Livecreatefeelhappy

Anxiety is a normal human emotion and it is essential for keeping us safe. Anxiety helps us to be cautious when there may be danger, something important or something unknown. This is appropriate and essential. We check to see if it's safe to cross the road and when it is clear, we do. We check to see if the food is cooked properly and when we have checked we eat it. We check that we have set the alarm clock for the morning and then we can go to sleep. This is anxiety doing it's job properly. However, sometimes anxiety ramps up, it gets a little over zealous, a little "jobs-worthy" if you like and decides it is not enough to check once, "What if there is another car coming that you didn't see?" it whispers in your ear, "What if that chicken only looks  cooked?" it murmurs under it's breath, "What if the battery runs out on your clock, what if it breaks in the night, shouldn't you check again?" it whines repeatedly. So wh

Everyone loves the summer time, right? Well, actually that's not true. For people with a negative body image the summer weather can be triggering, creating feelings of anxiety, insecurity and low mood. We are bombarded in the media by images of perfect figures and encouraged to diet and exercise in order to find our "beach body". The pressure is enough to make anyone feel dissatisfied and inadequate. I wonder how we might feel more confident about who we are if the messages we heard about food and exercise were about fuel and health rather than the way we look. Did you know there really is no such thing as "bad" food. Of course there are some foods that are healthier to eat less of but actually these foods still form a really important part of our diet and should be included. Imagine driving a car with little or no fuel, how well would that work out?  How many of us notice and celebrate who we are inside as well as how we look on the outside? What

Expressive Art Journalling Club launches in September 2018! Need time for you? or want to help your anxious teen?  Explore creativity in order to boost well being in a calm, small group (max 6) setting. We will work through activities that will encourage you to develop the skills to use creativity everyday to help with managing stress, anxiety, depression and to aid relaxation. You might even meet a friend or two! The best thing - you don't have to be an artist to be creative! My classes for women and adolescents run weekly 6 week blocks to enable our group dynamic to develop. Venue is a purpose built therapy cabin with free parking.  Classes start in September 2018 and are only £75 for the 6 week block.  Contact me NOW! for more information before you book!  email: racheldurrantcounselling@gmail.com Hope to see you there :) 

May 14th - May 20th 2018 is Mental Health Awareness Week. Over recent years more and more people have begun to talk about mental ill health and so the stigma does seem to be starting to change. However, it can still be difficult for people to know how best to support a loved one when they are struggling. You don't have to know all the answers. Mental health doesn't come as one size fits all. Everyone is different so the best way to support someone is to find out what support they might need. Even if you can't understand how that person is feeling you can respect them enough to listen without judgement. So what helps? Kind words of encouragement and listening to what someone has to say about how it feels to them rather than making assumptions about how they might feel is really important. When someone feels low, they don't expect you to fix the problem and you don't always have to come up with a solution. Instead, being an ear to listen and asking them what t

Last weekend I was on a training course. It's been a few hectic weeks and working all weekend felt a little overwhelming. Don't get me wrong, I love my job and love learning but whenever I go on training courses I end up exhausted in a whole different way to my normal working day! You get me?! It can be hard to remember to look after ourselves when we're busy. I don't know if it's a trait of being a therapist, a trait of being a Mum or just my personality that everyone seems to come before me! Sometimes I have to feel burnt out before I recognise that I've taken on too much and this is not a great trait! So when I was training last weekend and was reminded of the the importance of self care it jump started me back into caring for me.  It was a general discussion when the facilitator reminded us of the rules around oxygen masks on an aeroplane. As anyone who has ever flown will know, we are told to place our own mask on before helping anyone else. Why is

Selfies and filters are everywhere these days. We can take photos easily on our phones and edit and change our view of the world depending on our mood. However, we must not forget the creative element of taking photographs and also the power of using images to express ourselves. Using photography for well being is a tried and tested method and can be used in different ways. Whether it is making a record of positive days in a photographic gratitude journal, taking images to symbolise something of the way we experience the world or simply collecting images to escape to, photography can be a powerful way to help live a happier life. For me, I love to take photos in nature. I suppose I am actually nature obsessed and love nothing better than being wind blown on the top of a cliff top or wandering beneath a woodland canopy. I feel like I can breathe when I am in nature and taking photos allows me to see and remember, sometimes turning my experiences into other artwork that I

