If It’s Not Broken Don’t Fix It….
It may be a mistake to try to improve something that works, but don't think that its OK to ignore things. Leaving things as they are without should not be an excuse for failing to look after ourselves or others. Good emotional health always involves honesty (with ourselves) and a degree of growth.
Talk Therapy Comes Closer
For the first time, the National Health Service waiting targets for mental health will come into force from next April. The plan is for anyone who's in need of referral for talking therapies to start treatment within six weeks of seeing their GP. The maximum waiting time will be 18 weeks, Nick Clegg has promised. I expect many of us view politicians' promises with a pinch of salt. At least this one helps to raise awareness of the essential part talk therapy should play in mental wellbeing. If you or ...
Thinking vs Feeling – They are Separate Activities
We are guided by both thoughts and feelings, but sometimes this goes awry. Unmediated by thinking, feelings can deceive us or provoke ill-advised action. But thought lone can be problematic too.
How to Listen More Effectively
It is easier not to listen than it is to listen properly. We frequently listen while assuming that we know what the other person is going to say next. The need for listening is self-evident, yet it is difficult to do it well, particularly in a stressful situation such as when conflict occurs or we fear that it might. Improve your listening with my free download.
Change Can Happen Quickly
Just because a problem has been around a long time that doesn't mean it'll take a long time to fix. We seem to believe in a sort of natural law which says that if a problem has been around for a long time, it will take a long time to fix. But there is no proof of this beyond our own beliefs. If we can free ourselves of this self-limiting idea, rapid change is possible.
How to be More Comfortable with Uncertainty
Few of us are comfortable with uncertainty, and we all differ in how we respond when faced with information that is insufficient or conflicting. Some people can handle more uncertainty than others. How we deal with it affects not just our outlook, but our performance as well. A higher level of tolerance for uncertainty we experience is linked to creativity, lifestyle, management skills and resilience. It's worth thinking about how uncertainty affects us. It may be worth changing if the effects limit us.
If You Want to Understand Others, Good Luck!
It's a natural human inclination to empathise, and to try to understand others. We don't all do it equally, and some don't seem to do it very well, but the tendency is there. But we can never know why people do what they do, what leads them to do certain things. We can guess and speculate, but we can't truly know what motivates another in their actions and behaviour.
Knowing vs Understanding
To paraphrase Einstein, knowing things is easy, understanding them is the challenge. It is easy to confuse the two, and understanding may not always be welcome.
The Logic of Depression
We all get depressed occasionally. The ability to fall into a dark place, to withdraw from the world and to isolate ourselves in a private realm of despondency and gloom is a natural human characteristic, and at times a necessary one. But some people get stuck with it, while others don't It is best to ignore the Logic of Depression.
