How a Mental Health Counselor Can Change Your Life

You do not have to suffer mental stress and depression alone. Instead, you should seek professional help and learn how a mental health counselor can change your life. Mental health statistics show that twenty-eight percent of Americans can actually benefit from counseling, although only a third of them will actually look for one.

A mental health counselor can effectively improve your mental health by working through your past and present issues. Using writing techniques, reading aloud what you wrote, and by talking, you can identify the source of your anxiety and learn how to overcome them effectively. Counseling gives you valuable tools to handle daily problems and long-term relationships. A good counselor can be a real lifesaver.

Whatever you do for a living, everyone today experiences different levels of stress at work and at home. Some people deal with stressful situations by over eating, or abusing drugs and alcohol. However, counseling sessions can provide way healthier solutions to everyday troubles that cause you to feel depressed and anxious. A benefit of mental health counseling is that you are approaching your problems naturally through therapy, instead of using prescribed medications.

Sometimes, you need an outsider to listen and provide objective opinions on your issues. A mental health counselor is one such person who is trained to give you such valuable advice. It is their job to help you deal with the problems that are causing an upset in your life. Your counselor can also recommend other medical professionals to address all the physical problems that you may be experiencing. This is important as your physical well being significantly affects your mental health.

How a mental health counselor can change your life is by giving you the motivation and energy you need to lead your life in a more optimistic manner. No one can really understand how you feel unless you are willing to open up and share thoughts and feelings. Counseling therefore effectively helps reduce the symptoms of anxiety disorders such as irrational fear, heart palpitations, and difficulty in concentrating, speaking, and sleeping. Signs of depression include fatigue, hopelessness, constant crying, and loss of interest in normal activities, headaches, and thoughts of suicide.

Through counseling, one can gain new perspectives on managing issues that occur in our daily lives, as well as pick up social skills to better handle them mentally and emotionally.

A mental health counselor can help you understand your personal habits and behaviors, and find real contentment by analyzing if what you are doing it is best for you. Mental health counselors strive to stay up to date on the latest developments in mental health care. Their education and practice has exposed them to many theories and procedures on developing good mental health. So, their professional experience will definitely be useful in helping you recover from all your mental problems.

Suffering from mental disorders can be very stressful and tiring. It takes a strong person to admit his or her problems and actively seek treatment for them. Seeking out a counselor does not mean that you are less capable than others as you are simply getting help when you need some. As such, learning how a mental health counselor can change your life will enable you to better utilize their expertise to solve your problems efficiently.

Ian Spencer is an expert in solving anxiety and stress problems at http://www.Mental-Health-Counselor.org. Where he provides anxiety help advice to treat panic attacks and severe anxiety. Click Here to get your FREE anxiety analysis done online today.

Leading Change From Obesity Toward Health

Obesity is a now a huge health epidemic - I don't need to tell you this. It's on television and the news. There are several reality shows such as 'the biggest loser' and 'heavy'. You may even be able to look down at your own scale or at family members to see just how big the problem is (pun intended!).

We know it is a problem. People talk about how we need to do more to correct the problem and little things are starting to change such as new menus at the popular fast food restaurants and even in school cafeterias.

But even with these little changes, we have a long way to go toward health. Today, the statistics are staggering with over two-thirds of the United States adult population being either obese or overweight.

How did we get so far away from health and the fitness craze of the 1980's? There are many reasons for the obesity problem. These are just a few:

· Extra calories are added to everything from soups to pasta sauce to condiments.

· We are drinking more calories than ever before with the average person drinking 450 calories a day.

· We eat fast giving us indigestion and causing stomach upset. Eating fast can cause us eat more than we need to and with less enjoyment. We also choose poorly when we grab something on the run. Eating healthy often requires a little planning.

· Less activity and more television, video games and sedentary lifestyles. The elimination of recess at schools.

· Packaged foods and less home cooking. Our grandparents and great-grandparents cooked everything at home. Today, we buy packaged, processed foods and ingest unnatural preservatives, chemicals and sugars unnecessarily added to 'enhance flavor' but which have the effect of increasing desire for more. They also cause us to store more fat.

· We eat too much. We eat more than our bodies need. We mistake thirst for hunger and eat instead of drink water. We eat when we are emotional. We eat when we are full. We eat when we see food. We have lost control and fallen prey to advertising, 'super-sizing' and our own appetites.

We are busy, less active and eat more. We eat unhealthy food substitutes and eat on the run. When did eating become such a chore?

The Consequences

The consequences of moving so far away from health and fitness are also staggering. Everything has a cost to it.

· Health costs: more sick days, more trips to the doctor, more prescriptions, more co-pays, more pain, more surgeries, etc. Obesity increases your risk for heart disease, strokes, Type II diabetes, high cholesterol, several cancers, liver and gallbladder disease, sleep apnea and respiratory problems, varicose veins, osteoarthritis (a degeneration of cartilage and its underlying bone within a joint) and gynecological problems (abnormal menses, infertility). Let's face it, the more you weigh, the harder it is on your body, joints, back, organs, heart...

