Monday, October 31, 2016

Fear

Welcome back! 

This week I am going to dip a little deeper into emotions and talk about fear. 
At one point in time we have all been scared of something. No matter what it is that is frightening you, it causes great distress. Normally there is a reason behind feeling scared. For example, if you are scared of dogs, it is probably because at some point in your life you had a bad experience with a dog. As children, we have not developed a list of these fears from experience yet. We are born with two built in fears, the fear of falling and the fear of loud noise, but young children also have not formed impressions of the world yet. As we grow older, our experiences good and bad cause us to form fears of things we know will put us in an uncomfortable situation. Anything you learn, you can unlearn. Through meditation and hard thinking one can rid themselves of fears if they go to the source of the problem.

Check out this link for more info on fear and overcoming it!



Saturday, October 22, 2016

Happiness

After talking about negative emotions, I think it is time to talk about happiness. Most people do not ask themselves why they or happy or really understand what happiness is. Happiness is a state of emotion that can be experienced in many different ways. In your happiest moments, there is little internal chatter or thoughts going on in your mind. You feel at peace with yourself and the world. When one is a child, it is very easy to be happy and not worry about what is going to happen tomorrow. After growing up being happy becomes harder because of the knowledge you gain throughout your life and fears one starts to develop. 

Happiness is not something that one feels at all times. Of course there will be things that bring people down, but remaining positive can help to maintain the happiness you once found. There is a very old question that to many the answer may seem to be yes, does money buy happiness? In my opinion, I do not think that it does. One could have all the money they ever dreamed of but still feel like something is missing. I think that love can be the source of happiness if you allow it to open your heart. 
For more on happiness look at this link: http://www.pathwaytohappiness.com/happiness/2008/05/23/understanding-happiness/


Depression

Today I am going to be talking about depression, and ways to deal with it without it taking over your life. Depression is not something you can just snap out of, but there are ways to help yourself feel better. Depression can drain a person of energy making it hard to want to get better or take the steps to get better. It is not an easy process, but it is not impossible. I myself have dealt with depression, but after years of self-help and therapy I am starting to feel like myself again. It is a one step at a time process and will not happen overnight. 

Even just taking a quick walk around the neighborhood or calling a friend and talking for a few minutes can help more than you may think. Be patient with yourself and give yourself the amount of time you feel you need to complete these steps. Also whenever you do complete something you did not feel like doing, allow yourself to celebrate. Whenever I researched more on this topic on HelpGuide.org, i found the first five steps to overcoming depression.

Step one is to stay connected. Try and maintain as many friendships or relationships that you can even if you feel like they do not want to be around you because of your depression. A lot of people struggle with this mental illness and can be more understanding because of it. The second step is to get moving. Exercise can help your overall attitude by releasing endorphin's which have been proving to increase one's mood. The third step is to do things that make you feel good. Find a hobby and build on it. Staying busy will help in not having time to overthink your situation. Step four is to eat healthy and have a mood-boosting diet. What you eat has a large influence on your overall well-being. The last step is to challenge negative thinking by replacing it with positive thoughts. I hope this helps anyone struggling with depression or just gives those who are not more knowledge! 
Check out this link for more information: http://www.counseling.ufl.edu/cwc/how-to-deal-with-depresion.aspx




Anger

Today I am going to be talking about how to control your anger before it starts to control your life. Many people struggle with anger and have trouble calming themselves down. The first thing one can do when feeling angry is to start trying to relax. Breathe deeply from your diaphragm, not from your chest; this tends not to relax people as easily. Picture your breath coming up through your abdomen and really focus on it. It helps to picture a place that you feel completely relaxed at, like the beach or another vacation spot. Another way to control anger is to change the way you think. The way someone thinks while becoming angry can make the situation worse by being over dramatic. Instead of thinking like it is the end of the world, or this is terrible, think that it could be worse or that it can be fixed. Logic thinking can defeat anger and getting angry about something will not make the situation any better. Also try not to jump to conclusions whenever you feel angry about something, because sometimes those conclusions can be very far off from the truth. When having a heated conversation with someone try to think about your responses before reacting, this way you will not say something you regret out of pure anger. For more about dealing with emotions check back next week! Also check out this link to learn more about anger. http://www.mayoclinic.org/healthy-lifestyle/adult-health/in-depth/anger-management/art-20045434