Principles for mental wellbeing Flashcards
What are Adams 10 principles for mental wellbeing?
Nurture yourself Practice nurturing self talk Learn to still the mind Stay in the present Whenever possible choose right action Practice forgiveness Accept responsibility for our choices Find a purpose in life Learn to love
What are some ways to nurture yourself?
Look at it in terms of how a functional adult would care for a young child.
Look After Yourself
Make sure you get good food and sleep.
Keep work in perspective.
Find time for yourself.
Plan Fun & Relaxing Things For Yourself
You could go to a movie, take a nap, get a massage, plant a garden, buy a pet - whatever you enjoy.
Reward yourself for your accomplishments
Reward Yourself For Your Accomplishments
Remind Yourself of Your Strengths & Achievements
One way is to make a list of things you like about yourself. Or keep a ‘success’ file of awards, certificates and positive letters or citations.
Keep mementos of accomplishments you are proud of where you can see them.
Forgive Yourself When You Don’t Do All You had Hoped
Self-nurturing can be surprisingly hard if you are not used to doing it. Don’t be critical of yourself, when you don’t do it just right.
Self-Nurture Even When You Don’t Feel You Deserve It
“Fake it” until you can “make it.” When you treat yourself like you deserve to feel good and be nurtured, slowly you’ll come to believe it.Naming positive traits
Get client to write everything they like about themselves.
How do you practice nurturing self talk?
Find the origin of the beliefs behind self talk?
Might be worth looking at where they come from at a clinical level → where did someone learn that they are stupid/unlovable?
Identify what are the maladaptive statements in the self talk.
Come up with more nurturing statements.
Start saying them on a daily basis. (fake it to you make it).
Start acknowledging behaviours that support the new statements.
How do you practice mindfulness?
Practice focusing on what you are doing at that moment.
Stop thought exercises.
Make behavioural changes (don’t check emails after 8.30pm).
Plan rest periods.
Meditation
Altered state of consciousness
CONTRAINDICATIONS
Not necessarily recommended for people with major thought disorders – schizophrenia, psychosis.
Meditation types
Breath – concentration is paced on breath, don’t focus on things around you (mindfulness meditation)
Mantra (word/s repeated for their sound quality)
Chanting (Same as mantra but done allowed)
Guided (based on imagery where another person leads the activity)
Movement based yoga
How do you stay i the present?
Reduce rumination
Increase creativity and productivity
Level emotional fluctuations
Reduce stress
Increase potential for “other” experiences
Sensory awareness.
Unlike meditation, find a flower, look at it closely for 2 minutes, what are the different hues of the flower, what are the textures, does it have a smell
Practice observation.
Sit somewhere and observe everything that’s happening, see what’s happening, listen to the sounds, what are the smells, what can you feel, is there a wind blowing, are there noises in the leaves above you?
It’s going to change from moment to moment
Start with a small period of time and extend it
Do activities that do not allow the mind to wander.
Practice stop thought exercises.
Mindfulness meditation.
How to choose right action
We want to choose actions that are good for us, AND good for others
Ask the question
What is right action in this situation?
Can I do it?
50 years from now, will I look back and wish I did something different?
Working with regret.
Evaluate the situation objectively
Did the person know the outcome?
Were they aware of alternatives?
Could they actually have done something differently?
Practice forgiveness
How to practice forgiveness
There are 2 types: forgiveness of self, and forgiveness of others
Self = Guilt
Guilt leads to sadness, depression, Disease?
Others = Anger, Hate
Anger leads to an inability to experience joy
Hate only damages the self
Objective evaluation of the situation
If you did something you knew was wrong, did you know at the time? Were you coerced/forced?
Deal with the emotion
Change the cognitions (easier for others than self)
Penance
If all else fails
You’ve done something bad, go do something good
How to express emotions and move on
Reduces intensity of emotions.
Need to regulate emotions (can’t always be angry/crying), but if we don’t express them they build in intensity
Stops a person becoming ‘stuck’ in an emotion.
Allows a person to experience happiness.
Can’t always be feeling happy, better to express the emotion and then go back to normal
Can’t be happy and sad at the same time, if you want to experience happiness you need to express sadness first
Allows a person to let go of bad experiences.
How do we do this?
Cry if sad
Hit a punching bag if angry
Talk to someone
Writing is one of the best things, write about the problem/emotions/options
How to accept responsibility for your choices
Ask the question ‘how did I contribute to my current situation?’
If resistance, ask in what small ways I contributed to my life.
Write about the situation.
Use of a projective technique.
To help understand a situation and other people’s behaviour, what would you have done.
What would you say to a friend in that situation
How to find purpose in life
Is a protective factor against mental illness/suicide.
Protective against long term detrimental outcomes from childhood sexual abuse.
Only about 50% of people who are abused as a child have real distress
Helps a person find happiness.
Give a sense of fulfilment/achievement.
How do we do this?
Find a need
What are the things you like to do?
Plan it out
How to learn to love
2 types of love: love of self, love of others Beliefs about love are often set in childhood. What we observe. What we are told. What we extrapolate from situations that happen around us. Stop abuse and neglect. Most destructive thing for children Create a loving environment for a child. Give a child a pet. You need to take responsibility of the pet Encourage a child to have friends. Teach a person to love themselves. Stop self abuse. Practice self nurturing activities. Forgive oneself. Find loving people to be in their life. Look at where beliefs about oneself originated. Cognitive restructuring. Penance. Teach a person to love others. Practice forgiveness. Look at where beliefs about love originated. Risk-taking. Learn social skills. Get a pet. Get a friend. Develop a belief in your own self-worth.
