This October why not follow the action for happiness calendar and be optimistic?
Remember you don’t have to be optimistic all the time only when it matters.
Check out the daily assignments and challenge yourself to be the best version of yourself .
Small steps can lead to big changes.
No need to get hung up on not getting everything done, just focus on what you can do and get it done.
Just returning from delivering Mindfulness Meditation with the wonderful team at CHI Temple Street.
Today’s inspiration was:
Robert Louis Stevenson’s, Travels with a Donkey in the Cévennes, 1878
Well worth a read as you walk mindfully focusing on nothing but each footstep.
“…And when the present is so exacting , who can annoy himself about the future?”
Social anxiety disorder or social phobia is much more than shyness.
It is an extreme fear that won’t go away.
It can touch on your:
• Everyday goings-on
• Self-confidence
• Relationships
• Work or school life
Most of us will worry about social situations from time-to-time. However someone with social anxiety feels worried before, during and after events.
I have been dealing with people with anxiety issues for over a decade and I believe that the following 5 steps will be beneficial to anyone with social anxiety / social phobia issues. For more information see anxietyclinicdublin.com
Symptoms of social anxiety:
• Fear meeting strangers, starting discussions, talking on the phone, working or shopping
• Avoid or worry a lot about social activities – group conversations, mixed company, and parties
• Worry about doing something you think is embarrassing – blushing, sweating or appearing useless
• Find it tough to do things when others are watching
• Fear blame, avoid eye contact or have low self-esteem
• Often have symptoms such as feeling sick, sweating, trembling or heart palpitations
• Have panic attacks
How you can overcome social anxiety:
Social anxiety can be difficult to deal with but there are things you can try yourself.
1. Understand your anxiety
Try to appreciate more about your anxiety. Think about what’s on your mind and which social situations you find the most problematic and how you behave in these situations. This will help you get a clearer idea of the specific areas or triggers that are most difficult for you.
2. Beliefs and assumptions
Assess your beliefs and assumptions about a situation. Ask yourself could they be unrealistic ones e.g. when you feel a social situation went poorly. Ask yourself did the whole situation go badly or just a bit of it. Check the facts to support this or if you’re assuming the worst.
3. Move your attention
Try to focus your attention to people, things, sounds, sights around you. Be aware that your anxiety symptoms might not be as evident as you might think and fear.
4. Do activities you would normally avoid
This can be hard at first. Start with small goals and work towards more dreadedevents gradually. Create a list of the circumstances that cause you to experience anxiety. From the most frightening situation to one that causes only a slight anxiety.
5. Hypnotherapy
A trained anxiety therapist can help you manage your thoughts, feelings and behaviour processes. Thus make you aware of how past events can influence the present and impact on your life going forward. By utilising various anxiety interventions techniques the therapist will help you:
➢ Develop acknowledgement of your current anxiety state
➢ Build resilience to the triggers of your anxiety
➢ Construct new powerful ways to deal with your thoughts, feelings and behaviours
➢ Give you the power to live the life you deserve.
For further information about coping with anxiety feel free to contact me:
website/blog: www.anxietyclinicdublin.com
email: anxietyclinic@dublin.com
call: Int. ++353 85 843 5939
Anxietyclinicdublin.com©
Wise words from the band Magazine in their song “About the Weather” however I wonder how many of us get stuck on the weather and how it affects our mood.
As the summer solstice fast approaches here in the northern hemisphere, it is fair to say that the weather hasn’t reflected this much so far. Certainly here in Ireland autumnal coats and hats are still in fashion and retail shops will soon be selling off their unwanted summer stock.
However let’s put things into perspective worrying about the weather is pointless for several reasons:
In essence, while it’s important to be aware and prepared for the weather, worrying about it doesn’t offer any practical benefits.
So let the weather be and focus on what you can deal with, your thoughts, feelings and behaviours.
Remember the sun always shines even behind the clouds.
Of course I’m scared, it’s a six foot mouse!
These were the words of someone I knew suffering from Musophobia, the fear of mice.
Now the mouse in question was not a real mouse , l think we all would have a reasonable expectation to be scared if it was. Like something that has escaped from a laboratory experiment that has gone terribly wrong.
No, this was a teacher dressed up as the dormouse in their child’s school production of :Alice in Wonderland.
Nonetheless the fear still existed as did the symptoms such as sweating, trembling, rapid heartbeat, shortness of breath, and nausea.
The production was fast approaching and they were desperate to attend and not to miss their child’s performance.
