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Tag: personal development

How to Manage Moving Out for The First Time

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So, the time has come; you’ve decided to move out and start your own life.  

It can be extremely difficult to move out mentally. It’s a new fresh start to move out of your guardian’s house, and it means letting go of your past. Despite how difficult it can seem and feel, it is healthy for your mind. You will have a lot of freedom. Every decision is now yours, and you are responsible for everything yourself now. 

This article is going to help you in many ways, from preparing mentally for your move, to the positives and negatives of having full responsibility.  

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It can be a daunting experience, but once you have moved out, things should get better! 

Why You May Want to Move Out 

Before delving further into the topic; you need to understand the groundwork of your need to move out.  

There are numerous different mental issues at home that can affect your need to move: 

  • Toxic environment 
  • Unsafe 
  • Outgrowing home 
  • Too much responsibility 
  • General attitude to move 
Toxic Environment 

You may be living in a toxic environment; this could be the people you live with or just the general environment itself. This can be unsafe for your mental health and can lead you down a dark path if exposed to it for a long time. It can also affect future social situations if you are around people who do not allow you to be yourself. 

Unsafe 

Your home may be unsafe; this is particularly worse if any siblings, or other residents steal or make life even more stressful for you. This will make you never feel comfortable or safe in that residence, but once you have moved, that negativity is sure to cease.  

Too Much Responsibility  

It may just be that you seem to do almost everything at your home despite not owning it, and not having the ability to decide on aspects of the house. It may be much better to just move out so you then have the same responsibility in your own place.  

General Attitude To Move 

Or simple enough, you may just want to move out to start your own life with your own family someday. It doesn’t always have to be a negative situation that forces you to move out. Especially after university, or working, as you will have the mentality, experience and money to move out yourself someday!  

How To Move Out 

You can move out by using multiple sites online, like: 

Or even local estate agents which will almost always have places on display in windows. 

Usually, one-bedroom places would not be a lot of money but always make sure you have enough money to pay the bond and rent before applying to them. You don’t want to be caught by surprise expenses.  

A furnished location will generally be suitable for someone without a lot of money but it means you don’t exactly own the furniture so you need to be more careful. 

It may also take quite a heavy impact on your bank account due to having to furnish the location, if the location you apply for is unfurnished, with whatever you like but it will be worth it in the end. 

Read Now: 7 Ways to Ease Financial Stress and Manage Your Money 

The Housing Association  

This is an association you sign up to and they will find a place suitable for you to live. It isn’t a guaranteed place but over time they will ask you to go to viewings and they may decide to let you move in there or not.  

It is a council-funded residence so it will be cheaper than a normal location from an estate agent but the drawback is the long waiting list.  

Gathering Supplies 

The thing about moving out is that you can bring whatever you like but don’t forget the essentials; usually, you bring a lot of clothes, a bed, and sort out the basics like electricity, gas and water before moving in. Some people may want to move out ASAP to not have to deal with living at home any longer and some may choose to wait it out for a couple of weeks to get it all set up. It is entirely up to you! 

Mentality to Move 

Mentality is key to being able to happily move out, it’s important to look after it when moving out for the first time. You may not feel 100% ready and that small inkling of regret or overthinking may creep up on you while you are thinking about it. These feelings are normal. It is just your brain realising that things will change once you move out and it can be scary but in a way hopeful.  

Your new home will be yours, and everything within it will be based on you. You may have new routines, and more freedom but obviously, more responsibility within the house in terms of cleaning.  

You have got to learn that every story starts somewhere, instead of you being part of someone else’s story, you are now in control of your own story. Being in control is healthy for your mind and soul.  

Read Now: How to Overcome Your Negative Thoughts 

Only move once you are ready.

 

Positives and Negatives to Moving 

Obviously, there are both positives and negatives to moving out.

Positives:

  • freedom
  • make your own routines
  • no distractions
  • independence
  • privacy

Negatives:

  • rent
  • bills
  • loneliness 
  • responsibility
  • household chores 

Even though these may seem outweighed, it is great to keep these in mind for when you are thinking about moving out or not.  

Don’t blindly jump into the deep end but analyse how you can deal with keeping yourself afloat and getting out of it eventually. 

Other Residents (Pets, Roommates) 

Luckily, there is a workaround for the con of loneliness; This is fixed by moving in with someone, or something. You can move in with a roommate, a partner or a friend as well as bring pets if the residence allows it. It is always great to have friends, and people around you to not feel alone in your thoughts.  

Someone else around the house can also help cheapen the bills, and help with housework but you share the house. So, choose who to move in wisely! You don’t want to end up back at square one. 

Read Now: Why Friendship is Important for Your Health 

Animals are a great morale booster no matter how small or big.

Conclusion 

Hopefully, now you can deal with the thoughts of moving out easier and know that you aren’t alone in your thoughts. People go and have gone through the same situations as you almost every day. It is normal to feel like you are attached to your home and can’t leave but eventually, you need to start your journey into life. 

If you have any further queries, then please contact us here at Ceed today! 

The Importance of Congruence: How to Manage Your Thoughts

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A term you might’ve heard a lot nowadays is how you shouldn’t “bottle up” your thoughts, let alone your emotions. This means that you’re deliberately holding back from expressing a thought. Especially if it worries or concerns you because you don’t wish to face the emotions that will follow.