· Life costs: Obesity increases your risk of premature death.

· Financial costs: medical expenses and higher insurance premiums, gasoline, wear and tear on our cars, costs of food, even clothing. And these are just the personal expenditures.

· Business costs: sick time, down time at work,decreased productivity, restricted activity, absenteeism and bed days.

· Relationship costs: with the strain your weight causes on your body and your mental health, it also puts a strain on your relationships. If you're not happy and healthy, that impacts people around you. Even colleagues feel the pinch when you are out sick or cannot perform to your ability.

· Being overweight impacts your energy levels, self-esteem and mood. It is tiring to carry extra weight around.

· All of this impacts your mental health causing depression and anxiety as well as other mental health issues.

How Do We Change?

Change begins by taking the first step. We must begin with ourselves and then, show others the path. There is nothing more hypocritical than listening to a doctor or nurse give nutrition or exercise advice when he/she is obese. We have to be role models and "Be the change you wish to see in the world." You cannot just tell others what to do. You cannot teach your kids if you are not doing it for yourself. No, change begins with you - with each of us taking a stand for ourselves and taking charge or our health and happiness.

There is a simple formula to change but it has eight steps. These are outlined in the book Does Change have to be so H.A.R.D.?

1. Commitment. When you are committed, you will go to any and all lengths to accomplish your goal. Commit to your health. Commit to being healthy enough to enjoy your grandkids and your spouse. Do it because you are worth it.

2. Envision a better future. Dream of your life when you are a thinner and healthier version of yourself. How will you be different? How will you feel? What will you be doing?

3. Develop the characteristics you need to succeed. This means, you have to tell yourself a new story about being healthy and thin, update your self-image and change your inner dialogue. Who will you become in this new vision of yourself? Identify the qualities, the values and the behaviors and start living them today.

4. Create an environment to support the change. This includes the external environment such as visiting new places and cleaning out your pantry. It also means developing a support system or community to assist you in becoming this new version of yourself. You need an external support system to champion the internal work you are doing.

5. Take action. Without action, nothing changes. Each small step contributes to your success.

6. Celebrate your success along the way. I cannot tell you how important this step is! As you celebrate and acknowledge how wonderful you are doing, you gain momentum and motivation. Your confidence builds. And you reinforce your commitment to stay the course.

7. Laugh and enjoy the journey. If you are not having fun, you won't do it. You will turn back. If you cannot see the value, if you are not committed to the journey but only to the destination, it will be too hard to stick to the path and you will likely fail.

8. Adopt empowering beliefs. If you don't believe you can, you won't. If you limit yourself, you will remain limited. This is probably the most important of these strategies because if you do not believe in the possibility for success, no matter what you think, do or say, you will find ways to sabotage your success to prove you are right. What you believe becomes your reality.

Change begins with you. Let's envision something new, and together, let's make the world - our world - a healthier and happier place.

Julie Donley knows firsthand what it means to conquer adversity. Having overcome addiction, a grave illness, divorce, the untimely death of her ex-husband, single parenthood, obesity, indebtedness and being laid-off three times, Julie brings a wealth of personal experience to her work. Julie has worked in psychiatric nursing since 1993 and founded her company, Nurturing Your Success, in 2001 to assist people in achieving their goals and working through change. She is the author of several books including Does Change have to be so H.A.R.D.? and The Journey Called YOU: A Roadmap to Self-Discovery and Acceptance and is named one of the top 100 thought leaders in her field. Learn more at http://www.JulieDonley.com. Contact Julie at Julie@JulieDonley.com to have her speak at your next meeting or conference.

Six Basic Fears That Change Relationships

So, in your dealings with others be aware that if you push a person into one of these six fears they will not act rationally.

It is also a degree of self-awareness to note that if you start acting with stress or nervous tension, or lose your sense of self-humour (can't laugh at yourself) or find yourself worried, sleepless or run down and needing a holiday, then the source of that exhaustion and unhappiness is one of these six fears:

The Fear of Poverty
The Fear of Old Age
The Fear of Criticism
The Fear of Loss of Love from Someone
The Fear of Ill Health
The Fear of Death

While any one of these six fears run our day, we cannot be authentic because happiness will be defined as the overcoming of a fear, even if that fear is subconscious.

It is argued that these fears are socialised into our memes and therefore are not always in our field of awareness. In other words we may often be acting from fear even when we'd argue that we are not.

Animals act from instinct. Most instinct is underpinned by fear. Animals act from fear nearly 100% of the time, even when they are being affectionate, fear is driving this.

Human fear is animal instinct and it is inherent within our everyday being when we are operating at our animal level of life. That level still exists in all humans as a protective mechanism.

When, for example, you hear a person say "I GOT TO" or "I HAVE TO" or "YOU'VE GOT TO" or "YOU HAVE TO" then you can recognise the animal level of human being, and the presence of a driving fear. (one of the six or all)

1. The Fear of Poverty

People fill their pockets with money because they don't trust. Our world has become simplistically identified with wealth as a barometer of a person's value.

