Anxiety & Mood | Healthy Routines | Mindfulness | Stress

Mindfulness – The Breathing Anchor Part 2

Here comes the second part of the breathing anchor. The name comes from using the breath as an anchoring point since our breathing is always with us and hence we can use it to anchor us in the present moment. This is a seated exercise, in this version in total 5 minutes: Follow a breath…

Healthy Routines | Mindfulness | Relationships | Stress

Stress – Minimize Stress Sources Part 2 – At Work

This post continues on the theme minimize stress sources and their intensity as well as the amount of new stress that is added per time unit. The last post gave tip when it comes to stress sources at home. Today we look into stress sources at work or other locations outside of home: 1) Do…

Anxiety & Mood | Feelings | Healthy Routines | Mindfulness | Mood | Stress

Feelings: Fear and anxiety, what’s the difference?

Imagine giving a speech here? Do not worry if your stomach cringes, giving a speech is one of the things the majority of people fear the most. Fear is an extremely important feeling since it has a huge survival value. It makes us instantly react to perceived threats by avoiding the danger and instead seeking…

Healthy Routines | Mindfulness | Stress

Mindfulness: The breathing anchor exercise part 1/3

The second of 3 main exercises within mindfulness is the breathing anchor. The name comes from using the breath as an anchoring point since our breathing is always with us and hence we can use it to anchor us in the present moment. This is a seated exercise, in this version in total 5 minutes….

Burn out | Healthy Routines | Relationships | Stress

Stress management: 2d building block part 2 – minimize stress sources

There are 3 important building blocks of stress management: 1) regulate you stress level, se techniques in earlier post 2) handle stress sources and 3) use stress management habits. The second building block, handle your stress sources, is about 2 main components: 1) secure sufficient recovery 2) minimize stress sources or their intensity as well…

Burn out | Feelings | Healthy Routines | Stress

Feelings – Anger

Unheard emotions can lead to both physical and psychological symptoms. There are several emotions that we who work with psychological treatment often encounter problems with. One of the most prominent is anger. Maybe this partly depends on cultural norms and thoughts of proper adult behaviour, that anger is only for children until old enough to…

Anxiety & Mood | Healthy Routines | Relationships | Stress

Anxiety: Worry hour Part 3

This post continues on what to do during the worry hour, more specifically identifying if your thoughts are productive and/or unproductive, which was introduced in earlier posts. During the worry hour, write down for every theme what is the theme, what the disturbing thought, the what if… and the result/catastrophe that you fear, if it…

Anxiety & Mood | Healthy Routines | Mindfulness | Stress

Mindfulness: Body-scan part 4/4

Here comes the last parts of the body-scan exercise, in total 10 minutes long. This is the essence/instructional parts of one version of the 3 major meditations within mindfulness. The body-scan usually lasts over 45 minutes with long parts of silence. In my research I have found that even this shorter version, together with 2…

Anxiety & Mood | Burn out | Healthy Routines | Stress

Stress – The 2d building block: Part 1 – Handle your stress sources

There are 3 important building blocks of stress management: 1) regulate you stress level, se techniques in earlier post 2) handle stress sources and 3) use stress management habits. The second building block, handle your stress sources, is about 2 main components: 1) secure sufficient recovery and 2) minimize stress sources or their intensity as…

Anxiety & Mood | Feelings | Stress

Feelings: Write to Heal – The Pennebaker Exercise

Feelings need to be heard or they can turn into physical or psychological symptoms. In fact, many studies indicate that over 75 % of mental health problems and physical illnesses comes from our thought life. Stress plays a large part of this. Unheard or unprocessed emotions are stressful for the body. One way of hearing…