Our bodies are very good barometers for stress and emotional problems. Mindfulness and Transactional Analysis Coaching and Counselling offer the opportunity to gain deep understanding of ourselves and how we can great emotional stability, wellbeing and resilience.
When you would like to understand how you feel emotionally, physically, how you think and behave, Transactional Analysis offers us a framework to understand why and what you can do. It also offers us effective ways of thinking so that we can make new decisions about how we look after ourselves emotionally and physically.
Mindfulness offers us a strategy in awareness of our focus of attention and how our body reacts subconsciously. If you are aware of your gut reactions or other body responses to stress such as headaches, pain, IBS, Sleep related problems, you are already aware of how your body responds to stress.
I (Belinda Freeman) offer Counselling and Psychotherapy for people who want to change they they want to feel, think and behave. I use Transactional Analysis, CBT and Mindfulness as tools to help you become who you want to be. I work with Individuals and have over 30 years experience of helping people change and manage stress more effectively. Come and enjoy an initial consultation of Mindfulness stress reduction and Transactional Analysis. Available in Central London And Tunbridge Wells Kent. www.relaxation-centre.co.uk www.thethirdspace.com
Namaste
Belinda

Everyone has occasional sleep problems at some time. 1 in 5 people suffer some difficulty getting to sleep regularly and 1 in 10 can’t fall asleep at all!
Many of us have experienced Jet lag, or worry before important occasions and decisions, or disturbances when we sleep away from home.
Evidence has shown that we often underestimate the amount of sleep we have and the length of deep sleep!
A good night sleep is as important as eating and exercise to our wellbeing.

We all have different ways of managing our sleep but are we aware of our own sleep cycle?
We all have our own rhythm of sleep. It varies with age and per person. There is not rule for how many hours sleep we need and this varies from day to day. Your body and mind tell you how much we need. Do you wake up refreshed? Do you go to bed when you are tired? Or when it reaches a certain hour? Do you wake in the night or have difficult switching off your mind to go to sleep?
What can keep us awake?
I have put some of my ideas together from my person experience and my training.

How Poor sleep affects us:
Energy Difficulty staying away when sitting still
Emotional balance Irritability, relationship stress
Reduced productivity Poor concentration, slow reactions
Accidents Feeling sleepy when driving
Feeling disconnected Depressed
Requiring a lot of caffeine drinks to keep yourself going
Ill heath Premature ageing

Better sleep suggestions:
1)Get up and go to bed at the same time everyday even on weekends. Set aide enough time for sleep.
2)Make your sleep environment positive, quiet, comfortable, dark.
3) Avoid using TV, Smartphone, I-pad, Computer while in bed or in the bedroom.
4) Avoid food,alcohol, caffeine and nicotine 4-6 hours before bed.
5) Avoid naps.
6) Exercise everyday for 20-30 mins but avoid 4 hrs before bedtime.
8) Develop sleep rituals- Aromatherapy warm baths, reading, calming tea.
9) Develop mindfulness meditation and make mindfulness a priority in switching off the mind and calming the body.
10) Make notes about tomorrows activities and worries 30 mins before bedtime for 10 mins and them forget them until tomorrow. Use mindfulness meditation to clear your mind. Make sleep your priority.

Reasons why we might have sleep problems
Jet lag.
Too much sleep and not tired.
Hormonal imbalances: Menopause, Ovulation, Progesterone increases before period.
Exercising late in the day increasing adrenaline levels.
Anxiety, Depression,
Stress
Over use of: computer, smartphone, I-Pad,computer games, Facebook, Twitter and social networking and other addictions
Bruxism, grinding teeth,
Apnea.
Hyperthyroidism.
Recreation drugs.
Restless leg. Movement restrictions.
Fibromyalgia, chronic fatigue and pain.
Narcolepsy
Delayed sleep phase disorder
Changes in sleep patterns due to age
Eating, drinking and smoking within 4 hours of bedtime.
Serotonin imbalance
It is always advisable to see your doctor to rule out any clinical reasons for sleep disturbance.

