6th Sense is one of my all time favourite movies. If you haven't seen I highly recommend you watch it (probably before you read this blog!) When I watched it I was absolutely mind blown! How could I have not seen that coming!? Obviously I had to watch it again to see if I'd been tricked, if someone other than Cole, the little boy, had seen or talked to him - but no, there was nothing! The film was immaculate, the story was told so well I believed every second of it. But what has this got to do with us? Well throughout that film the director knew that us, as the audience, would 'fill in the gaps' it was such a radical film that our minds couldn't comprehend the ending that was coming - so we, in our minds 'made bits up' to get the film to fit into our world view - the director knew this would happen and used us to help make this fantastic film. We made up that people were talking to Bruce Willis. We made up that his wife was ignoring him. We made up that people were looking at him. We made up that Cole, the little boy was mad. Our minds do this often, all day every day - making stuff up left right and centre. What people are thinking What people's intentions are We make up imaginary futures, arguments, terrible events Even memories of past events are sometime creatively edited by our minds We have a wonderfully creative mind that can make stuff up left right and centre and take us on a rollercoaster of emotions in the process. But that's not the only reason why I love this film. You see Bruce Willis doesn't know he's actually dead. When I first watched the film it got me wondering, could I actually be dead and not know? Could dead people think they are still alive? It opened me up to the possibility that, as human beings, we can have such a massive misunderstandings and believe them to our core that they alter our whole perception of life. It made me question the entire reality I was living in. Fast forward a good number of years, having now discovered the NOUS Principle, I've seen that just like Bruce Willis' innocent misunderstanding in 6th Sense I too was living in a misunderstanding of how the world works. You see I was convinced that I could only feel bad if 'bad stuff' was happening around me. Likewise I could only feel good if 'good stuff' was happening around me. But I soon found out the hard way that that couldn't be true. You see back when I was severely depressed my mum - desperate to help me feel better - took me out to an animal conservation park to cheer me up. It didn't work. In fact it made me feel worse. Why? Because as we walked around the park, looking at all the beautiful animals I wasn't feeling any better - I truly believed that if 'good stuff' was happening I would feel good, but I wasn't. If a day out at the animal park couldn't make me feel better then what could? It wasn't working and I had know idea what to do to feel better. My only option of relying on outside 'stuff' wasn't working at all. I was lost. What if I couldn't find anything to help me feel better? Was I going to be stuck like this forever? A few years later I came across the NOUS Principle and I finally understood why the animal park didn't fix my depression. Why no 'good thing' could help me feel good. The NOUS Principle has taught me that nothing from the outside world can make me feel anything. Not happy, not sad, not depressed or anxious. Nothing. It is only what I think about it on the inside that can have any impact on how I feel. Our feelings are created by what we think about not by what is going on around us. We can only ever feel our thinking. That was a massive game changer for me. Just like when Bruce Willis gets his freedom when he finds out the truth, so did I. I was free to not be scared of my feelings any longer as I now understood exactly where they were coming from, I finally understood how the human experience works and was now able to use it to the best of my ability - this has opened up a whole new world for me. You see nobody is at the mercy of outside circumstances - we are not victims of what's happening around us. We get to choose how we deal with situations and, as a magical side effect we get to decide how we feel about it. It's a game changer of an understanding. It's helped pull me out of depression and let go of all anxiety. I can feel the richness of life - nothing in my physical world has really changed and yet I'm living a completely different life! Just like Bruce Willis help Cole to see his 'gift' differently and Cole is no longer terrified of his life. If you would like to find out the truth and open up a whole new world, book your free session here

There's a whole positive thinking vibe going on at the moment. It's been around a long while and it drive me nuts. Have you ever tried 'thinking positive when it seems like everything is falling apart? It can be pretty impossible You may even be able to muster up one or two 'Positive thoughts' here and there but the 'negativity' comes flooding back as soon as you stop straining. Why is that? Well your thoughts are highly dependent on your mood. If you're in a low mood you will have low thoughts and likewise if you are in a high mood you will have high thoughts. Here's another little fact you may not know... You can't actually control your thoughts. 