I attended a Cognitive Reprogramming workshop in London last Friday and mental health was a big topic on the agenda.

So why are mental health issues increasing for both children and adults?

Some of the causes we discussed during the course of the day were:

• Bad diet
• Family issues
• Technology
• People feel under pressure to suppress their emotions
• Over-medicating
• Disconnection with the human inner-self
• Negative focus
• Lack of priority around personal well-being

The quote of the day was “Life will bring you pain all by itself. Your responsibility is to create joy” – Milton Erickson.

We can all make significant improvements by:

• Understanding more about emotional intelligence so that you can  manage your own mind. Emotion drives behaviour, so the need to understand ourselves is very important if change is to happen
• Stepping off the treadmill of life and doing more of what makes you happy
• Clearing your mind of negative values and beliefs
• Not comparing yourself to other people
• Working on what is important to you in life and getting the balance right between work and home
• Discussing medication with clinical specialists and making sure that you can feel what is happening around you rather than suppressing your natural emotions via prescribed drugs
• Changing destructive patterns of behaviour by reprogramming cognitive thoughts towards positivity, happiness and what you do want rather than what you don’t want

The secret of change is to focus all of your energy not on fighting the old but creating the new.  By focusing on desired outcomes and the positive strategy to get you there will enable people to achieve success and results.

If you want to make a change in your life and do not know where to start then contact me

Sometimes the best way to get a new perspective is to have a short break. I find it lets me gather my thoughts, take input from new people I meet or who I have known for a while.

This week I’m doing just that.

If you have any ideas for topics I can cover here in the next few weeks – please let me know.

The countdown is now on for many young people as they begin to switch their focus from education into holiday mode. Many may have no plans at all for the extended holidays, and this is perhaps understandable given the long academic year they have just completed.

This week, I have been coaching my students with regards to setting specific (mostly fun) goals to achieve over the summer break and utilise their leisure time wisely.

Some have done this by writing a paper wish list and others by creating an activity spreadsheet considering:

• Priority
• Date
• Costs
• Dependencies
• With who?

Young people quickly understand that planning and preparing in a structured way can be just as important for their holiday time as in their education.

Having fun, being happy and feeling good will assist in reducing stress levels and put them in a positive position for the new school year.

Happy summer holidays to all my students and remember to be open-minded, try new things and do something different. I look forward to hearing all about your exciting experiences and achievements in September.

If you know of someone who requires motivation and direction from a transformational coach then please contact me.

Recently when coaching young people in school I increasingly find them suffering with panic and anxiety. I am faced with this issue on a regular basis and I have some  steps I find useful in coaching students through it:

1. Explaining about panic and anxiety and how it works so that young people understand anxiety as a normal emotion that most people experience in their lives. It is all about what you do that makes the difference and why some can manage it and others struggle.
2. Identifying triggers and symptoms is crucial. The more you know about what causes the anxiety and how it affects your body, the sooner you can take action to deal with it.
3. Coping strategies. Discussing and listing all the various methods means you can go away and practice to find out which ones specifically work more effectively for you and get the best results. Doing it once or twice is not enough – practice, practice, practice!
4. Planning and preparation is key if young people want to keep stress to a bare minimum and at a manageable level. Allowing plenty of time when doing something new and not being on the last minute, doing research to avoid the unexpected and keeping a record to analyse and monitor progress regarding educational needs will help to keep stress levels down.
5. Having fun and making time for doing things that you enjoy. This in itself reduces stress and ultimately leads to happiness which is beneficial for all. Planning activities around things you enjoy for school holidays, weekends and free time gives focus, avoids boredom and  increases motivation.

By coaching my students through anxiety I enable them to create their own action plan rather than me just telling them what to do. The way forward needs to comes from the individual themselves if they are to succeed and obtain their desired results.

If you know somebody that is suffering with anxiety and depression and would benefit from working with me then please contact me.