Feel free to share. I love it when a handsome man gets me OUT of bed! I came across Jamie Coulson‘s comment about anxiety and depression and found his FB group Don’t Fuel It, Cool It, about managing post traumatic stress. He’s allowing me to reprint from his writing, here is a preview. And if you’re interested in helping friends manage anxiety, check out his group. “I’m not a therapist,” he says, but he’s helped me already. https://www.facebook.com/groups/857631804381403/
Jamie Coulston is a family man, a former boxer and a jeweler by trade. After his older sister Tracy died from cancer, his world turned upside down. The person who had always helped him through life was no longer there, just when he needed her most. He found himself spiraling down to a dark and scary place. But because of his fighting background, he knew he couldn’t stay down for too long. This is when he started to put together his tips for managing growth post-trauma. He has now made friends with anxiety and depression and see them as great indicators as to when he’s not thinking healthy. On FB, go to his group Don’t fuel it, cool it.
DON’T FUEL IT, COOL IT
WHAT DOES THAT EVEN MEAN?
When we get angry, we get angry about being angry. When we get anxious, we get anxious about being anxious. When we are sad, we get sad about being sad and so on. Becoming more aware of what part we play in the unraveling of our lives, and taking responsibility for how we fuel our emotions, our thoughts feelings and actions, and working on our emotional responses and actions, can only help improve our journey. If we stop fuelling and adding to the fires, then, if and when the time comes or if it’s happening now, we can better manage the fires that can become so unbearable and destructive in our lives.
We can learn when to take a step back and assess the blaze, giving ourselves time to gather ourselves, to then decide what would be the best action to take. We can see clearer if we are away from the smoke, feeling less suffocated, giving ourselves time to breathe, we can still feel the heat, but not be hurt by it or hurt others so much, giving ourselves a better chance of hearing any cries for help from others caught up in it too.
A thought secretes a chemical reaction into our body which lasts between 90 seconds and 2 minutes. If we act wisely it will pass through us. But if we add to it, then it lasts as long as we allow it to. We can’t change what has happened to us but we can choose to build layers of suffering, or healing.
Jamie Coulston says, “I’m learning as I go, I’m a work in progress. I’m learning that we can change the circuitry of our brain, rewire our reactions and correct our conditioned responses to reconnect with ourselves. Learning that our emotions are designed as a mechanism of guidance to change our lives for the better. Learning to accept, value, celebrate and enjoy ourselves for who we really are.
I set up the FB group Don’t fuel it, cool it at a point in my life where I needed to not only share what I’d learned and help others with it, but also to feel less alone, lost and overwhelmed by the fires burning in my own life. Which unfortunately still burn quite furiously at times! Experiencing what good it has done for me and seeing how it has helped others has been uplifting and inspiring, reassuring me that it was worth setting up and sharing. Confirming that balancing my passion with what I now believe is my purpose is what I’m meant to be doing. We create the world around us with our minds, we build relationships by sharing our emotions and we fulfill our lives by giving our support, understanding, compassion, kindness and love.
Don’t fuel it, cool it
Check out his FB group Don’t fuel it, cool it at https://www.facebook.com/groups/857631804381403/