Mental Health

The Power of Trust

November 27, 2022 by Dr. Cesar Vasconcellos de Souza - [rt_reading_time label="Reading Time:" postfix="minutes" postfix_singular="minute"]

Mental health has much to do with trust. Trust can release us from stress and anxiety. It is important to understand how we can build that trust.

If you don’t trust, you build walls between yourself and others. These walls serve, say the suspicious, to protect against being deceived; but living in isolation impedes recovering from personal behavioral difficulties. It is true that the solution is not to trust blindly, but to discern who is trustworthy and who is not. Trusting serious, ethical and honest people never leads us to problems, but if you trust people of bad character, problems arise in your life. Many of us may have been practicing this for a long time, and therefore suffering unnecessarily.

You should not demand of yourself unshakable loyalty to someone who is not trustworthy. Trust is something to be earned, acquired. We should not blindly trust others, but to patiently wait to see if the other person has learned, and values being trusted because of following our good example. Our goal should be to discern wisely who is trustworthy and who is not.

Interestingly, Jesus Christ alerted us to how we should behave in contact with others:

Therefore be wise as serpents and harmless as doves.
Matthew 10:16

When we are afraid, we usually act in control, or try to control. We want to control events, destiny, people, which increases stress and frustrates us even more. When we don’t trust God, or what you believe to be a higher power, the tendency is to control. But the best way to resolve fear is to trust. Understanding and accepting that good and bad things happen in our life, whether or not we have control.

To face fear and for it to gradually disappear, you need to cultivate trust in yourself, in God – the Creator of the Universe, and trust in the support of people who like you. You can learn to trust that when things don’t work out the way you want, the Creator will have something better planned. We can trust that the Creator of the Universe will give us the right direction we need; and that whatever we need on our journey will come to us.

A man contemplating about life and the providence of his Creator

We won’t get everything we need for the journey of a lifetime today. We will receive today’s supply for today, and tomorrow for tomorrow. The manna that fell from heaven to feed the Israelite people in the desert was in the right portion for each person and for that day. Only on Friday it fell twice as much, so that it would not be harvested on Sabbath. The Creator God does not allow your burdens to be carried today to be too heavy, beyond what you can bear. Think about it! He is in control and he is the only being capable of controlling things and people in a healthy and liberating way.

Learning to trust requires cultivating patience and to wait. I saw in the news about a young man who got impatient when facing traffic that was very slow. He lost emotional self-control and fired shots at the car in front, killing an innocent young woman. His argument at the police station for having shot and killed the young woman was his impatience with the traffic. The Bible warns us of the following:

Whoever has no rule over his own spirit Is like a city broken down, without walls.
Proverbs 25:28

To live better, it is necessary to learn to wait. Have you noticed how impatient and irritated people are? Some people base their calm and patience on depending on the effect of some drug or medication. They didn’t understand, or understood but didn’t want to change, that the most important thing to deal with impatience is not the medication, but knowing how to deal well with the emotion of impatience.

One truth of life is that we can’t always have what we want when we want it. Could it be that one of the motivations of people who became multimillionaires could have been that, when they got rich, they could have whatever they wanted, whenever they wanted it? Many young adults, men and women pass through burnout, because they struggle with obsession to achieve things before their time. And usually it’s the money. Years ago in Japan, young entrepreneurs died suddenly from an illness called karoshi, which is a type of sudden death from exhaustion. They wanted to reach 30 years of age as millionaires. You can burn yourself out by trying to get today what will come in a healthy way later.

Waiting is not a waste of time. Things in life only happen when we are ready. There’s no way to speed up and maintain sanity of mind. For everything there is a timing. Timing means the right thing at the right time. You are not going to stop your life by having to wait. Other things continue and you will get involved in them; in the meantime, cultivate gratitude and acceptance of what is possible. There’s a life to live while you’re waiting for what you want. Coping with frustration and impatience is important in learning to wait and trust.

Emotional healing is a process of learning to trust. Trusting God, trusting people you can trust, trusting the healthy part of yourself. Trust grows slowly! It’s just like that. We cannot trust overnight. Trust is built one day at a time.

It’s interesting that the Creator of the Universe comes to help us, and even though He’s the one who keeps us alive, He respects our decision, our defenses, our timing. The Bible says that He knocks at the door and waits. He doesn’t invade our lives. By knocking He makes an invitation, not an invasion! Some people enter without knocking, they don’t respect the boundaries. Some think that, because they are from the same family, they can invade your privacy; but they shouldn´t; don’t allow it.

God knocks and waits. In our maturity we can for one day only hear Him knocking, but later we can say: who is there? And further on, since He doesn’t give up on us and knock again, maybe we can let Him in and sit with Him and enjoy His loving presence that instructs us, teaches us to be patient, to wait and to trust.

