Category: Mindfulness

1. The Truth About Stress with Fiona Phillips on BBC One Review and information

   Posted on 12:00pm Friday 5th May 2017

   The BBC TV show about Stress in the modern world and how to deal with it.

    

   The Truth About Stress.

    

   Try a Free Mindfulness MP3 at http://www.markpowlett.co.uk

    

   The Truth About Stress aired on Thursday 4 May 2017 on BBC One as part of a season of films on mental health, across TV, Radio and online.

   Following on from previous successful shows The Truth About Meat and The Truth About Sugar, this time the BBC is tackling stress.

   The documentary will try to discover why people are experiencing increased amounts of stress, and what we can do to reduce it.

    

   The season includes a two part programme on BBC One following a group of 10 runners affected by mental health issues as they prepare to run the 2017 Virgin Money London Marathon, to a Horizon Special on BBC Two looking at schizophrenia and advancements in the treatment of psychoses; a documentary on stress for BBC One and a documentary from mental health campaigner Jack Rooke for BBC Three.

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   The World Health Organisation has described stress as 'the health epidemic of the 21st century'. In this programme Fiona Phillips wants to understand why we are experiencing increased amounts of stress in our lives and what actions we can take in order to reduce it.

    

   Fiona speaks openly about her own experience of stress and her desire to find better coping mechanisms in the hope of improving her health and happiness. A key question driving Fiona's discovery is whether or not some types of stress might actually be good for us and drive us towards better performance and confidence at work and a healthier approach to the pressure and stress we might face at home. Fiona investigates this latest scientific thinking and learns how to turn stress into a weapon rather than a woe, simply by changing the way we perceive it. We reveal exciting new research about stress that could help us to lose weight - particularly those suffering from diabetes or obesity.

    

   Alongside a team of experts and a number of willing volunteers, Fiona puts herself on the front line and in a number of high-stress situations to truly understand the meaning and power of stress, and find out if we can actually learn how to use it to our advantage.

   Fiona explores some of the very latest scientific research behind stress and demonstrates a number of techniques and lifestyle changes which are designed to keep our high stress levels in check.

    

   The Guardian reviewed the show saying...

    This helpful and well-intentioned programme may have been hampered by the inescapable fact the best remedies for stress are simple and well-known: diet, exercise and mindfulness were the recommended top three. And for God’s sake: just tick the box that says you want them to redeliver the package next week.

    

   The Daily Telegraph said..

   In a brisk hour of rudimentary fact-finding, Fiona Phillips looked for symptoms before moving on to potential palliatives. Stress, she found, can have any number of root causes. Traffic jams. Rapid-fire maths tests. Proximity of tarantulas. Or in Phillips’s case, getting up at 3.30am to present breakfast TV while looking after small children and two parents with dementia.

    

    

    

2. Three ways that you use to help to change the way that you feel

   Posted on 9:53am Sunday 8th May 2016

   Three ways that can help you to change the way that you think

   Do you sometimes wonder about why you live your life in a way that you really don’t want to? Perhaps you feel that something is holding you back. Often things that have happened to us in the past can have a hold, not just on our present, but also on a future that hasn’t happened yet.

   

   Perhaps as a child you were a member of the “Clean Plate Club” because your parents told you that there were starving children in Africa so you should always eat everything on the plate. Now, you worry about your weight and perhaps haven’t even realised that you just eat everything put in front of you without noticing, even when you are already full.

   You could have lost a job a while back, but now find yourself stuck in the feeling that life will always be like that as it is hard for you to move on, perhaps it was a case of being unlucky in love once, and now following the same pattern.

   These subconscious thoughts can linger in the back your mind and then hold you back from the life you really want to live.

   Our subconscious mind is very protective. It attempts to protect us from harm, real or imaginary. The brain can’t even tell the difference between real and imagined. All this can mean that you follow the same patterns that didn’t work before. So, why would they work differently if you don’t change them?

   This part of our mind can find that once it decides to protect us from something, it buckles down and stays put. It can simplly stay stuck in that same pattern, unless we make some effort to find a way to change it.

    

   So, how can we change our subconscious thoughts, habits and rewire those old patterns?

   Three steps to help change old patterns for ones you really want

   One:

    Affirmations: A positive, uplifting sentence you repeat to yourself whenever feelings of insecurity or negativity emerge. Our minds can’t process two conflicting thoughts at the same time. Therefore, whatever is repeated, wins. It may sound like something silly, but if you put in good stuff then surely good stuff is more likely to come out?

   Two:

    Hypnosis is a relaxed state of focused concentration where the subconscious is more open to accepting those positive changes. That’s why I always record any hypnosis sessions when people come and see me, so they have something to listen to at home.

   Three:

    Guided Meditation: Guided mediation is a state of relaxation designed to remove clutter from the mind. The focus is usually on deep breathing and being mindful of the present moment. It helps create focus and clarity towards subconscious patterns. In fact it’s not so different from the hypnotherapy that I do, and it really can make it easier to have someone guiding your thoughts and helping you.

   Just taking a few moments out of your day can make a real difference. Go ahead and try for yourself, or if you want help and advice then simply come and see me and get the help you need to make the life you desire.