life coaching

15Aug

3 Tips to Handle an Anxiety Attack

August 15, 2016 by

1. Awareness

Many therapists have agreed that when a patient feels a panic attack coming on, it is essential to craft a short checklist to keep in mind while the situation occurs. Although each individual experiences anxiety in a different way, following the below steps is important to maintain some calmness.

Accept the anxiety and try to assess what is going on from an objective standpoint. Try your best to act normal and not let the anxiety overtake your mental state. As difficult as it may seem, do your best to gain control of what is happening.

2. Consult a doctor

Consulting a doctor may be necessary after you notice your panic attacks either increasing or becoming more frequent in your day to day life. It is in your best interests to meet with a doctor on a semi-regular basis. With this in mind, your doctor may prescribe you medication or refer you to a mental health physician for further evaluation.

3. Deep Breathing

Taking deep, consistent breaths is one way to most effectively deal with a panic attack when it comes. While it is common for people to breathe very quickly due to stress, keep in mind that this actually augments the level of anxiety. It is important to practice taking deep slow breaths, even when you are not experiencing a panic attack. In other words, focusing on deep breathing will allow you to relax a bit.

It is important to note that everyone’s panic attacks differ. Consulting a medical professional is highly encouraged as you experience any discomfort. Remember that you are not alone and thousands of other Americans across the country are going through the same issues and experiences as you are. Reading up on how other people cope with anxiety in their day to day lives will also help you try out other ways to improve your emotional or mental health.

20Jun

9 Ways to Successfully Return to Work After a Health Problem

June 20, 2016 by

Regardless of the amount of time you took off to recuperate after a mental health crisis, you need to make sure that you take the necessary steps to maintain your well-being. Working your way back to become healthy again is just as, or sometimes more difficult than actually undergoing the mental health crisis you endured.

However, taking the appropriate steps after an emotionally or psychologically draining event can be overwhelming as you figure out how to assimilate back into the workplace environment.

Seek out help from professionals and stay connected until you have recovered 100%

Gathering enough information from professionals in the psychiatric and psychological fields will allow you to access the point where you are seeing improvement in your day to day. Staying connected with the professionals that guide you in your life is absolutely essential when it comes to making strides to overcome the obstacle you had faced for so long.

Positive thinking

It can be helpful to think about future goals and think less about what happened in the past. Loehr works with a psychiatrist and life coach to focus on where she is trying to go in life, versus focusing on the hurtful situations she has gone through.

As a result, one of the goals of her coaching company is to help spread kindness and provide actual solutions to help prevent people with mental health issues from suffering as much and as long as she did in her past.

Take care of yourself

Often overlooked, simple parts of your routine such as eating healthy (fruits & vegetables), exercising on a regular basis, and communicating with loved ones are vital during this stage of your life. Before attempting to respond to a thousand emails or hopping on an international conference call,

Work is no space for your personal business

While you may have become close with your co-workers, it is also important to maintain a healthy distance and create some boundaries. As the workplace is a professional environment in nature, adhering to this in general is the best way to keep your private life private.

Slowly get back into it

There is a strong chance that both stress and anxiety were primary causes of your work related mental health crisis. In terms of getting back into your job to start this process gradually on both micro and macro levels. Basically, don’t get frustrated or overcommit to tasks or events that you know are not feasible at the moment.

Reach out to people who can help

Although it may be quite difficult, be sure to touch base with loved ones when you are feeling alone or powerless. It is common for individuals to undergo these negative feelings throughout the recovery process.

Getting support from these type of outlets are key ways to overcome any short-lived sadness or rough patch you are going through. Your loved are the emotional foundation in your life and you should receive support from them as much as you can during any hardship you are facing at the time.

Solid work-life balance

Although work is the main priority for many professionals across the country, keeping a solid mental health state by engaging in recreational activities or perhaps taking up a new hobby that you have been wanting to try for awhile. Engaging in activities not only improves your emotional health, but also provides you with a cathartic outlet to showcase another set of developed skills in a new area.

Take medication on a regular basis

If you’re taking medication to help keep your mental health in balance, it’s tempting to go off medication once you’re feeling fine. Although you may feel perfectly fine in the moment, this is no way reflects how the medication is helping you in terms of the bigger picture.

