Blog – Page 4 – Odyssey Health Services

5/Apr/2017

walking-across-the-street

Let’s face it, many of us fall victim to spending a lot of time on our phones or tablets. We use them to stay connected through social media, pay our bills, or talk to someone on the other side of the world, but have you ever considered how all of this technology can help you to stay healthy? It’s true, there are lots of apps out there that can help nudge or coach you to be physically healthy, but have you ever considered what apps can help with your mental and emotional health?

As the prevalence of mental health difficulties continues to grow, more and more apps are being developed to help keep you healthy in mind, body, and soul. Below are some of OHS’s favourites to help you check into your mental health on the go.

Calm:

Calm offers gentle sounds to help block out external distraction and allow your mindfulness practice to take you to your happy place. The app and website use different themes from which the user can choose and then offers a variety of free meditations to help reduce anxiety, improve your sleep, and focus on your breath, to name a few. This app is sure to help you de-stress. Check out their website https://www.calm.com or download the app (compatible for both Apple and Android).

Head Space:

It’s like a gym for your mind. Headspace was one of the first wellness apps to target mental health. It is another great app for those new to the art of mindfulness and meditation. The app offers a 10 level ‘course’ where the user is encouraged to practice the 10 minute classes daily to get into the habit of a daily practice. Visit the site, or download the app (compatible for both Apple and Android) https://www.headspace.com/.

Stop Breath Think:

This all-encompassing lifestyle app is the perfect blend of mindfulness, meditation, and compassion building that is both user friendly and fun to use. Use it to de-stress and manage anxiety symptoms or just check-in with yourself. Explore the recommended meditations based on your current thoughts and emotions and track how your mood changes and see if you can find yourself in a more grounded state. Check them out online, http://www.stopbreathethink.org or try out their app, compatible for Android and Apple products.

Happier:

If you are looking to start out with mindfulness, but find meditative practices to be a challenge, Happier might be the app you are looking for. This app will assist you to become present and positive through your day. Receive inspiring quotes, take a meditative break, or share some positive moments in your day with the Happier community. Happier can also double as a gratitude journal, allowing you to record some positive moments from your day and become more resilient to negative thinking. Find it online: https://www.happier.com, or try the app and celebrate the good around you (compatible for both Apple and Android).

Breath2Relax:

This app acts as a portable stress management tool that offers instruction for diaphragmatic breathing or belly breathing. This breathing technique can help to decrease the ‘fight-or-flight’ response in the body as well as stabilize mood. The user can monitor their stress levels using touch screen technology. Download the app on your Apple or Android device, and learn how to manage your stress with your breath.

Optimism:

This app is a great compliment to your in-office counselling, as it helps you to be mindful of your emotions and chart your moods. The app assists you in detecting patterns in mood and helps you to identify triggers that allow you to create a customizable wellness plan to improve coping strategies. The only downfall is that this app is only compatible with Apple products.

ACT Coach:

ACT Coach is best used in conjunction with you face-to-face therapy. The app offers tools to identify personal values and to assist the user to take actions to move towards them. Log coping strategies or practice mindfulness, this free app will compliment your work with your therapist and help you live a values driven life. This app is compatible for both Android and Apple products.

Whether you check out one, or all of the above apps, it is important to remember not every app will appeal to everyone. There are lots more on-the-go resources out there that might be a better fit for you. If you find one you love, be sure to let us know.

Kayleen Willemsen

30/Mar/2017

fading-person

Have you ever felt like your thoughts were swirling so fast it felt like you were becoming caught up in a mind tornado? Have you ever gotten so into your thoughts that you lost track of what was happening around you, and zoned out? If you answered yes, you are certainly not alone! When we experience strong thoughts, feelings, or emotions it can lead to feeling stuck and disconnected from the world around us. This does not mean we are crazy – it’s our body’s natural response to feeling overwhelmed. Grounding involves engaging with our five senses to help return our attention back to the present moment when we feel we are getting caught up in thoughts. The grounding techniques below can help bring you back from feeling stuck and help you return your attention to your environment.

