2024 Word and Intention of the year: GROWTH

On January 2, 2024January 2, 2024 By Zeenat Merchant Syal-Counseling Psychologist|Spiritual CounselorIn Emotions, healing, Mind, Mind-Mental Health, Positive Self Reflection, spiritual healing23 Comments

“Happiness is neither virtue nor pleasure nor this thing nor that but simply growth, We are happy when we are growing.” ~ William Butler Yeats

My favorite year end ritual since the past few years has been to choose a word for the year. Which also doubles as the intention of the year as well.

I’ve found that after years of setting goals and resolutions which fizzle out in intensity and appeal after a few weeks, a word based intention creates a wonderful level of focus. It is sort of an anchor to come back to when you feel lost along the way. My word for last year was: PEACE. And, I can say with great satisfaction that, that is the first thing I wrote as a something I have achieved in 2023 in my journal. Peace of mind, was at the forefront of all that I did in the last year. I’ve never really shared my Word of the year before on the blog, but this year I feel like its something I have tried and it works beautifully on my healing journey. SO, it WILL surely help you too.

Continue reading →

The “stop, breathe, reflect” technique to Calm Overthinking

On October 23, 2023November 15, 2023 By Zeenat Merchant Syal-Counseling Psychologist|Spiritual CounselorIn healing, Mind, Mind, Heart& Soul-Motivation&Inspiration, Mind-Mental Health8 Comments

“Put your thoughts to sleep. Do not let them cast a shadow over the moon of your heart. Let go of thinking.”~ Rumi

Do you find yourself in the overthinking mode sometimes?

Overthinking is when someone thinks about one thing again and again in a mind numbing loop.

When overwhelm kicks in, the mind automatically goes into overthinking mode. Our mind has a built in fight or flight mechanism to protect us from danger. So some level of thinking, problem solving mentally is a natural response. But when it takes over your life, and all waking moments are full of overwhelm, thats when we need to reevaluate what is normal.

It’s in this overwhelming mode, that very detrimental life decisions are made, because the mind is so tired of overthinking, it often settles on the wrong solution. This is the reason all decisions should be made with a calm mind, not an overthinking one.

Overthinking might be a result of underlying anxiety, which can trigger overthinking at any time, and this is often out of anyone’s control.

The trigger can’t be controlled, but the response certainly can.

Excessive overthinking can affect our levels of happiness, our relationships, and our entire lives.

Use this exercise to calm your mind anytime you start overthinking:

Continue reading →

How to calm down quickly when you’re feeling stressed ~ 6 tools

On October 10, 2023October 21, 2023 By Zeenat Merchant Syal-Counseling Psychologist|Spiritual CounselorIn healing, Mind, Heart& Soul-Motivation&Inspiration, Mind-Mental Health11 Comments

“Stress is not what happens to us. It’s our response to what happens and response is something we can choose.” ~ Maureen Killoran

Today, is world mental health day, 10th October. The theme for this year is “Mental health is a universal human right“. The premise behind this theme is to improve knowledge, raise awareness and drive actions that promote and protect everyone’s mental health as a universal and basic human right.

Keeping that in mind, today’s article is about how you can understand and heal from stress.

More than two-thirds of visits to the doctors or surgeries are for stress-related illnesses.

Stress has been linked to headaches, backaches, insomnia, anger, cramps, elevated blood pressure, chronic fatigue syndrome, fibromyalgia and lowered resistance to infection.

For women, stress is a key factor in hormonal imbalances resulting in menstrual irregularities, PMS, fibroids, endometriosis and fertility problems.

Stress can also be a factor in the development of almost all disease states, including cancer and heart disease; the leading cause of death in men & women.