There are many harmful effects caused by you bottling up your thoughts. Just a couple include: 

  • Feeling anxious. As you’re trying to trick yourself into not confronting what’s on your mind, your anxiety levels will increase. 
  • Developing harmful coping mechanisms. To avoid the thoughts that are bothering you, you may find yourself eating or drinking and, if you smoke, smoking more than before. 
  • Following from the previous point, these habits can lead to not just weight gain or loss, and digestive issues as well. 

This article will explain how you should not bottle up those thoughts by confronting and accepting that you’ve been having them. 

Read Now: A Happy Diet: 9 Foods Proven to Lift Your Mood

Write Things Down

Writing can help you to understand your thoughts.

Although it sounds simple, writing down your thoughts is an effective technique. It’s even proven that it helps create catharsis. 

Whether you’re using putting a pen to paper or typing on a computer, there are several ways in which you could do this. It could be a diary or journal entry, or even a letter to a person who might be bothering you. Remember not to send that letter, as it’s only being used for self-therapy. 

As you write, your thoughts will properly take shape and become a lot clearer to you. They can become more personal than you expect. But writing will help you understand them more and give you a proper idea as to why you’ve been thinking about them. 

Exercise 

At first glance, you might be thinking “if I decide to exercise, won’t I be avoiding confronting my thoughts?”

No matter what method of exercise you engage in or how long you’ll be doing it, you’ll have the space to focus on what’s on your mind. This can be as simple as going for a walk, or going to the gym and lifting weights. Regardless, exercise gives you a chance to reflect on your thoughts and emotions. 

After all, the brain is often likened to being a muscle, so you’ll be exercising that as well as you move around. 

Read Now: Surprising Benefits of Exercise: Confidence and Creativity

Consider Why You’re Bottling Up


Negative thoughts can be difficult to deal with alone.

Sometimes, you are already fully aware of why you’ve been bottling things up. 

There are a variety of reasons for doing this. You could be angry or upset (or a combination of the two) over someone or something, which can cause emotional distress. Thinking about and focusing on these thoughts might feel as though you’re reliving the initial experience that led to you having them in the first place. This can lead to you not wanting to go through them again, but ignoring them won’t make them go away.

By choosing to ignore the problem itself, you’re going to cause yourself numerous harmful repercussions. The biggest side effect of not challenging those thoughts is the increase in your anxiety levels, which can eventually make you feel anxious all the time. 

Express Yourself Creatively

There are times when you just feel as though you want to express yourself, but you don’t want to downright say what’s on your mind. The thoughts can be negative or positive. But, that won’t stop them from being intrusive and possibly distracting you from whatever you’re doing. 

There are many creative ways for you to convey your thoughts and ideas. Some methods include: 

  • Writing: We’ve already mentioned writing a letter or diary entry, but you could also write a story. It doesn’t matter if it’s too short or too long – go for it! 
  • Drawing or painting: It can be a pencil on paper or a paintbrush on a canvas; it will reveal how dedicated you can be when creating something. 
  • Listening or dancing to music: The latter is especially effective, as your moves will help you let out any suppressed emotions you might have. 
  • Cooking or baking: Whether it’s a treat or a meal you’ve always wanted to make, you’ll be surprised by the enthusiasm you’ll have due to the anticipation of seeing the finished product. 

Talk 

A problem shared is a problem halved!

This sounds like the simplest thing to do, doesn’t it? But just saying “I’m sorry” or “I was wrong” is not easy for some people. If you’re an introvert, or you don’t want to confront your thoughts and the connected emotions, then talking won’t be easy for you. 

But, this is the most effective way to relieve yourself of stress. It doesn’t matter who you decide to talk to – it could be a friend, a family member, a work colleague, or even a stranger. Just as long as you speak to someone and say what’s on your mind, you’ll feel the burden go away. 

Read Now: How to Practice Active Listening

This was just a small number of ways to prevent you from bottling up your thoughts. If you’d like to know more on this topic, or perhaps an entirely different one altogether, please contact us today at Ceed. 

Why Hobbies Are Good for Your Mental Health

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It’s very common for people not to prioritise hobbies and downtime. With working or studying full time it’s difficult to set aside time for ourselves to relax and indulge in activities we enjoy.  

Having a hobby is a great way to spend your spare time and unwind from your daily routine. Hobbies can range from learning an instrument, playing a sport, reading, photography or something artistic. 

By setting time aside for hobbies you can help improve your mental health and wellbeing. Research shows that people with hobbies are less likely to suffer from low moods, stress and depression. 

Hobbies allow you to enhance your life! 

What is a Hobby? 

A hobby can be any activity that you do regularly for your own enjoyment. Whether this is something creative, athletic or academic, what matters is that it’s meaningful to you. 

When you dedicate time to voluntarily engage in pleasurable activities, your mental health can benefit. 

Read now: The Valuable Mental Health Benefits of Cold Water Swimming 

Mental Health Benefits of Hobbies: 

Reduce Stress 

Hobbies are a perfect way to distract yourself after a busy day. They provide the opportunity to focus on yourself and release any stress built up from your day.  

