How To Do The Work: Recognise Your Patterns, Heal from Your Past, and Create Your Self

FSJ: RESTORING BALANCE

Boundaries are clear definitions of our personal limitations.

Stress affects every system of the body, including the gut – it’s no coincidence that gastrointestinal (GI) problems are one of the issues most commonly cited by people dealing with anxiety.

I started a daily meditation and breathwork ritual, deepened my yoga practise, and incorporated play, finding time to sing and dance and hike in nature.

When our play is social, we can challenge our neuroception (the part of our nervous system that scans the environment for signs of danger). When we horse around with someone, play a pickup game of soccer, or even compete against a friend in a video game, we shift into and out of fight/flight/freeze modes and our safe social engagement mode of calmn

SOCIAL ENGAGEMENT

(you can grab the whole guide for free at https://yourholisticpsychologist.com),

Therapy gave me insight into how problematic my family dynamics were – how my family ‘othered’ anyone outside the family unit and worked so hard to present a face of harmony and unity to the world and in reality lived in a feedback loop of anxiety and fear. I saw my mother’s difficulty showing true affection and love, which came from the scarcity –

reckoning often unearths deep reservoirs of pain, sadness, and even anger that have long been suppressed so that you could, at least on a surface level, function and move on.