Some time ago I commented in a post about trying to post more as a way of getting variety in my life. A noble intention, but life has kept getting in the way, and I found I was tending towards angry, ranty posts due to the frustrations all around.
Suffice to say things came to a head in the last couple of months and I actually booked myself a counseling session with a psychologist.
The session was useful, in that it confirmed a lot of the things I had already recognised, but it’s nice to have them confirmed by a professional. And a fresh perspective on some aspects, being told to have a fried egg for breakfast once in a while was novel <adds bacon to shopping list>.
Why am I posting this? I know I’m not the only one suffering from anxiety and stress, and I want to say:
It’s not a bad thing to ask for help.
Trying to take action is the next challenge, especially when life pressures seem unrelenting: work (still trying to cope with a new job in a different engineering sector), financial obligations (education fees, no social security safety nets, diversifying source of income), long distance relationships, family responsibilities and so on.
That’s how I ended up in the book shop in front of the self help shelves, the top one grabs the attention but my selections were from the lower shelf.
I’ve always considered motivational authors and speakers to be something of a con: telling us the rather obvious and relieving us of our hard earned cash to do so. However, I’ve paid my money and ended up with a couple of books.
Don’t Sweat The Small Stuff has been picked up and put down by me so many times already, now the book shop copies won’t get so dog-eared.
The second one 52 Small Changes For The Mind I hadn’t seen before and its opening change is “put pen to paper,” actually suggesting to keep a journal in one form or another. This blog will hopefully see the public side of the first change.
Onwards, to a more positive future…
Some snippets from the counselling that might be of use to others:
- Sleep more (I normally get less than 6 hours a night)
- Eat better (generally not a problem for me, except that I binge eat when stressed)
- Decompress (use the journey home to eliminate work thoughts, and make time before sleep to eliminate other stresses)
- Exercise (no problem there except when I just can’t be arsed after a bad day)
- Review (What went well? What went wrong? What needs to change for it not to go wrong again?)
Useful link to contacts.