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How Fasting Improves Mental Health and Stress Control

November 13, 2022 by Martin Neumann - [rt_reading_time label="Reading Time:" postfix="minutes" postfix_singular="minute"]

There are many different motives why people choose to do fasting. Some will do it to lose weight, others to clean the body, and often it is done for religious purposes. While all of that can be achieved when done properly, many do not realize that fasting has a positive effect on our mental health and stress control.

How Fasting Improves Mental Health and Stress Control

What is Fasting?

Fasting is a routine whereby you decide not to eat food for a certain time. Several metabolic adjustments occur during fasting. Some forms of fast restrict even liquid intake, which can get detrimental to the health very quickly. A fast for health reason is often done in the form of intermittent fasting, where food intake is alternated with a few hours of fasting.

Skipping food for some hours can help increase the level of ketones in your body. They are produced when energy from carbohydrates is used up and the liver depends on breaking down fat to supply energy in form of ketones. They are not only influencing health and aging, but are also beneficial in improving brain health. However, fasting offers still some more advantages. It has a great benefit to our mental health in a way that is not well known by many people.

Common Types of Fasting

Before we go into full detail about how fasting helps mental health, it is important to state the different types of fasting. The most common types of fasting are:

16/8 fasting: 16/8 fasting is very common and is all about fasting and eating intermittently. Every day you eat within an allowed period of eight hours, after which you will fast for the next 16 hours.

5:2 Approach: The 5:2 approach is about eating regularly five days every week. For 2 days of the week (not in a row), you would then limit your food to a single very light meal of about 500-600 calories.

Alternate-Day Fasting: That is the toughest form of intermittent fasting, where you alternate between days where you eat what you want and days where you eat nothing at all. It can lead to weight loss and improved health, but it is hard to stick to this protocol for the long run.

The Dangers of Improper Fasting

Fasting is fine when done correctly, but if done in the wrong way, it can do more harm than good. If we go into long fasting periods, metabolism will slow down and make it more difficult to shed those extra pounds in the long run. Pregnant women, breastfeeding mothers, children and very frail people should be more cautious with fasting, and diabetics should be closely monitored to avoid complications. It is important to learn how to fast correctly in order to reap the maximum benefits.

Fasting to Help Increase Your Mental Health

Fasting can be used to increase your mental health in various ways. From improving brain function to reversing mild cognitive impairments in older people, fasting has several benefits to mental health.

Here are 6 ways fasting can improve your mental health:

Enhances mental functioning: Each time we fast, our bodies have fewer toxic materials passing through the lymphatic and blood systems. This way, we can think clearly. During fasting, the energy which the body usually uses for food digestion will then be used by the brain. Initially, you will not be able to detect any change until a few days into the fasting. This is because the body usually takes some time to adjust to the new routine. Also, when you first begin fasting, you may suffer headaches or other pains. But as soon as the body adapts to the new routine, your brain will begin functioning optimally. This will result in better memory, clearer thoughts, and enhanced functioning of other body senses.

Improves brain function among older adults: Fasting can improve specific parts of brain function as people grow older. This works especially with mild cognitive impairment, which is usually associated with seniors as this is a phase they experience before dementia. It can cause problems with thinking or memory and is reversible. Clinical studies have confirmed that mild cognitive impairment can be reversed with fasting.

A smart elderly person working on a computer

Empowers the brain: Fasting can lead to a short-term restriction on calories. This can help the brain produce more anti-depressant chemicals. Since fasting causes the body to produce ketones from available fats, our brains use this as fuel. With the brain being boosted by ketones, intermittent fasting can be used to treat the symptoms of Alzheimer’s disease, Parkinson’s disease, as well as many other neurodegenerative diseases.

Helps with autophagy: Fasting is also important to mental health due to its ability to trigger autophagy. This is a necessary process whereby the brain cleanses itself from all the trash it accumulates during the day. Autophagy is a process of self-cleaning whereby the all cells of the body, including the brain are cleaning themselves and get rid of old debris and damaged cells. Autophagy is a process that happens efficiently after a fasting period of 16-20 hours, which is easily achieved with intermittent fasting. It helps the brain to create healthier and newer cells.

Improve your memory: It has been proven clinically that our memory is improved significantly when we restrict the hours we eat. Some studies have shown that intermittent fasting can help improve memory in humans.

Reduce stress and anxiety: Fasting has been proven to help improve issues of mental health, which include depression, anxiety, and stress. A recent study conducted was able to prove that people who fasted during a certain period like Ramadan showed improvements in anxiety, stress, as well as symptoms of depression. Any kind of intermittent fasting will give you this benefit. The study revealed that the depression and anxiety levels of the participants went down after intermittent fasting.

Conclusion

Intermittent fasting is good for our health, increases longevity and is beneficial for our brain. When we are stressed, we should think more often about intermittent fasting as a way to deal with the challenges in a more efficient way. It is easy to implement and can give you a long-lasting benefit in your stress control. With that many benefits, what are you waiting for?

