77 Easy & Enjoyable Activities
It is important to ensure that every week you keep aside some time to enjoy the simple things life has to offer. Balancing your daily life with fun does not have to be difficult, it just requires a little thought and planning. Begin with adding activities into you week that give you pleasure and try inviting friends to join in. Here is a list of easy ways to keep balance and maintain a healthy lifestyle. • Listening to music • Having lunch with a friend • Flying a kite • Joining a choir • Playing a musical instrument • Going camping • Discussing books with...
Stress & Stress Response
Stress is a normal physical response to events that make you feel threatened or upset your balance in some way. In small doses, stress helps you to stay focused, energetic and alert, but when stress becomes overwhelming, it can damage your health. When you perceive a threat, your nervous system responds by releasing stress hormones in to your body including adrenaline and cortisol. These hormones arouse the body for emergency action. Usually your heart starts pounding faster, muscles tighten, blood pressure rises, breath quickens and your senses become sharper. These physical...
Acceptance & Commitment Therapy
Interest in Acceptance and Commitment Therapy, also known as ACT, is rapidly growing among mental health providers in Australia. With ACT providing a gentle and effective approach to treating mental health difficulties, many counsellors, therapists, social workers, teachers, psychologists, GP’s, occupational therapists, coaches and community nurses have chosen to learn more about what ACT has to offer. ACT offers a simple and modest approach to gaining health and wellbeing at an emotional, physical and mental level. Through teaching mental flexibility, ACT encourages the acceptance of...
Panic Attack Tip Sheet
An overwhelming sense of sudden fear and anxiety is known as a panic attack. These attacks most commonly affect those who suffer from panic disorder however almost all conditions of anxiety can also have panic attacks in their presentation. When a person experiences repeated panic attacks, it is considered that they are going through a symptom of panic disorder. Often those afflicted will experience significant anticipatory anxiety which can bring on additional panic attack which can then cycle and repeat itself. Panic attacks can occur randomly and without warning however often occur in...
A New Mental Health Paradigm
Mental illness is a term that suggests that someone is sick, their thoughts are distorted and their views are wrong. What if there were a paradigm shift were we viewed mental illness not as a sickness or pathological condition but rather an experience of discomfort, distress and mental pressure that is a normal part of life. The acceptance of the label ‘clinical depression’ would be viewed as experiencing low mood and there would be varying levels of distress that come from this. We would not suggest that depression does not exist but rather see it as a fluid moving series of mood...