So we got down to work, using the powers of hypnotic imagination and concentration in a relaxed state. Utilising powerful suggestion and imagery to address the underlying fears and anxieties associated with mice ( of any shape or size).
I have to admit it was touch and go as the deadline grew closer but before the curtain was raised they occupied their seat to be part of a performance of a lifetime ( and the show wasn’t too bad either, although the dormouse did seem to sleep through most of the show…)
You see you don’t have to succumb to your fears and phobias and miss out on the pleasures in life.
There is always a choice, a choice to live your life on your terms and seize the opportunities that fear can rob you from.
I was recently asked if there is a phobia for everything. There’s certainly potential for this to be true and over the next few months I’m going to focus attention on specific phobias. So just to get started, here is an A to Z of phobias some of which you may be more familiar with than others. I have certainly not come across “Y” yet but there again who has?
A – Acrophobia – Fear of heights.
B – Bibliophobia: Fear of books or reading.
C – Coulrophobia: Fear of clowns.
D – Dentophobia: Fear of dentists or dental procedures.
E – Emetophobia: Fear of vomiting.
F – Arachnophobia: Fear of spiders.
G – Glossophobia: Fear of public speaking.
H – Hydrophobia: Fear of water.
I – Ichthyophobia: Fear of fish.
J- jangelaphobia – fear of jelly.
K – Katsaridaphobia: Fear of cockroaches.
L – Lepidopterophobia: Fear of butterflies or moths.
M – Mysophobia: Fear of germs or dirt.
N – Nyctophobia: Fear of darkness or night.
O – Ophidiophobia: Fear of snakes.
P- Pogonophobia :Fear of beards
Q – Quadraphobia:fear of the number four
R – Trypanophobia: Fear of needles or injections.
S – Scopophobia: Fear of being stared at or watched.
T – Thanatophobia: Fear of death or dying.
U – Uranophobia: Fear of heaven.
V – Venustraphobia: Fear of beautiful women.
W – Wiccaphobia: Fear of witches and witchcraft.
X – Xenophobia: Fear of strangers or foreigners.
Y – Yokai-phobia: Fear of Japanese supernatural creatures.
Z – Zoophobia: Fear of animals.
Follow me and others on a journey of activity this April.
Get outdoors, enjoy the longer days, move more, exercise a little bit more, even just relax more.
Commit today and your mind and body will thank you for it.
A great article on the benefits for getting outside and moving. That bright idea that has been alluding you might just be a few steps around the block away.
Give it a go today you might just surprise yourself.
Enjoy every day of Mindful March.
Allow all the daily tips to connect .
Feel the benefits grow exponentially.
See you at the 31st.
Lá Fhéile Bríde / Happy St Brigid’s Day everyone
In Gaelic tradition, today was the first day of Spring.
The Celtic Goddess Bríd -goddess of healing was revered on this day a day that signaled renewal, new growth, and movement towards light.
Time to renew ourselves- our thoughts, our feelings, our behaviours.
A Spring clean for the mind.
Lá Fhéile Bríde / Happy St Brigid’s Day everyone
In Gaelic tradition, today was the first day of Spring.
The Celtic Goddess Bríd -goddess of healing was revered on this day a day that signaled renewal, new growth, and movement towards light.
Time to renew ourselves- our thoughts, our feelings, our behaviours.
A Spring clean for the mind.
Wishing everyone a mindful New Year, taking time to start at your present place, doing the best you can with the resources you have.
England captain Owen Farrell announces break from international rugby | UK News | Sky News
— Read on news-sky-com.cdn.ampproject.org/c/s/news.sky.com/story/amp/england-captain-owen-farrell-announces-break-from-international-rugby-13018975
Important that this message is well received, for him, his family and those feeling the same way. It’s never easy to make a call like this, as you are well aware, however the more we can spread this information the better for all of us.
Today is a further opportunity for all of us to become more aware that mental health is as important as physical heath and requires as much maintenance.
Indeed to borrow a phrase from President Truman they are:
“Two halves of the same walnut”
So today of all days put your mental health first and take action as nothing changes without it. Also here’s a nutritional tip why not try eating a few walnuts as they just happen to be a superfood for the brain.
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7071526/
Although we are nearing the end of the year and we reflect on the past and look forward to the future; how many of us take the time to be in the present?
We can only be physically in the present so let’s bring our minds there too.
I like September.
On an island with the Atlantic to the West and the Irish Sea to the east September brings in many changes. Not only the weather as who can tell the variables of such a potent force? But more than this for us as people. Our lives change back to the normal, back to the routine- school, work, commuting, and so on.
