Aspire Therapy

Taking Another Look - Blushing, Pain and Stress

Sometimes an effective way of dealing with a problem is not by confronting it head-on, but by changing the way we see it and maybe even learning to accept it. This very act of acceptance helps to diminish its importance in our lives.

Blushing for example can sometimes become more of a problem the more a person becomes aware of it. Trying to get rid of it may heighten that awareness and actually make the condition worse.

Because blushing is a physical response which is triggered unconsciously, it can be difficult to bring it under conscious control. Its onset can be hard to predict so self-help strategies to deal with the triggers may not work. A way of tackling it can therefore be to start caring less about it. Alleviating the fear of blushing diminishes the frequency and intensity of the blushing itself.

Crunch Time for Smokers

Crunch time is coming for many smokers in England with the summertime date for the ban on smoking in enclosed public spaces rapidly approaching.

Some will leave it until the July 1 deadline before thinking about how they will address this issue and adapt to change.

Others, however, will be planning for the change and thinking through the implications of the ban in terms of the impact on their life-style.

National No Smoking Day on Wednesday, March 14 provides a good opportunity to focus minds. No Smoking Day is an annual health awareness campaign which aims to help smokers who want to put an end to their habit.

The Price of Being Perfect

If you’re not a perfectionist yourself, you’ll probably know someone who is.

You’ll also know that while perfectionism can have its benefits it can also cause problems for the person themselves and for those around them.

Because the perfectionist sets themselves very high standards, they can end up feeling anxious and depressed and can run into problems with relationships

Therapy can help with these problems. But by their very nature, perfectionists may be reluctant to seek out such help, seeing it as a sign of weakness and failure.

The January edition of Psychologies Magazine suggests some exercises which can be helpful to the perfectionist who is suffering from these tendencies - exercises which they can try on their own.

Are the Winter Blues Getting You Down?

It is estimated that up to half a million people suffer from what has been termed ‘The Winter Blues’, or its more severe counterpart Seasonal Affective Disorder (SAD), between September and April each year.

But what exactly is the ‘Winter Blues’, how would you know if you had it, and what could you do to combat the condition?

Is Stress Getting You Down?

Stress at work is a major problem in the UK today. Well over half of British people report having experienced stress at work in the last twelve months.

Yet staggeringly only 20%, of those experiencing problems due to work related stress actually seek professional help – despite all the ill effects on our physical and mental health.

This is one of the key findings of the International Stress Management Association, who held their annual National Stress Awareness Day on Wednesday, November 1.