Delighted to have been invited to speak to parents of the children from Howth Primary School last night on stress and anxiety in kids, as part of their Wellbeing Week. If this is a subject that your school is interested in tackling, you can email me at; info@themindcoach.ie

I’m guilty of a lot of this myself! Rather than being an enabler of progress for most of us it becomes an enabler of stress and anxiety.

Did you know that the simple act of drinking water could actually help reduce your anxiety? Check out my latest blog to learn more: http://themindcoach.ie/blog/2018/02/08/anxiety-buster-drink-water/

Don’t let this stop you taking action on your anxiety or panic attacks. A quick video before the weekend. Just because you don’t know what’s triggering your anxiety or panic attacks don’t let that stop you getting help. You don’t need to know in order to eliminate it. Live stress free! Dave Register for my webinar at www.themindcoach.ie/webinar Contact me at: www.TheMindCoach.ie Info@themindcoach.ie Tel: 01-901 20 50 or 086 245 95 30 Follow my on Facebook: Www.Facebook.com/DRTheMindCoach/ Twitter: @DavidapRussell

I’ve been working with people with anxiety for the past number of years. I became an expert in anxiety as the result of being an anxiety sufferer. It was not pleasant. In fact it was horrible. But thankfully I eventually managed to eliminate it from my life permanently. My mind had turned something that is meant to be a protection mechanism to keep me out of danger in to something that caused me mental and physical anguish. My brain was no different to anyone else’s though, everybody has the same natural stress response that has evolved throughout human existence, some call it the fight or flight response (it’s far more sophisticated than that though). And this stress response primarily kicks in in response to a physical threat, like being attacked by the proverbial tiger. In this instance it causes some important mental and physical changes in our bodies to help us to survive the encounter with the tiger. These are familiar sensations we feel whenever we are stressed; cold sweats, heart palpitations, rapid breathing, shaking, butterflies in the stomach, confusion, paranoia and so many more. Although it doesn’t feel like it at the time all of these things are necessary to help us to avoid being eaten by the tiger, for example by making us physically more able to cope with the threat. So if we encountered a tiger (or any other physical threat) our brain causes these changes in the mind and body in order to help us to survive. And this would happen each time we encountered a physical threat, which throughout our evolution was not that often. But fast forward to the modern day and we encounter threats constantly. Except these threats aren’t tigers, they are: sitting in traffic, being late, arguing with your spouse, kids, friends, siblings, neighbours, paying the mortgage, paying the bills, deadlines, health problems or even just social media. Our “tigers” are now everywhere. And for some of us, our stress response is firing off a lot more often than throughout most of our evolutionary history. But here’s the real problem…… Throughout history 99% of the threats we faced were physical; attacks by wild animals, warring tribes etc. But now the vast majority of the threats we face are psychological like the list above; traffic arguments, financial, relationships etc. But we don’t have a stress response for dealing with psychological threats, we only have one for dealing with physical threats! So when I would encounter a psychologically stressful situation my mind would automatically respond with the only automatic stress response it has -The fight or flight response!” And in reality the fight or flight response is totally useless for helping us deal with psychological stresses, in fact it makes dealing with them even more difficult. And I would not only have to deal with the thing causing the stress I would also have to deal with the thundering beat of my heart and the rapid breathing and the feeling of heat rising in my body as the negative voice and emotions that would take over. Now what triggers anxiety is different for everybody, but the root cause is the same….. We have a stress response that is not capable of dealing with the psychological stresses that we face in the modern world. And my mind would continuously triggered this stress response in reaction to these psychological stresses, even though it was a totally inappropriate response. My brain conditioned itself and programmed itself to use this as the default reaction in these situations. And the more often that it was triggered, the more it was re-enforced and the stronger that the relationship between the two became, meaning that when I encountered one of these potential threats my brain automatically delivered that inappropriate stress response and everything that that brought with it. And this is what we call anxiety! Those with anxiety have managed to subconsciously train their minds to automatically trigger a physical stress response to a psychological trigger that it perceives as a threat. And in order to get rid of my anxiety I had to retrain my mind by learning the skills that taught my mind that my specific triggers weren’t actually a threat to my survival and that in these particular circumstances the fight or flight stress response is not needed. And this is exactly what I did. And I did it without Therapy or Medication! And now I help others to do exactly the same thing with their lives. If you want to learn how to eliminate anxiety without therapy or medication, then join me on my FREE webinar; “How to Eliminate Anxiety without Therapy or Medication”. I’ll share with you my proven 3-Pathways Approach for permanently eliminating anxiety. Click here to register >> www.TheMindCoach.ie/webinar Wishing you health and happiness! Dave

Enough said....

Here's a video that Breast Cancer Ireland made from my article in the RTE Guide last week dealing with the stress associated with a cancer diagnosis. Have a look and don't forget to "Like" their page too! Dave

I just love this!

