Short messages on Mental health, stress and anxiety issues from Respect Yourself, the guidance site for young people to help make good decisions in life.
Strengthening your connection with nature by spending more time outside in all weathers, learning about the natural cycles of the year and tuning into the sights, sounds and smells of the natural world can help you see a bigger picture that exists outside of yourself.
“Success is not final, failure is not fatal: it is the courage to continue that counts” – Winston Churchill
“There are two ways of spreading light: to be the candle or the mirror that reflects it” – Edith Wharton
“No act of kindness, no matter how small, is ever wasted” – Aesop
“Inner peace begins the moment you choose not to allow another person or event to control your emotions” – Pema Chodron
When we get a clear look at our ways of thinking and feeling, rather than just following their leads unconsciously or semi-consciously, then we respond more consciously and choicefully rather than react on the basis of habit or situational circumstances.
Because mindfulness is about grounding consciousness in the present, the mind is less likely to be captivated by self-generated mental accounts about the past and future, as well as the rumination, regret, anxiety, and other experiences that can dampen the experience of well-being.
By participating in an ecotherapy project, you could meet new people, lessen any isolation and loneliness, and increase your sense of belonging, build your peer support network, create more of a structure to your week, and make connections with people which may develop into long-term friendships.
Ecotherapy can help build your confidence through providing the satisfaction of completing tasks and contributing to positive change for yourself and the environment, and potentially providing opportunities to gain qualifications.
You can use mindfulness principles when doing your normal daily activities, like eating, talking to friends, and exercising. When you notice your mind jumping ahead to worries about what you are going to do next, bring your attention back to what’s happening right now.