Stridi

  We all have some poor habits, whether it's: Eating junk. Having one too many lemonades on a school night. Playing that game on our phone at times when we shouldn't. It can become an unpleasant cycle of Cue, Craving, Response and Reward.   But.... did you know that we can use these stages to our advantage?  Habits aren’t just a part of your life – an annoying tendency that you can’t seem to shake. Or a surprising trait that you developed out of nowhere. Habits are developed – often accidentally, but we can also create habits. Creating a habit is very much like learning a new skill. We keep practicing until it becomes natural, or until we reach our desired level of competence. With a new skill, perhaps you just want to be able to perform the activity successfully in one take? Or maybe you want to be able to do it naturally, with barely any awareness that it’s happening.   Developing a habit is similar. The activity in question may be a skill or activity t...

  Breathe in….. breathe out. Prolong the exhale.    Your breath is powerful. It has the power to improve your mood, your mental health and the way that your body functions. That sounds so easy and simple, doesn’t it? There are loads of other simple ways to improve your life. Not just from the comfort of your own home, but from the comfort of your own mind, your own body. Let’s start with your morning routine:   Try and go to bed and wake up at roughly the same time each day. A few minutes either way doesn’t really matter, so if you’re keen on the snooze button then don’t panic just yet. When you wake up, have a glass of warm water with a squeeze of lemon – you can use up to half a lemon if desired, but just a few drops are great too. (Warm water is beneficial by itself too, if you’re not good with the bitter taste of lemons.) Lemon water has a whole host of benefits. From helping to detox the body, to being a natural mood enhancer. Who needs that ...

  Hi everyone, It’s Matt here, and I’m back to share some more tips with you. Today I’d like to discuss perception.  As mentioned last time, my specialist area is NLP – Neuro-Linguistic Programming, which is similar to CBT. A classic NLP phrase is: The map is not the territory.   This phrase means that everyone’s perception is different. Two people can look at the same thing and see something different. For example, you might look out of your kitchen window and immediately spot your neighbours bright red car, followed by a tree which is swaying in the wind. Whereas a friend or family member might look at seemingly the exact same view, but not even notice the car until you point it out to them. Another example, you could make someone a cup of tea, and while one person might rejoice at getting their caffeine fix, another might complain that it's not in their favourite cup and the tea is too milky.  It’s all about perception. Your mind can “delete” things th...