No matter what the issue, the most
powerful and important help you can get
is the help that you give yourself.
You'd be surprised how starting with
three balanced meals a day and getting
enough sleep and some exercise can help
kick-start things along.
Welcome to the CheckPointSeries, where
we tackle mental health issues using the
power of video games. Today registered
nurse Darren will be teaching you simple
ways to boost your own well-being
without ever needing a pill.
This will include breathing exercises,
mindfulness, positive coping styles and a
list of websites that have a wealth of
knowledge on the topic. Remember, at any
time you can donate to the cause at
checkpoint.org.au
We can't do this without your generosity
Thank you
Hi I'm Darren and I'm a registered nurse
today I'll be taking you through a
number of techniques you can use to
boost your well-being.
being aware of, and able to control your breathing is
a powerful skill. It can reduce your
blood pressure and heart rate reduce
stress and even abort a panic attack.
Let's do a simple one now
The CheckPoint Series, mindful breathing
exercise with Jennifer Hale
find a comfortable position sitting or
lying down. If you'd like to you can close your eyes
Keep your back straight
so that your breaths are free and easy
allow your muscles to relax your
shoulders to drop and your hands to rest gently
feel the weight of your body, the
sensation of your feet on the floor
if you hear or sense other things around
you take gentle note and bring your
attention back to your body
think about the muscles in your legs and let them relax
at your own pace release the
tightness from the muscles in your belly
your arms, your face
now bring your attention to your
breathing. What does your breathing feel like?
think about all the places you can feel
your breath: in your nose, the rise and
fall of your chest, the ease of your
shoulders
notice how your belly feels and moves as
you breathe in and out
some breaths might be deep others
shallow; you don't need to control or
change your breaths, just let it be
Notice each breath in and out
your mind might wander to other thoughts
that's okay
gently note each one as it comes as
though saying, "oh, that's another thought,"
let them pass through and bring your
attention back to your breathing
in and out
if you'd like to continue your mindful
breathing you can pause the video now
when you're ready bring your attention
back to the environment around you move
your fingers feel your hands and when
you're ready slowly open your eyes again
Mindfulness isn't just New Age mumbo
jumbo: people have been practicing it for
centuries
is actually an ancient Buddhist activity
more recently we've begun to use science
to quantify how good mindfulness can be
and the evidence is astonishing
it results in reduced rumination, reduced
stress, improved memory, improved focus,
stable emotions, relationship
satisfaction and cognitive flexibility
the three pillars of mindfulness is that
it is a state of mind which is on
purpose, in the present moment and
non-judgmental. The way we like to
describe it is being fully aware of what
is going on in and around you without
any expectation or criticism, just a
peaceful curiosity. That includes the
thoughts that come and go, the sensations
around you and the feelings within. It
can be very grounding and very powerful
this isn't the same as meditation; you
don't need to be in a quiet room sitting
down, it's something that you can
practice anywhere at any time for as
long as you like. It can be hard at first
but once you get the hang of it a real asset
So for a while when I lived in Los
Angeles
it was my commutes like I would use
commutes. I would take voice memos like I
would check in with myself and be like
okay how am I feeling how am i doing so
those like car rides and voice memos were
really good for me.
