Hello everyone,
Welcome to my website and the start of your very personal mind shrine!
What is a Mind Shrine exactly?
Well, after working as a Licensed Mental Health Counselor with a passion for mindfulness, I learned overtime that we can cultivate a healthy mental health space for ourselves when we feel overwhelmed with life stressors.
This "escape" can also be deemed as a safe space, a break, or even a meditation of sorts when we feel like there are too many negative events out of our control.
When we make a Mind Shrine for ourselves, we learn we can control our reactions to stressors to better serve us, our loved ones, our general health.
When it comes to anxiety, we typically worry about unknown future events ("What ifs"..) or regret/ruminate about the past ("Would've/Could've/Should'ves.."). Sometimes, having some of these thoughts are helpful in small doses. They can inspire us, help us learn from the past to better improve our future, or aid us to stay on track with our goals.
However, when these thoughts occur too much to the point where it does not serve us in our healing anymore, we start to notice negative side-effects of our stress response. In short, having too many of these negative automatic thoughts in excess can impact our physical, emotional, and cognitive health.
In order to stop or slow this cycle of worry and stress, we must become familiarized with our Mind Shrine, which is a space for us to decompress in order elicit our relaxation response to decrease the harmful side effects of chronic stressors.
A fraction of tips of how to create your own Mind Shrine:
Setting tangible and realistic self-care goals in daily life.
Giving yourself permission to relax, even if it is just for 30 seconds at a time.
Connecting with your social supports and stay connected in creative ways.
Practice self-compassion, forgiving yourself for having certain emotions.
Beginning a simple mindfulness practice (i.e. learning to feel present versus obsessive worrying about the past and future).
Reaching out for professional supports, such as connecting with a physician, therapist, or signing up for the Stress Management and Resiliency Training (SMART) program.
Challenging yourself to learn more about how to reduce negative thoughts when they arise.
Raising awareness and curiosity about yourself (i.e. regarding communication style, stress triggers, relaxation signals, and more).
If you are a more visual person, you can even start to imagine what your mind shrine might actually look like. Is it a garden? A beach? A forest? A meadow? It can be anything that brings you peace, comfort, and maybe even blissful nostalgia.
By familiarizing yourself with what your personal mind shrine looks like, you can help others discover their own too!
If you would like to learn more about how to cultivate your own personal mind shrine or have any questions, feel free to reach out to me on my contact page.
The SMART program is designed to give people an excellent starting point to create & practice adaptive coping skills that can stick with you for a lifetime. My philosophy is to help people begin to explore this safe mental health space for themselves and maintain it for years to come. Once you start your mind shrine, it will always be there for you when you need it.
What does YOUR Mind Shrine look like?