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How to Deal With Mental Sufferings

October 30, 2022 by Dr. Cesar Vasconcellos de Souza - [rt_reading_time label="Reading Time:" postfix="minutes" postfix_singular="minute"]

We suffer mentally because of alterations in brain functioning, but a difficult question to answer is: Do mental sufferings arise as a result of brain chemistry imbalances, or does the chemical imbalance occur because of conflicts in the person’s life?

Seems like it’s all together. We can think, because electrical chemical circuits are at work in the brain, and they are active due to the blood circulation that carries nutrients to the brain to function. Therefore, mental health also depends on what we eat and drink. Mental suffering can therefore be connected with physical aspects, such as poor diet, insufficient hydration, sedentary lifestyle, overeating, even on healthy foods, air pollution, among other factors.

In addition, there are psychological factors: interpersonal and intrapersonal conflicts that produce sadness, excessive anxiety, exaggerated fears, shame and guilt. As for the social environment, violence and crime, especially in large cities, in addition to stressful traffic, noise and visual pollution contribute to mental stress. Therefore, to deal with mental suffering we need to take care of our physical health with exercise, preferably outdoors, ingesting pure water between meals, breathing pure air, getting plenty of sunlight, preferring a balanced vegetarian diet, getting a good sleep at night, and eliminating what is harmful to health.

It is also necessary to solve or manage emotional problems in relationships, first with oneself, then with family members, at work, at church, with other relatives, avoiding to leave situations pending that need to be resolved. At times it may be necessary to receive professional counseling and undergo psychological treatment. Do what you can to improve your social life. Having friends is important. Helping people unselfishly promotes mental healing. Asking forgiveness, setting limits, being patient, sharing experiences and materially helping the poorest contributes to mental health and relief from suffering.

Helping an elderly man to get out of the car.

Psychiatric and psychological treatment varies not only in terms of the severity of the illness, but also in terms of personality type. There are individuals who are more likely to understand and accept the relationship between their current sufferings and past conflicts, which facilitates treatment. Others, who do not have this ability to think from cause to effect, deny having suffered in the past or diminish the personal impact of what they have suffered in earlier years of life.

When, in a psychological consultation, the professional explains the relationship between the current suffering and the conflicts in the patient’s life, he comes to understand and accept, that a good part of his mental struggles of today are related to the traumas of the past. We call this understanding insight. But is that insight enough to promote emotional healing? Not always. Many, by making the connection between their suffering today with painful phases of the past, can have a good perception of their struggle, but this perception alone may not be enough for healing.

In fact, beyond the insight, beyond the perception of possible causes of current mental suffering, the person needs to decide to act in a different and better way. Perception or insight helps, but what he will do with what he has perceived is the key to healing, and the starting point in learning to manage mental pain.

However, in the same person undergoing psychotherapeutic treatment, there may be a moment of greater perception and a moment of greater difficulty with this. Each one has his time to get a grip about the cause of personal suffering. This is because memories of emotional pain are not pleasant for anyone, and we can escape the thinking about what hurts for a long time, even for years.

So the person who suffers mentally and who still doesn’t understand the causes of his mental problems, needs to be patient with himself and ask God for enlightenment on what He thinks he needs to understand in order to improve. He must ask not only for enlightenment or insight, but also for the strength to take a look at what is the source of his emotional pain, and that is not easy for anyone. On this point of having or not the perception of the causes of emotional pain, Jesus once commented something along these lines:

I still have many things to say to you, but you cannot bear them now.
John 16:12

He knew that His followers were not ready to accept certain things about themselves. There are conflicts in our unconscious mind that we are not able to perceive. The Unconscious is the virtual space of our mind where we guard information, images, thoughts and feelings of everything that has happened to us, since we were born, until this moment in life. We do not have access to this information when we want it, but when we are ready to see and understand it. The Bible talks about the unconscious in the book of Psalms:

Who can understand his errors? Cleanse me from secret faults.
Psalms 19:12

You have set our iniquities before You, Our secret sins in the light of Your countenance.
Psalms 90:8

So, recognize that the unconscious exists, and that it has many answers about a person’s mental sufferings.

The treatment of mental illnesses or disorders varies according to the type of illness, and there are different types of treatments for the same illness. For example, depression can be mild, moderate, or severe. When a person suffers from mild depression, psycho-therapeutic treatment alone is enough. No medication is needed. But when the level is moderate to severe, maybe even with suicidal thoughts, the medication is indicated for temporary use, under the supervision of a psychiatrist.

A good part of mental suffering can be improved or resolved without the use of medication. Others need them, such as during the euphoric crisis of bipolar disorder, agitation with delusions and hallucinations in people with schizophrenia, among others. Some people undergoing psychiatric treatment may need medication for a moment, but once they get better they will no longer be needed. Or they can use them as SOS, which means the medication will only be used at the most difficult times, when the symptoms are wanting to come back.