How can we improve our quality of rest and sleep?
Since we all benefit from quality sleep it is useful to have a sleep plan for bedtime and for times when we need to switch off and/or rest.
It is useful to think of utilising CBT theory for problem solving of Thinking , Feeling(emotions), Felt Body sensations and behaviour.. What are we thinking, doing or feeling that we can use to help us decide on an alternative way to improve our sleep?
Often we get angry and frustrated if we cannot sleep. This causes tension in our bodies and we toss and turn, making more difficult to feel Ok and sleep.
Evidence indicates that getting angry with your self, others, anything or sleep makes it more difficult to sleep. Focus on sleep and switch off your mind.

Letting go of worry. If you do not get to sleep or if you wake up in the night, Just enjoy resting and training your mind on the pleasant feelings, thoughts and visualisations .Breathing in relaxation and breathing out tension and thought, and relaxing moment by moment. Think only about relaxing and sleep, let go of tension and keep your body as calm and still as possible. When possible develop relaxation techniques and use all or some of the interventions to keep you mind as calm and quiet to restore your energy and clarity of mind for the next day.

Practice effective daily relaxation patterns.
Be compassionate and accepting of yourself. Be present, in the here and now and take each moment as it comes.
1)Practice Mindfulness meditation and breathing. Practice observation, compassion, acceptance and not reacting to thought, feelings and emotions. Focus only on the moment and enjoying breathing and progressive relaxation.
2)CBH approach: Occupy your mind fully with the process of relaxing. Use progressive relaxation, muscle activation and release, visualisations of relaxing places or scene that are meaningful for your peace and relaxation, relaxing music.
Other interventions:
Use auto suggestion. Eg: Tell yourself you are now feeling sleepy and deeply relaxed and more able to sleep with every out breath etc
Focus your mind on the feeling of sleep, remember what it feels like and just allow your self to image you are asleep and deeply and completely relaxed.
Imagine you have taken a strong sleeping pill and are slowly and gently slipping into a deeply relaxed state.
If you do not go to sleep after 20 mins get up and have a calming tea and read until sleepy.
Do not worry about anything just enjoy the process each breath and observe your thoughts, feelings and urges and do not react to them. There is no right or wrong way. You are training your brain in a new skill. Be patient and enjoy the journey.
Alternatives
If you are having trouble sleeping try these alternative to tranquillisers which are not addictive.
Herbal teas such as Chamomile, Valerian, Sleepy time or night time type calming teas. Lavender essential oil in the bath or a drop on a tissue int eh pillow.
Counselling, Psychotherapy, Mindfulness based stress reduction, Cognitive behavioural therapy or Cognitive Behavioural Hypnotherapy can all help to create changes in pattens of anxiety/worry/depression and nurture effective thinking, drinking, eating and self care behaviours
Try Complementary medicine: Acupuncture, Homeopathy, Herbalism, Nutrition.

Feel free to download the free MP3 from UCLA for Mindfulness body scan for sleep:https://itunes.apple.com/itunes-u/mindful-meditations/id434136047?mt=10#ls=1

Useful sites to gain greater understanding of choice in Sleep disturbance and rest.
www.bbc.co.uk

www.top7business.com

www.sleepdisorders.about.com

www.getselfhelp.co.uk

www.mindfulmind.co.uk

www.patient.co.uk

This is not an exhaustive list as there are many useful resources and research papers on the web.

