Mental Health Self Help
Nothing is more crucial to your well being than your mental health. But it is a confusing and intimidating subject. Instead of adding to the confusion I am going to share a few simple techniques that almost everyone can use.
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If you don't feel like you can handle your situation, REACH OUT. Send us a message on the site or dial 988 for the Suicide and Crisis Hotline. You are not alone. Among the many thousands of us who are connected, at least one. probably many of us has gone through what you are going through and can help you get to the other side.
If you are feeling stuck, devastated, angry, frustrated, hurt, grieving a loss, any strong emotion... processing through those emotions and working that energy out of your body can help immensely.
The easiest way I have found to get through those emotions, to the other side, is to sit in a chair with another chair in front of you. Think of the situation or of a person that you have strong negative feelings toward and bring that situation or person to the other chair. Say every thought and feeling that comes to mind. Remember that parts of your psyche were formed when you were a child so don't judge what thoughts come up, just think them and feel them. Use a house shoe or a flip flop and beat the chair in front of you, working those emotions out of your body.
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It is going to feel bad when you do it but afterward you will feel huge relief. You may be trading 15 minutes of feeling awful and a day or two of things shifting inside for a huge weight lifted off your mind and when you get the crap emotions out of your body, what fills the space will be peace and then joy.
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Some people are afraid of feeling their emotions. I have friends who have fought on battlefields and carried the corpses of the fallen but won't feel their own emotions. They stuff them down inside and become robotic and methodical. One day they wake up and feel nothing - good or bad. These are just emotions, energy in your own body and once you know how to process them you will master yourself.
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Besides the benefit to you, everyone around you will benefit. If you don't know how to process your emotions then how will your children learn? Whenever I read about a suicide or some person struggling with their mental health it makes me sad because it is totally solvable. While not working through your emotions won't kill most people, learning how will make your life so much richer, more joyful and so much more fun.