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Fiona Brennan featured in Irish Tatler Man
This week, think back to what your favourite activity was as a child. If you loved to rollerskate, play football, hide and seek or paint a picture, is there something stopping you from doing this now? If so, take some free time to get back in touch with that side of you.
You can do this with children in your life or even with open-minded adults; you might be surprised at how many adults still like to play. When we play, we are free. Our minds become completely absorbed in the here and now and the only goal in mind is having fun. This, in itself, is an essential part of our mental well-being. So, go on, play!
This week, reach out and simply hug someone! The benefits of this simple act of physical affection are numerous and go a long way to keeping you physically and mentally healthy. The benefits include:
Reduced fear of death and mortality
In a study on fears and self-esteem, research published in the journal Psychological Science revealed that hugs and touch significantly reduce worry of mortality. The study found that hugging, even of an inanimate object like a teddy bear, helps to soothe and allows the hugger to experience a strong connection to the life force of consciousness.
Stimulates Oxytocin
Oxytocin is a neurotransmitter that acts on the limbic system, the brain’s emotional centre, promoting feelings of contentment, reducing anxiety and stress.
Lowers Heart Rate
In an experiment at the University of North Carolina, an experiment was conducted with two groups, one where participants who didn’t have any contact with their partners and developed a quickened heart rate of 10 beats per minute compared to a second group who got to hug their partners during the experiment and had only 5 beats per minute.
Dopamine, Serotonin & Cortisol
Releases both dopamine and serotonin and reduces the stress hormone cortisol whch in turn will keep your immune system strong.
So, this week make sure to reach out and hug someone that you love, in particular hug any children or babies in your life as well-hugged children are less stressed as adults.
Martin Seligman, the father of the Positive Psychology movement, has a plan that by the year 2055 55% of the world’s population will be thriving rather than languishing. Up until the development of “Positive Psychology”, Clinical Psychologists had only paid attention to methods of how to fix people who were suffering with mental health issues. Seligman and his colleagues, in contrast, took an active role in studying how humans could pursue happiness and make the most of their lives and that this would have a major impact on their mental health.
This week, consider your strengths and how best you can build on them. Consider how to develop and embrace all that is already positive in your life while at the same time thinking of how to progress. In order to thrive a good starting point is to be gratetful for all that you have and to focus on the activities that make you happy. Flourish with positive psychology!
This week, if you feel stressed by too many demands at work, or if something is not going the way you intended, or you simply feel worn out or drained then use this this simple but incredibly effective technique to calm down quickly, recover your mental well-being and return to a place of inner calm and peace.
Many people turn to unhealthy habits such as smoking or comfort eating when they feel stressed or anxious but these habits often compound the problem. By using techniques such as the anxiety/stress dial outlined above you are taking a responsible role in your ability to self-soothe.