Belinda Freeman MBACP, MITA, MISM, belinda@relaxation-centre.co.uk 07967027289
Over 30 years experience in Relaxation therapies, Massage, Complementary health care, Yoga, Tai Chi, Chi Gong and Meditation and over 12 years training in Humanistic and Integrative Counselling and Psychotherapy. More recently I have studied CBT, Mindfulness Based Stress Reduction facilitation and training.
Tunbridge Wells Practice www.thewellspringclinic.co.uk
London Practice www.thethirdspace.com 02074397332

What a relief! We can enjoy life more, change our health and rejuvenate by changing our brain thought mindfulness!
Now, what if we fill this time with relaxing and breathing in Joy, awareness, focused attention, compassion, acceptance, observing instead of reacting and equanimity. Training the brain or learning new things is fun and useful for our every part lives. Mindfulness is a process and a skill which we can learn to support our thinking at home, at work, in society and how we influence others in our relationships. We can change gently moment by moment and gradually learn to allow mindfulness to flow into our lives. I offer coaching, counselling and workshops and workplace mindfulness training. e belinda@mindfulmind.co.uk

Harvard Business Review Article
The Science of Thinking Smarter: A Conversation with Brain Expert John J. Medina

by John J. Medina, Diane Coutu
Source: Harvard Business Review

Advances in neurobiology have demonstrated that the brain is so sensitive to external experiences that it can be rewired through exposure to cultural influences. Experiments have shown that in some people, parts of the brain light up only when they are presented with an image of Bill Clinton. In others, it’s Jennifer Aniston. Or Halle Berry. What other stimuli could rewire the brain? Is there a Boeing brain? A Goldman Sachs brain? No one really knows yet, says Medina, a developmental molecular biologist, who has spent much of his career exploring the mysteries of neuroscience with laypeople. As tempting as it is to try to translate the growing advances to the workplace, he warns, it’s just too early to tell how the revolution in neurobiology is going to affect the way executives run their organizations. “If we understood how the brain knew how to pick up a glass of water and drink it, that would represent a major achievement,” he says. Still, neuroscientists are learning much that can be put to practical use. For instance, exercise is good for the brain, and long-term stress is harmful, inevitably hurting productivity in the workplace. Stressed people don’t do math very well, they don’t process language very efficiently, and their ability to remember – in both the short and long terms – declines. In fact, the brain wasn’t built to remember with anything like analytic precision and shouldn’t be counted on to do so. True memory is a very rare thing on this planet, Medina says. That’s because the brain isn’t really interested in reality; it’s interested in survival. What’s more, and contrary to what many twentieth-century educators believed, the brain can keep learning at any age. “We are lifelong learners,” Medina says. “That’s very good news indeed.”

Influence of Mindfulness Practice on Cortisol and Sleep in Long-Term and Short-Term Meditators.

Prevention is always better than cure.

I love the fact that this is not new to our understanding. Socrates created a unique way of behaviours to support behaviour change amongst his followers.
More recently Martin Seligman has written about it. Now Donald Robertson has combined various theories in his book Resilience.
Ultimately we are all learning how to be OK.

I have heard the following many times over the years and still find it enlightening!
Taken from Reinhold Niebuhr’s “Serenity Prayer”

Grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change;
courage to change the things I can;
and wisdom to know the difference.

Namaste Belinda

Mindfully being> Belinda

Meditation is no longer the realm of Yogi’s and loin cloths, but the here and now solution to stress reduction for the working man who has not time to relax!

Meditation is the easiest way to reduce stress and tension! Bonus! It only takes a few minutes!
You can meditate anytime, anywhere, for example: when having a cup of tea, a shower, running, walking, cycling, sitting on a train or plane!
Meditation is about being in the moment.
There are many ways to do this, It’s about the process of focusing, relaxing and being. There is no wrong way to do meditation. You can meditate for minutes or for hours.
It a bit like learning how to driving a car. At first, you develop your awareness of your feelings, thoughts and actions. With a little patience and practice, training your mind is a very satisfying experience. Like switching on a light when you come home at night!

In our busy worlds, the pressure of multimodal communication, to hurry up, be perfect, and be all that you can, can produce subconscious and conscious tension, anxiety, frustration, anger, mood swings, lack of energy, insomnia, IBS, and stress related illness.
We have so much to remember. Our thoughts can go round and round incessantly. This clutters up our ability to think quickly, clearly, stunts our creativity, and our ability to be there for our important relationships.