5-4-3-2-1 Grounding

Notice five things you can see in your immediate surroundings, four things you can touch (e.g. your shirt on your skin, your back touching the chair), three things you can hear, two things you can smell, and one thing you can taste. This technique forces you to return your attention to your surroundings, and is one of the most common and effective grounding strategies to use.

Noticing your Points of Contact

Pause and notice all of your points of contact. Notice your feet on the floor, and how your toes, arches of your feet, and heels feel on the ground. Notice your thighs on your chair, and how the chair feels as your legs rest on it. Press your back against the chair if it is not there already, and notice how this feels. Notice where your hands are making contact, whether they are resting on your legs, the arms of a chair, or on a table or desk.

Listening to a Song

Choose a soothing song, and listen with your full attention. Notice the different layers of the music, including beats, instruments, and singing voices. Notice the speed of the song, and whether it is fast or slow. Notice if the song has loud or quiet parts. Notice how the song makes you feel.

Although these techniques do not “fix” the difficult thoughts, feelings, or emotions you may be experiencing, they are helpful in directing your attention to your senses and your environment. It may also be helpful to create a visual reminder for you to practice grounding, such as a sticky note on your desk. These strategies are best practiced daily, even if you do not feel like you are currently in a panic state. The more you practice, the more effective these strategies will be when you do need them.

Kathryn Camacho

24/Mar/2017

Through my work with Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT), I have always found having the discussion regarding primary pain versus secondary suffering not only useful, but usually eye opening for many clients (as it also was for me when I was first introduced to the concept).

As symptoms and uncomfortable thoughts and feelings arise, it is almost second nature for us to try and palliate or rid ourselves of these symptoms as soon as possible! A problem usually arises, though, if there isn’t a simple and easy fix to our unpleasant situation.

When someone has been dealing with symptoms on a chronic basis and they find they feel stuck in their suffering or that their suffering is getting worse, it can be important to begin to decipher the difference between their primary pain and their secondary suffering. So let’s start with that:

Primary Pain: This is the root of the problem. These are the actual unpleasant feelings you would experience inside your body, whether it be feelings of chronic pain, depression, anxiety, etc.

Secondary Suffering: This can be looked at as the havoc/problems the primary pain can cause in your life. This is the additional pain that arises when you resist and react to your primary pain. For example, if your primary pain is anxiety and you cope by avoidance (i.e. not spending time with friends, avoiding your regular gym class, avoiding family events), your secondary suffering would be the loss you experience by not spending time doing these things that bring fulfillment to your life.

Because we live in a quick-fix culture, and things like chronic pain, depression and anxiety may not always be helped by a quick fix, ACT’s approach is to help to reduce and eliminate the secondary suffering. One may not be able to quickly or efficiently reduce their primary pain, but many have found that by reducing secondary suffering by working on completing daily behaviours that bring them closer to the life they want (i.e. still going to spend quality time with friends or attend your favourite group gym class), the volume of the primary pain may eventually turn down, and the even bigger bonus is that doing so guarantees a decrease in their secondary suffering!

This may sound easier than it looks – and that is true – it takes an individual’s commitment and acceptance every day to make choices that bring them closer to the life they want. Strategies like mindfulness can help keep you grounded and accepting of each moment. Continued reflection of your daily choices and committed actions will also help with keeping you on track. Use patience and perseverance to work through making committed actions daily because the reduction in secondary suffering will definitely be worth it!

life-is-the-sum-of-all-your-choices

Jessica Rickus

17/Mar/2017

Have you ever thought about what the world would be like without rules, contingencies, stipulations, regulations, or facts? In my opinion, although it may be fun at times, it would be chaotic, potentially dangerous, full of ambiguity, and disorganized. In a world of about 7 billion human beings, all with very different values, goals, ideas, and personalities, we need structure and boundaries – we need RULES. Rules serve many purposes, but ultimately, they promote safety, protection, peace, fairness, and an overall well-being for all abiders.