Bad symptoms can come back quickly if you stop taking medication, which can be overwhelming. Not taking medication for a said amount of time can also sometimes lead to another crisis that essentially could be prevented by consulting a medical or healthcare professional.

Take time off as you need to

Keep in mind that taking time off work to battle with a mental illness is no different from taking time off to recover from a condition that affects other parts of the body. Healing one’s mind takes a fair amount of time and convey the importance of personal time off as an essential need when communicating with your employer.

Applying all the above tips will not only guide you to most effectively overcome your most recent mental health crisis, but this will also allow you to better prepare or better yet, prevent a similar crisis moving forward. Be sure to remember that nothing is more important that your health, and it is therefore absolutely essential to take care of yourself in every way possible.

02Sep

Returning The Favor: Protecting Our Veterans

September 2, 2015 by

It takes a special someone to take on the life of a soldier. For most, the risk versus reward is all the deterrent they need from taking on such a dangerous job. And it’s not just the soldiers who endure the rigors of service. Families of our country’s soldiers know all too well the anxiety, the collective holding of breath while their loved ones are away from the safety of home. But what happens when soldiers come home and are denied the support they were promised from day one?

Far too often, our veterans survive war-torn battlefields only to come home and fall victim to bureaucracy. Just one veteran slipping through the cracks is inexcusable, let alone the innumerable cases in existence. The numbers are proof enough of this terrible trend, and with less than 80% of claims being met by the government, the Veterans of our country are being treated to a modicum of the respect they deserve.

With an average turnaround of eight months to a year for meeting claims, recent data shows that nearly 890,000 pensions and compensation for military personnel remain pending. What could be jamming up the gears? With more willing men and women joining our armed forces every day, how can we ensure they won’t fall victim to the same neglect?

Analysts chalk up the lack of attention to a massive increase in the cost of running our military industrial complex. The projected cost of meeting the required benefits of our veterans, whether compensation for the disabled, pensions for low-income families or educational assistance is estimated at $76 billion. This figure is more than triple the amount in 2001, and it stands to reason that as our economy inflates, the funds needed to meet that rising tide would rise along with it. The cost of maintaining the level of veteran coverage in 2022 is estimated to increase another 70%, projecting costs of nearly $130 billion.

Though the rising cost to do business is a contributing factor to the delay in meeting veteran claims, the aging group of surviving Vietnam and World War II-era soldiers require care for the multitude of ailments brought on by old age. Cumulatively, one-third of veterans in need of aid are from Vietnam, exceeding the combined claims of the Iraq and Afghanistan veterans.

Woefully understaffed, underfunded and unequipped to handle the amount of claims flooding their offices, clerks responding to claims are up against a wall. No one would willfully deny a soldier their due, but the ever expanding gulf of inadequate resources on both sides has left a chasm in which countless victims fall. Priorities must return to those who were willing to put others before themselves, lest the public stop caring about the welfare of their country’s military.

Source: http://www.nytimes.com/2012/09/28/us/veterans-wait-for-us-aid-amid-growing-backlog-of-claims.html?_r=0

29Jul

Depression in Teens

July 29, 2015 by

Symptoms of depression arise in people of all different socioeconomic backgrounds, cultures, and ages. Adolescents and teens are not immune to it, especially as they are experiencing a rather unsettling stage of life that includes going through a myriad of physical, emotional, psychological and social changes.

Often teens overreact when things don’t go their way based on unrealistic academic, social and familial expectations that they are either putting on themselves or they are feeling from others. While most of these feelings are normal and subside over time, sometimes it can disrupt their daily lives, indicating a more serious emotional or mental disorder: adolescent depression.

How to Cope

Teens require guidance from trusted adults in order for them to take a firm grasp on the emotional and physical changes they are going through. Most importantly, they need to develop a sense of acceptance and belonging. Here are a few coping mechanisms to avoid serious depression:

Make new friends: Emotionally healthy, stimulating relationships with peers are essential to helping teens’ level of self-esteem as well as providing an appropriate social outlet

Participate: Whether it’s after school activities, sports, or diving into a personal hobby, staying busy helps teens stay positive and focused.