CheckPoint are proud
and privileged to be supported by
HeadSpace: a world leading meditation app
they provide our members with
complimentary subscriptions via their Get Some,
Give Some program. To find out more,
sign up as a CheckPoint member today
Coping is the way
that we respond to all the challenges we
face in life; hugging a friend when you
get bad news is a way of coping
overeating and times of high stress is a
way of coping
even using deliberate self-harm is also
a way of coping. As you can see some are
more helpful than others if you find
yourself experiencing high levels of
distress frequently or
compartmentalizing emotions and actually
feeling numb to things which should be
upsetting you may benefit from exploring
your toolbox of coping mechanisms
my favorite thing that I learned...it's almost
almost like a game like if I if I feel
an anxiety attack coming on I try to
find five things that I can see and like
and focus on that and then focus on five
things that I can like feel and touch
five things that I can hear and then by
then I'm kind of distracted enough that
the worst of it is over like it's my
favorite one it's really it's simple to
like remember and do
Everyone uses a few
different ones and everyone has a
capacity to learn more adaptive
techniques. Here are some of the better
ways you can face your next hurdle
Positive reinterpretation: a fancy way of
saying look at it in a different way
If you've ever had a bad day and made a
joke about it that is positive
reinterpretation.  Using humor to regulate
negative emotions. Psychologist Carol
Dweck talks about the power of yet she
says this
I heard about a high school in
Chicago where students had to pass a
certain number of courses to graduate
and if they didn't pass a course they
got the grade not yet and I thought that
was fantastic because if you get a
failing rate you think I'm nothing I'm
nowhere but if you get the grade not yet
you understand that you're on a learning
curve it gives you a path into the
future
This is a perfect example of
positive reappraisal
relaxation...any number of relaxing
activities can help people cope with
stressful situations this includes
meditation but also anything you find
personally to be de-stressing 
DE-stressing
not distressing, de-stressing. This could
be going for a walk, it could be having a
shower, napping, reading a book, or, my
personal favorite, playing a video game
lots of games are incredibly relaxing
and in fact designed for that purpose
why not try Prune or Stardew Valley?
CheckPoint viewers and therapists alike
have recommended them for de-stressing
and there are plenty more examples of
games like this on our website.
The one game that I do play a little bit of
though is a Breath of Light because one
thing that I do now just to manage my
stress and because I've discovered it's
really quite beneficial to me is
meditate but I'm really bad at the
meditation where you've got to push all
the things out of your head. I need a
distraction while I'm meditating and
Breath of Light, playing that game is
basically meditating for me. I set my
alarm at 11 o'clock every day, go
downstairs in the sun and I just sit
there and I play this game
I loved using
it when I was kind of in my really
really kind of bad phase, because
when I could feel the panic attack
coming on it was really good to just
kind of snap me out of it and distract
me and also reminding me to breathe
because it's all about getting
air to a certain spot, essentially. And it's
got like a very Japanese zen garden
feel to it and it's really f***ing
relaxing
Sometimes I work for comfort
like some of my like most content
moments are like I'm going to decide to
be tired tomorrow because I'm going to
have coffee at 11 p.m. and I'm going to
work for four hours and I don't do that
very often I think some people might
think this is not okay but I something
that I've advocated for at least for
myself and for my friends is like to not
feel guilty about working a lot
or for getting enjoyment from that or to feel
that sometimes the thing that will be
most relaxing to me is to work
Support. Getting social support is an
amazing way of strengthening resolve and
helping you get productive advice from
people who care about you. Seeking
external support instead of self
isolating and internalizing the effects
of stress can often greatly reduce the
negative effects of a difficult
situation.
Having support and having
somebody be able to encourage you to
express yourself and you know even if
it's something bad to be like I know
that this is this is bad
but I'm happy that you're that you're
telling me that like having that
encouragement is super duper helpful and
and I guess that's what I've what I've
been receiving and it's working
you know and it's hard to find
that person sometimes, it's not just
person but people, anybody that
will, "Hey look I am feeling this," and they
don't give you a negative reaction
they're just there listening to you
and validating you and making you feel
like yes you can feel this and that's
okay
Like so many people I've struggled
with mental health issues since I was 13
12 maybe
when you're in a situation where
you're faced with homelessness having a
place that you can't call your own and
having absolutely no support network
it's pretty easy to get depressed when
that happens and so I was certainly one
of those people, absolutely rock bottom.
It's interesting because that mental
health stuff hasn't really gone away but
that support network that's there for me
and obviously what I've learned over
the years has really been the thing that
has changed for me and and it's meant
all the difference it's completely
changed, obviously my life,
but my outlook on it as well. Which has
been hug
Even in my like community
discord channel we have a mental health
channel that I found that it was
probably inappropriate for me to be a
part of it but like they can all like
lean on each other they help each other
to find resources in their area and
that's something that I feel really
proud of and I know that even when I'm
having one of my dark days
I can I can look at that and be like, "You
know what? No. You're helping people that
feel like you do right now." And that's
something that I can kind of cling to if
you don't feel really good about yeah I
talk about it a lot on stream like a lot
I tell them everything and you know
they're always there for me and I'm
always there for them and it feels
super good.