Many of us have forgotten how to relax and just be ourselves.
Meditation is an opportunity to take back control of our minds, bodies and find peace and happiness in being.
Meditating gives us space to be our selves and silence our inner critic. We can develop wellbeing, resilience, none judgement, awareness, acceptance, empathy, equanimity.
We can reclaim our minds and bodies by using our body and breathing as a barometer for stress. By focusing on our relaxing or breath we can calm our nervous system and have profound effects on our thinking, feeling, behaviour and wellbeing.

Meditating can be fitted into the tightest of schedules. It is a life skill! Make your life easier start today! You probably already have some experience of meditation, its reading a book. Meditation requires daily practise like brushing your teeth.

For example:
Shower meditation. (One of my favorites).
Time: 5-10 mins. You might like to set an alarm for 10 mins.
Set your shower running as normal, get in as normal.

Step one: While under the shower, focus your mind on the pleasant feelings of the warm water flowing over your skin, breathe and imagine the water washing our tensions and thoughts away.

Step two: Think only of this moment, moment by moment. Feel the sense of relief that all you have to do is enjoy this moment. Give yourself permission to take this time to meditate, be as relaxed as you can, and breath.

Step three: Observe your thoughts as they come up, but do not act on them. Think of them like clouds moving in the sky, just passing by, no need to look at them or any action required. You are not trying to empty your mind but fill your mind with this moment and the shower. Practicing being present. If your mind wonders off into your to do list, gently refocus your mind and body back to the moment and enjoying the feelings of relaxing breathing, warmth, water, washing and being.

Step Four
Breathing. There are no special techniques to get confused by. Just be aware of your breathe entering and leaving you nose. You might like to think of it as summer breeze. You can focus on the feeling of the air at the tip of your nose. Or, you may allow each out breath, to an opportunity to enjoy the present moment or an opportunity to let go and relax. In this moment you can allow yourself to just be.

Step Five
Focus. Do nothing. If your mind wanders, gently bring yourself back to breathing, relaxing and the water. It is normal for your mind to wander, You are in training.

Step Six
After some time you might become aware of your breathing and how much slower and more comfortable it is ,and more relaxed you feel. Notice also your heart beat slowing. Observe what it feels like to be I the moment, relaxing. Observe any thoughts that have arisen and how it felt not to act on them. Enjoy your awareness of the benefits of relaxing on your mind and body.
You might like to acknowledge the importance and core value of your emotional, physical and resilient health and wellbeing. Think about how the practice of meditation could deepen and evolve thought practice over time. Imagine how useful this skill could be for you before and during specific stress related situations as a coping strategy.
Now turn off the shower, and continue life being more mindful, in the moment of your emotional and physical state through awareness of your body and breathing.

Mindfulness meditation can be used to manage, stress, anxiety, panic, over thinking, low mood, over and under eating, sleep, pain and many stress related health issues. Enjoy.

Belinda coaches mindful meditation, one to one, group and corporate events
Belinda has over 25 years of experience and training in stress reduction and relaxation techniques. Based in London at the Third Space Medicine.
www.mindfulmind.co.uk
Twitter: mindfulmind
www.thethirdspace.com/home/medicine

Close your eyes or look at the blue sky. Imagine yourself out in the sun.Take a deep breath in and as you breath out, image the warmth of the sun flowing deeply through your body from head to toe, releasing any tension and relaxing you completely. Imagine yourself on holiday, lying on a hot peaceful beach with perfect blue sky. No worries, just breathing and being. Your muscles are heavy and you feel completely calm and happy. Now with your next deep in breath, imagine that warm peaceful feeling and image flowing into your heart and lungs, filling them and staying there! Now every time you breath in or out you are circulation this wonderful state through your mind and body. Enjoy your day! Belinda