Health Matters

Talking to Your Kids About Drug and Alcohol Abuse: The Ultimate Do’s and Don’ts Guide

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Intervention eBook: What to do if your child is drinking or using drugs ?

Intervention_Guide_3.pdf

 

 

The holiday season should be a time filled with joy, yet, for some people these months are filled with obligations, stress, and guilt.

Throw out your inner critic.

One of the uglier parts of this season is the need for perfection – whether it is hosting the perfect party, having the best Christmas decorations on the block, or finding the perfect present for someone.   Of course you want to do your best, but it’s also important to be gentle with yourself and not aim for perfection if it starts to cause other harmful emotions like stress, anxiety, guilt, frustration or anger.  We tend to be most critical of ourselves and our actions so use this season as a reminder to practice grace with yourself as well as others.

 

Fun is a basic need . Did you prioritise fun this weekend? There are five basic needs: Survival, Love, Power, Freedom, Fun. To have a balanced life we strive to meet all of the needs. Why not take an inventory to see which need might be most important to you. www.sd62.bc.ca/Portals/33/The%20Basic%20Needs

“Take some time to relax this weekend it’s a healthy choice”

 

 

Fear is not something to be conquered or eliminated. Instead, we may need to pay close attention to its message.

Most of us experience fear as a kind of stop sign or flashing red light that warns: “Danger! Do not enter!” But we may need to decode that signal and consider what it’s trying to convey.

What is the actual nature of the danger? Is it past or present, real or imagined? Are we feeling anxious because we are boldly charting new territory, or because we’re about to do something stupid?

Sometimes, we feel a stab of fear or a wave of anxiety because our unconscious is warning us that we’re truly off track.

 

There are times when we need to push past our dread and resolve—with our heart pounding in our chest—to act.

At still other times, we may need to identify the actual sources of fear—past or present—that may be obscured from our view. For example, the anxiety that washes over you when you contemplate confronting your spouse may mask an underlying, ancient terror of speaking up to your father when you were a child.

There is one final kind of fear we need to decode—the fear we don’t feel at all (at least, not consciously). When we can’t fully face our anxiety and clarify it’s sources, we tend to act it out instead—attacking a colleague, nagging our child for the 12th time, or working all weekend on a project that was good enough on Friday afternoon—all the while convincing ourselves that these responses are totally rational and warranted.

When anxiety is chronically high it leads to more serious outcomes such as greed, bigotry, scapegoating, violence, and other forms of cruelty. In these anxious times, on both the personal and political fronts, ideas are embraced and decisions are made not on the basis of clear thinking that considers both history and the future, but rather on the basis of hearts filled with fear.

We owe it to ourselves and others to manage our anxiety and fear as well as possible.