Did you know that most people spend more money on alcohol, holidays, clothes and even drugs than they do on their mental health?
Before I became a certified mental health practitioner, I personally experienced various different ways of working on my mind and thought patterns, which inspired me to train and learn more about what I could do with my mind. My journey began with self-help books, meditation audios and also group meditation classes which continued to feed my new-found interest in exploring exactly what I could do to nourish my own mental health. Self-nourishment can feel like an addictive drug. Discovering your limitless power where you take your mind and emotions into your own hands can feel extremely empowering. Are you aware of what you can do for yourself and your own life?
As my enthusiasm grew, my self-awareness changed not only my mindset for the better, but also how I looked at the world, and how I experienced life. I remember a specific NLP book by Richard Bandler which highlighted the way that our minds are structured in terms of how our thoughts are shaped and formed, which lead to the experiences that we have in our reality.
Did you know that most people who have a fear will have a particular representation inside their head that triggers the fear? It could be a playing movie inside their head, a scene or scenario or even a voice inside their head that is quite literally freaking out. Learning about the finer details of my own personal thought processes greatly intrigued me. There was a specific exercise in the book that allowed me to reduce the fear I felt towards dogs. I remember being so impressed that I had been able to change how I felt very quickly, simply from the guidance of a book. This positive shift that I was able to achieve by myself, at home sat on my sofa without a therapist or practitioner, simply from a descriptive process the size of a small paragraph rapidly changed my fear. I then became fascinated in what else I could do with my mind and later signed up on an NLP practitioner training, purely for my own personal development.
Fast forward to the present day and my hunger to learn has led me to train in a variety of modalities that focus around the mind and mental health. I have now worked with a wide range of people all over the world, assisting them in reaching their specific outcomes, goals and life transformations. My initial interest was for my own personal development, there was never the desire to become a practitioner or a coach professionally, I just wanted to personally experience the limitless ways I could work with my own thoughts and experiences for the better. I then got to a point in my life where I felt so inspired by what I had learned over the years that I decided to put the work into practice.
Being inspired by self-help books, my own debut self-help title ‘Your Mind Is Your Home’ (available on Amazon) gives the reader tools and tips for how to have fast mental and emotional relief. Having worked professionally with various people suffering from anxiety, depression, fear, overactive thoughts and even trauma over the years, there are common patterns I have come across that can help you to improve your own mental and emotional health.
- Be aware.
How long have you felt challenged? I’ve worked with people who have sat across from me and have told me that they have suffered with crippling anxiety for 20 years. Just consider all the factors that are affected in your life from experiencing this condition. How is your challenge affecting the way that you live, the people in your life, the work that you do, your quality of life? In your awareness you can consider now, how long you want this to last for, as the sooner you take action, the sooner your life will change. Are you going to suffer at the hands of your own mind for 20 years before you take action or are you going to act today?
It’s also important to become aware that you are not alone. When I first started working with clients, I used to hear people identify themselves with mental health challenges through a voice of shame. They would communicate as if something was wrong with them, something that they couldn’t control and something that they thought only they had. Wrong! So many people experience anxiety. Depression can come and go and stress is a part of daily life. It all comes down to how you deal with what’s happening inside your own head and whether you choose to take action to improve your personal situation. In becoming aware that you are not alone, and that mental and emotional challenges are a part of daily life, you can encourage yourself to find peace within and come to a place of more ease as you realise that you are just like everyone else. The difference for you to consider is that there are people who suffer for long periods of time, and there are people who take action and turn their lives around quickly. What position do you want to be in personally?
Allow yourself to become aware of what help you can get as well as the very many ways that you can work with your mind so that your awareness helps you stay in control. If you hide from taking action and allow your mind to hold on to the challenges that only you experience within, you will feel like a pressure cooker waiting to explode, which will negatively impact various areas of your life. This doesn’t need to be the case.
- Don’t resist.