Everything seems to be growing at this time of year. Whether it is the blossom on the trees, new shoots peeping through damp soil or the impatient squawking of baby birds waiting to be fed, Spring is synonymous with growth. Children seem to take growth in their stride, changing so quickly from the helplessness of a newborn they learn quickly about the world around them. Infants are innately curious, soaking up their experiences like a sponge. In fact I can't think of any other time in life when we grow and develop so rapidly. What an amazing time of excitement and wonder! When brought up in a loving environment, children are not afraid to take first steps or to ask for their needs to be met instead change and transformation occur naturally. Yet as we get older, transformation gets more difficult. Our fears whisper to us that change is scary and that failure is all we can expect. For some people this stops growth. They may believe that they have learned everything they can and

Memory or gratitude jars are a great and really simple way of helping manage low moods and increase feelings of positivity. When life overwhelms us it can sometimes feel as though everything is hopeless and that nothing will ever change. A memory jar allows us to store thoughts and experiences that can be reflected upon again and again to remind us that bad times do pass and to re-establish balance in our thought processes. So how do you make a memory jar? You will need: A large mason jar (or similar) A pack of coloured post it notes (or small pieces of paper) A pen Additional ticket stubs, photos, mementos from experiences etc. How to: Simply write a memory on the post it note every time you have a positive experience, what it was and how you felt. It doesn't matter how big or small as long as it's something that feels good. Perhaps you could collect mementos of good times and write on those, or maybe you could add photos of when you felt good and surrounde

First FREE worksheet now available. All about how mind maps can help with clarity and focus. To get your copy emailed to your inbox today, click subscribe on my home page and add your name to my mailing list but clicking the drop down menu in the top left hand corner. Get my FREE well being worksheets as soon as I finish writing them! I'd love to hear what you think!

According to Srini Pillar (2010), a professor at Harvard Medical School, when we use creative visualisation or more specifically when we think and feel an experience we stimulate the area in our brain that is used to rehearse and learn. Our brains have 'plasticity' and are capable of change at any age and with repetition new experiences create new pathways in our brains. We are  science; energetic beings made from atoms, neurons and particles that attract 'like' particles; "like attracts like". When we explore these ideas in connection with our hopes and dreams it becomes possible to see what might happen when we believe ourselves to be successful or unsuccessful, powerful or powerless and how this can have an impact on various areas of our current and future life. Creating visual representations of what we would like to achieve can help us become more aware of our thinking and enable clarification and goal setting. However, you don't have to be &#

Life has been a bit crazy of late. Sometimes it can feel like there are not enough hours in the day to achieve all the things I feel that I need to achieve.  I know that this is a feeling echoed by many of my family and friends. I only have to log on to Facebook to see people’s daily lives rushing from here to there. It would seem our lives are jam packed with a range of " must do’s" , so that it can sometimes feel as though we run everywhere,  as though on a wheel rumbling on and on, never stopping. Exhausting isn’t it? When we cram so much into our lives we can sometimes feel overwhelmed by how much we feel we have to do and yet, still we feel that we should be doing more.  This is how it has been for me for as long as I can remember.  Always feeling as though I should be doing more, sometimes I have even found myself feeling guilty if I take time for myself, to relax or to take a pause. Almost as though I am disobeying some kind of cosmic rule! I don’t thin

Recently I saw the film of the moment, the wonderful  The Greatest Showman and   I loved it! Immersed in a colourful world, accompanied by a hugely talented cast with lyrics to inspire (it helped that gorgeous Hugh Jackman is the main character too!). There is something about the messages hidden in the lyrics that has potential to speak to something in all of us. For me, the words from the song " Come Alive"  have got me thinking. How many of us can relate? How many of us stumble through our days, head hung low? How many of us feel like every day is a routine to be endured rather than enjoyed? How on earth do we "shake away" to develop the self belief to follow our dreams? In order to help us navigate life safely, what we believe about ourselves begins developing from birth. Our brains store memories, imagine a library that we can consult as we grow that allows us to match experience to stored memories. When memory connects to positive sensations we are more li

Ever since I could remember, I have loved to create and express myself through art and crafts. Whether it was paint, clay or poetry (there were some seriously dubious attempts to master my teenage angst) I was never happier than when I was lost in my creation, pouring something of myself out into the world. There is a photo of me aged about three; tongue out, in excited concentration, my hair a bundle of wild curls as I scribble furiously across a huge sheet of paper. The photo is slightly out of focus, presumably because my Mum couldn't catch the speed at which I through myself into my art with her 1970's camera (no digital back then).   S omething about this photo makes me smile. My heart feels warm as I look at this little girl so obviously caught up in the joy of her own expression.  There is no pressure here to be good at art or to be tidy and not make a mess. Instead this is a photograph of total freedom.  Free to release the artist within and show how it feels to