Finally, it is important to consider that spirituality is a very positive factor to help people in their struggles with mental suffering. Several scientific studies have confirmed that faith, attendance at a religious community, the exchange of experiences of spiritual growth in the group, prayer, and for Christians, the study and meditation of the Bible, favor mental health and powerfully assist in emotional recovery.

As human beings, we have struggles not only because of physical problems, such as an organic disease, or family, social, economic and psychological problems, but also of spiritual origin. According to the biblical account, we are spiritually corrupted since birth, which means that we are already born with selfishness, pride, vanity, envy; these problems that we need to resolve using spiritual instruments such as prayer, study and meditation on the Bible, socializing with people in the religious community for spiritual learning, the practice of voluntary charity, among other factors.

Therefore, if you identify with any of the points discussed here, correctly follow the psychological and psychiatric treatment, including family support. But put the search for God, the kind creator of the universe, as number one in your life, praying, meditating on the scriptures – the Bible, helping others who suffer, and participating in a religious community that sincerely seeks the truth. With this, your mental health and well-being can improve much faster.

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5 Simple Lifestyle Changes for Stress Relief

October 16, 2022 by Martin Neumann - [rt_reading_time label="Reading Time:" postfix="minutes" postfix_singular="minute"]

Did you know that around 74% of people said in a recent study, that they’ve felt so stressed that they’ve been unable to cope?((Results of the Mental Health Foundation’s 2018 study. https://www.mentalhealth.org.uk/explore-mental-health/mental-health-statistics/stress-statistics)) You may not be at that point quite yet, but it’s worth making some simple lifestyle changes to reduce your stress levels before you get there.

5 Simple Lifestyle Changes for Stress Relief

The good news is that there are ways you can cut back on feelings of stress each day, from the comfort of your own home. Here are some of the top tips.

Exercise

Exercise is the number one way to handle stress.

When you’re feeling overwhelmed, you might not fancy rushing out to the gym for a sweat session. However, exercise is an amazing way to get endorphins – and positive feelings – rushing through your body. People who exercise regularly are less likely to suffer from anxiety than their counterparts.((M.H.M. De Moor, et.al. Regular exercise, anxiety, depression and personality: A population-based study. Preventive Medicine, Volume 42, Issue 4, 2006,Pages 273-279
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ypmed.2005.12.002))

When you exercise – even only a little – you reduce the amount of stress hormones in your body and replace them with handy endorphins, which help to boost your mood.

Exercise can also improve sleep quality, which is often negatively affected by anxiety and stress. When you get enough sleep, you’re more capable of dealing with stressful feelings.

To get the most out of your exercise routine, find an activity you enjoy and mix it in with your schedule – even if it’s just a stretching session each night.

Get Social

Do you ever get the urge to isolate yourself when you’re stressed or nervous? You’re not alone. However, withdrawing from your social group could make your stress worse. Being part of a group of people who love and care for you will help to get you through tough times.

One study found that spending time with friends helps to release the natural stress reliever – oxytocin. Some professionals even call the socializing response the “tend and befriend” approach, rather than the “fight or flight” that we’re used to with stress.((Taylor SE, et.al. Biobehavioral responses to stress in females: tend-and-befriend, not fight-or-flight. Psychol Rev. 2000 Jul;107(3):411-29. doi: 10.1037/0033-295x.107.3.411))

If you can’t meet with someone face to face, find another way to connect. You can call a friend or loved one to vent some of the things you’re stressed about. Get into a video meeting, or just send someone a text if it helps.

Make Yourself Laugh

Have you ever noticed that it’s difficult to keep focusing on the things that make you feel anxious or stressed when you’re laughing? Laughter is genuinely good for your health, both from a physical and a mental perspective. It helps to relieve tension in your muscles and decreases your stress response.

Over time, regular periods of laughter can improve your mood and help your immune system to work better. According to a study of people suffering with cancer, people who laughed most experienced more stress relief than those who just distracted themselves.((Bennett MP, Zeller JM, Rosenberg L, McCann J. The effect of mirthful laughter on stress and natural killer cell activity. Altern Ther Health Med. 2003 Mar-Apr;9(2):38-45. PMID: 12652882.))

Read a funny book or talk to a friend who frequently makes you laugh. Being able to laugh about your own mistakes can be very much relieving stress. Even if you’re just giggling at something on TV, let it out.

Practice Self-Care Activities

We could all benefit from investing more time and effort into ourselves. We live in a society where it’s increasingly common for people to prioritize working too much or barely getting any sleep. However, these are the kinds of things that increase your stress.

Sometimes, it’s important to look at your life and ask yourself what you need to feel better. That could mean taking the time that you need for yourself and saying “no” when others ask you for help. It’s not selfish if you have reached your limits – it’s about giving yourself the help you need first.

Good self-care could also mean changing your routine. Go to bed earlier or change your menus so that you’re eating healthier food. Invest time and energy into things that make you feel good – even if it’s just having a long bubble bath.

