Love my mind's Thoughts, Tips and advice for well being.

Even the best couples can have tricky moments. Life can throw challenges, misunderstandings can occur, emotions might misalign - leaving even the most perfect relationships feeling unnurtured at times. We can get stuck in a rut, feel unheard, unappreciated and ultimately lonely in our own love stories. It is so important to make time to cherish our partners, remember what it is we love about each other, and why they are our chosen person.This is why when my husband and I went on a trip, I decided it would be an even better experience for us both if we went with fully-charged love batteries! We created this lovely affection workout to ensure our glow was turned up to maximum.This simple sweet-talking exercise is an amazing way of reconnecting, rekindling and allowing the love to shine through! The idea is to take it in turns to think of something you really admire about the other person. It is important that these are compliments and reflections on THEM, not on how they make YOU feel. For example, “I love it when you make me a cup of tea in bed” is actually about YOU, whereas “you are so considerate” is about THEM. Emphasising and accentuating another’s pleasing qualities makes it a deeper and more rewarding sentiment. It is so wonderful to search through memories that created that love connection, and recall them together as you examine what it is about your partner that you actually fell in love with, and even better to have your qualities noticed and reiterated. The act of thinking about nice things to say about your loved ones pulls affection and tenderness into the forefront of your mind. This sparks oxytocin- THE LOVE CHEMICAL. Listening to genuinely felt compliments about ourselves helps us to regain a positive perspective on our own personalities, allowing the flow of serotonin- THE HAPPINESS CHEMICAL. When these glorious chemicals are cascading we feel AMAZING! Connected, celebrated and full of love. Mission complete, your battery fully charged.

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The easy way to build resilience To help our well being, we know we need to sleep, eat healthily, exercise, and maybe meditate, and these habits are certainly useful in building happiness, feeling calm and being able to cope with the demands of our busy lives. But there’s another way we can create strength and resilience that’s often overlooked and that is to boost our creativity. Creativity unlocks our internal resources for dealing with stress, solving problems, and enjoying life. When we are creative, we are being resourceful, and we are able to problem solve in new and original ways. Being creative is something we can do, but is also an attitude we can cultivate. It can develop from being a habit into a way of life with practice, and studies into resilient people have identified creativity as a key behavior trait. Creativity is a habit that needs to be developed, and can make many people feel fearful because they don’t think they are good at art. The fear comes from trying anything that is different, as our brains like routine and will protest when pushed out of our comfort zone. It is worth giving a go though, as the creative process enables us to see problems with new perspectives and see situations in a different light. Creative thinking allows us to make connections between things, gain new perspectives, and find innovative ways to deal with anything. Creativity is good for your brain because it stimulates alpha waves, the signals in the brain that closely correspond with feeling relaxed. Scientists have discovered that when people are calm, they’re much more likely to have a “light bulb” moment, and impossible problems can somehow seem to solve themselves. This is why when you’re going around and around a problem, the best thing to do is go for a walk, grab a shower, or make dinner as these activities produce alpha waves in your brain. Studies show that activities such as drawing, sculpting crocheting and writing in a journal actually raise our serotonin levels and decrease our anxiety hormones. Creativity helps to build our resilience, helping us to deal with problems in a way that makes us able to deal with them with ease next time. We can build our creative thinking by asking questions, being curious and by experimenting. Allowing ourselves to make mistakes, congratulating ourselves for trying and speaking kindly to ourselves internally means we are more likely to try more things, and trying means there is a high chance of succeeding. If you follow your curiosity, experiment with ideas, and learn from your mistakes, the quality of your creativity will constantly improve. Human beings need to express themselves, it is a part of who we are. For your emotional wellbeing, nourish your creative spirit, give it a go!  🌈🌈🌈🌈🌈

