My Wellbeing Course Journey.

[Banjoman]

Hello Everyone,

Some of you may know I have been struggling, with no luck,
to find a bulk billing psychologist in my area. The other week some helpful
members from this very forum suggest I try getting in contact with the MindSopt
Clinic -- a free service for Australian adults who are experiencing difficulties
with anxiety, stress, depression and low mood.

After completing an online test on the MindSpot website I
received a phone call from a psychologist who talked about my results, asked me
further questions, and offered me a place in an online course for people with
depression, low mood, and anxiety.

This week I enrolled and started The Wellbeing Course online.
The course aims to provide information and teach skills for managing symptoms
and keeping our emotional well-being within the healthy range. I would like to
share my journey through this week by week course, mainly regarding what I am
learning. I hope that some of the information I share may be helpful, interesting,
to some of you or even inspire a conversation. Sharing will also, I believe,
help me install the lessons I am learning.

Feel free to ask me any questions and I will try my best to answer.

[highlysensitivepersonhsp]

Dear Banjoman,

I really appreciate you taking the time and effort to reply to my post. Especially as the topic was quite personal and revealing. I want to share more of myself with you.

I wonder, do you believe in spirit? I'm talking about that natural, innate drive that propels us to learn and make sense of our experience. I mean the spirit that guides us through life so that we can integrate ourselves with the world.

Spirit heals. It makes us whole and complete. It sorts out the good stuff from the bad. Like your cynicism and need for approval.

I have come to believe that love is the pinnacle of human existence. All that we experience is working towards our ability to express love and overcome the barriers to that. When that love is challenged by others then self love comes first.

Part of becoming whole is learning not to depend on others for our self concepts like our self worth. That's what I mean by being independent. Asserting self love through our own values, ideas, etc is a way we develop those self concepts.

Spirit is what helps us define who we are over the course of a lifetime. We have shared with each other something of our own spiritual journey.

My battles with recognition are about learning to recognise what is good in me. I never had that as a kid or in adult life. But something, like spirit, tells me I'm good. I think I see the same goodness in you. We are both on a similar journey. As are so many of us.

Illness is a part of that journey. You and I are on a path to healing. To becoming strong and self sufficient. That's where I see us heading.

My mindspot course starts on July 3rd. I hope to share more of my journey with you. Keep up the good work.

loving thoughts,

Sandra

[Guest_128]

Hey Sandra,

I don't get what you mean,

Cut off from the world and forced into retreat?

Later

[highlysensitivepersonhsp]

Thanks for asking and showing interest. Back when I was at uni I experienced harassment that forced me out of school. I tried to get help but no one would come to my aid. Since then I have been through various illnesses that have forced me to examine my life. Like a lot of others, it was not good news.

The really sad part is that I have made so much progress, but the negative aspects of the experience overshadow all the positive ones. But I have read that the mind is like that. It's called negativity bias.

How about you? Can you relate? I mean to battling negativity. Trying to focus on the positive growth that comes from battling mental illness.

Kind regards,

Sandra

[Guest_1055]

Hello Banjoman.

Just letting you know that I am following along with your lessons here. And I appreciate you posting them.

Shell

[Guest_128]

Hi hsp,

very confused,

Atm the only positives I see from battling mental illness is that I have empathy for others like me. I think there is so much more to know about MH and I believe there is so much more treatment that has yet to be discovered.

I have always thought I was different and the black sheep of the family.

so you did not actually go to a place of retreat?

Have you got family supporting you?

Later

[Doolhof]

Hi Banjoman and All,

Earlier this year I tried to work on the Mind Spot stuff. I think my mind was so messed up then I had trouble understanding the principles.

I really like and appreciate the way you explain it all Banjo and how yo put it into context for yourself, that has helped me to understand it all a lot more clearly!

Thanks!

Cheers from Mrs. D.

[Guest_554]

I am finding it hard, the thought challenging part of this course.

You seem to be doing so good with yours banjoman, well done!!

I will keep going with it and hope I can get it to make more sense to me.... but that is just me atm, some things just seem to much of a challenge, let alone thoughts lol

🙂

[Banjoman]

Hello Sandra,

I have never looked at my yearning to understand my experience as a spirit before. Sometimes I do get blind-sighted by the question of my own life’s purpose or direction on some idle week days.

I do agree self-love should come first. There is this great book by Neff Kristin called Self- Compassion I recommend reading. It is about how to limit self-criticism and offset its negative effects.

I hope one day to truly love myself, wholeheartedly.

Hello Shell,
Thank you for reading; I hope you keep reading along with
me. It has been really helpful for me to think and write about the course.

Hello Mrs. D.

Thank you also for taking the time to read. I have to admit, going through the lessons is mentally exhausting, particularly when one is expressing exacerbated symptoms. Sometimes I feel as if I haven’t slept for days after only reading and working through the lesson guide for 20 minutes.

Still I hope you keep getting something out of my posts.

Hey Busybee,

Yes, the thought challenge process is not easy. According to the Mind Spot tutorial people tend to get stuck with in the steps. I personal feel that Examining the Thought and Do Something Helpful are closer if not the same sometimes when it comes to particular thoughts.

Keep at it. Like any method, practice will make it stick.

[Banjoman]

Hello everyone,

Another thought challenge I did at work this week, and I am proud to say it worked for me. So I thought I would share it as another example.

Situation:
I was asked to drive the work van and pick up a box with a code number from our warehouse to bring back to the shop for a waiting customer. When I am asked these types of orders I tend to get a rush of anxiety because I feel like I won’t be able to find the box at all.

The Steps.

Recognise the Thought
‘If I don’t find the boxed item my co-works will believe I am an unreliable and the customer will leave angry’.

Examine the Thought
This thought is making me feel useless. The only reason I am thinking this way is because I feel I might be letting my team down, but the reality is I don’t know if the stock is available, that is something I can’t change and it is not my fault if the computer has stock information error. I would of been fired along time ago if my co works thought I was an unreliable.

Do Something Helpful
I am going to stop thinking about ‘what ifs’ and start concentrate on driving safely to the warehouse and I will look for the box calmly. If for some reason I cannot locate the box I will call the shop and inform them that
item is sold out. If I feel the box could be somewhere else then I will call and ask if anyone knows where is last paced. I have options, it is not the end of the world if I can’t find the box.

[Doolhof]

Hi Banjoman,

Thank you once again for sharing and helping myself and others to understand these strategies.

Do you find you can work this out in your mind or do you need to sit and write it all down to make sense of it?

Once again, congratulations for all your hard work with putting this into place and thanks again for sharing.

By the way, did you manage to find the box you were looking for? I hope so, if not then I hope you discovered an explanation as why it was not there, one you could share with the customer.

Next time a task like this will not be so daunting for your, nor for me now I have read your way of dealing with it all!

Cheers to you from Mrs. D.