Try Something New

Finally, sometimes all you need to get rid of stress is a new passion.

With that in mind, why not try something new? Take an art class with a pal and see whether being creative each day could help you to eliminate anxiety.There are plenty of studies that indicate that creative activities can reduce your anxiety levels.

If art isn’t your thing, try learning how to cook. Taking a class that teaches you how to create delicious and nutritious meals is an excellent way to get a new hobby going. When you’re cooking, you’ll be focused on what you’re doing in the kitchen, rather than spending all of your energy worrying about the things that bother you. Plus, learning how to cook could help you to eat healthier too!

Maybe you want to volunteer in a local organization in order to see the satisfaction in the faces of those you have helped. It can be very much rewarding and take away your focus from the worries of everyday life. Plus when you are in touch with people who are much worse off than you, then your struggles do not seem so big after all.

Try one of these effective strategies the next time you’re feeling stressed. Get in the habit of using them regularly and you’ll find greater enjoyment in your daily life. And get the 10 Minute Guide to Stress Management in order to get a clear plan on how you can control your Stress.

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Proper Thoughts for Mental Healing

October 2, 2022 by Dr. Cesar Vasconcellos de Souza - [rt_reading_time label="Reading Time:" postfix="minutes" postfix_singular="minute"]

There are many suffering from anxiety, depression, stress, panic attacks and other mental illness. We often think of a variety of factors that can cause these mental issues, but we rarely think about the power of our thoughts. What are the steps to mental healing?

How do we define a person as having good mental health? First of all, there is no one who has 100% mental health; in other words, there is no human being who does not have some kind of sadness, some moments of anguish, some anxiety. We all have some kind of struggle. Some have it more, some have it less, and some have it for a period of their life, then it passes and they are fine. It is important to think that mental health has to do with the ability to be able to work, study and be useful to society, and to love people in a mature way.

Many people are dependent on psychiatric medications, like tranquilizers, antidepressants, mood stabilizers or sleep-inducing drugs. There are people who are very dependent on psychiatric drugs, and of course drugs have their place, they have their moment in the treatment of mental illness. But we need to know that drugs don’t cure the cause of suffering.

Psychiatric drugs act on the symptoms. The tranquilizer can lower the anxiety of a person who has a major mental conflict that generates excessive anxiety, but it is necessary to understand that this anxiety is being produced by something, a behavior, a tension in some relationship, or some trauma from the past. People who are dependent on psychiatric medications can improve and acquire mental health if they practice some steps in their own consciousness and attitudes towards themselves and others.

A psychiatric drug on the patient's tongue

Someone said that depression is an excess of the past, anxiety is an excess of the future, and stress is an excess of the present. I think there’s some truth in that! Some depressed people focus their conscious and unconscious thoughts too much on past losses, becoming too attached to that past. On the other hand, very anxious people focus too much on fears about the future in general, with thoughts that very anxious people commonly have. They use the phrases a lot: “Oh, what if that and that happens? Oh, what if I’m there, lost? What if this bus driver falls asleep? What if my son doesn’t call me?” They are very worried about what might happen up front.

Stressed people, on the other hand, may have a load of activities and responsibilities in the present that need to be relieved. It is important for those who suffer mentally to fight thoughts of sadness, discontent, distrust, anxiety, and to cultivate thoughts of hope, sympathy, balanced love for oneself and for others.

The important thing is that the person who is suffering emotionally, whether it’s a panic attack, depression, a sadness or excessive shyness, does not allow himself to become dependent on another person for his mental healing. No human being can heal another human being. It’s important not to submit to any technique – even considered scientific – if that technique makes you submit to someone else’s domain, like a passive instrument in their hands. The source of deep healing is not a human being. I’m not saying that we’re not going to see a psychiatrist or psychologist; I’m saying that, even if I need to look for a mental health professional, I still need to work on my mind, knowing that that a professional doesn’t have the entire solution to my problem.

Many times when attending a patient, I usually told him something like this: “Look, you can see that door over there, (and I would show the door to my office). What’s most important to your mental health is what you’re going to do from that door out; it’s what you’re going to think, it’s how you’re going to deal with your emotions; it is not the drug; It’s not me. It is what you’re going to do with what we work here in the psychotherapy office”.

Opportunities for change behind the door

Sure, medication can give you a little boost, but for Christians, I usually say medication is number three in that treatment. The number one is you and God. Number two is psychotherapy, and number three is medication.

It is important to remember that God has given us a conscience, given us freedom of choice. We have intelligence, we can think, we can learn to deal with difficult emotions. It is possible to learn. There is work to be done by every person who suffers emotionally, and that work cannot be replaced by the doctor, psychologist or counselor, nor by medication, even if they are natural medicines.