Join youth-organizations: Catering to the needs of adolescents and teens, programs offered can help develop additional interests as well as cultivate more peer relationships.

Recognizing Depression

Despite best efforts and emotional support, teens can and will become depressed. Teens become more susceptible to depression as a result of a family history of depression, unavoidable life events, and even side-effects of certain medications.

Adolescent depression is increasing at an alarming rate, with many of them self-medicating with drug, alcohol and sexual promiscuity. In order to avoid any serious implications, it’s important to recognize symptoms of depression, especially when they last for more than two weeks.

Some symptoms include: poor academic performance, withdrawal from friends and activities, sadness and hopelessness, anger and rage, dysphoria, poor self-esteem, changes in eating and sleeping patterns, substance abuse and suicidal thoughts or actions.

Treating Depression

If left untreated, already-serious depression can become life-threatening, therefore it’s extremely important teens receive professional treatment as soon as symptoms are recognized.

Different form of therapy can help teens understand the underlying causes of their depression while giving them the tools to cope with the stresses of daily life outside of therapy. A wide variety of therapies are offered in different formats, including individual, group, and family counseling.

Recognizing the need for help is a giant step towards recovery for teens, yet few of them actually want to seek out help, and encouragement and acceptance from those supporting them is key.

The most common and effective forms of adolescent depression treatment are:

Psychotherapy teaches teens coping skills while providing an opportunity to explore troubling and upsetting events and feelings in a space space.

Cognitive-behavioral therapy addresses negative patterns of thinking and behaving and provides teens the tools to change those patterns for the positive.

Interpersonal therapy focuses on the relationships at home and school, often focal points in teens lives, and how to make them healthier.

Medication often paired with an additional form of therapy, it can help relieve some serious symptoms of depression.

26Jun

5 Ways to Treat Depression, Naturally

June 26, 2015 by

1. Consider the reasons why your depressed. Being depressed can be a result of the circumstances in your life. Depression is a symptom of the people and things around you, rather than biochemical imbalances. Being honest with yourself about what might be off putting in your life might be the first step into understanding why your are feeling depressed.

2. Exercise. Exercising releases endorphins that produce happier emotions happy-making endorphins. These endorphins act like natural anti-depressants. This process is casually known as “Runners High”.

3. Breakfast is Important. Never skipping a meal will result in keeping your blood sugar stable and reducing mood swings.

4. Enhance your diet with serotonin. You can increase your brain’s serotonin levels by eating foods that boost your serotonin levels naturally. Anti-depressants are not needed to enhance the serotonin level sin your diet.

5. Avoid Caffeine. Supplement coffee with L-Tyrosine (500 – 1000 mg). Caffeine reduces serotonin levels.

Source: https://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/owning-pink/201103/11-natural-treatments-depression-md-s-tips-skipping-the-prozac

15Sep

Life Coaching Growing in Demand in Turkey

September 15, 2014 by

Turkey Life Coach, Esra Doyuk

According to an article recently completed by Today’s Zaman, the number of self-proclaimed life coaches in Turkey is always increasing—growing quickly as a new profession. However, according to Esra Doyuk, a life coach herself, many of her clients don’t even really understand or know what it means to be a life coach. Doyuk is a graduate of Bilkent University, making her among the meager fifty to fifty five life coaches in the country with proper and official training for the profession of life coach; Doyuk acknowledges that, while the profession is steadily growing more popular, and demand for the service in the country is increasing, not many practicing the profession have adequate training to really embark on the career. This is changing, however, as the Official Gazette of Turkey declared life coaching as an official profession on the twenty ninth of June in 2013. The United Nations has also listed the job as one of the most promising professions of the next decade.

However, showing a mere interest in the profession does not equip one to tackle it; there are many misinterpretations of the career circulating in Turkey. Doyuk claims that her profession is often confused with the roles of mentors, therapists or consultants—various professionals who focus on past problems, as opposed to building bright futures. To Doyuk, it is the latter that is the focus of a life coach’s job; the coach is to help in calling forth their client’s own potential by asking focused questions. The proper life coach, to Doyuk, also believes that anyone can get what he or she wants; if one person can achieve a certain goal, it can be done again, by someone else. Fundamentally, life coaches help their clients answer their questions of “how?” Coaches never tell their clients what to do; instead, they focus in on the expressed wishes, and help the client find a way of making it become a reality.