Spending time on a hobby can be as simple as finding the time to listen to music. Whatever activity you choose will help manage your stress levels. So, take some time out of your busy day to start painting, or go outside and walk in nature.  

Creativity Boosts Wellbeing 

Partaking in creative activities such as song-writing, knitting, art and musical performance have all been shown to increase positive moods. By pursuing creative hobbies you’ll see an improvement in your mental wellbeing.  

Creative activities also allow you to expand neural connections in your brain, which has been linked to the release of the feel good hormone dopamine. Spending as little as two hours per week on an activity you enjoy can help you live a more positive life. 

Form Connections With Others 

Hobbies that include other people, such as team sports, offer great opportunities to foster social connections and friendships. Having a healthy social life can have a highly positive impact on your mental health.  

Shared experience through hobbies can also enhance your enjoyment of the activity and help you feel less isolated. So, if you’re looking for a new hobby, try something interactive team sport or even joining a band. 

Read now: Intentional Living: How Can it Benefit You? 

A hobby is something that you do for fun or personal fulfilment. 

Tips to Make Time for Hobbies 

A common issue when it comes to investing in hobbies is time. When it comes to how our lives are typically structured, work tends to come before play.  

Although many of us feel like there isn’t enough time in the day for hobbies, there are a few changes you can make to help free up some time for the things you love: 

  • Regularly participating in a hobby doesn’t mean you have you do it daily, a weekly activity will be a lot easier to fit into your schedule. Just an hour or two a week is a great addition to your lifestyle. If you feel you still don’t have the time try saying no more often and putting a hobby higher up on your list of priorities. 
  • It’s easy to lose a lot of valuable time in your day by doing mindless things like scrolling on social media or watching TV. Be conscious of how you’re spending your free time and try to make sure you’re using it wisely.  
  • If you’re finding it difficult to find extra free time, try taking more micro-breaks during the workday. This will help you find the time to do things you enjoy while also increasing your overall productivity. You could use these short breaks to go for a walk outside, listen to your favourite podcast or read a few chapters of a book.  

Read now: Surprising Benefits of Exercise: Confidence and Creativity 

Having a hobby can greatly improve your life. Do some research and find a few activities that interest you and simply try them out. There’s no pressure to stick to anything you don’t enjoy but eventually, you’ll find a hobby that’s suited to you.  

For further advice on lifestyle changes you can make to benefit your mental health, contact our experts at Ceed here.  

8 Ways Everyone Can Benefit from Seeing a Therapist

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Life throws us curveballs sometimes. Everyone will experience challenging situations at some point in their life and talking it through is a healthy way of navigating through it.  Although talking to friends and family is a great option, if you have the means, a professional can benefit you.  
 

Studies show that voicing your concerns can have a therapeutic effect on your brain. By verbalising what you’re going through you relieve yourself of the burden. A professional therapist or life coach can help you work through any issues you may be having in your life. 

Below are eight ways everyone can benefit from seeing a therapist. 

Therapy can help you even if you don’t have a mental illness or a major loss to work through. 
 

1. To process the past 

Events from your past affect who you become when you get older. Events from childhood, past friendships or relationships all shape the person you are today. 

If you’ve experienced trauma or a significant event, going to a therapist can help you work through what you experienced and process your feelings.  

If you have negative feelings about an event or person, a therapist can help you gain perspective. Often, we don’t process big life events as they happen because we simply don’t have the tools to do so. A therapist can give you the tools you need to move past anything you still struggle with. 

Read now: 8 Quick and Small Changes to a Better Life 
 

2. To help you understand your emotions 

If you often experience mood swings or you just don’t understand how to manage your emotions, therapy can help you with this.  

A therapist will help you explore the emotions that come up with life events and personal relationships.  Therapy can guide you to gain a healthy perspective which can lead you to understanding and managing your emotions. 

What you process in therapy doesn’t have to be a life-altering event or even traumatic. You can bring anything into therapy that you want to work through with you therapist and better understand yourself. 

3. To learn healthy coping mechanisms 

A lot of people come to therapy after having used other unhealthy coping mechanisms. People often turn to substances to help them deal with difficult situations. 

But these aren’t healthy long-term solutions. Therapy can help you deal with these issues and learn healthy coping mechanisms. Self-medicating doesn’t help anybody, and it usually leads to more problems. 

Therapy will help you get to the cause of the problems you’re facing. You’ll learn how to cope and communicate in a productive way. 

4. To help strengthen your relationships 

If you’re having trouble communicating with your spouse or loved one, therapy can help. Relationships can be difficult. When partners don’t feel understood or appreciated, it can cause a big strain. 

Couples therapy can help you communicate better and sort through any issues you may be having. Even if one partner doesn’t like the idea, you can go alone. You’ll find it helpful and it’ll provide you with tools for a better relationship. 

Read now: 5 Ways to Strengthen and Improve Your Relationship 

5. To deal with grief 

Bereavement is one of the hardest things you’ll have to face in your life. Losing a loved one hits you hard and there’s no avoiding it. So if you are experiencing the loss of someone for the first time, it can be especially painful. 

Death has a lasting impact on our lives and we aren’t all equipped to deal with the grief of it. Grief counselling can help you cope with your loss and deal with it in a healthy way. 

