Angie Giles Hypnotherapy, Coaching & Counselling

Sometimes it’s the over the top expectations that prevent action. Run the dishwasher twice or shower sitting down. Do what you got to do to make progress.

RUN THE DISHWASHER TWICE.

When I was at one of the lowest points in my life, even getting out of bed felt impossible. I had no energy, no motivation, and was barely surviving.

Once a week, I’d drag myself to therapy. But during one session, I had nothing to say. My therapist asked how my week had been, and all I could muster was, “I dunno, man. Life.”

He wasn’t satisfied. “No, what exactly are you struggling with right now? When you go home after this session, what will be staring you in the face?”

I hesitated, embarrassed by the answer. I wanted something more meaningful to say, something bigger. But the truth was so small. Finally, I admitted, “Honestly? The dishes. It’s stupid, I know. The more I look at them, the more I can’t do them. I’ll have to scrub them first because the dishwasher sucks, and I just can’t stand there and scrub.”

I felt ridiculous. How could a grown woman be undone by dishes? But my therapist didn’t judge. He just nodded and said, *“Run the dishwasher twice.”*

I started to argue that you’re not supposed to, but he cut me off. *“Why not? If your dishwasher sucks and you don’t want to scrub, run it twice. Run it three times. Who cares? There are no rules.”*

His words blew my mind in a way I can’t fully explain.

That day, I went home, threw the dirty dishes in the dishwasher, and ran it three times. It felt like slaying a dragon. The next day, I took a shower lying down. A few days later, I folded my laundry and put it wherever it fit. Suddenly, there were no arbitrary rules holding me back, and I could start accomplishing things again.

Now that I’m in a healthier place, I rinse my dishes, I shower standing up, and I sort my laundry. But back when living felt like a struggle instead of a blessing, I learned one of the most important lessons of my life:

THERE ARE NO RULES. RUN THE DISHWASHER TWICE.

✍️🏻 Author | Kate Scott
🎨Pinterest | Ctto
By: A Friend

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Take a step to calming the anxious mind with this tip. Take the negative focused ‘what if’s?’ (Those that encourage fear to seem real) and replace them with a positive ‘What if I give it a go?’ or ‘What if I learn something new?’ Framing is important. ~ Angie Giles

😳 How we see a situation and what we say to ourselves about it. Thoughts lead to feeling a certain way, whether positive or negative.

🪜Small steps to being kinder to ourselves and helping to regulate our feelings will reduce anxiety. What can you say to challenge a ‘what if?’ thought that keeps you stuck in a particular frame of thinking?

🙋🏻‍♀️ I work with clients on managing and reducing anxiety. Find out more [email protected] or message me. I see people in person in Norwich U.K. and I have online therapy options too

Angie

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What are you doing to protect your mental health in your twenties (or aware for loved ones)?

💊🍃🪴Are you taking dr()gs? Are you aware of the long term impacts on your brain? Have you yet thought about longer term mental/ physical health impacts of relying on those substances? Do you care? 🤷

Teens into early twenties it’s not always easy to know when to stop 🛑 Your mates may all do it too, right? There’s habits forming and reliance developing on a substance. FOMO and peer pressure too.
You’ll want to start to see whether your own life aligns with those people or situations as you grow up. Are old mates fitting your ambitions now as you become who you want to be?

If you’re a parent, or carer, reading this of someone over 18, perhaps you are not aware your child’s brain isn’t fully formed as an adult till age 24/ 25. Yes, that’s what the information out there says! 👨🏽‍🏫

I work with late teens as well as adults to look at improving their skills/ mental health (which can include looking at dealing with regular use of things like 🍃🪴 & 🍷🍺)

If you want to have a chat, get in touch. My best contact is tel/ text 07773610816 or email [email protected]

Definitely - small steps even when you feel you can’t - you can do ‘something’.

Love this. ❤️

Isn’t this beautiful? ❤️

By all means rest, and go low when you must.
Lay on the floor and allow the feelings to consume you, sometimes, that is the only way.

But when the light starts to stroke your eyelids, just a tiny glimmer, and you feel a faint bubble of hope sparking into life, somewhere deep within your gut… wake up my friend

For the love of all that is good, let that bubble fizz and pop and create more bubbles and use them to prise open your eyes and restart your weary heart.

Because some of your best days, some of your finest moments, where the sun warms every bone in your broken body and life feels like a beautiful song…
have not even happened yet.

Some of your most wonderful memories
are waiting to be made
and you're going to need to show up for them.

Words and image:
Donna Ashworth

From ‘LIFE’
https://amzn.eu/d/9Y6E6kz

Arty by Anna Silivonchik ART

Anxiety is something I help clients with managing/ overcoming. The idea on this post is 3-3-3 rule. Give it a go.
The Lanes Clinic

I was talking with a client about reviewing situations in their mind that they felt were unresolved. Figuring out what happened, what might’ve happened, what else could have been said or left unsaid. That can be exhausting if viewed negatively.

