From the category archives:

Emotional freedom

Twin monks die at same time

by janette

This is a curious true story of the Romulus and “Rebus “of the Roman Catholic Church. It brings up questions of karmic pre-destiny and identity .

These brothers, identical twins with shared beliefs, natures, interests and professions lived monastic lives . .Did they choose to be born or…
did they choose to depart at the same time ?       Free will and Determinism, Nature and Nurture – all these invented linguistic and philosophical paradigms pale into the realm of intellectual jousting, when faced with the conundrums of the unexplainable synchronicities and so called “”coincidences” of real life.

Their conjoined destinies spiraling in a double helix through the physical and spiritual world, Julian and Adrian took their first and last breaths together.  Is this choice or chance ?  Did they really finish each other’s “life” sentences ?

Reading like a labyrinthine Jorges Luis Borges’ tale, the brothers’ eternal bonding teases our imaginations in a world, where truth indeed gives birth to things stranger than fiction !  Can two truly live as one ?  There’s more to this than our seemingly flat world psychology can explain …

To be continued..in the next world …

Psychologists in Manly treat Depression

by Janette Tombleson

depression-cognitive behaviour therapyMaybe you have less energy , can’t enjoy your favourite activities anymore, or maybe you can’t seem to finish anything you start .  If this is you, you may be experiencing some depression.  These are common complaints of people with depression.

Its easy to cut back on things you do in that state, and it may seem logical or necessary, but beware, this actually aggravates one’s symptoms. One can fall into that dreaded,  dark spiral of even further lack of interest in doing things, increased helplessness and lowered self esteem. Eventually coming to the point of thinking that one is incapable of solving problems.

Continue Reading

Adult Attention Deficit Hyperactive Disorder

by Janette Tombleson

cognitive behaviour therapy-ADHDBeing constantly on the go, which drives others crazy,  can make social outings complicated and can interfere with your work. If you have ADHD as an adult, you may have found that medication may help but just doesn’t do enough to completely control the situation.

A new study in the Journal of American Medical Association suggests that Cognitive Behaviour Therapy can be helpful for coping with symptoms of ADHD.  This form of counselling helps you identify thoughts and behaviours that are counterproductive, provides training in planning, problem solving, reducing distractions and thinking more in healthy ways.

The researchers found that those who received Cognitive Behaviour Therapy improved significantly by the end of 12 sessions.  Improvement was maintained well after 12months too. Continue Reading

Flowers are symbols of awakening

by Janette Tombleson

cognitive behaviour therapy cbt: flowersIf you are going through a really sad time, a period of unspeakable pain, you may be hurting from the cruel taunts of others and are confused or lost, there is help. By just looking around you in nature  can take you out of your self imposed mind torture.

Eckhart Tolle describes the flower as the ” enlightenment of plants’. Seeing their beauty can awaken you to their essential inner being , their true nature. “They are like messengers from another realm” with their fragrance “from the realm of spirit”. An unexplainable happiness, amazement and joy overwhelms us when we really look at a flower. Continue Reading

Shrink or Shaman?

by Janette Tombleson

What’s the difference between psychology and an  medicine man? It’s quite hip these days, to go on a sharmanic journey, adventure into the depths of the amazon into the jungle to seek out a guide, taste  exotic hallucinagenic concoctions, but its all herbal they say, all natural mind you and totally organic!

What do they have in common? they appear to exist on the extreme thresholds of thought. Psychologists have shown us that wounds to the psyche and soul (the original meaning of psychology was the study of the soul) can manifest in physical ailments, dis-ease of the body as well as in the mind. Continue Reading

Maintaining Emotional Health

by Janette Tombleson

We are all familiar and so very aware of the needs of our physical health. Somehow we have managed to overlook what it takes to maintain or achieve emotional health.

Emotional health creates a feeling that one is in tune with their emotions as well as their behaviour. Recognizing the signs of emotional well-being is an important step in knowing whether you are on the right emotional path or if you require a guiding hand.

Signs of Good Emotional Health

* A sense of purpose
* A desire to live life to the fullest
* An ability to have and maintain relationships with friends and family.
* A sense of general contentment
* Good self-confidence
* An  ability to balance work, family and recreation
* The skills to handle lifeís ups and downs

At some time in everyone’s life, there are challenges that arise creating emotional turmoil. No one is free from emotional stress; it is all part of living. There are times however, when the balance and our ability to handle transitions throw us off course.  A sense of being overwhelmed, tired, lost and disinterested seems to take over.

During these times it is so important to reach out for assistance from a trained counsellor. Professional psychological counsellors are trained to deal with these issues and can be an immeasurable help.

Interview and meet with a counsellor to get a feel for “the right fit”. Ask about the methods they use in helping their clients to overcome their struggles. There are many different psychological methods of treatment such as Cognitive Behavioural Therapy, that help you to be in tune with your thoughts and feelings, giving you control of how  you handle them. This can be a very empowering tool.

Remember that good emotional health does not mean the absence of hard times it is more about the resilience and skills which enable you to handle them. Build upon your strength by caring for yourself as a whole person, one who has both physical and emotional needs. The two parts, emotional and physical are interdependent and therefore what is good for one is likely good for the other.