Quite understandably our minds, being such a powerful and intelligent organ, instinctively opts for this same safety, organization, and protection. It protects us from danger by reminding us not to run on a broken leg or step in front of an approaching train; it helps us stay organized by telling us that although we may like to go out for lunch, we have a meeting at work starting in five minutes; and it helps us maintain peace or well-being by kick-starting our inhibitions and reminding us of the consequences of our actions, like what may happen if we use physical violence during a disagreement. Unfortunately, however, the mind’s rule-setting, boundary-creating, and protection-ensuring mechanism is not always ‘positive’. It can cause us to unnecessarily restrict our lives and limit ourselves as well.

puzzle-brain Our mind can be quite selfish, although its intentions may be good. When it perceives a threat, it goes into protection mode, as described in the examples above, and it does not often think beyond that. Although this helps us immensely in many of our interactions with the external world, it is when it tries to protect us from experiencing our uncontrollable internal content that it can make us feel, or act, defeated. Our internal content consists of our thoughts, feelings, and emotions. For example, if we struggle with social anxiety, our mind may instinctively try to protect us by encouraging us to avoid feeling this anxiety, which may only be achieved by avoiding any social interactions altogether. If we struggle with chronic pain, our mind may try to help us limit this pain (since it has learned to perceive pain as a threat) by encouraging us to avoid any type of physical activity or movement that may (but more likely will not) cause harm or damage. When faced with difficult internal content, our mind starts to create rules, stipulations, and limitations, which are often statements with BUT’S and IF and THEN’s that we are all very familiar with.

“I want to attend my best friend’s wedding, but I am too anxious” or, “If my anxiety goes away, then I can go to my best friend’s wedding”.

We tend to place a great deal of trust in our mind and we absorb these rules as facts and follow them to the letter, causing us to lose sight of our values and stop acting in accordance with such values. Our mind can convince us that it is more important to protect ourselves from feeling anxiety than to attend our best friend’s wedding, even if the latter is very important to us.

Learning to be able to hear what the mind has to say, but not always listen to its rules is neither easy nor quick. It takes time to be able to decipher between actual threats and perceived threats. Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT) offers a few exercises to help with this. One simple, yet powerful ACT exercise is to replace all self-referential ‘but’s’ with ‘and’s’. So from our example above, we may instead say to ourselves,

“I want to attend my best friend’s wedding, and I feel anxious about it.”

Now the statement is not limiting and is rather a statement composed of two independent facts, the first no longer being contingent on the second.

Try it yourself. Keep record of any ‘but’ thoughts your mind produces, and replace the ‘but’s’ with ‘and’s’. Take the exercise one step further by taking an action that the ‘but’ may have stopped you from taking. For example, in the case of our best friend’s wedding example – attending the wedding despite the anxiety would be the next step.

Janet Marlin

10/Mar/2017

who-ate-my-chip1

Does this scenario sound familiar to you? You sit down to watch TV. During the commercial break you hear the bag of chips calling to you from the kitchen cupboard. You decide to have a handful and return to watching TV. Next commercial break you do the same thing, but this time you take the bag back to the couch. By the next commercial, the bag is empty and you wonder how that could be.

This is one of many examples of mindless eating and you are probably not aware that it is happening. Mindless eating happens when you are distracted by something else so that all of your attention is not on what you are eating or how you are eating. When distracted, we are far more likely to shift into autopilot and overeat and this is one very common reason for weight gain.
who-ate-my-chips

Still not convinced? Clinical studies have examined the effectiveness of awareness and eating. For example, Timmerman and Brown (2012) conducted a study on middle-aged women who frequently ate out at restaurants. The intervention involved teaching the women how to be more “aware” of their choices, hunger, fullness and mindless eating behaviour. The result? The women ate 300 calories less each day.

So, how many times a day are you eating mindlessly? Take a look at this list and check the ones that you regularly engage in.