Group therapy is just as effective as one-to-one therapy! 

6. To help you solve a problem 

If you’re facing hardship in your life and don’t know where to turn, therapy can help. Going to a therapist can help you come up with a solution. 

A therapist can help you gain new levels of perspective. They can help you look at the issue from many different points of view. Once you’ve got clarity and a new perspective, it can help make the problem easier to solve. 

7. So you won’t feel alone 

One of the most common symptoms of mental health issues is the feeling of being all alone. When you suffer from depression or anxiety, it can make you feel like the loneliest person on earth. 

Talking with a therapist about your feelings can help a lot. Having a professional validate you and tell you that you’re not alone can be very helpful. A therapist may also be able to put you in touch with a support group. This can help you meet people like you who are also struggling and help you feel less alone. 

Read now: How to Manage Your ‘Winter Blues’ 

8. To deal with the future 

Life is a rollercoaster, and this won’t be the first or last time you have difficult stuff to deal with. Things like conflict, loss, and sadness will continue to arise as you go through life. 

It’s natural for these things to bring you down and make you feel upset. But therapy can help you with healthy coping strategies. A therapist will help you healthily cope with these things. Then, you can bring this knowledge with you into the future. 

Therapy Benefits Everyone 

There are so many reasons to go to therapy. You don’t need to be suffering from mental health issues, as therapy benefits everyone. Now more than ever, people are willing to open up about their struggles. The stigma against therapy is fading. So if you’re looking to improve yourself, why not give therapy a try? 

For further advice on how therapy can help you, contact our experts at Ceed today.    

How to Better Your Mental Health by Getting Creative

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Everyone is creative – whether it is solving problems or creating content. It isn’t just a case of different jobs being creative or not. If you work in a warehouse for example, you may just utilise creativity in a different way.  

Creativity stems from the imagination of an individual who can improvise, using their brain in any situation to think of a solution. Utilising this creativity we all have, you can engage in many different creative activities to help you mentally, and emotionally.  

There are countless ideas that can sprout if you allow yourself to be creative.

It’s a worldwide “rumour” that creativity lies in the right-side of your brain, however, it lies in both. The right when you are imagining something on the spot, and the left when you are imagining based on something already learned or established. 

Creativity is an extraordinary concept that allows us to build ideas out of thin air. Through mental construction we can form our own creation that we can be proud of. Knowing that you created it yourself can give you a tremendous boost in mood that, if you choose, can lead into a more creativity-oriented mindset. 

Read Now:

Here are a few activities that can help you release your creative energy: 

Creative Writing 

Writing itself has been around for at least 5000+ years, and creative writing has been around for about the same time. One of the first known creative writers or authors in the world was “Enheduanna”, who lived in around the 2200 BCE time period. She was one of the first known poets and authors – she even wrote hymns.  

This is a fine example of how despite having less technology than we have now, ancient civilisations still found a way to distil their imagination, creating something out of nothing. 

In modern times, we have many more ways to be inspired, whether that is by films, shows, music, paintings, games or speeches. There are countless forms of these things out there in the world for someone to begin their own journey on the creative road. 

Creative writing is one way to express an experience, emotion or a fabrication into a story format. It can be the most outlandish idea, or something very realistic.  

Why Write? 

Outputting your creativity can improve your brain’s memory. What’s more, this flow of “venting” out your opinions and experiences will release any negative emotion into what you are writing, like capturing it in a bottle. Connecting emotionally when writing embeds these feelings into the writing, strengthening the bond with it and meaning behind it.  

It’s your own creation – your own opinions, memories and inspiration mixed into a bundle. This makes writing a wonderful outlet for negative emotions, and can even preserve positive emotions forever in a written piece. 

Playing Instruments & Making Music 

It’s only in the past hundred years that music began to get more varied, more experimental and deeper, and it’s now become a part of everyday life. This is because of the dopamine released from listening to music that unknowingly lifts your mood and provides motivation. 

Why Play Music? 

Playing music yourself and learning an instrument can release this creativity and dopamine rush. This in turn strengthens the positive effect that comes with listening to music. This ultimately de-stresses you and gives you many health benefits.  

You can write as complex or as simple music as you like, but no matter what it engages and stimulates your brain. By having a song you can play yourself at anytime at home to express yourself; you basically have a infinite way to stimulate your brain at your disposal. 

Drawing & Crafting 

Express yourself and let yourself have mental freedom!

Artists can come in any form – creativity is a hidden ability in people and we can’t initially tell who is creative. Anyone can ultimately become an artist if they can learn to express themselves through drawing, and art. If they can reflect emotions, and experience and capture this in a drawn format it can inspire other people, and they can understand what the artist is demonstrating by having an open-mind.  

It can be difficult to start learning to draw but as you get better you can start to develop your own style, and way to express yourself. 

Why Draw or Craft? 

Just like other forms of expression, the benefits you gain wouldn’t be something you’d want to miss out on. 

Listening to Music & Reading

This is easier as it doesn’t require you to create content. What it does require is for you to hold an open-mind and envision what you are taking in – whether it is imagining the characters in a book, or letting the sounds of music flow through you. 