Restraint. This is a big one
for you fixers out there: the ones who
want to solve a problem right away so
that it and its associated anxiety will
go away. The problem is sometimes this
actually makes it worse.
If you get an email that upsets you, you
should never reply to it straight away
as your emotions may be clouding your
judgment and actions. Restraint is
avoiding taking actions that will make
it worse. It might make you feel more
anxious or tense in the short term but
in the long term it helps so much more
I don't know over personify it but
sometimes it can help it's like another
voice in your head and you have to say
"Hey, shut up, you're not helping me."
That was the strongest tool I
found is realizing there are
thoughts and that you can
recognize that they're not part of you 
you can separate
yourself from them. And that's very hard
to learn, I'm 51 years old and I'm just
sort of getting my head around a lot of
this stuff.
Problem-solving. When you're
in a space for getting that problem
sorted out there's a few ways that you
can go about that productively
this can include planning in advance or
being proactive and trying to ensure
something bad doesn't happen again
you can also solve problems
retrospectively figuring out what went
wrong and trying to fix it. Remember,
problem-solving also includes making
sure you have enough resources to get
done what needs to be done
this means putting other things aside if
there's something that's most important
learning to say no is a valuable skill
I go through a list of everything that I
need to do in order but then I'll go
through a list of any possible thing
that might go wrong in order and then
I'll go through a list of all the
potential things that I could do to fix
those things that could go wrong I did
it and then I thought, "I'm doing this
again," and then I thought, "well is it
really so bad?" I think what I've managed
to do without really thinking about it
is turn that anxiety checklist that I do
into something that actually works for
my job I find that when I do those
anxiety spirals or I get into that
mindset
I find myself channeling it into, "Okay
you know what? I'm gonna write a list now
of all the things I need to do today and
I'm gonna think about the thing I need
to do in the next five minutes and I'm
gonna do that." And I use my anxiety as
this burst of energy, you know riding
that wave of panic in a productive way
means that you know I feel good at the
end of it instead of you know in a mess
crying feeling like I'm a useless
wreck of a human being. It doesn't have
to be events or your job, it can be like
writing a piece of music or playing a
video game or whatever it is that is
gonna be fueled by that anxiety. Like, do
the thing! And then you will feel like at
the end of it better
Physical activity
Exercise can serve for many people as a
natural and healthy form of stress
relief. Running, yoga, swimming, walking
dance, team sports, and many other types
of physical activity: these can all help
people cope with stressful situations
and the after-effects of traumatic
events
Online resources
CheckPoint's audience is spread all over
the world and we think that's amazing
and whilst mental health is universal
the options that different places have
for community support vary heaps
wherever you are there's something for you.
In Australia we're lucky to have a
few different web sites specializing in
mental health including ReachOut Australia
for young people, Your Health in Mind,
Sane, and more. There's also an amazing
resource called MindHealthConnect (now known as Headto Health)
which you can use to find exactly the
right service for you.
In the UK there's the 
Mental Health Foundation and Together
in the US you've got the
National Alliance on Mental Illness and
the Depression Alliance. Additionally
male mental health is a real issue. Men
are four times more likely to end their
lives but find it very difficult to talk
about their feelings. If this sounds like
you try mensshed.org
or mensline.org.au. As well as
websites with information there's online
counseling such as MoodGym and MindSpot. 
Apps which can help improve well-being
and resilience such as SuperBetter, Mind
Max and Smiling Mind, and even electronic
CBT. All of these tools will have links
in the description and will be available
at checkpoint.org.au. Thanks for listening
and back to Jen.
This hasn't been a
definitive list of self-care techniques
but hopefully it has given you some
inspiration and the keywords you can use
to find your own resources. We believe
that everyone has a coping toolbox: a
collection of devices unique to them
that helps them deal with life and the
world. Add some extra tools to yours or
suggest some of your own by getting in
touch. If you've enjoyed this video
please consider contributing to
CheckPoint. There's a donate button on
the screen right now as a nonprofit
every cent goes back into making an
awesome mental health support community
for you and we really can't do it
without your generosity. Remember you can
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