Wealthy seems to imply successful and yet, wealth on the outside and inner-wealth seem to be recognised as separate conversations.

A person with wealth who has no inner wealth will fear the loss of wealth. A person in poverty who has inner wealth will have no fear of poverty because they will have trust.

If there is an inherent lack of trust in humans and God, a person will grasp for wealth in order to escape the fear of poverty but they will never rest. The fear cannot be expunged for more than a few weeks with increased wealth before the fear resurfaces and there is once again, not enough.

Trust in people, life and God can be easily eroded with the death of a parent, pain inflicted by a trusted family member or breach of faith from a trusted friend. All this, most significantly happens within the first three years of a person's life, but escalates to classical scenarios of abuse and deception later in life. If trust is sustained within the first three years of a person's life, it is unlikely to fade later in life, no matter what transpires.

Fear of poverty comes from lack of trust and this can also be passed genetically from mother, father to child in the first three years. Awareness of such emotional, energetic, DNA and electrical transfer is the topic of most good parenting guidance.

2. The Fear of Old Age

There are two roots to the fear of Old Age. One emanates from the fear of poverty and the other from the fear of helplessness, unable to protect oneself from the from the fears mentioned in Fear 3 and Fear 4.

3. The Fear of Criticism

The whole fashion industry evolved out of this fear. And now, social networking, where media can, if well filtered protect a person from this deepest of fears.

We can choose electronic friends, disguise ourselves in fashion, we can drive a car to make a statement but all the time, living in fear that someone will reject us.

This fear of criticism is highly emotional and causes huge choices in people's subconscious life. It means, we go and associate with others who we believe will not criticise us.

It is also the cause of relationship failure in more than 90% of cases. The fear of criticism sits beneath many marriage arrangements that are called love where an individual holds shame or guilt about themselves, their life, their actions or their family, they hope to find a place to hide and relax with that fear, and often choose relationships. But soon, in that relationship, their fears come near, and they begin to feel ashamed of themselves blaming their partner for the breakdown, not realising that they entered the relationship carrying a fear and will leave with the same fear.

4. The Fear of Loss of Love from Someone

For many men, relationships with women are their anti depressant. It can be seen from the number of men who become insane after relationships end that the relationship was causing more than love.

Jealousy, hate, murder, rape, violence, abuse, greed and so many more of the base emotional animal in humans come from the fear of loss of love from someone.

Many people define the sustaining of love as a singular loyalty. In childhood this can be seen when children get hurt when a "best friend" adopts another friend, and the first child feels competed against. Fear, love, and the loss of it from someone, seems to be triggered by so many strange social signals.

Sex with strangers is great example. Sex and love are separate topics but we bind them religiously in order to protect love. We fear, deeply that sex will lead to love, so, we bind people into monogamy.

Fear of loss of love from someone is not limited to relationships of an adult significant other. Parents, friends, work colleagues, and more are not mentioned as "valuable Love" sources but are. Hence, many of the upsets that come in such environments are driven, in the greatest part, by the fear of loss of love from someone.

5. The Fear of Ill Health

Fear of Ill health has its roots in similar places to the Fear of Old Age and the Fear of Poverty.

It seems obvious that health is natural, however, in our search to avoid it, we become vulnerable to so much of the marketing and sales hype of shonky teachers, products and process that we make ourselves ill.

Foods, fast foods are decorated to appear healthy. Herbs and medicines follow traditional healthy packaging displays and Television advertising, even for dish washing liquid, portrays this product under the banner of a healthy giving, fear alleviating product benefit.

The fear of ill health drives many people to illness.

6. The Fear of Death

Nobody knows what happens before we're born or after we die. Many guess, some sell ideas, others find passages in books to deal with their fear of death, but there is uncertainty about death and therefore an enormous fear of it.

The more animal nature a person experiences the deeper their fear. One such exhibition of human animal nature is in terrorism and fundamental religious teachings that exclude all argument in the name of RIGHTEOUSNESS. A resolution of fear in this case is a belief. Such beliefs are based on uncertainty, upheld in righteousness by adherence.

It is the source of the greatest human deception, religious beliefs that promise certainty of the afterlife and therefore one can argue that the FEAR of DEATH must be a great fear in all human kind.

If one person says, "I know what will happen to me after my death" you can know with certainty only one thing, and that is, this person has a huge innate fear of death to which they apply, a belief to overcome it. Be aware that if you scratch the surface of such a person's belief you will scratch their fear and, as in all animal nature, their behavior will be unpredictable, aggressive and protective.

Beyond Fear

Beyond fear as a driving force in life there is another world. This is not an escape from fear, because, fear and the six fears are there by necessity. What can change however, with relatively simple application, is the influence those fears have on our relationships, health, wealth, work and service to others.

Chris Walker < http://www.chriswalker.com.au > is a visionary business consultant and of the world's leading facilitators of Personal/Professional Development. Author, consultant and professional speaker, his considered a leader in the field of human potential and lifestyles for success. His VIP and Mastery Programs have been attended by thousands of individuals around the world seeking tools to live life and manage their careers to their fullest potential. http://www.chriswalker.com.au