Practicing Emotional First Aid

Stress means -Reach out and connect with others!

7 ways to do so:

1. Pay attention to emotional pain — recognize it when it happens and work to treat it before it feels all-encompassing.
   The body evolved the sensation of physical pain to alert us that something is wrong and we need to address it. The same is true for emotional pain. If a rejection, failure or bad mood is not getting better, it means you’ve sustained a psychological wound and you need to treat it. For example, loneliness can be devastatingly damaging to your psychological and physical health, so when you or your friend or loved one is feeling socially or emotionally isolated, you need to take action.
2. Redirect your gut reaction when you fail.
   The nature of psychological wounds makes it easy for one to lead to another. Failure can often drive you to focus on what you can’t do instead of focusing on what you can. That can then make you less likely to perform at your best, which will make you even more focused on your shortcomings, and on the cycle goes. To stop this sort of emotional spiral, learn to ignore the post-failure “gut” reaction of feeling helpless and demoralized, and make a list of factors that you can control were you to try again. For instance, think about preparation and planning, and how you might improve each of them. This kind of exercise will reduce feelings of helplessness and improve your chances of future success.
3. Monitor and protect your self-esteem. When you feel like putting yourself down, take a moment to be compassionate to yourself.
   Self-esteem is like an emotional immune system that buffers you from emotional pain and strengthens your emotional resilience. As such, it is very important to monitor it and avoid putting yourself down, particularly when you are already hurting. One way to “heal” damaged self-esteem is to practice self-compassion. When you’re feeling critical of yourself, do the following exercise: imagine a dear friend is feeling bad about him or herself for similar reasons and write an email expressing compassion and support. Then read the email. Those are the messages you should be giving yourself.
4. When negative thoughts are taking over, disrupt them with positive distraction.
   When you replay distressing events in your mind without seeking new insight or trying to solve a problem, you’re just brooding, and that, especially when it becomes habitual, can lead to deeper psychological pain. The best way to disrupt unhealthy rumination is to distract yourself by engaging in a task that requires concentration (for example, do a Sudoku, complete a crossword, try to recall the names of the kids in your fifth grade class). Studies show that even two minutes of distraction will reduce the urge to focus on the negative unhealthily.
5. Find meaning in loss.
   Loss is a part of life, but it can scar us and keep us from moving forward if we don’t treat the emotional wounds it creates. If sufficient time has passed and you’re still struggling to move forward after a loss, you need to introduce a new way of thinking about it. Specifically, the most important thing you can do to ease your pain and recover is to find meaning in the loss and derive purpose from it. It might be hard, but think of what you might have gained from the loss (for instance, “I lost my spouse but I’ve become much closer to my kids”). Consider how you might gain or help others gain a new appreciation for life, or imagine the changes you could make that will help you live a life more aligned with your values and purpose.
6. Don’t let excessive guilt linger.
   Guilt can be useful. In small doses, it alerts you to take action to mend a problem in your relationship with another person. But excessive guilt is toxic, in that it wastes your emotional and intellectual energies, distracts you from other tasks, and prevents you from enjoying life. One of the best ways to resolve lingering guilt is to offer an effective apology. Yes, you might have tried apologizing previously, but apologies are more complex than we tend to realize. The crucial ingredient that every effective apology requires — and most standard apologies lack — is an “empathy statement.” In other words, your apology should focus less on explaining why you did what you did and more on how your actions (or inactions) impacted the other person. It is much easier to forgive someone when you feel they truly understand. By apologizing (even if for a second time), the other person is much more likely to convey authentic forgiveness and help your guilt dissolve.
7. Learn what treatments for emotional wounds work for you.
   Pay attention to yourself and learn how you, personally, deal with common emotional wounds. For instance, do you shrug them off, get really upset but recover quickly, get upset and recover slowly, squelch your feelings, or …? Use this analysis to help yourself understand which emotional first aid treatments work best for you in various situations (just as you would identify which of the many pain relievers on the shelves works best for you). The same goes for building emotional resilience. Try out various techniques and figure out which are easiest for you to implement and which tend to be most effective for you. But mostly, get into the habit of taking note of your psychological health on a regular basis — and especially after a stressful, difficult, or emotionally painful situation.

Yes, practicing emotional hygiene takes a little time and effort, but it will seriously elevate your entire quality of life. I promise.

From: https://ideas.ted.com/7-ways-to-practice-emotional-first-aid/

“You have a responsibility to the people that care about you to be okay!

Your friends and family might love you, and sometimes they don’t always make for good therapists, intuitive, or give you accurate feedback!

“Welcome – Here I am – I needed help too!” -Dr. Sarah Larsen

Approximately one in six adults in the United States experiences mental health issues in any given year, according to the National Institute of Mental Health. Luckily, among those over 44 million Americans are many doctors, celebrities with access to the best, and scientist creating solutions! 

After all, friends and family aren’t always the best source of advice. Plus, there are many benefits of talking to a medical intuitive that you simply won’t get from a non-professional.

We’ve certainly come a long way when it comes to destigmatizing the world of mental illness, stress as the cause of di-ease, and family epigenetics as a major source of illness!.

