5 Things I Suggest Within Therapy to Improve Your Quality of Life.
As the world gets more accepting of therapy, mental health, and diagnoses, more people than ever are signing up for their first therapy session. However, sometimes there’s still a misunderstanding about who should go to therapy or what has to be covered within a therapy session. A lot of people understand that going to therapy means that something bad must have happened to you or that you struggle with a disorder that needs consistent treatment. While those things are common within the therapy world and can be a part of anyone’s journey, there’s also room to talk about the “smaller things”, daily stressors, and overall life improvement. No matter why you’re coming to see me, whether it be for intensive trauma therapy or just a place to vent, I’m always going to talk about 5 concepts anyone can work on to improve their overall mood and relationship with self and their own life:
Having a Hobby- I think having a hobby is one of the most underrated and underutilized tools we have at our disposal that can immediately improve our mood, increase motivation, strengthen our support system, and increase our happiness with life. Finding a new hobby can distract us from stress and/or lessen symptoms of depression and anxiety by allowing our brains to focus on learning about a new concept or skill. We can also become more social by joining online forums, leaving the house to go where that hobby is held, or joining “meet-ups” for hobbies that tend not to have set environments. A new hobby can increase our confidence in ourselves by allowing ourselves to be bad at something at first and watching ourselves become proficient in something new in real time. I’ve noticed that within the therapeutic journey, clients who trust themselves enough to find a new hobby experience immediate improvement in their therapy skills and tend to experience happier outcomes due to learning how to create a fulfilling life.
Checking Your Relationship with Food- This one is a bit tougher to identify because most of the population isn’t walking around with diagnosable eating disorders but most of society does have an unhealthy view of food in general and how it affects their body. When was the last time you paused after a meal to be curious about how those foods made you feel? People are quick to cut carbs and buy all low-fat in the name of health before they even realize how certain foods or food groups make them feel or how they make their bodies feel. In a perfect world, your relationship with all foods would be neutral. However, we live in a world where food is demonized at the same time it offers comfort to us and it’s hard to remain objective. One message I want everyone to know is that you cannot emotionally regulate without food. Hangry is a real thing, and your emotional well-being starts to deteriorate pretty quickly once your body starts signaling for hunger. It’s not healthy to tough it out and be hungry or go most of the day without eating. It messes with our hunger and satiation hormones, not to mention, has us viewing the day with blue-tinted glasses. I would be willing to bet that most of my clients who come to see me highly anxious, in tears, angry, etc., are also coming to see me on an empty stomach and not having properly fed themselves for a few days. I’ve noticed my clients who tend to feed themselves consistently and feed themselves foods that give them energy, their mood also improves.
Your Sleep Hygiene- Addressing sleep is likely the most difficult one on this list. In my opinion, sleep is just as important as eating when it comes to emotional regulation. You are not set up for a day of accessing neutral or calming thoughts if your brain hasn’t had a chance to restore and put away the day before. Every time I start the conversation on sleep, I can feel my clients sparing me from the world’s largest eye-roll. I’m not the first or last professional to ask someone about their sleep so after a while, people tend to dismiss the importance of it because they feel like they have bigger issues to address, and they’re right- they do. However, shifting our thoughts from “I should get more sleep” to “Why doesn’t my body want to sleep?” may ease some of the annoyance that comes with fixing our sleep schedules. In my work, all of my clients have experienced trauma or chronic life-changing stressors, their nervous system is always on fire, and PTSD symptoms of hypervigilance and paranoia don’t go away just because a professional recommended better sleep. If we lean into the question “Why doesn’t my body want to sleep?” We may find that we are holding anxiety in our body or thoughts, there may be fear around dreaming, we may not be allowing our bodies to shut down at reasonable times, or we may even find that there is a bigger underlying medical condition that needs to be addressed.
Incorporating Movement into Your Life- This item tends to be the most triggering item on the list or the one that causes the most freeze or frustration within a session. Our society tends to have tunnel vision on what movement should look like for everyone, no matter what. If you aren’t in some form of a commercial gym, set routine, or doing mainstream movements, you tend to receive the message that your chosen movement isn’t “correct.” A lot of my clients tend to associate movement with extreme discomfort and restrictive diets. However, movement is supposed to be enjoyed and not immediately used for weight loss. Exercise or movement allows us to create and release extra feel-good molecules and hormones that we otherwise wouldn’t have access to while being fully sedentary. In a therapy session, we may process what their definition of movement is, and what their goals within that movement would be, and remain curious about how your body feels pre-, during, and post-exercise. My most successful clients who have embraced needing movement have chosen exercises that certainly would be out of the realm of mainstream, which include archery, birding, hiking, gardening, hammocking, dance classes, aerial yoga, and many other activities. Engaging in consistent movement can increase your confidence in self, encourage more socialization, access to stress relief, promote a routine that helps manage mental wellness, and other benefits that lead towards more success within the therapy room and within a person’s goals in life.
Going Outside- Going outside is not synonymous with engaging in movement or exercise, however, if you take out two birds with one stone, there’s no reason to challenge it. There are plenty of clinical studies that show us the effectiveness of “green space therapy” for managing overall stress and immediate intervention with low mood or anxiety. Green space therapy is just another way of naming the physical and mental benefits of being in nature and around trees and grass. If we spend dedicated time outside we also increase our vitamin D intake, which has a large correlation to improved mood, more energy, and less brain fog. We can also take a chance to ground and touch grass while we are engaging in our “outside time.” Grounding is a term most often used by communities that tend to be more spiritual but is a term that is accessible to everyone. While we may not be trying to reach a higher power with our feet in the grass, we can be intentional about reconnecting with ourselves, how our body feels, and what our thoughts sound like. The outdoors offers way more sensory options as opposed to indoor options and allows for a fuller experience when interacting with your own sensory needs. Additionally, to fully lean into spending time outdoors, you need to effectively plan and lean into a routine that best supports your goals and has you mentally active in seeking tools that you know make you feel better at the end of the day. As I listen to my clients talk about how they manage some of the toughest moments, somehow taking a walk outside is almost ways included in their way of emotional regulation.
While I recognize that these 5 things cannot fully extinguish major symptoms, erase trauma, and inherently increase self-worth, these 5 things have direct roles to play in healing and accessing the ability to build the life you want. These 5 items encourage socialization, being curious about how the mind and body feel, building healthy routines, and getting to know oneself better. I truly believe that those who embrace these concepts on top of the very real and clinical work they’re doing within a therapy session can access their best-healed selves.
Stephanie Townsend, LMSW, CCTP, ART Practitioner