The word that came to mind was acceptance. To review a situation with the purpose of understanding what we might do differently now or come to accept what cannot be changed. Perhaps the end of something or the start of something new.

Accept the past for it cannot be changed. Learn from it and let the mind be present on what we can do now.

“Have patience with everything that remains unsolved in your heart. Try to love the questions themselves, like locked rooms and like books written in a foreign language. Do not now look for the answers. They cannot now be given to you because you could not live them. It is a question of experiencing everything. At present you need to live the question. Perhaps you will gradually, without even noticing it, find yourself experiencing the answer, some distant day.”
Rainer Maria Rilke

Artist: Lucy Campbell

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“Finish each day and be done with it. You have done what you could. Some blunders and absurdities no doubt crept in; forget them as soon as you can. Tomorrow is a new day. You shall begin it serenely and with too high a spirit to be encumbered with your old nonsense.”
Ralph Waldo Emerson

Artist: Demelsa Haughton

Good to throw things out, especially the thoughts that are eating away at self-esteem!

Ya know just some old useless stuff… 💁🏼‍♀️

The good news is I have now managed to undertake several short walks in the city and around Magdalen Street to test my breathing further (post-virus). I think I can now walk sensibly from where I park up to walk to the Lanes clinic at St John’s Alley, Norwich.

My doctor told me to book rest time in, so that’s one thing I’ll do whilst getting back to full strength. I lost a fair bit of weight due to the virus so I’m eating well and having extra snacks during the day.

I’m trialling seeing a client on Thursday 4th April who’s known me quite a while and agreed to see me (understanding what I’m doing to get back to work). I’ll make sure I’m ‘fully’ ready to attend to all of my clients who have been incredibly patient with my absence, from next week at the Lanes Clinic or online, thank you very much for your understanding.

Persistence and small steps (& loads of encouragement from clients, friends, family and colleagues) got me feeling much stronger mentally and physically.
‘
Back to work’ is now planned 🙌 😀

Good food, positive focus. I made dinner tonight. Fajita using lettuce and some home-made spicy potato wedges with low fat crème fraiche. Preparation and cooking kept me on my feet quite a bit: motivation was for a delicious meal. But, I wasn’t paying attention to tiredness from not breathing properly!

Breathing? Is this something we give enough time to? Do we take it for granted?

My focus on breathwork had to ramp up during the last few weeks after illness. I’m amazed how tired I get from doing things like hoovering, cooking at the stove or walking. It’s made me aware of improving my breathing. Today I was in conversation as I walked 3000 steps. The distraction of chatting helped me to focus on the moment, but, I had to ask my partner to slow down whilst my stride was less, and I needed to catch my breath. My awareness came back to focusing back on the breath.

As a trained mindfulness practitioner, and as part of being a psychotherapist, I encourage clients to use their breath as an anchor to manage negative thoughts and come back to themselves in the moment. It’s a valuable thing to harness the breath and raise awareness of our physical and mental state.

I personally use meditation techniques to work on dealing with a busy mind and now I’m using it to focus attention on my body too. Every day building strength and working on getting back to work with clients as soon as I’m strong enough.

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Park and ride trip into Norwich earlier. A normally everyday occurrence you’d think. After several weeks of barely moving, this was a big one for me.

Beautiful sunshine and showers whilst we had a cuppa and I made good work of a breakfast roll. Then to my opticians to fix my glasses I squished two weeks ago. I managed a quick card shop before we headed home. A good step in the right direction.

I admit I overdid it later by driving myself to pick up a prescription. It was exhausting. Driving perhaps next sometime at the weekend.

Focus on the next step. You got this! ❤️‍🩹

A beautiful array of colours and plants. Walked, unaided but slowly, at a garden centre at Salhouse, Norwich. Ate a big slice of Victoria sponge. The world is returning. Another step in the right direction. 💐

Hello all. I’ve been very unwell in recent weeks. I’m so sorry as it has meant I could not see clients. I’ve been through A&E assessments twice due to increasingly feeling unwell. The first was after a near fainting episode where an infection was discovered. The second time I was made aware I was seriously dehydrated, low salts, high white blood count and gastric flu.

Then my own gp diagnosed a severe sinusitis infection. I’m sure I’ve had my years quota of antibiotics! I’m physically weak through coughing so much and dealing with gastric pain. I’m working on maintaining fluids, food intake and increasing my respiratory response. Walking is going to be my next focus. Managing stress another. We take our health for granted, I think. My body has been working so hard for me. I’m grateful for it.
So where does this leave my availability for client work? I have taken the most difficult (logical) and sensible decision to take at least the next week off. I will be communicating this with clients in due course.