Driving
Making dinner
Desktop dining
Reading a magazine
Cleaning up after a meal
Watching a movie at the cinema
Talking on the phone
Eating when you are bored, stressed or anxious
Emptying your plate even though you are full
Attending a party or social event

Almost everyone eats mindlessly at one time or another. But if you are struggling with your weight, then it is crucial to know how often you are eating mindlessly and then to do something about it.

Here are 7 tips for eating more mindfully:

Eat for the first 5 minutes of every meal in silence
Designate a place in your home where the only thing that you do is eat
Eat with chopsticks
Don’t eat from a carton – take a serving size and put it on a plate/bowl
Make food hard to get – most of us won’t work too hard to eat
Pretend you are a food critic and you will have to describe how the food looks, smells, feels, sounds, and tastes
Try taking the first 4 sips of hot tea or coffee with full attention

There are many opportunities in a day to practice these tips and we know that mindful eating gets easier and more effective with practice. You will eventually feel more satisfied when you eat.

Enjoy your meal!!!!

Timmerman, G.M. & Brown, A. (2012). The effect of a mindful restaurant eating intervention on weight management in women. Journal of Nutrition Education and Behavior, 2012 Jan-Feb;44(1):22-8. doi: 10.1016/j.jneb.2011.03.143.

Stephanie Corras

2/Mar/2017

The Mondays: A phrase used to describe someone that has a bad mood when he or she comes to work or school on Monday.

case-of-the-mondays

We’ve all been there. It’s Sunday evening, and that inkling of the new workweek beginning in a few hours has crept in. Maybe you feel sad that the weekend has ended, maybe you feel anxious about the to-do list for the week ahead. Even if you love your job, the start of the work week for many of us comes with mixed emotions and often a case of “The Mondays”.

If you have seen the movie Office Space, you may be able to relate the monotony of the waking up to the screaming alarm clock on Monday morning and not wanting to leave the comfort of your bed. In fact, you might argue that a case of “The Mondays” is natural. From an evolutionary standpoint, we have been conditioned to seek out problems as a means to protect ourselves from danger. So it is somewhat natural to seek out what’s wrong and focus on it; however, it is more likely that when thinking about the start of the workweek, this become less of a protective mechanism, and will likely make it more difficult to be happy. The good news is that you can train your brain to shift to a more positive perspective.

Below are some simple tips to help you beat the Sunday Blues and set a good tone for the work week ahead and hopefully cope with a case of “The Mondays”.

Make Sundays enjoyable.

One of the worst things you can do is to end Sunday in a stressed-out mindset, sleep poorly, and start the workweek off on the wrong foot.

Instead, this Sunday, plan to do the Monday preparations earlier on in the day. Organize laundry, choose your outfit, iron and pack your lunch in the morning. If needed, review your work calendar and address emails before 5:00 p.m. on Sundays. That way, you can take some time in the afternoon or evening to do one or two things you actually enjoy. Watch a favourite show, plan a movie night, make a meal you will look forward to, spend quality time with family and/or friends, go for a walk or practice some yoga – anything that you enjoy doing.

Studies have found that when we have something positive to anticipate, we feel better and more optimistic[1]. By simply re-structuring your Sunday to complete the to-do list items earlier on in the day, you are setting the stage to not feel as rushed and finish the day with an enjoyable activity.

Be Present.

Our minds are very good at wandering. Maybe it is during your commute into work, or perhaps while sitting at your desk, you may find your mind wandering to the deadline later in the week, or the meeting in a few hours. Rather than letting it distract you or stress you out, take a mindful moment and practice being present. Tune into your breath, notice your surroundings, and take a moment to reconnect. When we do tasks mindfully, we increase our attention and focus, minimize our risk of errors and you may actually find yourself becoming more efficient at work!

Reward Yourself.

One way to make “The Mondays” better is to treat yourself to something at the end of the day. It doesn’t have to be extravagant or take much effort, but by practicing a little self-care you can give yourself a pat on the back for tackling the first day of the week!