Today, all generations are viewing therapy  as a crucial part of proactively maintaining their overall wellness’

Listen to psychologist Erika Martinez, (PsyD). “Because of our prevalent medical model and the way insurance is set up, mental health has been thought of as secondary or tertiary care. It’s never been used as preventive medicine. Now, prevention is what it’s all about.”

Is there still an undeniable stigma around medical intuitives and therapist?

Maybe some feel embarrassed to require help beyond what friends or family can provide, or maybe you — like Kanye — just have yet to understand the benefits of paying to talk to someone.

Thinking of reaching out? Please do – We have a free Monthly online meeting on zoom with the best experts with Doc. Dr. Sarah Larsen to help you.

Here are 8 points to consider:

1. Won’t judge you – No one will in our Miracle Making Community or You can count on truly judgment free help!

One of the biggest perks of having those committed to your wellness is that you can talk to them about literally anything without needing to filter yourself. Imagine having no fear of being judged. It’s basically one of the key requirements of the job.

You are beyond lucky if you have friends and family that do not judge you.

Yes, with the right session you too can discover how to keep judgement in check on whatever you’re going through.

2. If someone is selling products- he or she might be biased as that is the solution!

One trukty dedicated to the art of healing should be there to give the best possible guidance to you — and you alone. “The problem with friends, those that sell or advocate for certain products so they often just agree with you to make you feel better and then “push” or recommend a product!

Psychiatrist Scott Carroll, MD. also adds,

“Family, on the other hand, tends to advise you in ways to ‘protect you’ and minimize your risk, or [to] fit their beliefs about morals and how they think life should be lived,” he says.

These are the best-case scenarios. The worst case is that your friend or family member may actually want to control you or keep you in a pathological state for their benefit, he adds.

Follow your inner knowing. Trust your gut and reach out to someone who doesn’t have the same personal stake, so they can be completely honest and objective.

3. Hippocratic oath

While it’s important to only confide in those who you have complete trust in, so you don’t have to worry that something you said in confidence will be turned into gossip or repeated to the wrong person.

4. Doc Larsen retired from Allopathic Medicine to practice what she had at birth.
intuitive abilities sharpened by college, Medical School, Nongovernmental Organizational work as a doctor, seminary. She has over 25 years worth of research and training in Eastern and Western Medicine! Find someone like that

While your friend, may have taken a Psych 101 class, a coaching program etc without a degree, they simply don’t have the tools to help you take action. (And even if they did, they’d have bias). “Your friends and family can listen and provide support, but a clinician is trained to understand your psychological behaviors. They can help you uncover the why,” Cummins says.

And most importantly, they can also give you healthy coping getting to the root cause, so you can change your behaviors, or move past dysfunctional thoughts or difficult emotions, she adds.

5. With a Medical Intuitive, you don’t have to feel guilty about feeling “needy”

After all, you’re paying them (or insurance is)! Any relationship can turn toxic if one person feels like they’re constantly being “used” for support, but never supported in return. With a therapist, it’s not supposed to be a two-way street.

“As a therapist, you don’t expect anything back from your clients, except for them to just show up. With any other relationship you have in life, something is needed in return. If it’s your parents, they need you to be their child; if it’s a friend, they want that friendship back,” says Cummins.

6. Truly getting the impact of your challenge. Most are generational Challenges!

There’s nothing worse than going through a painful or traumatic experience and being told by a friend or family member that you should be “over it by now.”

The fact is, everyone experiences and manages life events differently. A therapist will understand that everyone is on their own timeline when it comes to getting over a breakup, settling into a new job, or processing any other obstacle, Cummins says.

And when it comes to other serious mental health issues like depression or anxiety — or even sub-clinical issues like loneliness or social anxiety — a therapist will never minimize or brush over your issues as not serious enough or worthy of attention like your friends or family may.

7. Talking to the wrong people might make you feel worse

“Some people have really difficult families. It may not be safe to share intimate struggles with them even if they are flesh and blood,” Martinez points out. “Others simply aren’t equipped with the ability to hear your story, and they won’t be able to empathize,” she says.

“When people share intimate struggles with those who haven’t earned the right to hear them, or who make them feel minimized, judged, or deprecated, it can do more damage than good,” she adds.

Of course, talking to select friends and family who do make you feel understood and validated can be helpful, especially if you just need a vent sesh about life stressors, says Carroll. “The irony is that you often have to go to therapy to figure out which of your friends and family are the best to talk to.”

8. They can help you grow as a person

Because of their training, a therapist is uniquely equipped to give you insight into your behaviors that can help you grow in ways that might be impossible on your own.

“For example, in the instance of a breakup, most people think talking to a therapist would be an overreaction. It’s not. It’s one of the healthiest things you can do,” says Martinez. “A breakup is fertile ground for personal growth. Yes, you are emotionally raw and vulnerable, but there’s so much potential there. It’s a chance for people to realize things about themselves they never would’ve realized had they simply talked to friends and family.”

My go-to remedy for emotional distress is EFT (emotional freedom technique).

This tapping procedure is related to accupressure and is quick, easy and doesn’t require anything but your fingers. I’ve been using it with excellent results for almost 10 years.

Are you ready to receive your full blessings and express your untapped potential by releasing your inherited patterns that hold you back and keep you stuck and thwarted?

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