 2) minimize stress sources or their intensity as…
Feelings need to be heard or they can turn into physical or psychological symptoms. In fact, many studies indicate that over 75 % of mental health problems and physical illnesses comes from our thought life. Stress plays a large part of this. Unheard or unprocessed emotions are stressful for the body. One way of hearing…
Another way of reconnecting to yourself and find your inner motivation and drive is adding activities that you miss or are interested in. Our own stories about ourselves are a part of self-esteem/self-worth. These stories are partly constructed by what we cherish and do with our time. Research has shown that when you validate yourself,…
This post continues on what to do during the worry hour that was introduced in last week’s post. Worry hour is a tool to handle anxiety and rumination, but also when stuck in unproductive problem solving, mourning a loss etc. by reducing the time spent on nonurgent unproductive or hurtful thoughts to maximum one scheduled…
Here comes the 3d of 4 parts of the body scan exercise, in total 10 minutes long. This is the essence/instructional parts of one version of the 3 major meditations within mindfulness but it usually lasts over 45 minutes with long parts of silence: … Now pay attention to the pressure from the floor or…
You have heard it before, but one of the absolute best way of handling stress short and long run in addition to recovery activities, see last week’s post, is exercise. Research has shown that both aerobic exercises, like walking, running, swimming and biking, and building muscles, as in strength training but also work around the…
There are many important dimensions with regard to feelings as sources of information. As with all information we have to evaluate the truth/probability and the quality of the information that triggered the feeling. If we are scared of spiders and we see one we will get highly aroused by fear and move briskly away from…
Worry and rumination create stress hormones as well as psychological pain. These two dimensions paired together can often escalate into intense suffering. Try this: to take control of worrying/rumination it is important to assign a scheduled hour per day, yes, that is right – only one hour!, for non-urgent worrying/rumination, e.g. 10 AM.k It has…