This work is what everyone has to do: it is to evaluate their thoughts, analyze their feelings and see if they are based in reality, if they are coherent, and decide to fight those thoughts and feelings that are unreasonable, that don’t make sense and that drown you in excessive anxiety and depression. Don’t let those negative, bad thoughts take over your mind all the time. Beneficial freedom in mental health is not thinking, feeling and doing what you want; it is thinking, feeling and doing what produces well-being, what produces serenity, what leads to a victory over the depressive state, the confrontation of compulsions, a reduction of high or exaggerated anxiety.

This depends a lot on where the person focuses. Mental health largely depends on what a person thinks most. It depends on the choices that he makes. There are people who have a lot of tragic thoughts, who suffer from panic attacks. Usually their thoughts are: Oh my heart is going to stop; Ah, I’m going to have a heart attack; Oh, I can’t breathe. At any little symptom in their body, at any normal sign, they already despair. If your heart accelerated a little because you took a run, or there was a little pain in your belly, you already think: Oh my, is it cancer? Am I going to have a heart attack?

This is a tendency to think tragically; and this has to be worked on, it has to be eliminated, it has to be corrected, because the drug will not change that. Often, people who feel mentally invalid, thinking they can’t do anything, can’t work, can’t get better, can resist the disease by refusing to surrender to this unhealthy state, and also avoiding doing nothing, believing that the medication will fix everything.

Everyone needs to face their pain and have an occupation suited to their strengths: Practicing physical activity outdoors, breathing deeply, exposing themselves to sunlight, drinking pure water throughout the day, avoiding alcoholic beverages, using a diet as close to vegetarianism as possible, all this helps the body and brain to function better. If the person is suffering emotionally, and if it’s not something serious like schizophrenia or a manic bout of bipolar disorder, it’s important that they take the step of doing something in their life that helps alleviate someone else’s suffering rather than staying idle, working selfishly like some, for the accumulation of material goods.

Helping an elderly person, delivering groceries at home

Not wasting precious time on frivolous entertainment also helps with mental health. You can have a fun time, but let it be something more productive and positive. When a very difficult ordeal happens in your life, instead of whining and cursing and feeling bitter, ask yourself: what can I learn from this? What is this painful situation trying to teach me? Open your mind to think about these things.

It takes a great deal of effort to change the current of thoughts of sadness, anxiety and excessive worry. But change is possible. Evaluate your thoughts. Are they negative? What are the thoughts that occupy your mind the most? You need to do this exercise. It can be tiring, it can be annoying, sometimes unpleasant, but it is necessary.

Of course, it’s much easier to go to the doctor, start taking the prescribed medication and then think: How good, I’m in Zen, I took a Rivotril, now I’m great, everything is fine. But wait a minute: your thoughts remain negative, so that medicine is not going to change those thoughts. No medicine can do for a person what he has to do for himself to be able to assess the type of thoughts he has the most, and the emotions he most allows to happen in his life, to see what is positive , what is not, what should be changed and what should not be changed.

Much of a person’s happiness, emotional recovery, treatment, healing, and mental well-being depends on fixing the mind on encouraging things, resisting the tragic and pessimistic thoughts that lead to sadness and anxiety.

You can think about the good things that have happened in your life. Be grateful for it. Talk about gratitude. Of course, during a psychotherapeutic treatment, there are moments for the person to vent, to cry, to express their anger – anger at life, anger at God, anger at those who are hurting them. Of course, this person needs acceptance and we will let them talk and vent, but at some point they will have to interrupt this, as they have had enough time to vent everything, and from there they need to change the way they deal with this pain.

It may take a few months of training the mind to stop anxious, pessimistic or depressive thoughts, and cultivate hope, gratitude, kindness, which help in the recovery of mental health, when developed. It can be a lengthy process, but for more determined people it can happen faster.

Sometimes you will treat two patients with depression. The first depressive patient says: “Oh, I can’t do anything, I won’t be able to improve, God has abandoned me, life doesn’t make sense”. He’s not yet ready to get out of that frame of mind. Another, also experiencing the same condition, says: “Look, I am suffering, I am sad, everything is very bad, I suffered a loss, but I know that God will help me, and I am willing to do whatever I can to receive help and get out of this suffering. The same disease, but with two different mindsets.

We don’t erase in a few weeks, in a few months, the consequences of years of negative tendency to think and feel. Often the person who comes to the office has been living for 15 years with a very tragic or anxious tendency to think and to live, and they want to solve this in one month, in three consultations, or with two drugs; but things do not work that way. Also, depression is a type of mental suffering that can have relapse, but a person can pick themselves up and start over with what they’ve already learned, that they know helps.

It is important to believe in the change that can take place in a person’s mind when he is willing to work properly to overcome his mental suffering. If a person really wants to get better, he will get better by practicing these changes in their thought patterns.

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5 Ways to Keep Financial Stress Under Control

September 18, 2022 by Martin Neumann - [rt_reading_time label="Reading Time:" postfix="minutes" postfix_singular="minute"]

Right now, financial stress is causing a lot of turmoil for individuals and families around the globe. Actually, 87% of Americans are stressed about ever rising prices.((Stress in America 2022 https://www.stress.org/daily-life)) While many in the media might downplay it and tell consumers things might not be as bad as they seem, the truth is many are fearful about the economic outlook. Do you know how to navigate your finances in the midst of a financial crisis? This can be an important tool to control your stress in this difficult times.