I watched this last night out professional curiosity and I quite enjoyed it. As the reviewer says, with such a complex subject it's difficult to cover very much in just one hour. As Prof. Jim Lucey from St. Pats said on the programme; "we have started the conversation but we haven't begun to change the stigma" But at least anxiety is being spoken about more often as the result of programmes like this which will contribute to hopefully reducing the stigma surrounding mental health issues. So well done to Vogue Williams Prof Lucey also spoke about the role that medication plays in treating anxiety and was refreshingly honest stating that it's role is; "very small". As anyone that follows me will know, this is very much my opinion on the matter and it's nice to hear that validated by the Professor. The most important first step in dealing with your anxiety is to understand exactly what is happening in your brain and body when it strikes. This doesn't mean that you have to understand why you have it. You may never know why you have it. And that doesn't matter! You can still treat your anxiety even if you don't know why you have it. So don't ever let that stop you for getting the help that you need. If you do want to learn more you could always join me on my webinar: "How to Eliminate Anxiety without Therapy or Medication" You can sign up here: http://TheMIndCoach.ie/webinar The title is self explanatory. I talk about the approach that I took to ridding my life of anxiety after years of unnecessarily suffering and spending a fortune on doctors and therapists that didn't really understand what anxiety really feels like. I'm out the other side of it now and living proof that you can overcome it permanently. And do you know what - it's not that difficult but we are kept trapped in it because of our lack of awareness and understanding and the fact that we were never taught certain specific skills growing up. We spend 14+ years in full time education and not one of those days is ever dedicated to managing our own mental health, managing our own thoughts - it's ridiculous! Add if we as sufferers don't fully understand what is going on with our minds and bodies, it's understandable why those that aren't suffering don't have the first clue what is happening or how to talk to someone with anxiety. This is part of the reason for the stigma - lack of understanding. You don't have to feel alone and you don't have to continue to suffer. Check out the webinar: "How to Eliminate Anxiety without Therapy or Medication" http://www.TheMindCoach.ie/webinar As I say it's a great first step. I have help countless people over the years to overcome their anxiety permanently and I'd love to do the same for you too. Or if you or someone hat you care about is suffering from anxiety and wants to reach out directly to me, you can mail me at info@themindcoach.ie

I still remember the exact day that I knew I had finally managed to rid my life of my anxiety…… I had to make a presentation to about 100 people on mental resilience. Standing up in front of a group of people would have been the stuff of nightmares just two years earlier. I would have spent the week beforehand unable to sleep worrying about every single thing that would go wrong. My mind would have been racing so much that I would have been unable to concentrate in the days beforehand. The negative internal dialogue that I would hear would be constantly judging me and telling me that I couldn’t do this, that I would make a fool of myself, that I wouldn’t remember what to say and everyone would laugh at me. My mind would have found every excuse not to do it, it would have invented reasons to worry, things that I knew were impossible. And although family and colleagues would try and give words of encouragement, it made no difference. I’d start to feel physically ill just thinking about the upcoming event. My stomach would not just have butterflies but would literally cramp up in pain. My heart would miss a beat every time I remembered what was coming. And I’d be in a cold sweat and literally shaking. My nerves were on a knife edge everything was seen as a threat. And it affected how I interacted with people, preferring to avoid conversation in case the focus turned to me. I couldn’t handle my own judgement, so I definitely didn’t want to be subjected to the judgement of others at the same time. The fact that they were being supportive and not judgmental was lost on me, I could only see the negative in everything. I felt like every cell in my body was telling me to run as far away as possible and never stop running. And all of this meant that I didn’t sleep which meant I was exhausted, which in turn made everything ten times worse. But now I was preparing to speak to 100 people on the subject of mental resilience. The same person but dramatically different at the same time. I was ready, I was prepared and I was confident, I was even looking forward to it with excitement and anticipation! I had none of the physical sensations in my body, I felt strong and healthy. And more importantly my internal dialogue was calm and quiet and supportive. And that’s when I knew I had finally managed to rid my life of anxiety The difference from two years ago was amazing. And I’d come on an incredible personal journey that had started with me spending a small fortune on therapists, doctors and medication, none of which had any lasting effect…. And it ended up with me learning about the different pathways that anxiety is created in the body and brain and learning how to close these down permanently to finally rid my life of anxiety once and for all. And in the end I did it without Therapy or Medication! And now I help others to do exactly the same thing with their lives. If you (or someone you love) is currently suffering from anxiety then join me on my FREE webinar “How to Eliminate Anxiety without Therapy or Medication”. I’ll share with you my proven 3-Pathways Approach for permanently eliminating anxiety. Click here to join >> www.TheMindCoach.ie/webinar

Honoured and delighted to have been asked by Breast Cancer Ireland to write this piece on mental resilience for their Pink Issue of RTE Guide this week!

This will lift your soul - simply incredible!