Why Listen to Music/ Read? 

Your brain will get engaged with the content and release dopamine that lifts your mood. You can indulge in whatever content you like, whether that’s listening to a happy song or a sad one.  

Relating to the music or story you’re taking in can help you find a solution to how you are feeling. Perhaps relating to a song about depression may open your eyes in some new way. 

Read Now: How Music can Motivate you to Stick to your Exercise Routine 

Conclusion

In conclusion, creativity goes hand in hand with imagination. Anything to do with creativity stimulates your brain in a great way, whether you are drawing, writing or playing music. When you create something, you are allowing yourself to be under control of the creative process. 

It’s like magic how we can create these concepts within ourselves, and the options available to us allow us to have a lot of mental freedom. 

For your next step, read on: How to Uncover Inspiration 

If you need any more help with making lifestyle changes, feel free to contact us here at Ceed today.  

A Beginner’s Guide to Meditation: Less Stress & More Peace

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With the advancement of technology and the impact of covid, it’s easier than ever to become disconnected from ourselves. So, it’s important to find time to centre our emotions, and look inwards to create positive changes in our mindset. 

Meditation is a tried and tested method of looking inward and understanding ourselves. Used for centuries in religious and spiritual practices, it provides space to increase self-awareness, and redirect negative thoughts.   

Meditation uses wellness and mindfulness techniques to enhance our outlook on life. It’s often used to reduce stress, help sleep patterns and increase pain tolerance.  

You can include meditation as part of a daily routine, use it as a quick stress reliever, or a way to centre emotions. You don’t need loads of time to meditate, as it can be adapted to suit you and your needs. 

Meditation has many physical, emotional and mental benefits.

How Do You Meditate? 

There are many different forms meditation can take, and each has its own benefits. The form that is most suited to you depends on what you hope to gain from meditating. 

  • Guided meditation includes a teacher to help you through the steps of meditation, explaining how the mind works and how each step is beneficial to you.  
  • Mantra meditation works by focusing on a specific mantra, such as a word or sound, to let the subtle vibrations create positive change and help you reach a deep state of meditation.  
  • Mindfulness encourages awareness of your surroundings by engaging and focusing on all of your senses without judgment. 
  • Qi gong is a Chinese practice that opens energy pathways in the body called meridians, helping the energy flow through and heal the body.  
  • Yoga is a physical practice of movements that strengthen your nervous system, helping you to relax your body and relieve tension. It promotes physical balance, which helps with mental balance.  

Read Now: Practising Yoga: Combining Mindfulness and Fitness for Healthier Living  

What are the Benefits?  

Meditation has been heavily studied, and has been proven to have a wide array of benefits. Whether you want to become stronger physically, mentally, or emotionally, meditation can assist in improving your lifestyle and mindset. So, what exactly can it do? 

Reduce Stress 

When you experience stress, it increases the hormone cortisol, which can impact your sleep, cause depression and increase fatigue. Meditation can help to reduce this response, and instead create a relaxed response that calms your body. 

This means it can help stress-related conditions such as irritable bowel syndrome and post-traumatic stress disorder. By reducing the stress hormones in your body, it reduces pressure and can calm anxiety.  

It also helps you redirect your negative thinking patterns, which are often a large contributor to stress. 

Read Now: 4 Effective Ways to Clear Your Mind of Stress  

Improve Sleep 

Meditation can help those who have sleep disorders like insomnia manage their symptoms, and as a result get better sleep. Mindfulness meditation has been found to help those who suffer from chronic insomnia. It can also improve the sleep of those without existing sleep problems. 

Meditation can help relax your thoughts before bed and calm your mind, which creates a more restful environment to sleep in. As a result, it can also reduce daytime fatigue, giving you more energy throughout the day, and deeper sleep at night.  

Meditation before bed can improve your sleep quality.

Enhance Self-awareness 

When you meditate, you create space to understand yourself, which helps you learn how to grow and improve as a person. By focusing on self-awareness, it becomes easier to recognise any harmful thoughts you may have, and learn how to challenge them.  

This process of redirecting negative thoughts shows you what your emotional triggers may be, and how to best combat them.  

It can also increase self-awareness by helping you realise and focus on the positive parts of yourself. Through meditation, you can approach your emotions without judgement, and as a result you can learn to accept both the positive and negative aspects of who you are.   

Read Now: Better Your Brain Through Neuroplasticity and Positive Thinking  

Promote Emotional Health 

Meditation can lead to an improved self-image and create a more positive outlook on life. By focusing on the things around you and your own thought processes, you can reduce negative thoughts and appreciate the positive aspects of your experience.  

It can also decrease levels of the inflammatory proteins cytokines, which can contribute to depression. Meditation is sometimes used as part of a mental health treatment plan as the benefits can help reduce depression and anxiety. 

Meditation can improve your emotional health!

Control Pain 

Many types of physical pain are linked to stress, and our perception of pain can be increased significantly when we are in stressful situations. By learning to manage our perception of stress, it becomes easier to control our pain responses. This in turn decreases the level of pain we feel. 

Whilst it won’t completely rid you of any pain you are in, it helps to manage pain and decrease levels of stress that often enhance it. 