'Well of course I can' I hear you say... No BS - honestly you can't tell me that you know exactly what you will be thinking in 5/10/15 minutes, or a week from now, or next month - you get me drift! If you concentrate enough you may be able to force a thought into your mind but in standard day-to-day life the thoughts that pop into your head are, for all intents and purposes - random. you have very little to no control over them. This is the issue I have with positive thinking - it's like swimming upstream. It difficult, exhausting and goes against the fundamental principles of the how the human mind works. Have you ever walked into a room and completely forgotten what you went in there for? Of course you have - your human too! Thought is slippery - it's supposed to be! It's a law, like gravity, that thoughts come and go, they cannot be controlled by us easily and no matter how in control of yourself you are you cannot predict what's coming next. We can use that slipperiness to our advantage. If we are able to understand that thoughts are slippery, and they're meant to be , we can start to let them go a hell of a lot more easily - if we don't desperately try to hold on to them. The best bit though is that as well as their slipperiness, thoughts are also unlimited and unending (is that a word!?) - there is no end to the possibilities of what the next thought you have could be! It could be absolutely anything - happy, sad, angry, the curse to cancer, a solution to overcome climate change, what to have for dinner - ABSOLUTELY ANYTHING! The other amazing thing about the slipperiness of thought is this - antherone will be along any second - Guaranteed! Why does knowing this help? Well your feelings are created by your thoughts - your feelings are a byproduct of thought. Your thoughts create your feelings. A series of low thoughts will create a low feeling - if this goes on for a while you will end up in a low mood. But the magic is if you leave it alone long enough those slippery low moods will slip away when your thinking changes. Which it will when you let it. That's how it's supposed to work! The issue I have with positive thinking - aside from it being really hard work - is that by trying to manage your thinking into something you want you end up continuing the focus on unwanted thoughts instead of letting them slip away. If I tell you to not think of a pink elephant.....what are you thinking about? Can you see how that's the same as 'don't think negative thoughts'? Thoughts are slippery, let them be slippery another one will be along in a millisecond and your whole world will look different. Seems too simple right? Yeah, I 'thought' so too when I first learnt this - have a play with it and see you how you get on, hopefully like me you will start to see something in this and if you do I'd love to hear about it in the comments or you can email me here .

When I was 9 my whole world fell apart I remember it like it was yesterday. I was sitting in the waiting room with my parents 'the results are in, Jo has tested positive' I heard the lady say. Everything went quiet, I couldn't breath. So much confusion was going around in my head, so many thoughts, I felt like I was being sucked down a plug hole into the dark abis. I felt my parents arms around me but I didn't feel connected to my body, I felt like I was swirling around and around, barely keeping my head above water, any minute now I'll be lost forever into a deep dark hole. That was the day I found out I was different from everybody else. The day I found out I had Dyslexia. I was dyslexic. Labeled. Branded. Not only was I now never going to be considered 'normal' again, they made it quite clear that every dyslexic walking the planet were different to each other too. I was unlike anything else. I no longer belonged I no longer had anyone who was like me I from that moment I was alone. Completely. It has taken over 20 years for me to get over that day. 20 years of heartache and struggle to feel 'normal' again, to feel like one of the human race again. To feel accepted. Acceptable. I didn't want this or ask for it, I spent my life fighting it to no avail. I researched and tried techniques. I had tutors and therapy and dark dark days. It has been a long, hard road but finally I realised that I'm not that different after all and the relief has been overwhelming. You see when I was young I was convinced I was an alien. I was so worried about it I made myself ill. My mouth and throat would get so covered in ulcers that I couldn't eat. I couldn't sleep. I couldn't function properly which only reinforced my fears. After countless doctors appointments I was finally sent for blood tests. I was terrified. I got sicker. They are going to find out about me. They were going to know I was different. Surely aliens can't have the same blood as humans, can they? Are they going to take me away and do experiments on me - or worse? I'll never see my family again. The results came back negative. nothing. Zilch. Nothing wrong with me apparently - must be stress. At least I wasn't an alien - or at least they didn't notice. I could stay with my family but the feeling of being different, an alien, never really went completely. I grew up with this dark, heavy cloud hanging over me. I grew up with chains around my wrists and ankles worried if I acted too differently to everyone else people would find out who I was. That I was different. I tried so many different things to fight the feelings of worthlessness, never being enough, feeling like an outcast, an impostor, like I didn't deserve to be in a room with 'normal' people. Tutors and coaches, therapy. It tried so many things to feel a little less defective, a little less broken, a little less odd. CBT, EFT, hypnosis. But the more I went over the problems the bigger they seemed to get, the deeper they