Featuring: Mental Health Awareness Week – on being aware: how can we be aware, and what is mental health anyway? Discovering Dyslexia: Last chance to get tickets for our online seminar this week – Get information and tickets here

Do you repeat cycles of behaviour, such as reacting the same way in a confrontational situation, falling for the same kind of person, anaesthetising yourself in times of anxiety or stress, or reaching a certain point on the career ladder and never making the next step?  These may be signs that something is not quite right in our wellbeing scaffolding.  This is the unconscious mind at work; uncovering those workings is key to knowing how we can make the next step and break the cycle. 

When we feel physical pain or have a visible wound, it is easy to be aware of our physical state and its level of health.  But when the trauma is invisible, how can we be aware of that?  How do we decide how serious it is, and what should we do about them?  What constitutes mental health anyway? 

Being healthy in mind doesn’t mean always feeling happy, never feeling anxious, having crises or suffering trauma  Pain is part of the human condition and a necessary element in our growth as fully functioning people.  What matters is how well and how fast we recover from early issues, how much those issues impact on our present lives, how we handle anxiety and how happy we are right now.

If those cycles of behaviour result in anxiety, unhappiness and frustration – which in turn lead to repeating the cycle of behaviour – something has to change in our perception so that we can move forward, not relive Groundhog Day.  Talking with a psychotherapist cannot cure the trauma which caused the behaviour.  What it can do is give an insight into the reasons why it affects us that way.  It is that understanding which can allow us a moment in times of stress to stand back briefly, assess how we are engaging with the issue, and make a choice.  This week, choose health.