Why is laughing the best medicine? A good laugh is always a winner isn’t it? Giggling, having a chuckle, the side splitter, hooting, guffawing and the delicate titter. These are all good ways to brighten a day. But did you know that along with it feeling wonderful it is also healing your mind, body and soul? Laughter has been shown to reduce the levels of certain stress hormones in the body. We need a variety of chemicals to help us cope with tricky situations, but these stress signals in high levels can create an imbalance leaving us feeling anxious, angry and depressed. These stress hormones also can have a harmful effect on the immune system. When we laugh, we increase the number of beneficial hormones like endorphins, which and neurotransmitters in the body, lessening the presence and production of adrenaline and cortisol. Endorphins work as a natural painkiller, so laughing helps to boost our pain threshold, easing mood, tension, anger and discomfort. Laughing increases neurotransmitters such as serotonin and dopamine, helping your brain to function faster, connect and comprehend situations or problems at a speedier rate. Laughter also boosts our immune systems, stimulating antibody cells to develop at faster rates by changing the body’s chemistry through hormonal shifts. These antibodies help us to fight off illness and infection easier. Studies have shown that “mirthful laughter” causes an initial increase in arterial blood pressure which is followed by a decrease to below the normal resting blood pressure. This improves blood pressure levels, decreases the risk of heart disease, cardiac issues and improves circulation. The act of laughing physically creates a boost of oxygen to the brain, promoting brain health and encourages a higher level of ventilation in your lungs. Laughter is also a brilliant way of doing exercise; it engages muscles in the body’s diaphragm and abdominal as it expands and contracts and can often leave us with that side splitting feeling after a long hoot. Depending on your laughing style and how physically you throw yourself into it, you can stimulate your legs, back, shoulders, and arm muscles too. Cheeks, jaw and neck muscles are all put through their paces as we cackle and howl. Laughter can also boost memory as it speeds the connections between the neurons, enabling learning and brain function. Combining humour with recall helps to create more links in the brain as they have more direct association and emphasis. Laughter can help our brains to be more creative due to the lowered stress hormones and increased endorphins. We are more likely to take creative risks, think outside of the box when feeling more positive and laughter is the best way to boost our mood. Laughter has been found to have a soothing quality that reduces even unconscious pain, causing an improvement in mood and happiness. It is also really contagious, seeing someone else having a chuckle encourages us to join in, creating connections between people, helping us to build relationships and deepen rapport. I love using laughter in my practice room. When we are laughing, we are no longer able to feel sadness or pain. Book a free DISCOVERY CALL to try this out for yourself! I will encourage you to: 🌈Allow yourself to concentrate on all the best parts of yourself. 🌈Think about all you have achieved 🌈Believe in your abilities 🌈Trust in yourself You are the expert in being you! In my sessions we like to have a bit of a giggle as we explore these wonderful qualities that make up all of us as individuals. Find your own answers and give yourself the gift of health and happiness. www.lovemymind.co.uk

Thank crunchie it's nearly Friday! For most of us, this means a whole weekend away from the work routine. Being able to relax, no alarms dictating when we get out of bed, and choosing how we spend our moments, doing what feels good. Whether connecting with friends or family, being restful or productive, having the freedom to be spontaneous and just to be on our own time clock. Why does this time “off” feel so golden? It basically comes down to routine. When we are in work mode, our brains become very streamlined so they can achieve more. Routine engages automatic pilot mode which aids productivity. We go through the motions when in “work mode”, get out of bed, clean teeth, put on work clothes. These activities are hardly even noticed as they are so embedded into our daily lives. Travel to work, sit in your office, make a coffee, read emails, again, unless something is unusual, these moments are easily forgotten. Chat to colleagues, clients or customers, with routine conversations of “How are you?” “Fine thanks, you?” “Doing anything nice on the weekend?” No wonder work feels DULL!!! Of course we can’t wait for the weekend! Our brains are so firmly in automatic pilot mode that we barely notice or remember a thing. My suggestion to you is to get off the grey conveyor belt of work. Shake it up, just a little. Make every day more interesting by doing things in a different order, alter your routine a touch. Take a different journey to work, use a different mug for your coffee. Consciously look through a different lens as you approach each task. Try putting your left shoe on before your right and swap the following day. Being aware of our bodies actions for each mundane task encourages mindfulness and pulls us into each present moment. Give each of your senses a chance to digest by taking an extra millisecond to breathe. Allow yourself to be on a Sensation Scavenger Hunt. Waking up each routine activity by really experiencing it by being in the actual moment. It’s ok if the feeling of mixing it up is a little uncomfortable, this is because our survival instincts like everything to stay exactly the same. When everything is completely consistent, we do not challenge our comfort zones but we can create a claustrophobic safety net. We have two distinct parts of the brain that we use everyday; the intellectual brain, and the primitive brain. The primitive part of the brain’s job is solely used for protection, and it believes that the dangers around us might still be lions, tigers and bears. This is because it hasn’t evolved since it was created to survive the cavemen era, and thank goodness it was there as without it we wouldn’t be here right now. This part of the brain is not creative or intelligent. It is not concerned about feelings of happiness, fulfilment or joy, so to find contentment in each of our lives we must push the boundaries set by exploring the edges of our comfort zones and allow our intellectual brains the chance to sit in the control seat. Ideas for your Sensation Scavenger Hunt How many yellow things can you see on your way to work?. How many smiles can you witness in an hour of interaction? How many breaths does it take for the kettle to boil? How does it feel to alter the order of getting dressed? How many birdsongs can you hear as you stand outside? What order do you taste each mouthful of lunch? What is the nicest smell you can discover today? How does it feel to touch the floor as you wiggle your toes against it? How alive do you feel after splashing cold water on your face?