seemed to cut, the more it seemed to hurt. Could nothing help me? It wasn't until I got an understanding of the truth about how the human mind actually works that it all became clear. The day I finally understood changed my life forever. The truth about how the context you are existing in affects everything in your life. Everything you think, everything you do, everything you feel. It's the context that is the problem - not me . My context was that I was different - an alien. Everything I thought, felt, did was based on that and until the context could change everything else would be shrouded in that light. You see, if you actually believe your an alien, everything you think and do and feel in that context is normal. If you think you are different to every other human being who ever walked the earth everything you think and do and feel in that context is normal. If I could change the context I could change how I feel - and I finally had the key to changing the context. But I couldn't change my diagnosis, so how could I change the context? I took a long time to realise that I am not my diagnosis. I am not my dyslexia. I am not that scar on my arm from 1999. I am not the colour of my hair. Those things are all part of me but they don't define the human being that I am. Like being left handed or not great a sports. Like being good at parking or 5 foot 6½ tall (the half is important!) Those things are all part of me but they don't define the human being that I am. Deep beneath all the 'labels' and categories I am a human like everybody else, my brain may be wired slightly differently but my mind, my body, my soul is just the same as yours, just the same as everybody else's. I was set free, the chains dropped away, the plug hole I was constantly trying to swim out of sealed and the water stopped running. I get to decide the context of my life by changing the stories I tell myself - and the best bit is so can you. Once you know that all the stories anyone ever tells themselves are completely made up - you're then free to make up whatever stories you like. You get to decide the context of your life, the stories you tell yourself and you get to change your mind if it stops working for you. It's the same for everybody. It's what makes us human, it is what makes us normal. You see, there is so much to being a human being and a diagnosis of anything at all doesn't change any of the things that make you human - any of the things that make you 'normal'. You or anyone else are never less than or more than anyone else. We are all human, doing the best within the context that we are currently working in. I'm not an alien I am a human being just like everybody else and so are you. We are all normal.

Are you trying your hardest to be positive, more productive and less stressed but it doesn't seem to be working? Well maybe it's the context your trying to work in? You can have all the physical tips and trick in the world but if you feeling like crap, totally stressed out, anxious, depressed or completely overwhelmed, then all the best skills and techniques won't make the slightest bit of difference to reaching the outcome you want. If the context you're working in is screwy..... Be it fear Panic Anxiety Depression Overwhelm It will have a massive effect on the outcome of anything you do and your ability to to do anything remotely impactful or helpful. You see if you are living in the context of fear your mind will be mostly interested in avoiding the threat you are facing not in getting your finances sorted out. If your mind is working in a context of panic your mind will be totally focused on avoiding or fixing the situations causing you panic not on starting a new exercise regime. If you are living in the context of anxiety your mind is focused on planning for all of the countless future 'what ifs' not on launching your new online way of working. If you are working in the context of depression your mind is focused on mourning the loss of your life as it was not on the tasks you need to do now to survive. Your mind, my mind, everybody's minds are indeed supercomputer but they still get overwhelmed when they are overloaded with conflicting tasks. The context you are living in right now - and I don't mean what is happening in the world around you but how you are feeling about what is happening around you will have the biggest impact on how what you are trying to achieve will work out. Any amount of effort you put in will have no effect on the outcome if you are living in an unhelpful context. Wow this is getting a bit high level and cryptic isn't it...!? Let me try and explain it slightly differently. Have you ever had the experience of having your best ideas in the shower? Or whilst driving? That was because you went actively thinking about anything - your mind was quite and had room for new ideas. If your mind is full of 'what ifs' and plans and panic and worry and 'I miss the old ways' then there is no room for the new ideas that you want and need to come through. You need to make room in your mind. There are a few practical ways that can help to make room in your mind Turn off the news (only check it once a day if you must) you'll find out the latest if you need to know it from friends and family. Stop checking social media for the latest doom and gloom stories, they don't help anyone they just spread fear and uncertainty filling your mind up more and more. Be sensible and make the best decisions you can. Everyone makes mistakes but not making any decisions at all is usually worse. You can only do what you can