Another year has passed, some people have gone, some have arrived , that unstoppable circle of life that the seasons only provide a marker to what time it is. The Sun’s casting shadow getting longer, if indeed you’re lucky enough to see it (remember it always shines above the clouds) as we tread further into our daily life.
Like I said at the beginning I like September as it provides us with an opportunity to reflect on the summer gone, even the year that has passed but more importantly take notice of what’s going on now. A moment to plan for the winter ahead on how we are going to protect ourselves, physically from the elements and mentally from the stresses and anxieties of daily life.
So as the sun sets on summer what are you going to do to protect yourself perhaps some of these tips will help:
Whatever it is you choose remember the sun is going to set anyway, your not alone, the seasons will come and go , we all go through it, but we can go through it together.
For further information feel free to Contact me.
Whether you believe in the concept of altruism or laws of attraction or even if you don’t well there is no harm in trying. So this August why not follow the daily suggestions as outlined above on the calendar and you might just surprise yourself how different you feel.
You have nothing to lose and all to gain. So start today by consciously focusing on being kind to both yourself and others.
Enjoy yourself it’s later than you think…
Follow your heart but take your brain with you.
We are only custodians of this Blue Planet. Let’s leave better than we found it.
It’s a simple enough question, you would think. However are you feeling anxious just thinking about how to answer?
We all assume that working hard is a good thing and many studies suggest that having a good work ethic enhances your motivation, discipline and encourages continuous skill set improvements.
That may be true however at what cost?
I encounter many hard working people at my anxiety clinic who despite putting in all the effort still feel anxious, stressed and a feeling of being overwhelmed.
So what can be done to reduce these anxious feelings?
Well let’s start by saying working hard is a good thing but in the right way at the right time. So continue to work hard but just enhance it by adding the following suggestions:
1. Grade Tasks in level of importance : Focus your time and energy on what matters the most first and prioritise others accordingly.
2. Be goal specific : Nothing new in this however don’t get hung up if they don’t work out. It’s the journey not the destination that matters.
3. Utilise technology : Embrace the 21st Century’s technology. Such as: productivity apps, automated repetitive tasks and online resources
4. Time Outs : Essential to recharge your batteries. Be guilt free and embrace your breaks. You will feel better for it.
5. See the learning : There are no mistakes, only feedback, acknowledge it and use it to improve.
By letting go of the feeling of having to do everything will give you the ability to get the right thing done at the right time. Do it, you might just surprise yourself.
David McAllister anxietyclinicdublin.com
“When you’ve seen beyond yourself, then you may find, peace of mind is waiting there.”
― George Harrison
Remember we all must die. I’m in my 50s and here I am just listening to some old records(vinyl to those too young to know what a record is) after talking to old friends in the modern communication via Zoom. We are middle aged and beyond, yet I don’t see who we are now but the children we were. To close my eyes, just to listen and it takes me back. Not men, not fathers, not husbands, but just us.
As a student of the social sciences many years ago I discarded the views of ageing as it was put to me then. For youth would of course never die, or at least , have an appreciation of an end. But then those held dear, close, go, gone. It hurts. Perhaps only for a short time and we move on. Youth remains strong. But not forever.
We never can be sure when it happens, when the first cut of age takes it’s quota- a wrinkle, an ache, thoughts of the past more prominent than the future, who can be sure other than to know it just happened beyond our control. Then what?
Do we continue down the path we’ll worn by those who came before us or challenge ourselves to greater glories or wait, just wait for something, anything to change our course?
I come across far too many people who dream and hope that things will improve but like the ancient Romans are willing to leave their fates to the Gods of fortune( Fortuna spinning her wheel of fortune).
This alarms me as I see an abundance of talent and potential just dreaming or wasting their lives away not realising everyone including you has something to offer through being alive.
Sure if you’re content with your life and don’t feel the need to do anything differently, then that’s fine, it’s your choice. You probably don’t need to continue reading but for those who don’t feel that way then please stay with me.
In the long run we are all dead.
John Maynard Keynes
I’m not going to preach, that’s not what’s this is about. I just want you to understand, no mortal being lives forever, not you, not me , not the generations past or indeed yet to come.
We all have to start somewhere, no matter your current age or circumstances, if you want to change where you are then do it and do it now.
Remember:
David McAllister BSc(Hons), ADCHP, MCHPA
Anxiety Clinic Dublin 