Mental Health
We are evolving and have gone through many complex and difficult changes in recent years and we have had to adapt and find new ways of working with this. We are continuing to work with the challenging impact this has had our wellbeing, community and the planet.
Through this you may have experienced loneliness, isolation, compassion fatigue which can be felt by care givers of family members and front-line workers. You may also experience difficulties with work responsibilities and complications in the workplace.
Whether you call it personal growth, self-development or wellbeing, it is important to have support with life transitions. Sometimes there is the need to pause, catch your breath and make wise choices. We are having to work at strengthening our resilience and to do this we have to adapt and we can do this by learning from each other, by creating foundations motivated by practical, emotional and spiritual skills to help us to survive and thrive in crisis.
Turning your thoughts and feelings into strengths such as the sense of being there for yourself and to take that inner strength and carry it with you wherever you go. Firstly, you have to experience what you want to develop in yourself, such as compassion or gratitude and then you have to focus on it. In everyday life when you have an attitude or feeling of caring towards yourself you should stay with the experience for a few extra moments, feeling it in your body sinking into it as it sinks into you.
In helping others, you also need to apply this attitude to yourself. Know what it is like to be committed to yourself, recognise that you as an individual have needs that matter. Let thoughts and feelings and intentions of being a true friend to yourself sink in and embody them. Showing compassion for yourself lowers stress and calms your body, receiving compassion makes you stronger and more able to take a breath and find your footing and keep on going. You get the benefits from both giving and receiving compassion.
As much as you can be moved by others suffering you should be touched by your own and you can bring the same support to yourself as you would provide for someone else. This is not whining or wallowing in misery, compassion is where you start when things are tough, not when you stop. Self-compassion makes you more resilient and more able to bounce back. It lowers self-criticism and builds up self-worth, helping you become more ambitious and successful.
Making choices demonstrates intention and by making choices no matter how limited the options individuals can start by participating in realising some goals rather than others. Throughout the life process each individual is responsible for choosing the goals they feel they can achieve. Even if the individual is not free to determine the conditions of their experience, they are free to accept or reject what is offered. Freedom is the capacity to participate in one’s own development and a constructive act of freedom is the acceptance of realities not by necessity but by choice. Individuals have the capacity to think in terms of possibilities and to be involved in creating change.
Personal recovery involves working towards better mental health, promoting the individual’s journey and ownership of experiences, focusing on hope and building a better relationship with ‘self’. We have the choice to begin to embrace new models that will help support spiritual wellbeing of our 'self', our communities, our planet and our ecology.
Recovery is the process of the individual’s self-esteem, dreams, self-worth, pride, choice and meaning. The whole person is treated identifying their strengths, instilling hope and helping them to function and to take personal responsibility for their life. Setbacks are learning opportunities, the internal and external obstacles that individuals can face and the need to embrace this in the recovery process.
The interventions on offer: You have the choice to do in your heart what feels right for you. If you are not drawn to any of the interventions on offer on this website, that is okay, and I wish you every success on your onward journey.
Please see our Work Shops here.
NOTE: If you are under the care of a health professional it is important to continue with any treatment and medication regime that you are receiving.