Category: Mental Wellbeing

Electronic Devices and Sleep

Are you getting enough sleep? There could be many factors that contributes to sleep troubles. One major influence on sleep can be the use of your smartphone, ipad, kindle etc. at night. The light from the devices triggers a response to your brain saying it is not time to sleep. Dr. Daniel Siegal’s  explanation on how smartphones impact your brain, body, and sleep habits provides a clinical perspective.

Dr. Siegal stated that adults need 7- 9hrs of sleep and when you do not get enough sleep, you can experience the following:

  • Decreased attention,
  • Impaired memory,
  • Challenged thinking,
  • Decreased insulin function which slows down your metabolism (ie. weight gain), and
  • Delayed secretion of natural melatonin due to the screen lights

Dr. Siegal suggested giving yourself at least an hour before bedtime to unwind from all devices.

(Photo taken from Cliparts.co)

Coping with Valentines Day

Valentines day can be a difficult time for people that are not in romantic relationships. It can leave a person feeling lonely, embarrassed, ostracized, angry, resentful, and sad. Having these feelings are normal, especially with the amount of commercialization that February 14th has on consumers. There is a ton of money being made capitalizing on the “happy in love” emotions. Therefore, it is okay and healthy if you are not experiencing these emotions.

Whatever your circumstances may be, it is important to grieve and acknowledge what you are feeling. Once you overcome the heavy feelings, a helpful suggestion would be to change your perspective. Valentines day should not be the only day to express gratitude to your loved ones. Love should be expressed everyday and can be devoted to anyone and anything you choose to show love and gratitude towards.

The link below provides 50 helpful suggestions on how you can express or show love/ gratitude to your loved ones.

http://tinybuddha.com/blog/50-ways-to-show-gratitude-for-the-people-in-your-life/

(photo by Cliparts.co)

Storytelling With Children

A parent’s role is one of the hardest jobs out there. Nobody can prepare you for it. You can imagine it, read about it, and or hear others talk about it, but it never really sinks in until you’re a parent. I found the parallels of parenting and teaching to be very similar. Parents teach children how to manage their emotions socially and behaviorally by role modelling. How parents deal with stress is the way your child(ren) will deal with stress. In my opinion, role modelling is one of biggest and conspicuous forms of teaching.

A inconspicuous way of teaching is through storytelling. Relating and validating your child(ren) experiences through a narrative has many healing affects for their social and emotional development. The article below discusses how narration helps kids talk about their experiences without lecturing.

http://goodmenproject.com/families/why-storytelling-is-way-better-than-lecturing-your-kids/

New Year’s Resolutions?

It is that time of year!! where we are reflecting and making New Year resolutions. Instead of creating a list of goals, why not focus on your successes? PH. D Sociologist Margee Kee, created 2 templates to help engage you in a different way. A creative way! A way that honors the milestones you have already reached. This template is called “this year I was awesome”.

successes.jpeg

Kee’s second template focuses on your fears for the New Year.  Identifying your challenges is the first step towards resolving them. Our fears are great at preventing us from reaching goals, but when we name, normalize, and challenge them we can overcome them. This template is called “I’m afraid of”.

fears.jpeg

Happy New Year!!!

 

 

Avoidance

Avoidance is a coping mechanism. When we are overwhelmed by our environment, it may seem easier to ignore the issue. In many ways, this can be viewed as emotional flooding. Avoiding issues may serve as a short term solution but if they are not resolved, it may exacerbate the problem. Below is a flow chart taken from the book, The Worry Cure by Robert Leahy. The chart provides a guide to help bring awareness on how you may address your emotions. 

 

worry-emotions

The flow chart provides three possible responses to emotions.

  1. Your emotional response is normal by: accepting it, expressing it, validate it, and learn from it.
  2. You avoid the emotional response by: ignoring it, replace it with other ways to gather control (binge eating, drinking, and drug use), and becoming numb to it.
  3. You have a negative interpretation of your emotions by: avoiding the issue (as outlined in the 2nd response mechanism), ostracize yourself by feeling guilty and ashamed for having these feelings, and feeling out of control because you have these feelings.

Avoiding uneasy feelings may lead down a pathway of feeling depressed and anxious. Therefore, decreasing the quality of life you could potentially have. Becoming aware of negative thought patterns and understanding how they influence you is the first step in finding inner peace.

Emotional Flooding

Emotional regulation is an important aspect to mental health. It is a balance between expressing uncomfortable emotions without losing control. When a person is not accustomed to expressing their feelings or working through them, it can lead to emotional flooding. (For more on emotional regulation, see previous post)

Emotional flooding is when an individual’s central nervous system (brain) is overwhelmed by an influx of stimuli (emotions). This can paralyze the individual’s ability to regulate their mood. The behavior presents to be indifferent or unaffected but is the exact opposite. The person is shutting down due to stress.