do right now and based on the information you have. Before you do any task check in with how you are feeling first. If you are feeling panicky or anxious or worried and up tight, do not attempt anything, ever! No matter how urgent something seems in the moment you will be much more effective in dealing with in once you have room in your mind than if you are coming from a place of worry. This is TRUE and there are no exceptions I promise. First thing in the morning is the best time to get your mind-set and feelings under control, check in with how you're feeling and get you mind emptied and relaxed. Only then, make a list of things you would like to get done and do one thing at a time. DO NOT move onto the next until the first is complete. Any time you feel yourself getting tense or stressed...STOP. it's a warning from you body that your mind is getting full. It's a warning from your body that your not working at your best. It is a warning from your body that you need to make space in your mind. Most people get confused about what stress means, often people think it means work harder, find answers, get results- its normal, its what's been drilled into us. But what if it's not - what if it's a message to stop. If you can start to see stress as a message to stop and not a message to drive harder, fast then you life will transform. That's all from me today but I'll leave you with this quote from the amazing Dr. Wayne Dyer When you change the way you look at things the things you look at change'. When you have a relaxed and empty ind the world is a much more calm and much less hostile place to be - this is the place you want to get to if you want the most from life!

It's not unusual for me to have bad dreams, nightmares, night terrors (my husband can testify - I wake him up in the middle of the night for all the wrong reasons quite often) The subject matter varies but they usually involve spiders or buildings collapsing with me inside. This one was slightly different. I was Italian, even the thoughts running through my head seemed Italian (I can't say for sure but I didn't understand a word of it! You see, as much as I would love to - I don't speak Italian!). I looked down and I was wearing a doctors coat and one of those heart listing things..... a stethoscope. It was dark and as my eyes focused I could see I was surrounded by people and bodies... some screaming and crying out, although I couldn't hear them, some coughing uncontrollably, some trying to get my attention - grabbing my arms and coat. Some lay motionless on the ground as white a sheet. As if that wasn't enough... The building collapsed. I woke up with an almighty scream, hands and legs flinging around trying to make some connection with the falling ceiling. It wasn't there. Slowly I came too. My heart pounding so hard I could feel the blood pumping through my entire body like I was leaning on a bass speaker in a backstreet nightclub. I'm awake but not quite back in the real world just yet.... 'You OK baby....?' I hear in a sleepy voice from across the bed. I'm not entirely sure but my mouth won't work yet and if it does will I answer in Italian or English - he doesn't speak Italian. It always takes a couple of minutes before I 'come to' completely. I finally drop back into the real world, my heart begins to slow. 'You OK baby....?' I manage to muster up a 'Yeah' before getting up to go to the loo. What has my weird and terrifying nightmare got to do with you? Well firstly, I don't recommend watching the News before you go to bed! But most importantly I want you to know... It was just a dream. It used to be that that would've been my lot for the night - sleeping wise. I'd stay up all night replaying the dream over and over, 'what could I have done for those people?' 'Why did the building collapse?' 'What does it all mean?' 'Can I really speak Italian?' You see, it was just a story - some thoughts I was having while I happened to be asleep, my senses made it feel real - so real for a while I couldn't tell the difference between the world my body was in and the world my mind was in. Sometimes, I've noticed his happening while I'm wake too. My body stays here whilst my mind takes a trip off to some made up land or future. You know those times when you realise you have no idea what happened on that TV show you were 'watching' for the last 5 minutes or what the book you were reading was trying to tell you - you eyes were just doing the motions - gliding over the words - but none of them registering, none of them sinking in. Your body doing all the right things but your mind is nowhere to be seen - absent - or more accurately MIA. Yep - drifting off again - but not to sleep - to some made up land. I've noticed because my body doesn't really know where it is it tries to follow my mind into the made up world - like a good little puppy following its owner - so it tells my mind what it wants to hear. If my made up world involves an argument my body will tense my muscles and I will feel angry If my made up world is full of sadness my body gets heavy (not literally - although I don't know for sure!) and I feel down. The body wants to follow the mind, like a sweet loving little puppy my body wants to please it's master - the mind. Why is this helpful to know? Well at 2 am if I manage to relax my mind, remembering that I am safe at home in my bed (and I can't speak Italian!) then my body will follow, it too will relax and soon enough I'm back to sleep. If - at 2am - my mind is trying to get back into my dream world ('what could I have done for those people?' 