5 Ways to Keep Financial Stress Under Control

It started with an influx of rising prices for groceries, which were blamed on supply chain shortages. Then gas prices skyrocketed, and blame was put on a distant war. Rent and mortgages are tripling and displacing many people from their homes.

It’s hard to remain calm when you’re finding that your dollar doesn’t stretch as far as it once did. Inflation and recessions are something we’ve been through before, but that doesn’t mean you have to sit idly by watching as your money struggles increase.

Instead, you can be an action-taker who doesn’t succumb to the stress of economic hardships and implement a plan that not only sustains your way of life, but allows you to thrive under poor financial conditions nationwide.

Don’t Be Afraid to Know the Truth About Where You Stand

You can’t stay stress-free if you don’t know the truth about what state your finances are in. Some people actively avoid looking into this because they feel it’s a dire situation and it’s easier to turn a blind eye than to face the reality of it.

There’s a level of guilt and shame knowing you’ve let your finances spiral out of control, but in this situation, you have to set that aside and handle your money so that things don’t get worse and put you in danger of a financial catastrophe.

Start with the roof over your head and the utilities that you need, such as water, electricity, phone and Internet. If you’re spending money on things like cable or streaming plans, jot those down, too.

Next, figure out how much you currently spend on food and gas as well as medical needs, clothing, and other bills. Once you’ve compiled those numbers, go through other debt you make regular payments on – such as retail and credit cards, loans, etc.

Don’t get overwhelmed. This is a starting point for you to begin gaining control over the health of your bank account. You can’t do anything if you’re ignorant to the ruth of the matter.

Make sure you know the total amount due, the date it’s due, the minimum amount you need to pay each month, and the interest rate (if applicable). You’re going to want to meet your monthly needs first then plan for the repayment and pay off of the loans and debt that is weighing you down.

By the end of this exercise, you might feel like this burden is a lot to handle, but now you get to attack the money situation in a way that lets you breathe easy once again, so look to the immediate future from this day forward and don’t harp on what you’ve done in the past.

Know Your Necessities Versus Wants

For many, it’s hard to differentiate between needs and wants. Sometimes, you get so used to having something in your life that you feel as if it’s a necessity, when it’s really not.

You can chalk some things up as necessities easily, like food, electricity, gas, mortgage (or rent), and so on. You might easily be able to mark off a Starbucks or fast food as a want that you don’t really need.

The key will be for you to get tough on yourself and truly identify what’s necessary and what you can do without (at least for the time being). This doesn’t mean you have to always go without something, but you’re tightening up for a temporary pause while you get your financial worries cleaned up.

With the needs versus wants, you’re going to have to make some important decisions. Some things will be defined as a necessity, but the way in which you handle it financially is detrimental to you.

For example, you need clothes. But you don’t need designer clothes from an expensive store. You could get away with cheaper shops, hand-me-downs or even thrifting if necessary, depending on your current financial state.

The same goes with food. You need food – but you don’t need to order Door Dash three times a week from your favorite restaurants. You can plan and cook meals at home on a budget.

You might find working out to be a necessity for good health, but it doesn’t mean you have to keep your expensive gym membership. Instead, you can work out at home or outdoors.

These are decisions that might be difficult for you to explain to the rest of your family. But if you’re in charge of the financial health of your household, it may be a discussion you have to have.

Your kids may feel like they need Netflix, but the truth is, it’s a luxury that not everyone can afford. They may say they need their phone, but they don’t need unlimited text and minutes if you can’t afford a plan like that.

Go through your list to identify what’s necessary and what’s simply a desire to have, and if something is in the necessity column, look for ways you can alter spending to save you money.

Start Operating on a Budget That Works

Budgets are the self-control you need to get yourself on the right track financially. Most people don’t live on a budget, instead spending whatever comes in and hoping they can make it until the next payday.

You have to have willpower and control over what you allow to be spent out of your income. In normal times you should have a three-pronged system where you have money going toward necessities, some toward an emergency fund and a tiny bit toward things you don’t need, but want. If you have debts, you of course pay them back before creating an emergency fund.

Your budget has to fit within your income. So that may mean that instead of spending $250 a week at the grocery store, you only allow yourself $200 or even $175. To achieve these budgetary goals, you’ll need to spend some times planning.

You may need to create an affordable meal plan with rice and beans or pasta dishes that stretch far, fruits that are in season selling for a cheaper price, and store brands instead of brand name products.

If, to date, you’ve allowed everyone to pretty much place an order from the store for whatever meals they want, you might need to start preparing one meal for the entire family that everyone has to eat.