Stop carrying the weight of your world in your mind. Just imagine yourself carrying around a bucket of water that you hold up with your arms out straight for weeks, months and years. The weight of the water would wear you down and quickly, it wouldn’t be possible for you to hold on. It’s the same with your mind, only the internal mental and emotional weight of your mind can leave you feeling depressed, low on energy and can affect your health in so many ways. From gut issues to challenges with your skin, your body always speaks your mind. Perhaps you’ve personally experienced health challenges that may still be unresolved, which could very well be symptoms of discomfort with your mind and emotions that are being expressed through your body?
Resisting working on your mind can leave you feeling lost within yourself. You may at times feel like you’re drowning in emotions or stuck in the space of your thoughts re-living the past and feeling the painful emotions of what once was. Instead, this doesn’t have to be the case as change can happen fast. If you simply allow yourself the time to tidy up the clutter that’s obstructing you from having smoother and easier mental and emotional experiences, this can lead you to inner peace, happiness and freedom of your mind.
- Put the time and effort in.
We live in a world where we want fast results. Just think about how long it takes to transform your body or to lose weight. Working with your mind, healing painful feelings and memories can actually be a lot quicker, but you must come to understand that you have to put the effort in. You will never walk into a gym to have someone else lift your arms and legs to operate the weights you use. You have to show up, put the effort in and take action. This is the same for everything in your life and for your mind. The effort that you put in, will always determine the results that you get in your life. You can resist and continue to suffer, or you can act and transform your life, quicker than you may imagine.
There are various fast interventions and techniques that can relieve mental and emotional discomfort quickly. I use IEMT (Integral Eye Movement Therapy) with clients and can change how someone feels for the better in seconds. This particular process can relieve anxiety, trauma, fear, as well as feelings including guilt, regret, shame and so much more in a matter of 40 seconds. Yes 40 seconds. I’ve had the pleasure of seeing so many fast changes through this process for the people who choose to show up and take action on dealing with their challenges. After all, you have to put yourself in a position to transform your life as it won’t happen unless you act.
Even though change can happen fast and last, work still needs to happen, and that comes down to you. Whether it’s improving your thought patterns, developing better internal chatter, whatever your goal is, it becomes a daily practice for you to make a transformational lifestyle of developing a better relationship with your mind and with your thoughts. Your mental health care is as important as your dental hygiene although you should work on your mind more than twice a day. Just think about all of the things in your life that you put the effort into; social media, Netflix, the gym, the list goes on…how much time do you give to your mind and your emotions?
- Work with a professional.
The sooner that you understand that there are professionals who can help you and that making your personal care a priority is as important as spending money on a weekend out, the closer you are going to get to having results. People will often fix their car or home immediately. You wouldn’t leave a burst pipe to flood your house for days, you would take immediate action. If you cut yourself or got sick you’d probably go to a doctor. However, when it comes to your mind, you can very easily hold it in and try to ignore it for years. As well as understanding that it’s important to take action, you need to realise that investing in your mental health is a priority. I often hear the excuse ‘I can’t afford it’ but so many individuals have had the realisation they have spent more money on alcohol in their lifetime than they have on their mind. Just think about that. Clothes, holidays, meals out, but nothing on their state of mind.
A professional can offer assistance immediately. Various coaching disciplines from NLP, Hypnotherapy, Mindfulness and IEMT can offer immediate relief to help you release mental and emotional discomfort but also give you coping strategies to deal with any difficult thoughts or emotions. If you find that it’s difficult for you to cope, then seek help. From my experience I have seen people move from traditional talk therapy over to coaching, as they simply found that they didn’t get the immediate help that they needed. Finding a professional to work with can take time and you should encourage yourself to keep going until you find the right person for you. It’s the same with a yoga or fitness class. People often try a class and then another or find an instructor that they like. You wouldn’t give up your whole fitness regime from one experience, so allow yourself time with your mind to find the practice or practitioner that works for you.
As I continue to observe my own thought processes, and in many ways safe guard my mind from falling into the depths of any despair, my advice for you if you are suffering would be to make an investment in terms of time, energy, effort, discipline and also finance in what ways work for you, so that you can come to a place of thinking, feeling and living better.
For more information on my personal therapy and coaching services for rapid life transformations, visit kamranbedi.com kamranbedi.com
For information on becoming an NLP and Hypnosis Practitioner visit mindbodymethod.co.ukmindbodymethod.co.uk