Why not spend some time:

Reading for 10 minutes in your favorite chair.
Make a cup of your favorite tea and savor it for a few minutes.
Listen to music you enjoy (this is one that helps me with my commute home).
Do some yoga or stretches.
Draw a bath.
Really anything that would be a little treat that you can reward yourself with.

End the Day With a Grateful Pause.

If you read our blog on Gratitude a few weeks ago you know how valuable this practice can be. Since many of us are rushing from point A to point B, you may feel like you simply do not have the time for this. The best way to do this is to connect it to something you already do. Try to think of something good that happened during the day before starting your car for your commute home or before you put the key in the door as you arrive home or while cooking or even while brushing your teeth before bed.

All the above are good habits to adopt to help manage stress after the weekend (and especially after a holiday). Start by trying out a few of the above strategies to take back your Sunday and find a cure for a case of “The Mondays”’.

stephanie-corras

[1] Van Boven & Ashworth (2007). Journal Of Experimental Psychology. https://www.psychologies.co.uk/self/life-lab-experiment-mind-2.html

Kayleen Willemsen

23/Feb/2017

meditation

Although gratitude is a well-known concept, it isn’t something that the majority of us bring to mind on a regular day-to-day basis.

That being said, there are many benefits to practicing gratitude in your daily life! There is substantial research on the power of gratitude and the connections expressing gratitude has to human relationships, mood, and overall self-reported wellbeing (Emmons & McCullough, 2003; Rash, Matsuba, & Prkachin, 2011; Watkins, Woodward, Stone, & Kolts, 2003). It is no surprise that gratitude is linked to increased satisfaction in relationships, improved mood, and increased well-being. With benefits like these, why not make it a point to practice more gratitude!

Here are some ways to help you cultivate gratitude on a daily basis:

1. Write down three things you are grateful for each day.

This is an incredibly simple suggestion, but is very effective in recognizing the things in your day you are grateful for.
Write down these things in a notebook or journal, and keep it in a visible place where you will see it. This helps ensure you remember to do it each day!

2. Download a gratitude app on your mobile device, and use it!

Apps can be a great tool because they are easily accessible if you use your mobile device regularly.
Two gratitude apps I have tried are Gratitude 365, and Gratitude Journal. Both of these apps allow you to write short entries in addition to including photos of the things you are grateful for each day.
The homepage of the apps display your entries on your own monthly calendar. This is great to see an overall recap of the things you were grateful for in an entire month.
These apps also include a Reminder feature, so you can set the app to remind you to write an entry each day at a certain time – great for forming a new habit!
As an added tip – it can sometimes be meaningful to do this activity with a loved one and record what each of you are feeling grateful for that day.

3. Express gratitude towards the people you are thankful for in your life.

Write down a list or a letter including the things you are most grateful for about a person who is meaningful to you.
Once you have completed the list, share it with the person, either by telling them the next time you see them, phoning them, or maybe even sending your letter in the mail!
You can check out this video for an example of expressing gratitude towards loved ones: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oHv6vTKD6lg

If you don’t want to commit to any of the above suggestions, watch this YouTube video on Gratitude by Louie Schwartzberg: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gXDMoiEkyuQ

This video is a wonderful reminder of how many things there are to be grateful for each and every day – I hope you find it as inspiring as I did!

Sources

Emmons, R.A., & McCullough, M.E. (2003). Count blessings versus burdens: An experimental investigation of gratitude and subjective well-being in daily life. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 84(2), 377-389.

Rash, J. A., Matsuba, K.M., & Prkachin, K.M. (2011). Gratitude and well-being: Who benefits the most from a gratitude intervention? Applied Psychology: Health and Well-Being, 3(3), 350-369.

Watkins, P.C., Woodward, K., Stone, T., & Kolts, R.L. (2003). Gratitude and happiness: Development of a measure of gratitude, and relationships with subjective well-being. Social Behavior and Personality: An International Journal, 31(5), 431-451.