For example:

Partner (A) is expressing frustration towards Partner (B)’s undesirable behavior. Partner (B) shuts down and disengages with Partner (A). Perhaps even ignoring Partner (A). This angers Partner (A) and unintentionally antagonizes them to continue with their dissatisfaction towards Partner (B). Partner (B) is experiencing emotional flooding and becomes emotionally frozen.

The article below discusses Emotional flooding in relationships and provided some helpful tips.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/stephanie-manes/relationship-tips_b_3676764.html

Emotional Regulation

What is emotional regulation? It is the ability to manage and control an emotional response through strategies that are self-soothing. The reactivity and regulatory responses to stressful situations may cause people to respond either negatively or positively. This depends on the integration of the right and left sides of the brain. (Cicchetti, Ganiban, & Barnett, 1991; Kopp; 1982; 1989; Thompson, 1994; Siegal & Bryson, 2011).

According to Dr. Daniel Siegal (2011), he explained that the brain has two hemispheres, right brain (emotional) and the left brain (logical). The integration of accessing both sides of the brain is an important aspect to our mental well-being. The two hemispheres integrate emotional responses and logical responses to regulate our reaction to stress.

Self-awareness and attunement to emotions are the building blocks to integrate the right with the left brain. Responding to emotional needs before arriving at solutions validates feelings and creates self-actualization (fulfillment and pride).

To find out more on whether you are self-aware, take the quiz below, and keep in mind tests are not always accurate.

http://embracingcivility.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/06/Self-Awareness-Quiz.pdf

 

Cicchetti, D., Ganiban, J., & Barnett, D. (1991). Contributions from the study of high-risk populations to understanding the development of emotion regulation.

In J. Garber & K. A. Dodge (Eds.). The development of emotion regulation and dysregulation (pp. 15–48). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Kopp, C. (1982). Antecedents of self-regulation: A developmental perspective. Developmental Psychology, 18, 199–214.

Kopp, C. (1989). Regulation of distress and negative emotions: A developmental view. Developmental Psychology, 25, 243–254.

Siegal, D.J. & Bryson,T.P. (2001). The Whole- Brain Child: 12 Revolutionary strategies to nurture your child’s developing mind. New York: Bantam Books.

Thompson, R. A., & Calkins, S. D. (1996). The double-edged sword: Emotion regulation in high risk children. Development and Psychopathology, 8, 163–182.

http://embracingcivility.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/06/Self-Awareness-Quiz.pdf

Emotional Transformation

Through pain we see darkness, without darkness, we cannot see brightness. Transforming emotional pain into humility may not be easy, but with time, it becomes easier.  Allowing time to grieve or heal is an essential component to seeing the brightness. Once we have honored our feelings by working through them objectively, we can move towards our inner peace. Life lessons are apart of our journey, it is up to us to acknowledge them and adjust to make balanced choices.

I have attached an excerpt from Start Where You Are, by Pema Chodron. She did an exceptional job at framing this perspective.

OCCASIONS AS OPPORTUNITIES

“We make a lot of mistakes. If you ask people whom you consider to be wise and courageous about their lives, you may find that they have hurt a lot of people and made a lot of mistakes, but that they used those occasions as opportunities to humble themselves and open their hearts. We don’t get wise by staying in a room with all the doors and windows closed.” p.184–185

http://www.shambhala.com/start-where-you-are-3929.html

(photo taken by Magda Darkazalli, Uclulet, BC)

Mental Health and Employment

Supervisory support is essential in any workplace setting. CBC wrote a compelling article on mental illness in the workplace. The article highlighted the barriers that workplace settings have in dealing with staff with mental illnesses. The lack of engagement or apathy in assisting staff under duress contributes to a toxic work climate. Through  training, resources, acknowledgement, and genuineness workplace culture with mental health would vastly improve.

 

http://www.cbc.ca/beta/news/business/mental-illness-workplace-1.3295242

 

http://www.mentalhealthcommission.ca/English/issues/workplace/national-standard

Margaret Trudeau Talks Mental Illness

Margaret Trudeau has the platform to end the stigma of mental illness. Last Thursday she visited New Brunswick to talk about mental health. She used this platform to empower survivors by sharing her own personal struggles with mental illness. In turn, her experiences provide hope and encouragement to surpass the darkness that mental illness plagues people with.

View the CTV news story on her visit below.

http://atlantic.ctvnews.ca/margaret-trudeau-talks-mental-health-with-sold-out-crowd-in-new-brunswick-1.2625205