Specifically to Doyuk’s practice, questions were asked as to how her religion plays a roll in her duties as a life coach; she is the only coach in turkey to wear her religious head scarf. Doyuk says coaching and religion fit well together—that coaching urges not to judge or force one’s own morality on a client, just as her religion preaches.

27Aug

Variations in Life Coaches

August 27, 2014 by

Regardless of the variations of Life Coaches, they all set out to better the lives of others in one way or another.

There are many variations in life coaches, from the training they have received, to the experiences that fuel their practices and the fees they charge for their services. According to an article recently completed by the Fort Myers Florida Weekly, Bob Riley is one such variation. He has added the labels of PhD and MBWA to the end of his name, although he acknowledges that he has no formal degrees or training; the letters, instead, represent his experiences, as a “paper-hanging degree,” and that he earned a “masters’ by walking around.” These titles are meant to represent his various work experiences over the course of his years, where he has worked as an aircraft electrician in the Navy, as an operator for the suicide and crisis hotline and a brief time spent running a child care center.

With these experiences, Riley is able to help his clients on a path to self-help, moving forward through talking, not through use of medications. Through meager talking, Riley, and other life coaches are able to help their clients find a much-needed boost in self-esteem and self-confidence.

However, not all life coaches thrive solely on their decades of work experience in other fields. Some life coaches hold certifications, degrees and trainings, particularly in fields related to domestic abuse, finance and addiction. This is the case for Rebekah J. Fero, a financial life coach and certified financial planner based in Port Charlotte. She holds strictly to holding her clients accountable for their own goals. Fero also says that her methods of carrying out regular meetings with her clients is common for coaches; she places calls, which allow for her clients to remain in a comfortable setting while facing the proposition of change. For Fero, to accurately coach someone, the life coach must immerse themselves in their client’s life—a deep understanding of their insecurities is needed to fix the faulty thought patterns evident in the minds of the client.

Another fluctuation between life coaches is salary and fees charged for services. According to statistics provided by the International Coach Federation, the average salary of life coaches worldwide is fifty thousand four hundred dollars. However, the mean salary is closer to thirty thousand dollars, indicating a wide variety in fees offered for services.

13Jul

Knowing Values Key to Fulfillment

July 13, 2014 by

Practice positivity by listing the values that are most important to YOU and trying to live them out each day.

One of the most pulling subplots to the travesty that was the Holocaust is those who risked their lives to shelter the Jews. Some took this a step further, using their positions of power and authority to find ways to allow Jews to escape to locations of safety. One such man was Aristides de Sousa Mendes, a Catholic diplomat who served as the Portuguese counsel general in Bordeaux, France during the war. As Portugal was neutral in the war, de Sousa was in a unique position to grant visas for Jews looking to escape. Despite a law that was in place requiring prior permission before travels were approved, de Sousa and his staff managed to grant thirty thousand visas in the course of three days. For his actions, his superiors with the Portuguese Foreign Office dismissed him of his duties and stripped him of his rank, salary and pension. Regardless of all he lost, even years after the fact, when de Sousa spoke of his actions, he was clearly proud of his decisions.

De Sousa’s example raises a question of the decisions leaders make and the possible actions and reactions. According to an article recently completed for The Huffington Post, leaders face difficult decisions like de Sousa’s every day; granted, not all of these choices are a matter of life or death—and, as a result, the gap between competing values can be less wide—and, therefore, the better choice between the two can become less clear. An everyday application of this gap is provided in the article, as leaders of a family struggle with how to provide sufficient monetary funds for their family and still find time to spend valuable quality time with said family.

The article advises a common practice encouraged by life coaches to help in navigating the gap between competing values. Often, coaches will suggest their clients create a values list, which contains ideals and principles most important to the individual. Some examples provided include caring, decisiveness, being family-oriented and loyal. To develop this list, coaches often guide the author through decisions and times of contentment experienced in the past. Which decisions have provided a sense of pride? Which experienced accomplishments resulted in the most contentment? From this, the client can often discern what their priorities in life are—what they value the very most out of life.