Meditation can also reduce strain on the heart by decreasing blood pressure. Stress can often cause high blood pressure, which can potentially lead to a heart attack or a stroke. Reducing stress can alleviate the pressure on the heart and relax nerve signals.  

To Sum Up… 

Meditation is a varied and adaptable way to improve your day-to-day life. It has benefits for everyone, whether you meditate for five minutes or five hours! A little can go a long way, and daily meditation has the power to really impact your life for the better.  

If you want to learn more about how to make small changes to improve your lifestyle, contact us at Ceed today! 

How to Improve Your Productivity with Neuroplasticity

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Neuroplasticity is the ability of the brain to adapt, rewire and change shape with new experiences.  

At any age, the way the brain works can totally transform. We can become more optimistic, joyful, productive and better at learning without ever returning to our ‘old ways’.  

Find more productive habits with neuroplasticity!

With the myth that we use 10% of our brains debunked, we now know that our entire brains are neural real estate, forming and strengthening different neural pathways throughout the day. 

Understanding neuroplasticity can unlock a clear pathway to more productive habits. By tapping into neuroplasticity, we can achieve:  

  • Better time-keeping 
  • Improved short-term memory 
  • An efficient work life 
  • An overall more dynamic brain.  

What is Neuroplasticity? 

Neuroplasticity is the “plastic” nature of the brain – its ability to shift and change layout.  

All our habits, thought processes and beliefs – the way we think – are physically represented by neurons and neural pathways. Different neural pathways get stronger with use or waste away, much like a muscle.  

It’s easy to imagine that if we had the technology, we could understand everything about someone just by looking at the physical map of their brain, looking up close at the neural pathways and seeing which are stronger and used more than others.  

We already understand a lot, like how to use brain examinations to detect dementia and determine the cause of a stroke. 

Using certain parts of our brains more strengthens those neural pathways. This is what behavioural therapy taps into – mental muscle memory. 

Read Now: Neuroplasticity: Better Your Brain with Positive Thinking

How Can We Use it? 

The future is bright. The more we dig into the science of neuroplasticity, the more we can see the limitless ways to harness and use our brains for the better. 

Below are just a few things we can achieve by strengthening new pathways and weakening old, unhelpful ones: 

1. Changing Our Habits 

Struggling to be productive is a difficulty most of us can understand. Getting started on new projects, staying motivated and working in a consistent, efficient way are all things that don’t always come easy, but can be developed with practice.  

An understanding of neuroplasticity is a great place to start when thinking about changing your habits. This way, you can make the change as easy as possible for your brain to take on.  

Try switching up your habits for better productivity!

For example, if you want to totally overhaul your work ethic and methods, start with a small change. Instead of putting pressure on yourself to fix the problem in one fell swoop, try breaking other habits in your life first by trying new things, or even doing something you know how to do already, differently. 

Even breaking and changing habits unrelated to the big one you have your eye on will help you to eventually make the change. This is because taking on new habits and experiences strengthens neural pathways responsible for learning, making your brain more dynamic and flexible.  

Changing a habit could be as simple as taking a different route to work or shopping for food somewhere different. And when it comes to making a bigger change, try doing something a different way before replacing it altogether. Your brain can learn to adapt. 

Read Now: 3 Reasons to Step Out of Your Comfort Zone and Into Your Growth Zone 

2. Communicating Better 

Communicating well is key to being part of a productive, efficient team. With good communication, skills can be shared, tasks can be completed quickly and everyone feels inclined to work well to get goals achieved.  

Using neuroplasticity to communicate better once again comes down to identifying and changing a habit. What gets in the way of feeling like we are on the same page with someone? More often than not, it is defensiveness of our own view and not understanding the view of the person we are talking with. The angrier we feel, the less inclined to connect we feel. 

This makes active listening – the act of truly trying to understand what someone is saying – impossible. In breaking this habit, the first thing to practice is checking in on whether you are actually listening to the other person.  

The second thing to do is to return to focusing on connecting and listening. While this is easier said than done, it is possible to make this a habit through practice. 

Read Now: How to Practice Active Listening 

4. A More Dynamic Brain 

The happiest brains are flexible and open-minded, open to learning and taking on new information. The more our brains experience changing and developing new skills, the more flexible and agile they become – and the more able to cope with any challenge. 

A brain that has recently been learning a new language and improving at sudoku will be developing strong neural connections in the parts of the brain responsible for learning. This makes it now more equipped to learn other new skills more easily. In other words, the more we change the brain through neuroplasticity, the more able to change the brain is.  

When it comes to productivity, the ideal brain can:  

  • Learn new skills 
  • Remember important details 
  • Switch between tasks easily.  

Try learning a new skill – no matter what it is, you will see benefits in how your brain processes information and takes on new challenges. 

Trying new things can create a more adaptable brain!

Read Now: How to Tap Into Neuroplasticity in Your Daily Life 

To Sum Up… 

These are just a few ways harnessing neuroplasticity can help to improve your productivity. With an understanding of how the brain makes and stores connections, we can develop any skill or ability we like more easily and effectively.  

With intention and an awareness of neuroplasticity, you can build an open-minded and flexible brain able to take on any challenge and navigate the unexpected. 