'Why did the building collapse?' 'What does it all mean?' 'Can I really speak Italian?', Blah, Blah, Blah....) then my body will try to follow my mind there - I'd feel tense and my heart rate would still be pumping at a rate of knots to please my mind and the least likely result would be falling back asleep any time soon. I know this because this is how it used to work for me, night after night - and now I know this new information it doesn't. I also know that this works in real/waking/fully conscious/daymare/day-to-day life too. When my mind wants to wander to where I don't want to go, my body wants to follow. If I catch my mind wandering and bring it back - my body wants to follow it back. Sometimes it's sneaky and you don't realise your mind has wandered off until you're in a full blown row with someone you haven't seen in 5 years and you finally get to say all the things you would have said If you'd have known then what you know now. Just me? Well it's never too late to remember that that isn't actually happening, that isn't actually real and all the feelings you're having at that moment are just your puppy-dog body trying to please your mind. You can come back in the blink of an eye. Just remembering that made up world is exactly that - made up - and focusing on the here and now to get you mind and body back on track is enough. It's enough to give you a path back to peace - or at 2 am a path back to sleep. How much of your day do you spend wandering though made-up worlds? Does it help knowing you can come back at anytime? I'd love to know in the comments below! And if you would like to find out more about this new and life changing understanding you can book a free session with me here .

It really hit me this morning... I was sitting having my first cup of hot English Tea (is there any other kind!?) - strong but milky, just the way I like it in case you were wondering! And like a thunderbolt right between the eyes - it hit me. We are really bad at predicting the future! I mean really bad! Even when we get little clues as to what's going to happen - a little drip feed of 'this is going on over there', 'This could happen', 'or maybe it could be this' - the truth is, of those endless possibilities (and they are endless) we don't actually know which road we will be going down until the path is in front of us and we chose (or are shoved) down one or the other... It's not until 'it' actually happens that we really understand which path we are now on. It's not until it's actually happened that we can understand the scale and impact of events. It's not until something has actually happened that we can decide what the best course of action is. It's not until something has actually happened that we really know what our true options are. All the 'what ifs' suddenly disappear and the path becomes momentarily clear - until the next round of new 'what ifs' come marching through the door like uninvited intruders. What I mean is up until the moment that something is actually happening now - we are really bad at guessing what it's going to look like - what exactly it will look like, what the impact will be, how we are going to feel about it, what our options will be and what action we will need to take. Even during the event we are really bad at predicting how it will turn out. Have you ever, in the past, been through something that was THE WORST thing that could ever have happened? It was the end of the world as you knew it, you didn't know how you were going to survive - the future life you dreamt up was suddenly in peril and changing before your very eyes? I know I have. Well here's the thing - that future life wasn't real - it never was! None of the future lives you've ever dreamt up are real because until your actually there we are all really bad at predicting what will happen! I have another question for you. That event in the past that at the time was THE WORST thing to ever happen to you, have you ever looked back and thought 'wow, if that hadn't happened I wouldn't be where I am today'? I sure know I have! You see you are the sum of every single experience you have ever had. Some were pleasant at the time some not so much but everything adds up to you right now. Everything you are and have is because of everything that went on before - no exceptions. What is happening now will add to that tapestry that you are. There is one thing I know for sure - we cannot predict the short term so we sure as hell can't predict the long term! All we really know is what is right in front of us at this very moment. Right now is all we can really deal with, this is all we can really know about. We can plan for the future, but just know it is a made-up future that you created - your predictions may be close but you'll never be spot on. We are really bad at predicting the future - BUT we are really good at taking action now. You can only take control of what is happening now and the more you do the more in control you can feel. The more in control of the now you feel the less inclined you are to try and predict the future and the more confident you will feel in yourself to deal with anything that comes your way (predicted or not!) Let me know in the comments below what you most often are trying to predict, is it how someone will react to what you plan on saying to them? How your business will perform in an week/a month/a year? How friends and family will behave when you see them next? I'd really love to know what you most love (or hate) to predict most often and whether or not those predictions ever come true!