A family working together on meal preparation

Instead of using fresh broccoli crowns, you might use a bag of frozen ones and save money that way. Do the same with every expense you have when you’re preparing a budget.

Allot a specific amount for gas. If that means you can’t drive somewhere, then that’s what it means. You may need to carpool or take public transportation. You can also plan your errands strategically so that you’re traveling in a logical order and not zigzagging all over town back and forth.

If you come to an item in your necessities list and it looks as if your budget has run out already, look over it again and see what can be cut or transformed in terms of spending that will open up new funds for the necessity in question.

Living on a budget can be uncomfortable in the beginning. But the reality is, once you get used to it, you can feel peace of mind knowing you’ve properly planned for your spending in a way where you know your needs will be met.

Get Everyone in the House to Pitch In

When it comes to tackling a financial crisis, this is not a task you do silently on your own while everyone else lives life as usual. It’s important for your spouse and children to be aware of what you’re working on.

It’s important that you approach it the right way. You don’t want to start crying and talking in a panic about how broke you are or how you worry about losing the roof over your head or not being able to eat.

Kids don’t need to know the intricate details. What they can know is that right now, the nation (and world) is experiencing some high prices and limited income, so everyone has to be onboard to tighten up spending and get through this.

When kids know there’s something happening, they will want to help out. They’ll know not to ask for luxuries like a new gaming system or a big birthday party with their entire class being invited to an expensive place.

You can reward their ability to pitch in with ideas such as inexpensive meals the family may all like or family outings that don’t cost a penny. You might take turns letting them choose from this sort of thing so that they feel like they’re assisting mom and dad in their efforts to get through a financial tough spot.

Your spouse will definitely need to be onboard to help. Sometimes, only one parent or spouse handles all of the finances. No matter what the situation is, in terms of debt you’ve accumulated, now is the time to be honest with them so they can be mindful of their spending, too.

They need to know that lunch will be meal prep and not fast food, that the morning Starbucks is off the budget for now, and that now is not the time to upgrading things that can wait.

Because you might be working longer hours or even just stressed from handling the finances, it’s important that you get everyone to help in other ways, too. They can help with chores to allow you to either work on a side hustle in the evenings or do the other things you need to do to work within your budget, like cooking dinner or fixing lunches for the following day.

You might have teens who are old enough to work. If so, let them get a job so that they can begin earning their own money for extra activities or even new clothes if they want something trendy that you can’t afford in that moment.

Make Your Income Grow Steadily

Taking care of your income and spending based on what you have coming in and going out now is a priority. But when the dust settles and you have a budget and plan working for you, it’ll be time to bump up your earnings to take the pressure off a bit.

You may want to look into getting some extra income. Start with your current career. Have you been there long enough or have any qualifications that will make you eligible for a raise? Is there a different position within the company you could apply for in order to earn more?

What about adding on a second job? Some people work more than one job just during tough financial times so that they can afford their needs and wants better. You could have one fulltime job and a parttime job a few hours per week.

If you want to, you can also add a side hustle. This is similar to a second job, but you’re usually working more for yourself or as a freelancer than being a permanent employee who is assigned work hours.

If you have a car, you might want to sign up for companies like Uber, Uber Eats, Lyft, Door Dash and other delivery services or rideshare programs. Even if the payout is not much, you’ll set your own hours and earn money that includes tips.

You can also start your own online business if you want. There are many options for people who may need to be home with their kids in the evenings, but still want to add to their income streams.

You can teach some classes online for kids, and parents will be willing to pay for getting their kids up to par on subjects that they were falling behind. Sometimes they are even willing to invest in teaching their kids some extracurricular skills.

Freelance workers online can do administrative work for companies or entrepreneurs. You can do administrative tasks, ghostwrite content for brands who need things like blog posts, emails and eBooks, or create graphics if you’re good with programs like Photoshop.

You might want to create your own info products like video or text courses. Or, start a blog where you make recommendations for a niche audience where you earn a commission for every sale that goes through. It will take some time to learn the trade of online marketing, but if you get it right, it can give you a steady income.

There are many different platforms you can use to promote something and earn money – including Amazon, Etsy, ClickBank, Share-a-Sale, Commission Junction, Warrior Plus and JVZoo. Don’t sit idly by trying to survive on your current income when there are endless opportunities at your fingertips that can alleviate the financial stress you currently feel.

Now you need to decide how much time you want to spend on extra jobs. If you are threatened by a mortgage foreclosure, you may want to get some extra money at any price. But if you alleviated your debts, you need to decide between some extra income to sustain your lifestyle, or simplifying your lifestyle and having extra spare time to spend with your family.

As a conclusion, financial planning is essential if your finances are tight, and will help you to overcome even a tough economic crisis like we are passing through right now. That will help you quite a bit to get an important stress factor under control.

Do you need a guide to help you understand how to cope with Stress in an all inclusive approach? Learn how to combat stress, mentally, physically, emotionally and strategically in your life.

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