Jessica Rickus

17/Feb/2017

I would like you to imagine a scale, not the scale that we stand on in the bathroom, but a balance scale with a load on either side. Now I want you to imagine that on one side of that scale is work (career, job, work-related responsibilities), and on the other side is life (lifestyle, health, pleasure, family, leisure time). I don’t necessarily like the common terminology of ‘work-life’ balance because I feel it separates work from life, where, for many of us, work is a very large part of our ‘life’. However, for our purpose here, let’s keep things simple and use the word ‘life’ to represent all that defines our life outside of work.

Most of us struggle to find work-life balance. We have so much piled on the work side weighing us down that it may consume us and we may even feel that we are buried underneath it all. Now go back to the mental image of the scale and picture the work scale filled with all your papers, notebooks, appointments on your calendar, your phone, your computer, and all your responsibilities – of course it is heavy!! It is perfectly normal for this side to be heavy, but it is when the life side doesn’t meet or exceed this weight, that problems will arise.

So how do we keep the scale balanced? How do we make time for what matters to us in both areas? How do we make sure that we are not neglecting one side at the costly expense of the other?

Here are some simple strategies…

ASK YOURSELF

Ask yourself some important questions…

Do you cancel plans with friends because you are too busy with work?
Do you feel like you spend as much time doing leisure activities as you do working?
Do you often work after hours?
Do you think about work as you are trying to fall asleep or do you worry about work-related problems while you are at home?
Do you feel that your conversations with friends and family are mostly about work?
Do you skip some vacation days because there is just too much to get done?
Does your work and income define you?
Do you feel that you have to be perfect at work?
Do your friends or family complain that you work too much?
Do you feel that you have no ‘me’ time because of work?
Does your social circle exist only at work?
Do you feel that you cannot leave any task for the next day?
Do you feel too tired from work to do anything afterwards?

If you answered YES to any or some of these questions, the work side of your scale may have become too heavy, and may be outweighing the life side, therefore, it is time to take a deeper look into what matters to you most and set goals to maintain balance.

The first step is awareness achieved by noticing when the scale is off balance, and deciding what actions will create the equilibrium that you need.

TRY THIS…

NOTICE. Identify what is important to you in each area, and then notice where you are at with respect to living a life that balances those values.

Starting with work, write down 3-5 work-related values. (i.e. commitment, team work, etc.)

Now, take a moment to think about how closely you are living out each of those values at work (on a scale from 0-not at all to 10-completely); Write down your score.

Do the same for the life side. Write down 3-5 life(style)-related values (i.e. enjoyment, quality time with family, etc.) and now give yourself a score from 0 to 10 in how well you feel you are living out those values.

SET GOALS

If you find that either of your scores are not where you would like them to be, see if you can set goals that will help you increase that score. For example, on a 10 point scale with 10 being excellent, if you scored 5 in the life domain, what actions could you take to move you closer to a 10? Could you dedicate more of your time to family or friends? Could you make a commitment to not answering work emails in the evening when you are at home with your family? Can you schedule more leisure-type activities into your calendar the way you would schedule work meetings? If you scored 10/10 with respect to your work related values, that’s great, as long as having a perfect score in this area is not at the cost of pursuing values in your personal life.

I leave you with a simple, yet very important question. What does work-life balance mean to you? We may not all define it in the same way, and so it is important to identify what it means to YOU personally.

Here are some responses I got when I asked friends, family, and colleagues this same question:

“Work-life balance is not having my work intrude on my personal life and having the freedom to come and go as I need to. It means not being tied to my desk.” -Vicky

“Work-life balance is the ability to prioritize one’s personal time as we do our work time – recognizing that it is as important if not more.” – Anton

“Work-life balance means trying to complete my 40 hour work week as efficiently and effectively as possible so that I can enjoy my time outside of those 40 hours with the ones I love or doing the things I care about. I think there are times we all have to be flexible, as from time to time, work may require something more from us, but to me, as long as this is the exception and not the rule, you can still establish a healthy work-life balance.” – Kathryn

