7 Activities that will Help you Heal and Prevent Emotional Illnesses

This is a brief summary of other posts I created about healing and prevention. Check out these tips:

1. Therapy

I can't emphasize this enough. People think that only if someone has depression/anxiety they should go to the therapy. This is nonsense. Psychology has special health and prevention tips for everyone, not only who has an illness. Therapy will also help you heal aspects of yourself that you never knew you needed healing. It is similar to going to a general checkout. Remember it is an act of self-love and self-care, but also, care for others, since you won't be able to be there for them if you get sick, right?

2. Love and support

Do you have an empathic friend or family member? Talk to them about how you feel and they will understand you. They may also remind you of who you are, the things/people you love and treasure, and show you ways of keeping your vibrations on a higher level, by enjoying activities that will make you feel better. If they can support you with your therapy, this will bring amazing results.

If you prefer, you can join support communities on the Internet or chats about those things you love. This will help you get self-awareness since people will provide you with better awareness of who you are for them. Having pets, or loving a hobby is also very helpful.

I also encourage you to open the gates of love from your heart through charity. There is not a single person in the world who can't do charity. You will know exactly what to do to help others when you meet the right opportunity and when your heart tells you "we can help by doing this!" We never know when we can be others' source of love and support.

3. Journaling

This is my favorite one. That's why I'm writing this! Louise Hay talks about "putting on some soft music and letting your mind drift" in her book "Mirror Work". I do this once in a while. It's very useful when you're not being able to go to the therapy or talk to someone. Especially because you don't need to tell anyone a story. You will understand exactly what you're writing about and improve your self-knowledge. If you're not good with words, draw it, dance it, sing it, express it. Then pay attention to your feelings. Talk to yourself.

4. Meditation

Meditation is concentrating on self-growth, cleaning our minds to improve our thoughts, our sleep, turning our feelings into more empathic ones, reduces high blood pressure and stress, and it also changes our brain in long-term, reducing even our sensibility to pain. It's amazing for people with depression and can help prevent anxiety. I would recommend an application called "Daily Mudras" that teaches us in an easy way how to do specific mudras, which are "hand poses" that help in the equilibrium of the elements earth, fire, air, water into the body.

5. Mindful exercises (such as yoga or taichi)

I'm highly inclined to yoga, but there are lots of exercises that can help your self-transformation. They are tools that teach us to find balance in and out, by connecting mind, body and spirit in one and reminding us how amazing is to be a human on Earth.

6. Better nutrition

Poor nutrition contributes to poor health and poor health is linked to many emotional illnesses. If you're looking for self-healing, you can change your choices into more healthy ones. A way of improving this is making an appointment to a nutritionist, researching about the foods that would help in your specific issue, etc.

Also, remember that vitamin D is only absorbed by our bodies when we go outside and get some sunshowers on our skin! Enjoy the sun before 10AM and after 4PM. You'll feel amazing if you do daily stretches by those times beneath sunlight! Give it a try, you have nothing to lose and you won't regret it!

7. Alternative treatments

You can pick your way between hypnosis, homeopathy, sound therapy, reiki and what else you prefer!

Is an act of self-respect, because sometimes traditional therapies and medication does not do any good for specific cases. I hope everyone can find a treatment that can help them heal respecting their needs and in a way that can make them more comfortable.

If you know someone that could benefit by at least one of these tips, share with them these posts! Sharing is caring, spread the light into the world! 

The truth about the "ups and downs"

Have you ever felt that you're at your "downs" for a long time and then you consciously try to "go up", but then you suddenly "go down" again, unconsciously?

Well, it happens that you got used to being down, in a way that it became your comfort zone, but it's not your fault.

There's a video of Seiti Arata, from Arata Academy, where he says that the phrase "going out of your comfort zone" it's being misunderstood. People think they should parachute jump to go out of it, but what Arata says is that it would be easier and healthier to actually stretch your comfort zone, instead of just leaving it behind. 

We all have our own reasons for not leaving a familiar "place", it could be fear of judgment, failure, loneliness, etc. So thinking about all of this, ask yourself these questions:

• How long have I been this "down"?
• How "down" am I, compared to what is "neutral" to me?
• What do I want to set as "normal" to me? (Think about a natural state of being)
• What is a small and simple step I can do today that will help me get up in the long-term?
• What is my main motivation for that? (Remember John Assaraf: Motivation = Motive for Action)

If your normal state never were absolutely good for you, it's time to break up this state of being.

There will always be moments when we are not okay, but we have to stay aware of what is good for us and notice when we are going too deep in our bad moment, so we can live our pain, but not let it become our life. Let's keep our awareness and stand up little by little, so you can reach a place where your comfort zone will be truly comfortable!

Allow yourself to be happy now

Let me give you a piece of advice: Stop feeling guilty of showing a little happiness for whatever reason it is.

Some people may read this and be thinking "What? Why would I feel guilty for being happy?" while some others would think "Expressing happiness attracts jealousy". Well, both are kinda true. But none of them are good reasons for being sad all the time - I mean, by choice.

Yeah, choice. Take a look at this picture:

I already said in one of the previous posts that my family is in a hard moment financially. I've been at home for three months now, not going outside even to go to the supermarket because my mom is doing it since she works next to the market and she can buy stuff only little by little so she doesn't need any help. Obviously, I also don't go outside to save money for our bills. However, my sister doesn't seem to be so concerned about it. She called me to go to the movies to watch the new Aladdin movie with Will Smith, well I love Mr. Smith! But I told her I couldn't spend any money. She asked me why do I waste my youth making a victim of myself. I felt horrible about that, I even bragged her! But then she explained to me that since I lost my job 4 years ago, I've stopped eating well, buying things that are good to me, investing in my dreams and enjoying some nice events. I've been working in lots of irregular jobs and raising my money, but I'm here saving for a rainy day. It's not a bad thing.

But life goes by so fast, we can't deny it. Time is a bird that we can't catch in a cage. It'll fly away. Then we notice we died to pay bills. Of course, we should be prudent, but we can always find balance. 

We are always afraid of being called irresponsible for our acts. However, we should be also responsible for our own happiness. We can't keep on waiting for when we get that job we always wanted, for when we get a raise, for when we get a vacation, for when... whatever!

Be happy now! You can taste it.  It's your life. Your choice. And it's not a hard one. Won't you try?