Have you ever stopped and thought about how much we have changed since we crawled out of caves? How have we evolved from grunting hairy beasts into intelligent purposeful people? Primitive humans shared so many of the same emotions and feelings, needs and wants as us. They would have experienced joy, happiness, fear and sadness, but they had to fight for survival. They had to hunt, and had to find shelter. They had to be tough and brave. To help with their adversaries they were given the happiness hormone to strengthen them to conquer their challenges. Everytime they built a relationship, created a tool or used intellectual thinking they experienced a rush of serotonin that encouraged them to do something else bravely, creatively and with love. Without this feeling, no doubt we wouldn’t be here today. Even now, we are still evolving. We still use the happiness neurotransmitter to guide us towards activities that give us pleasure, peace, accomplishment, purpose and hope. As we follow our pleasure hormones, we build on the experiences of others, adding on, improving, creating tiny changes in thoughts, actions and idealisms. We use the teachings of our ancestors to continue to develop new skills and new resources. We enhance our knowledge with our own experiences, making us combinedly responsible for the ideas that are created indirectly as we vibrate together. Issac Newton and Albert Einstein were both influenced by scholars and scientists. They were taught, steered and moulded by the ideas of others. They built on their learnt knowledge, ignited, followed their passions and became dedicated to enquire and understand. Their discoveries led to more investigation. A chain of questions and answers, built on by each thinker and each concept. We might not discover the next greatest invention or build upon the big bang theory, but we are all able to make a difference in our own unique way. The way we live our lives influences the lives of others directly and indirectly. We can choose a path that allows us to feel authentic and positive, thus inspiring others to do that too. I believe this is the true meaning of life. We all have the option to create a positive impact in our own tiny way. Every action makes an indent, every smile or frown ripples, every idea is a potential inspiration. Having an understanding of the impact our own lives make can help us to make sense of the direction and choices we can take.  Make sure your path feels true to you. Do what feels honest. Carve your influence with kindness and compassion. Your positive imprint will shape the building blocks of our descendants. This is the inheritance we pass down to the future generations.

“We are doing a POSITIVE ACTION” I explained to my 18 year old son. We began to discuss the benefits of focusing on the “positive actions, positive interactions, positive thought patterns and positive purposes” that I promote in my hypnotherapy practice. When our mind is full of the positives aspects in our lives, we have no capacity or inclination to dwell on the negative details. Practising searching for the positives in our lives helps to create new neural pathways, feel happiness and find a peaceful way of being. I was taking my son back to University and we decided to make a day of it by visiting the Welsh waterfall country park on the way. It had been an eventful Christmas and I was desperate for a moment of quiet. I am always drawn to moving water. It feels so peaceful. The motion creates a place where my mind can be still. When my gaze is unable to stop on one single droplet, I feel an inner calm where I can just soak in tranquillity. My son is studying Chemistry at Cardiff. Struggling with my “simplistic” explanation of waterfall joy, he decided to give me a scientific theory. He has such a wonderful way of explaining things. Normally anything too scientific sends me spinning into confusion but he explained the science of colliding water particles so I could understand how they might be creating the feelings of calm and happiness I was feeling. I’d like to try and explain this science to you as simply as my son did for me: All matter is composed of many many ATOMS. All atoms have equal amounts of ELECTRONS and PROTONS When an atom gains or loses electrons, and has an uneven amount of protons and electrons. This is now a charged particle known as an ION When the atom loses an electron, it becomes a positively charged ion (a CATION) When the atom gains an electron, it becomes a negatively charged ion (an ANION) Waterfalls and waves crashing on a beach are perfect examples of natural oxygen molecules colliding with each other. The neutrally charged water droplets break apart creating negatively charged ions. Studies find that our world is stuffed with positive ions which are created by phenomena like electricity and pollution. Positive ions can affect our mental and physical health by making us feel tired, stressed and depressed. Researchers have found that being surrounded by negative ions can help to improve mental health and wellbeing. Pierce J. Howard Ph. D concluded that negative ions increase oxygen to the brain improving alertness and physical and mental energy. They Improve the autonomic nerves, skin collagen, metabolism and immune system (Dr Arudoman). Negative ions speed up oxygen into our bloodstream, tissues and cells and oxidation of serotonin which boosts our mood (John Heinerman Ph.D). They reduce neurohormone serotonin which causes sleeplessness and nightmares (Soyka 1991) creating better sleep quality. The US Department of Agriculture is quoted for saying that negative ions help to clear the air of pollutants, dust and bacteria. However, it's worth noting that a meta-study in the National Library of Medicine (NLM) has stated that “some of the results need to be further verified, some references might overestimate its benefits and no consistent or reliable evidence in therapeutic effects were achieved.”. So the jury is out. I am not an expert but I DO know that being near crashing water made me feel wonderful, calm and refreshed. Was it science? Was it doing a positive action? Was the feeling due to taking time out of my busy life to witness nature? Was it magic? Or was it just hanging out with my son? What do you think? I do know it was definitely worth doing, my feelings of happiness were very real and my soul is still smiling!

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