Balance - Sarah Barr

Valentine’s Day puts the emphasis on love for someone special in your life.

Yet YOU are the most important person in your life.

Why not make this day about loving yourself?

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Whether you get physical panic attacks or mental mayhem, heart palpitations or cognitive chaos. If you feel isolated or watched,  terrified of a crowd or of interacting with one person …
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Living with a mental illness this time of year can be hard. There is so much pressure pouring in from social media, society etc to “start over” or change how …
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Habits, we all have them, good ones and bad ones.

Firstly let’s define habits. Habits are the small decisions you make and actions you perform every day. According to research …
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Being a mum in today’s world is no easy task, as amazing as it is, it is hard. With all the ‘normal’ duties of motherhood, mums today also have to …
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Anxiety is a part of everyday life for many people. Yet you may be completely unaware, as so many people put in a lot of energy and time in hiding …
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It can be so hard to practice any type of self-care when you’re not feeling yourself. Yet this is exactly when you need it the most.

On days …
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What is OCD?

Obsessive Compulsive Disorder is a mental illness that creates negative thoughts. These thoughts lead you to believe that if you do not carry out a certain …
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Working in a stressful, high-pressured or demanding job can negatively impact on your mental health. This, coupled with issues at home, arranging child care throughout the summer holidays …
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Researchers found that most mums experience a significant dip in self-esteem after having a baby that can last up to three years.

This is regardless of the mother’s relationship …
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We all know how important self-care is for our mind and body. However it is very difficult to practice self-care if we are stressed and do not recognise that we …
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We all have anxious thoughts from time to time but sometimes these thoughts can be all we think about. They are intrusive, frightening, repetitive and hard to stop.

It …
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Today is World Maternal Mental Health Day, May is Maternal Mental Health Month.

This is a serious health matter, that needs more awareness and acceptance. We need to be …
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By personalising other people’s negative thoughts or opinions we are allowing them to control how we feel.

Q. So how can we stop this?

A. By changing the way we …
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We grow up with labels that are used to define us. These labels can be attached by other people and even by ourself at times. Society, family, social media, work …
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Rejection is hard for most people. Since childhood, we have looked for acceptance from our friends in school to our parents at home. Sometimes doing whatever we can and …
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“You will never speak to anyone more than you speak to yourself in your head, be kind to yourself”

When we are living with low self-esteem, it …
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Let’s do a thought experiment:

• Close your eyes.
• Imagine a pink elephant
• What shade of pink is it?
• Is it happy/sad/indifferent?
• Think about the pink elephant for 60 …
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Weekend Depression: It can start to sneak up on you without you knowing it. During the week you’re busy with work, children, schedules and activities. Yet when Friday or Saturday …
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So yesterday was ‘Blue Monday’ supposedly the most depressing day of the year.

We look forward to winter, the cosy nights and the lead up to Christmas. The parties, the …
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• What are worries?

Worries are just thoughts and thoughts are not fact. They have no reality. Worries begin when we ask, “What if…” then the mental …
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As we all know from experience, making a New Year’s resolution is easy. Sticking with it and actually achieving your goal is not so easy.

New Year’s resolutions is …
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Any special occasion, like Christmas or any ‘first’ can be so difficult when you are bereaved, with each occasion such as a birthday, Mother’s Day, Father’s Day or Christmas bringing …
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With Christmas getting closer, many of us will feel a mixture of excitement and worry. However, for those of you who live with social anxiety, Christmas can be a very …
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How many times a day do you allow yourself to stop, take stock and breathe?

Or do you carry on, listening to all those ‘mustabations’ (I should be doing this, …
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“There once was a girl whose happiness was tied to the sun. As it rose, so did she, and her smile was like beams of light. As it …
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“Fear is nothing more than an obstacle that stands in the way of progress. In overcoming our fears we can move forward, stronger and wiser within ourselves.”

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How are you?

“I’m grand, yeah fine, I’m good”.

How many times a day do we tell ourselves this, do we tell other people this?

Have you perfected your mask?

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“Mindfulness, being present in each moment, without judgement”

So mindfulness is quite the buzz word at the minute, but what exactly is mindfulness?

It is defined as being …
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Today is World Mental Health Day. The 10th of October each year is dedicated to raising awareness of mental health issues around the world and bringing together efforts which support …
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“October is about trees revealing colours they’ve hidden all year. People have an October as well” – Jm Storm.

Autumn is the season of letting go. I absolutely …
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Positive thinking focuses on the positive side of life.

To use positive thinking in your life, it is more than being aware of it, it is about adopting it …
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We live in a social media frenzied world.

So creating and maintaining an online presence is now a priority for many of us, whether it is for social or …
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In last week’s article I focused on students moving to university and dealing with homesickness.

This week my focus is on the parents/guardians who are left behind. As a mother …
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Moving away for university is a big transition, whether you’ve come from the other side of the world or down the road.

If you’re suffering from homesickness, just remember you’re not the …
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 “Dreams are the royal road to the unconscious.”- Sigmund Freud.

Through analysing our dreams, we can get a “glimpse” into the inner workings of our subconscious.

Dreams can …
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Today mums feel enormous pressure to be the ‘perfect mum’. It can feel at times like a competitive sport. This coupled with social media and the pressure intensifies, as social …
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In today’s article I am focusing on some of the main myths/fears that are associated to attending counselling.

With the hope of quashing them or at least offer a different …
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“I am not boring or shy. I am an introvert. an artist. a lover. a dreamer. a fighter. a seeker”.

Introverted people tend to be more focused …
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Mental health describes how we think and feel about ourselves. Which impacts on how we cope with stress, face challenges, build relationships and move on from difficult experiences.Our mental well-being …
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At some point or another, most of us will have had or have experiences of feeling lonely.

Being alone can be difficult as it may trigger feelings of sadness.

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Being a mum is one of the most important jobs in any community. We provide food, safety, warmth, clothing, connection, love, and a sense of personal importance to our children. …
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“Take pride in how far you have come & have faith in how far you can go”.

Sometimes it can be difficult to judge how well we’re doing …
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“Comparison is the thief of joy” – Theodore Roosevelt

Whether it is keeping up with the Kardashians, Joneses or Facebook ‘friends’ we are always looking at that …
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“Depression is the most unpleasant thing I have ever experienced…it’s that absence of being able to envisage that you will ever be cheerful again. The absence of hope. …
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 “When you are a caregiver, you know that everyday you will touch a life or a life will touch yours”

Carers in Ireland play an invaluable role …
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“My nights are for overthinking, my mornings are for oversleeping”

It’s 3am.

You’re wide awake, just laying there in the stillness of night.

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“Happiness is not something ready made. It comes from your own actions.” – Dalai Lama

In today’s article I will look at what strategies we can use to …
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In today’s article I’m writing about how to identify your thinking patterns. These patterns are your type of thoughts that you have everyday. Therefore how we think contributes to how we …
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Have you ever felt it difficult to be your true self? Find it easier to fit in with what is deemed ‘normal and not to stand out? Worried about being …
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