The virus is not the problem. What the Government is doing (or not doing) is not the problem. Schools shutting is not the problem. What you think of these things is the problem. Why is it that some people are coping well while others are stressed, overwhelmed and panicking? It all boils down to your state of mind and what you think of the situation - stay with me, I will explain all! Are you looking for problems and are you looking for solutions and opportunities. Are you dialed into the news and social media or are you focused on what is happening, for you, a this very moment. The virus is not the issue - what you think about it is. What the Government is doing (or not doing) is not the issue - what you think about it is. Schools shutting is not the issue - what you think about it is. This goes for each and every 'problem' out there - anything you can think of. It is not the event itself that is the problem but what you think about it. You see all you ever feel is your thinking. Every feeling you have, be it good, bad or indifferent is a result of your thinking in the moment. It's impossible to feel depressed when your entire thinking is about something happy Likewise it's impossible to feel happy when your entire thinking is about how depressed you are. Let me give you another example. Have you ever been pissed off with your partner? You go into the kitchen and something hasn't been done the way you like it, your partners at work and you spend all day getting more and more angry that they never do 'this' or 'that' right and how they can't possibly love you - because if they did surely they would know that the dishwasher should be loaded in a specific way. (I feel you, I've been there!) It would be easy, and most obvious to most, to say that it's your partner that has pissed you off - but they weren't even there! Then h ow could it be them? Consider this, if you took the view that the way the dishwasher was loaded had absolutely no bearing on the amount of love in your relationship (put like that it does sound a bit ridiculous doesn't it!?) if you didn't then go on to list all of the things that don't get done 'properly' - how different would you feel? You see? Your feelings come from what you think about a situation - they don't come from the situation itself. What can we do with this information? Well we can rest assured in the knowledge that our own free will can give us all the power we need to better choose our thoughts, to better chose our feelings. Better choices lead to a better feeling ad a better feeling leads to a better life in all senses of the word - better productivity, better health, better relationships. All day every day! If you'd like to learn more about this simple, yet revolutionary way of taking control of your feelings book your free session today, I can't wait to run you through the ins and outs of this brand new understanding. Click here to book your free session now. I'd love to hear you initial thoughts on this too, you can share them with me through a message on in the comments below.

