Ireland: Don’t you just love it?
A discussion on what it means to be Irish in modern Ireland. How sharing a common place and experience of living here, along with our cultural heritage, is what defines us.
It is good to like being Irish as we are Irish.
Now, what else is there?
What we hope for the future may or may not happen.
What we place our hope in now in the present, and building upon that is the hope that matters.
Don’t wishfully just hope that someday it will all be alright.
Use today to build a better tomorrow.
Money: The yes you can attitude
Managing money is a key life skill.
Let’s be honest, we do need a degree of financial security.
We can have issues with being controlled by or overspending money. Money mismanagement has negative effects on relationships/marriages. It is a key skill in learning responsibility.
Winning Gold in life's Olympics
Can we achieve greatness in the ordinary? Yes. Sometimes just getting through the mundane can be a great achievement in its own right. Do you believe this? Does it sound like pop psychology?
Whatever you may think about it I encourage you to take on the great adventure of going for gold in your own life story.
Happy Anniversary?
Should we mark, let alone celebrate, a negative anniversary?
If so, how?
It is a matter of personal choice how a person should remember an anniversary. It can be a celebration of thankfulness for survival.
It can be a time to take stock and allow yourself to be reconciled with what you may have lost, but also to be grateful for what you have, the increased significance it has for you.
Supporting the fragile
How do we support our loved ones when their mood is low and their behaviour is very negative? We should not be afraid to engage with them and just sit with them in their space.
We do not have to cheer them up or help solve their problems. If they want company, they mostly just want you to be there.
This may be enough for them to share with you what pain they are dealing with and start to heal.
Eating disorders and food control
Eating disorders are one of the hardest conditions to treat. The person involved has many layers of hurt, and the control of food becomes their seemingly only way to cope with emotional pain.
Unfortunately, the associated behaviours are often very manipulative and destructive on the person themselves and those close to them.
When occurring in a family context, family therapy is often the main therapeutic approach, with individual support as needed.
This blog covers the main types of eating disorders. The cognitive, behavioural and emotional impacts are also discussed.
Anxiety; Where fear takes over
Anxiety is one of the most common topics raised in therapy. It is a debilitating condition that prevents a person from engaging with life.
It is closely associated with depression and often co-exists.
There is a strong medical connection with anxiety; medication is often the first stage of treatment.
Medication, however, can become a near-permanent part of persons ’s life. Many people do not want this and will prefer to resolve their anxiety through psychological work.
Such work identifies the triggers and helps to develop coping mechanisms to lessen their impact.
Waiting; An opportunity or a frustration?
Waiting can be an opportunity to satisfy the calm mind or a frustration by stopping the body from running the race.
How you view waiting depends on the patience of your personality.
If you are impatient by nature, having to wait is an invitation to learn to use the time in a way that satisfies your desire to be productive in an active way.
If you are patient by nature, waiting allows you to recharge and let your mind ponder more interesting things.