7 Ways Mental Therapy Teaches You To Help Yourself Heal

The purpose of mental therapy is to provide a patient with the means and tools that he/she needs to apply in day-to-day life in order to bring about a positive change. There are 168 hours in a week and therapy session sitting is usually once a week. That means for the remaining 167 hours, a patient is on his own. 

This is the time he/she needs to apply what has been learned during the therapy sessions with the counsellor. A positive effort and honest approach on patient’s end can drastically improve the healing time.

Integrative Mindfulness-Based Therapy (IMBT) has a highly experienced psychotherapist who can be consulted for the mental health counselling in London.

Let us move further and examine few tools that a patient can implement to aid the recovery.

• Pen down your thought

Keeping a journal is one of the greatest tools to keep a track of your mental state. Penning down is known to release pressures and ease you out. Just take out five minutes from your day and pour out your feelings. Be cautious not to get into the judgemental mode.

Just honestly write down about your state of mind, be it happy, sad, agitated, emotional, angry, just about anything that you have been feeling lately. Once you are ready, you may discuss the same with your therapist later on during the session.

• Channelise stress with the positive mindset

Life and situations can get tricky, which can overwhelm you in no time. The best advise a therapist imparts is to keep cool and try to gauge the positive out of the situation. For example, there is a work deadline to meet which is approaching fast. Such a situation is powerful enough to trigger the stress hormones in your body, making you feel overwhelmed. Anxiety coupled with stress can make the situation extremely tough to handle and may lead to a mental break down.

Best way to deal with this is to channelise the stress in a positive direction. Think about how an approaching deadline can help you finish fast and bring the best out of you. Change your mindset and change your outcomes. To know more, consult a therapist for mental health counselling in London.

• Include physical activity in your routine

Every therapist recommends daily walks to their patients. Taking some time out of your schedule and connecting with nature helps to unwind and aid the healing process. Do some light exercises to keep your mind as well as the body in the sound state.

• Keep a list of your favourite people

Talking and venting out your feelings is one of the ways to get around them and is highly encouraged. We all have those special people in our lives who can pep us up in no time. Next time you feeling a little low, immediately connect with your loved ones and have a hearty talk.

Know that your feelings are temporary and there are people around who care and love you. So don’t restrain yourself and reach out!

• Indulge in self-care

When you are feeling crappy, indulge in a self-boosting mechanism immediately. Make yourself comfortable and watch your favourite Netflix series or just go out and get yourself pampered in a salon. You will notice that in no time all the negative thoughts will dissipate and you’ll be back to your happy self.

Feelings are transient and can be easily defeated. Work your ways out to deal effectively with them.

• Curb your drinking

First advice from your therapist is to gradually lower down alcohol consumption. Drinking habit can play hard on your mind, especially when you are undergoing therapies. Gains made during your sessions can easily get lost to your glass of vodka. 

What more? You end up feeling much worse whenever you decide to take those shots. For a healthier mind and body, practise restraint and learn to keep a tap on your drinking habits.

• Follow a bedtime ritual

It is difficult to sleep with ongoing talks in mind. All therapists advice to work gradually on this. Set aside a sleeping time and then religiously follow the same. Try to ensure that all your physical activities come to an absolute halt before your ritualistic bedtime routine. This will slowly prepare the mind to relax.

For mental activities, try watching your thoughts as they appear without being judgemental. You will find them getting dissipated one by one until your mind is free and you can sleep peacefully. This is a gradual process, do not give up! 

All the tools discussed above require an absolute honesty and persistence on the patient's part with a willingness to heal. To know more about mental health counselling in London and to get in touch with the expert therapist, please visit www.imbt.co.uk.