Maintaining Emotional Health

Eating well balanced foods and exercise help to promote both the healthy mind and body.
Make time to spend with people who you enjoy and enrich your life.
Take some down time and relax
Do not be afraid to ask or seek out help if you need it. Allow yourself to experience and feel emotions. Burying them will never work in the long run.

Emotional Health is something to be understood and nurtured; with good emotional health, life will hold endless possibilities and paths. Just as you would seek a professional if your physical health was not up to par, do the same for your emotional health. The right counsellor will get you back on track and give you an objective listener to speak with and that is something we could all use in our lives.

Inner Peace is in Your Control

by Janette Tombleson

Inner peace, the term itself promotes a sense of calm. Imagine what it would be like to control your thoughts; allowing your whole body inner serenity.

It is possible. The ability to teach your mind to focus on specific thoughts and images can bring you into the here and now and keep you from regrets of yesterday and concerns of tomorrow. The concept of mindfulness used in meditation is built on this skill. So, how do you go about keeping your mind on positive thoughts when it seems to have a mind of its own?

Cognitive Behavioural Therapy

Cognitive Behavioural Therapy, or CBT, is a way of learning where your feeling and reactions come from, knowing the source is the first step in taking control. Professional psychological counselling with someone, who is trained and skilled in using this method of therapy is the best place to start.

A client learns to become aware of how their thinking in turn causes an emotional reaction, which then produces some sort of reaction. CBT helps people learn to catch negative thoughts before they manifest as negative feelings and reactions, enabling them to turn off the noise, creating different thoughts that offer inner peace.

The result of learning these skills can bring the sense of quiet within the mind and body. The result is a change in breathing and heart rate, which enables calmness to take over where stress had control.

It is important to understand that change does not happen overnight. Dedication and perseverance are needed to learn the skills of being mindful and bring in inner peace. Anyone can learn to find inner peace at anytime of their life. It is more a matter of realizing that inner peace is hiding beneath all the stressors, that have formed around it. Peeling away those layers is an incredible journey in self awareness.

What does Inner Peace Feel Like

Have you ever watched young children playing? By looking at them laughing and running around, you would think they don’t have a care in the world. The truth is they do. Children have stressors too, but what they also have is an ability to live in the moment. They can let go and be happy and in doing so, it releases endorphins and lends to that feeling of peace and happiness.

Adults can do it as well. It is within the control of each individual to release feelings of fear, aggression, and stress and replace them with feelings of calm, quiet, and serenity; all feelings associated with inner peace. You do not need to be rich, beautiful, or brilliant. What you do need is the wonderful feeling that comes from being content with yourself.

Discover Emotional Freedom and Discover Your Real Self

by Janette Tombleson

Can you imagine a life filled with joy, energy and inner peace? Where each day is a pleasure, and full of satisfying experiences? What if you could transform and clear the build up of negative emotions lurking in your body and mind and discover emotional freedom?

Emotional freedom combines knowledge from psychology, neuroscience, energy work and spirituality to provide a holistic approach to overcoming our negative emotions and replacing them with positive emotions such as hope, energy, courage and compassion. Learning emotional freedom can truly create a life free from worry, fear and anger.

For many of us, our days are characterized by feelings of frustration, hurry, worry and anxiety, as we rush to complete all the tasks and responsibilities on our “To do” lists.  For others, negative emotions such as depression, exhaustion and feeling constantly overwhelmed have completely taken over, which subtly and perniciously reduce their ability to enjoy life.

Learn to Trust Your Intuition
Becoming emotionally free requires that we learn to trust ourselves and our intuition without hesitation and develop a strong relationship with our body.  When we are fully present in our body and not floating off in our minds, we can pick up the subtle cues that our body is providing to guide us and which gives us very valuable information.

Listen to Your Body
When things are not going well for us, we often ignore our body intuition because we don’t want to change or don’t know how to change. For instance, we struggle to get out of bed every morning to go to a job we don’t like or doesn’t satisfy us.  We might have more headaches and increasingly feel more and more exhausted.  This is our body telling us that this situation is not working well for us and  that we need to do something different.

You can practice listening to your body and your intuition right now if you choose.  Make a conscious decision to feel your body right here and right now.  How are you sitting?  What is your breathing like?  Are there any areas of your body that hurt or are uncomfortable?  What emotion are you experiencing right now?

What is your body telling you? Do you need a drink or something to eat?  Maybe a walk around to stretch your legs?  Do you feel sad, or hurt or excited?  Or some other emotion? Listen to the wisdom of your body and do as it is asking. As a result of taking notice of ourselves we are able to shed negative emotions and attain emotional freedom.

Build a Relationship with Your Body
This process of listening to our body is sometimes called “checking in” and the more frequently we do this, the stronger our relationship with our body becomes.  It also enables us to refocus our attention and makes us conscious of being fully in the present moment.

When we listen to, and act on, the cues from our body, the end result is that we move further away from the aspects of our life that do us harm and closer towards those things that are good for us.  Trusting ourselves to do the things that support and benefit us in the long term creates a deep sense of emotional freedom.