There is a parable I want to share with you, it's about a terrible storm that happened on the east coast of the Florida Keys. The sea reared up and tore up the beach, high winds snapped palm trees like matches and debris littered the beach. The following morning a small boy and his Grandfather walked to the beach to survey the damage. The small boy saw a starfish stranded on the beach under the hot sun. The boy picked up the helpless starfish and placed it gently back into the sea. The Grandfather laughed 'Have you seen how many starfish are stranded on the beach!? There's thousands, you can't possible make a difference to all of them' The small by picked up another starfish placed in gently int the sea and said 'I made a difference to that one'. You may have heard this before, you may not. The point is no matter how tough things get, no matter how much debris there is and n matter how overwhelming the situation seems - there is always something you can do to make a difference. I can't come up with a vaccine - my interest in biology ended as s as I had to cut open a water flea. I can't leave to get shopping for anyone right now I can't control how this spreads or who gets it I can't control the fear mongers spreading the 'what ifs' and end of the world scenarios I can't control the news stories But... I can keep calm by not following minute by minute updates on social media and the news. I can be grateful for the wonderful health service we have and the dedicated staff working tirelessly to help those in need. I can try to spread hope, in my posts, in my blog, in my conversations with friends and family. I can offer a friendly conversations about where the human experience comes from to those who are suffering, in the hope that they see something. I can check in on my neighbors digitally and swap supplies if I have something they need. I can be a lighthouse in the storm, I can put one starfish back at a time. I can be a hero to someone - even if that is just one person. So can you. What can you do today to help or support someone today? Who's hero will you be? Let me know in the comments below what you hope to do to be someone's hero - I can't wait to hear all about it!

Mental health is a funny thing, it feels like it's fleeting, something that can be broken or lost. But I don't believe that to be true. Let me talk quickly about 'Truth' and what it is to me exactly. The way I see it is truth is true no matter what - it doesn't rely on anything else to be a certain way and it has no exceptions - ever. If there are exceptions to the rule then the rule isn't true. Take gravity - this is a great example of something that is true - it has no exceptions - everything, no matter what will fall to the ground - as I recently found out when I knocked my favorite mug of the side and it hit the floor shattering into a million pieces. Now if it were true that you could damage or lose you mental health then no one would ever recover, true!? But they do, in fact many, many people not only recover but go in to be great successes! Now how could they do that if they were fundamentally broken? They couldn't! Our current 'Mental Health' services are in crisis, people are suffering and there are now over 600 different 'disorders' a person can be labeled with - often for the rest of their lives as they hear the words 'there's no cure', or 'take one of these a day for-well-ever'. The way I see it, if our current approach to mental health was true then either everyone would recover or no one would - but some do and some don't. Now why is that? Weather it be from depression, anxiety, schizophrenia, addiction, bi-polar or anything else, some recover and some don't. Let's take people suffering from anxiety - some recover, some don't. So if our Mental Health service were 'true' surely everyone would recover or no one would. There MUST be something else going on making a big difference to people's chances. So what is the difference that makes all of the difference? In 100% of people suffering with anxiety, each and every single one had anxious thoughts about something and became anxious as a result. In 100% of people suffering with depression, each and every single one had depressive thoughts about something and became depressed as a result. In 100% of people suffering with suicidal ideation, each and every single one had thoughts that they or others would be better off out-of-here about something and became suicidal as a result. 100% of these people had a thought that led to a feeling, then a related thought that made the feeling worse and so on until it completely takes over your mind and life. This may seem like an oversimplification but the most effective answers are often super simple and right in front of our noses - have you ever had that 'why didn't I think of that before' moment!? 100% of cases, no exceptions. So how does knowing this help? After all you can't control the thoughts that pop into your head, can you!? Well no, but you can control which ones you pay attention to - which ones you grab hold of, believe to be true and drag you down the rabbit hole. You see your thoughts aren't actually real, they are ideas, stories, concepts, bubbles that pop in and pop out just as quickly if left alone. No thought is more ture that any other and you can choose which ones you pay attention to and which ones you choose to let go of. You get to decide. What happens if you don't follow any thought down the rabbit hole? Well as i turns out all human beings default to peace. Will the sad, anxious, angry, ad infinitum thoughts return? Yes, of course but when they keep being allowed to pass unhindered they become far less compelling and far less frequent. The more you choose to let go of the distressing thoughts, the less often you will have them. You are ok, you are not broken and you are not lost. You can choose a different thought any time you like and escape the rabbit hole in the blink of an eye. If you'd like to find out more about how your thoughts control your feelings pop me a message and I'd be more than happy to have a chat.