When life is ‘the pits’, there are ways to take control and help yourself work out of it. Here are 10.

1. Breathe

Conscious breathing can assist in reducing stress and anxiety. Focusing on your breathing keeps your mindfulness on the current instance and is a common integral part of reflection and meditation, an evident stress reducer. Breathe deeply and leisurely down into your stomach, noticing each breath you inhale and exhale. Make your out-breath longer than your in-breath – breathe in for 3 counts – out for 5.

2. Smile

Smile deep down into yourself and up into your mind – physically smile at the feelings of stress, anxiety or depression – smiling releases endorphins (natural feel good chemicals).

3. Self talk

Give yourself a good, positive self-talking to - give yourself a motivational talk – tell yourself all the good things about you – all the things you’re good at – encourage yourself by reminding yourself that this feeling will pass, nothing lasts forever. Until it does you CAN cope.

The incidence of cyber bulling is increasing – one figure puts it at between around 22 percent of children or young adults in their teens in Australia who has been bullied via electronic communication (it’s not just internet it’s email and other electronic media) .  Communication on the electronic media is very ‘text lean’ and lacks emotional content – the recipient fills in the emotional content themselves’ and this interpretation can be very negative and threatening.  So the bully may not intend to be so mean – it’s how you perceive it.In the case of cyber bullying – the behaviour is protected by:

 

• Anonymity – you can bully someone and they won’t know who you are – you could be on the other side of the world  ( in the US case of the cyber bullying mother the victim did not realise that the bully who drove her to suicide was her next door neighbour)
• The law doesn’t protect you at the moment – our Australian legal system isn’t equipped to deal with it (neither is the US legal system)

So the alternative is to take up your own power to understand it and deal with it.  Try not to hand your power over to someone whether you know them or not.  There are things you can do.

At the end of the first session, I often offer some "First Aid"; this is a small collection of coping skills that I have found most useful as immediate relief from stress, worry and anxiety.  Here is a selection of my "First Aid:" tips - some or all might apply to you.