For help with making lifestyle changes, contact one of our coaches at Ceed today! 

Unconventional Therapy: Creativity as a Powerful Tool

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Therapy is a tried and tested method of improving mental health, understanding emotional problems, and gaining self-esteem. But alongside the therapy types we have come to expect, there is a more intriguing branch: creative therapy.  

Creative therapy focuses on using art forms to treat mental health conditions. It encourages artistic expression to channel thoughts and emotions, creating a new way to explore problems and find solutions. It’s particularly useful for those who find it difficult to express verbally, as we don’t have to rely on our words. It can help to: 

  • Build self-esteem 
  • Resolve conflict 
  • Develop social skills 
  • Understand difficult situations  
  • Improve cognitive functions 

Being creative is a great way to improve your mental health. Creative therapy provides a structured and secure setting to explore your feelings with the help of a licenced therapist. Although there are lots of different types of creative therapy, there are four main forms that are the most common.  

Dance Movement Therapy (DMT) 

Dance movement therapy utilises body movements, dance and rhythm to improve mental and physical health. It focuses on the connection between body and mind, using movement as a language to express emotions and unconscious processes.  

Dancing can benefit physical and mental health!

It boosts both physical and mental health, helping with:  

  • Stress reduction 
  • Disease prevention  
  • Mood management 
  • Cognitive issues 

Dance movement therapy has even been proven to be successful in helping adults with depression. By using movement, it can improve physical health whilst helping you to manage your mental health. 

And don’t worry, you don’t need any dance experience to try it! Your movements and rhythms are used to explore your experiences. It isn’t like a dance class – you don’t need to learn a routine or practice choreography. All you need to do is move, and you can connect your movements to your feelings.  

Read Now: How Exercise Benefits Mental Health 

Dramatherapy 

Dramatherapy works in a similar way to dance therapy, but uses performance to express thoughts and feelings. It is used to explore issues such as dementia, physical or sexual abuse, mental illness and autism. 

Dramatherapy uses an array of dramatic techniques to help people express themselves, including: 

  • Role play 
  • Puppetry 
  • Storytelling 
  • Movement 
  • Voice work  

It helps to improve self-esteem and self-worth, removing feelings of isolation and using movement to solve problems and set goals. It creates positive changes in mood, empathy, and insight, particularly helping with broadening your range of expression and emotion.   

By providing a safe space for participants to tell stories and express problems, dramatherapy can create a sense of catharsis for those involved. 

Read Now: How to Become More Comfortable in Your Own Skin 

Music Therapy  

Music therapy uses music to assess someone’s physical and emotional wellbeing, and is particularly useful for those who find it difficult to communicate verbally. No prior musical knowledge is needed, as it uses techniques including:  

  • Improvisation 
  • Listening 
  • Discussing lyrics 
  • Song writing 
  • Discussing music or imagery 

It creates space to communicate feelings and improve mental health. It combines active and passive interactions with music, often focusing on certain genres that have a positive effect on mental health issues such as depression.  

Music therapy is beneficial for a range of issues, including: 

  • Mental health 
  • Learning disabilities 
  • Alzheimer’s 
  • Substance abuse issues 
  • Brain injuries  

When words are too difficult to use, or emotions are too confusing to explain, music therapy helps to create an understanding of your problems. Finding lyrics that you relate to, or tunes that match your mood, can be beneficial in exploring your emotions.  

Read Now: How to Uncover Inspiration 

Visual Art Therapy  

Visual art therapy (or just art therapy) uses various art forms to explore emotions and help address distressing or confusing issues. Again, you don’t need to be artistically inclined to participate in it, as it focuses more on using art to discuss your own feelings.  

Sculpting is an art form used in visual art therapy!

Visual art therapy employs art forms like: 

  • Painting 
  • Drawing 
  • Sculpting 
  • Doodling 
  • Collage  

… to explore feelings, reduce anxiety, and manage behaviour. Often, the art we create is directly linked to our emotions, even if we don’t realise it at first. Art therapy analyses your creations, and helps you understand themes and conflicts that impact your thoughts and emotions.  

To Sum Up… 

Therapy is a solid foundation for improving mental health, but more conventional forms like CBT or psychotherapy might not feel right for you. Creative therapy can give you new and exciting ways to understand and process your emotions. Maybe it’s time to think outside of the box, and see if creative therapy is more suited to you.  

Ceed can provide you with a personalised life coach to help you improve your overall wellbeing. Visit our homepage for more details.  

How to Overcome Fear of Failure

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“I have not failed. I’ve just found 10,000 ways that won’t work.” – Thomas Edison 

Failure is something that everybody goes through at some point in their life, whether it impacts them a little bit or a lot. The feeling of failure that flows through you after making a mistake can have a huge effect on you in the long term if you dwell on it.

Fear of embarrassment and shame can make you fear failure.

People can even develop a fear of failure known as “atychiphobia”, which will make you hyperaware of and afraid of failure and the shame it might make you feel.  

Whether you accidentally dropped a glass you were carrying for someone, or you got some negative feedback on a project that you spent a long time on, it isn’t wrong to feel this emotion. It isn’t the end of the world, either, failure can build you up stronger mentally and physically. 