‘’It means having the flexibility to do the things I love. More time not working in the summer so I can garden. Fridays off so that I can have a “me” day. I don’t mind working on a Saturday or Sunday at times because it is uninterrupted work time. I also don’t mind working early in the morning and sometimes in the evening. Being able to flex my schedule to spend time with grandchildren is crucial. Having time to travel and unwind. Work is also very important to me so at times it is the priority.’’ – Janet

“To me, work-life balance means giving my all and being the best person I can be at both work and home. It means making compromises and sometimes choosing one over the other temporarily in certain situations. It means taking care of myself so I can give to both areas, and noticing the signs when I feel like I’m burning out.’’ – Kayleen

“Work life balance means making time for the important things in life outside of work hours. I really love the quote “you cannot pour from an empty cup”. It reminds me that self-care is important and in order to do my best at work, I need to take part in other activities that fill me in other ways. For me, that means taking time for walks, working out, practicing yoga, spending time with family and friends and cooking/baking.” – Stephanie

Whenever you notice that you are struggling to maintain a work-life balance and feel that you are missing out on important parts of your life because work has taken over, try some of these strategies to get you back to the balance you desire. If you are having a hard time using these strategies or if they are simply not working for you, consult a friend, family member, or even a professional because losing balance in your life can lead to psychological, social, and even physical consequences. We at Odyssey Health Services Inc. offer private, on-on-one counselling services for anyone looking for help with creating and maintaining a balance in their lives, and living in accordance with what matters most to them.

Kathryn Camacho

9/Feb/2017

As this Valentine’s Day is quickly approaching, I thought I would share some tips on making your celebrations this year, your most fulfilling yet! Through utilizing techniques I have learnt throughout my work with Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT), I hope we can help make this year feel less like a commercial holiday and more like a meaningful and fulfilling day with the one you love!

Tip 1: USE VALUES-BASED DECISION MAKING. I challenge you to try to plan your Valentine’s Day in a different way this year. Instead of planning or buying what others think you should get (including large corporations, and flower shops), I would suggest planning something that perhaps doesn’t even cost much or any money at all, but that would bring meaning and fulfilment to your relationship. Whether it’s actually having a conversation after preparing a home cooked meal together, or taking a hike, or cuddling up to watch your favourite movie together, just try and plan something that is connected to what matters to the both of you!

Tip 2: USE MINDFULNESS- I encourage the use of mindfulness as much as possible throughout your time together. Instead of getting caught up in your thoughts about something stressful that happened at work earlier that day or something you have to make sure you get done the next, try and keep yourself grounded throughout each moment of your day. Engage your senses, notice the things you can see, feel, hear, and smell and bring yourself back to focusing on your breath whenever you find yourself not in the moment. Just try and stop to smell the roses (pun intended) during your quality time together!

Tip 3: USE GRATITUDE- Lastly, show gratitude. Don’t be afraid to express your thanks, appreciation, love and respect to your loved one. This can be simple but can have quite an impact on your relationship!

I hope you can use the combination of these tips to help make not only this Valentine’s Day, but each and every day to come thereafter, your best yet!

kathryn-camacho1

Michelle Urbanc

1/Feb/2017

This week there is no blog because we have been working hard to launch our FIRST OHS Newsletter! Stay up to date and in the loop on what OHS is planning for this year! Also, take a look back at 2016 to see what we have accomplished!

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Newer Posts

Older Posts

Latest News & Updates

Mental Health To Go: A Review of our Favourite Apps

Grounding: Calming the “Mind Tornado”

Reducing the Suffering

Replacing But’s with And’s

Who Ate My Chips?

Coping with a case of “The Mondays”

Gratitude: What Are You Thankful For?

‘Stuck’ at Work Even When You’re at Home?

3 QUICK TIPS on how to make this Valentine’s Day your BEST yet!

OHS News 2017

The Price of Admission to a Meaningful Life

How to Get the Most out of Your Relationships

Finding Self-Compassion

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