Living with chronic pain or any other long-term health condition can sometimes affect your mental health and you made become low in mood, anxious or fearful of the future.
I encourage my patients to take care of their mental health everyday as mind and body are linked. I often suggest that they practice a variety of good habits, including getting enough sleep, exercising, eating nutritious food, spending time with your family and friends, practicing relaxation techniques and more.
All these activities affect the feel- good factor within your brain and will help you to develop a sense of wellbeing and calm.
However, sometimes, you may have an emotional emergency and just like responding to a physical emergency, having the right Emotional First Aid Kit can help.
This checklist will give you ideas about tools you can use when you are feeling anxious, low or stressed.
It’s important to have these tools and techniques close to hand when you might be experiencing an emotional emergency. You can create a digital first aid kit with your tools on your phone or tablet. Alternatively, some people prefer a more physical kit and have their tools in a little box or bag.
Start to think about what tools you think would be helpful to get you through a difficult emotional time. Then gather all these tools together and make sure that you keep it with you at times when you anticipate you will feel, low, anxious or stressed.
Suggestions for your emotional first aid kit, perhaps you might find it useful to tick off the tools that you think would be most beneficial to you and of course add your own ideas.
⃝ A grounding object such as a polished pebble or a small ball – just squeezing the ball or moving the pebble around in your hand, paying attention to your physical reaction can help calm emotions.
⃝ Have an object in your hand and think about the situation that’s causing you to feel low, anxious or stressed and rate it out of 10. Slowly move the object from one hand to another whilst watching the movement. Do this for about a minute then re-rate your mood.
⃝ Create a list of people you can call -this list could include 3 or 4 people who are emotional supportive. If you can’t reach them, write down what you want to say, wait until you see them to ask for support, don’t email or text.
⃝ A journal/ notebook to write your feelings down or to draw or doodle – you can do this using pen and paper or digitally, whichever way works best for you.
⃝ Positive photographs or pictures – have a few photos or videos easily accessible. These could be of people, pets or special places. Looking at these pictures or photos should stimulate positive feelings and happy memories.
⃝ Stop and flop – when you start feeling anxious, stressed or low. stop what you are doing, take a deep breath, as you breathe out (with a loud sigh if you aren’t in company, otherwise breathe out quietly). As you breathe out, drop your shoulders down and notice the release of tension
⃝ Grounding technique -When starting to feel anxious, stop and look around you, make a list (speak it out loud if alone, if in company make list in your mind) list 5 things you can see, 4 things you can hear, 3 things you can touch, 2 things you can smell and 1 thing you can taste (think lemons)
⃝ Singing – sing a song/nursery rhyme that you know and can sing without thinking about the words – it will control your breathing
⃝ Look at a picture and describe every single thing in the picture, what colours, shapes, textures etc. In similar way, if out for a walk or looking out the window, look and describe the clouds in the sky, shades of colour of the sky, trees, bushes, grass, anything you can see.
⃝ Drinking water – sitting and relaxing with a glass of water can have an immediate effect on mood. Sip it slowly and relax, being mindful of how you are feeling.
⃝ Inspirational reading – many people find comfort in reading positive memes, inspirational stories, poems or prayers, what are your favourite ones?
⃝ A relaxing audio – there are many relaxing audios available from relaxation, to visualisation to music only audios, which you can download onto your smart phone or tablet to create your own playlist. Don’t listen to songs that make you feel bad or remind you of difficult times. If you would like to learn relaxation, visit my website www.apaininthemind.co.uk for my 3 step targeted approach to relaxation.
⃝ Chewing gum helps improve your mood as the gut has a calming effect on the brain as the repetitive action produces serotonin
⃝ Funny videos – you can easily find something that will make you laugh or smile on YouTube or many other internet sites. Doesn’t matter how bad your day is, I’m sure that your favourite video will help
⃝ Create a list of activities you can do to improve your mood – what usually makes you feel better, it could be doing a hobby, chatting to someone or just taking a walk. Make sure the list contains activities to get you moving in the company of others.
⃝ Other things to put in your emotional first aid kit:
………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………
Wishing you a less pain day
Dr Sue