Even the most successful people went through failure at some point. Some key people are:  

  • Steven Spielberg 
  • Oprah Winfrey 
  • Dr. Suess 
  • Michael Jordan 
  • Colonel Sanders.

Here is some advice to help you overcome that fear and help you to see the better side of these negative feelings:

Failure is the Key to Success 

Failure happens to the best of us. It’s better to have failed than not tried at all. You have to fail to understand how to improve your situation – it builds you up stronger mentally, and pushes you to be the best you can.  

Keep this thought in your mind:  

Failure is necessary for success to happen.  

It’s normal to experience failure at some point in your life, but it is understandable how people develop a fear of failure. What follows failure is a embarrassment and sense of shame – sometimes so intense that it envelops your mind – but it is never the end of the world. The more you experience these emotions, the more used to them and stronger you will get. 

You can learn from your failures to better yourself for next time around. You have not really failed but are just finding alternative solutions until you get it right.  

Reflection 

Reflect on your failure; how did you fail, and what can you do to prevent it for next time?  

Confront your own mistakes and figure out a way to improve upon it. Don’t just distract yourself from the mistake, or even “cut corners” to get around the problem. You won’t learn anything if you don’t admit to it.  

There are many ways to reflect on yourself; one of the easiest ways is to just ask for feedback on what you did wrong. People are always willing to give feedback.

Some feedback can be brutally honest, some might not be as honest. However, all in all this reflection on yourself will give you motivation to do better. 

Focus on Your End Goal

When you fail, you might start to punish yourself by dwelling on the failure. This can cloud your mind from anything that you are currently doing. Dwelling on your failure can occupy your mind for a day, a month or even longer depending on your idea of its severity.  

This can cause various issues within yourself, but the main one is that your passion for the situation will decrease in fear of failing again. Is putting the work in worth it? You end up giving up and losing your motivation and passion. 

Push yourself to your limits every time you can. As long as you can stand back up then nothing can knock you down. You’ll thank yourself in the future when you finally achieve something that means a lot to you.  

Overcome fear to feel like you can do anything!

Focus on what you want and know that you won’t get it right the first time without practice. If you keep trying over and over again, fixing mistakes each time, one day you will get it right.  

You must come to realise that failure is just a rite of passage for everything you accomplish.  

Conclusion 

Overcoming fear of failure is great for productivity and a healthy workflow, as well as improving everyday functioning. Don’t allow yourself to be brought down by mistakes. Everybody in the world fails at something at some point. A world without failure would be boring and success would mean nothing. Learning to motivate yourself on the journey to success is a much better feeling than being successful every time. 

Keep pushing yourself and keep getting back up, for failure is just a small obstacle in the grand scheme of your success.

Related Articles

Struggling to overcome your fears? We got you, check out our other articles for help and advice, and feel free to contact us here at Ceed for anything further we can assist with.  

What is a Life Coach and What Do They Do?

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We all know what a coach is: but what is life coaching and how can it help you achieve your goals? 

To put it simply, a life coach is a professionally trained individual dedicated to helping you reach and extend your full potential. A life coach helps you identify your goals, discover motivation and hold you accountable on the path to fulfilling your objectives. They provide encouragement when you need it and give you a helping hand on the path to bettering yourself. 

It’s helpful to imagine a life coach as an accumulation of many different roles – they are both a supportive, encouraging friend and a motivating, wise advisor. They give you both the helping hand and the firm push.  

In the process of becoming a life coach, they will undergo dynamic training that teaches them how to ask the right questions in pursuit of setting achievable goals. They learn how to communicate in an effective way and truly understand the root of your problems.  

How does a life coach help you? 

Life coaches are well-trained specifically to help you tackle both personal and professional problems. Generally, the life coaching process involves a similar order of events: 

  • identify a problem or goal 
  • reframe this goal into achievable steps 
  • nurture your growth and account for setbacks.  

This is a repeatable process designed to help individuals create a sustainable model for success.  

A life coach is there to hold you accountable to your designated goals and give you a helping hand when you need it. They help you keep focused on your initial goal and provide you with the tools to succeed. 

What can a life coach do for me? 

The list really is endless. A life coach’s prowess is in their ability to listen, understand and plan. A life coach isn’t merely a means to an end but a tool for fundamental change – by telling them your specific goal they can help point you in the right direction.  

Whether it’s going for a promotion at work or achieving weight loss, a life coach uses whatever information you give them to develop strategies in pursuit of your goal.  

According to the Institute of Coaching, 80% of people who receive coaching report increased self-confidence, and over 70% benefit from improved work performance. Those numbers are pretty impressive.  

But it makes sense, right? If you have somebody there holding you accountable and simultaneously giving you that first helping hand, it’s no surprise that you’d see marked improvements. 

This isn’t just exclusive to individuals, either. Among the long-list of personal benefits, there are also clear benefits to businesses utilising the skills of a life coach. 86% of companies that invested in coaching reported that they recouped that investment. Many of those companies reported an increased individual performance and higher staff engagement. 

So, there you have it. Hopefully, this article helped you to understand exactly what a life coach does and how hiring one could help you and your business to maximise its potential. 

Ceed’s goal is to make life coaching accessible to everyone who needs it. For more information on our services, check us out here. 

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